How to Read Big Fat Books

Why do some people devour books like they are made of bacon and others avoid them as they would the Ebola virus? Is it a genetic predisposition that determines a person’s appetite for books? Why do some of us always have one, two or even three books working at the same time, but others never pick up a book, unless it is to dust?

How can anyone find time to read a whole book, let alone at 10 pound hardback tome in this day and age? How can I, the non-book reader, develop enough interest to read a (gasp) whole book?

Regardless of what you’ve heard, reading books is initially a discipline which requires patience and a certain amount of stubborn determination. Most books do not grab your attention on page one, or even page 30. For veteran readers, the discipline part comes in wading 150 pages into a book before it ignites your interest and then wishing it went on another 500. For new readers, the book has to start with a bang.

Few people start off reading something like, oh; The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but The Hobbit would be a good starter book. Start with something easy and work your way into larger volumes.

Most books I read, I read because I want to learn about a certain topic, or event, not because the subject is fun and I discipline myself to go all 600 pages and come out the other end, knowing something more than I did when I started. It's like lifting weights or jogging. The runners high folks talk about doesn’t kick in for the first 5 miles, but after it does, the exercise is almost easy.

Each time I finish a book, another piece of life’s puzzle is solved. I rarely read a book that I don’t benefit from something in its pages and many times, the books I read become marked-up for future reference. This is why I buy books instead of borrowing them and have all but stopped going to the public library.

If you are a adventurous, may I suggest one of the many Louis L’Amour westerns for something easy and guaranteed to hold your interest? I still remember the opening line of the book Utah Blaine by LL, even though I read it about 20 years ago. “He was asleep and then he was awake”! A man on the run and gun-slingers creeping up on his position! LL wrote hundreds of books and I guess I’ve read every one, starting with “Matagorda”, which my brother TJ Bustem loaned me, even after I told him I wasn’t interested in “Westerns”. About a hundred LL books later, I became an expert on slapping gun-leather, riding Broncs, and shooting it out with bad men trying to take my land and cattle.

My son, like so many athletes, was intensely interested in sports, so early on, I paid for subscriptions to Sports Illustrated. It was an investment in his reading future and if you’ve read his Iraq journal, you’ve noticed all that reading has paid off, as he now loves writing.

If you believe you don’t have time to read, you may be right, but I would be willing to wager (if I was a gambler, which I’m not) that you do have time. Trade TV time for book time, keep a book in your glove compartment to devour when stuck in traffic, keep a good book on your nightstand and close your day reading. You will be surprised how quickly the days go by and suddenly – you’ve finished the book!

I can not speak for the ladies, but if your son or hubby likes hunting or fishing, there are thousands of books available which would make excellent gifts. Here’s another fact, men like adventure and military tales. They like sports hero biographies. They can live vicariously through these tales and it is a vacation of the mind which no movie can replicate.

If you don’t read and wish to begin, go to the public library and talk to the good folks who work there. Tell them you want to begin, but don’t know where to start and they will find something that guarantees your success. Start your own personal library by buying your books instead of borrowing them and as you finish them, loan them out to spread your new found wealth. It doesn’t get any better than that folks.

I’ll finish this column with a quote from Louis L’Amour himself: “Knowledge is like money: to be of value it must circulate, and in circulating it can increase in quantity and, hopefully, in value”.