So, what must you do to become a good reader? In the ball game example, you become a skilled catcher if you know the rules of the game, and if you commit to practicing. Getting what you want from a book requires work and, just as with any other activity, if you want to become a highly proficient reader, you must learn and practice the skills involved. This means that you can’t be lazy and expect all the relevant information to immediately flow to you. That is, the “catcher” – or reader – has to make an effort in order to understand what the author, who throws the ball, is trying to convey. You can see it like a ball game where one party throws the ball and the other party has to make an effort in order to catch it.
The first thing you should know is that reading is an active task, not a passive one. Before we look at some tips and tricks on how to do this best, let’s first see what it means to be an effective reader.
There are occasions, though, when we don’t read just for our own entertainment and we need to understand and select information from a text quickly. Do you take any moment you can to get lost in a good novel? When we’re reading for the sheer joy of it, there’s no real need to change our approach to it.
