Evan's Reading Adventures

In my life I have come to trust my intrinsic instincts. I will simply have a ‘feeling’ and know what I must do. This week there is one thing that I know I must do. I must return to Drizzt.

Since we last checked in with the legendary dark elf warrior, the story of Drizzt has taken many twists and turns which I will try to summarize. Drizzt entered the the ‘surface world’ where he has struggled to adjust. His eyes, which are used to the near perfect darkness of the under dark struggle with the surface light. His clothes and weapons have began to almost dissolve as their magic is worn away by the intense sunlight of the surface. The surface world which is perhaps more recognizable than the underworld still has its own peculiarities and strange creatures. Drizzt stumbles upon a group of goblins, the look to form an alliance with Drizzt in order to attack a small farmhouse of a human family. Drizzt, in typical fashion, slaughters all the goblins with his scimitars. This leaves Drizzt with a strange moral dillema that becomes a theme for the book. In this strange world known as the ‘Forgotten Realms” there are generally two distinctions of “goodly races” and “evil races” as they describe them. Drizzt who is a gifted warrior is often called to protect these goodly races in order to defend his own morals but he begins to wonder who he is to judge others intention. He wonders if he should continue to act as the judge, jury, and executioner.

This internal turmoil follows Drizzt as he continues to explore the surface world. At this point he find his first friend on the surface, Montiolo is a blind human ranger that can, more or less, speak with animals. Montiolo removes some of this emotional burden by telling Drizzt to observe the children of a race in order to determine if it is a goodly race or evil one. Where the human children played together, worked together, and loved each other the goblins, even as children would fight and hurt one another for personal gain.

I found this lesson to be an interesting one. In the real world we lack these clear distinctions but I also believe that the strength and morals of a community can be judged by the lesson they teach their young.

When I tell people that I read everyday they are shocked, when do I find the time?! Between classes, and clubs, and exercise how is it that I can read every single day?? The truth is that many college students read everyday. We read content, slides, and subtitles all the time. While some may argue

this is trivial, we read captions, stop signs, and if you’re like me you read that entire news post that they put in the bathroom by the toilet that says “spreading news one flush at a time.” People often argue that this type of reading ‘does not count’ which, after after careful consideration, I found the underlying argument to be between deciding which type of reading is more important.

For simplicity’s sake lets consider the two over arching genre’s of the reading world, fiction versus nonfiction. Both have their own incredible contributions to the reader and both have what I perceive as drawbacks. Nonfiction reading provides an incredible wealth of knowledge and can be one of the most effective forms of learning. On the other hand nonfiction reading often lacks the wonderful stories and plot lines that draw in the reader of fiction writing.

Let us again consider the billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates. According to an article on his reading habits Bill Gates has only read 17 novels in the last 8 years. This may seem like a lot but this is coming from the man who has also recommended 17 nonfiction books from on author alone in the same time-frame. The article starts to pick apart this habit and criticize his lack of exposure to literary fiction arguing the benefits of literary fiction. They say, “Literary fiction, which tends to focus on the psychology of individuals, provides a window into the inner lives of strangers in other times and places. It’s this preoccupation with sensation and thought that makes the form a powerful tool for developing empathy.”

Now I do not know about you but I certainly do not feel like I am in a position to criticize one of the most successful men in the world but their arguments do have merit. Fiction does have an ability to teach moral lessons through stories that nonfiction simply cannot compare to.

That being said the Institute for Writers raises a fair argument in the defense of nonfiction. They argue that in the age of endless information there should be exceptional value placed on solid facts and information.

Personally, I find both fiction and nonfiction to be valuable in their own ways. Fiction teaches me morale lessons through the actions of characters and plot. Nonfiction keeps my mind sharp with facts and research. Perhaps this insight will open your eyes to “both sides of the isle” and the literary world can move on in peace.

 

Citation

Coming from someone who chose to write a passion blog on reading it may not come as a surprise that I enjoy reading. That being said I struggle, like most people, with reading retention. When you’re reading your favorite book on a snowy weekend the words seem to stick like the snowflakes to the roof but retention becomes more difficult as the content and setting change. It is important to be able to expand your reading horizons and to retain difficult information, with this skill reading can take you very far.

When I had finally had enough with my reading retention difficulties I followed the same slow, methodical, and tactical problem-solving process I usually do. I opened my computer and typed in “how to improve reading retention.” What I came across was a wealth of information, the most impact to me came from one of the wealthiest men on Earth, Bill Gates. Somewhat ironically Bill Gates made a video on his tips on ‘remembering what he reads.’ He talks about his persistence towards reading and how he always finishes a book that he starts. He actually spends longer on books he does not like because he challenges to write more in the margins if he disagrees with the content then if he agrees. On top of his note-taking Gate’s main theory towards reading retention is what he calls “incremental knowledge.” The basic idea is that it is much easier to remember and recall information if the concept is not completely foreign if you, as the reader, understand the context, and the general concept.

Citation

Every single person has likely used this strategy even if you did not realize… if you did the required reading of chapter 1,4, and 7 then I can guarantee you have used this strategy. Chapter 1 of our Essential Guide to Rhetoric is titled The Rhetorical Tradition. This chapter goes into detail about the origins and history of rhetorical theory. Modern rhetoric has certainly evolved since it was first theorized, so why is it that we begin our study with a story from an ancient Greek city in 5th century B.C.E.? This is because we are being given context. By understanding the context of Greek democracy we can better understand rhetoric and how it has evolved and how it has stayed the same.

This is a perfect example of incremental knowledge or how Gates puts it “If you have a broad framework [of knowledge] then you have a place to put everything.” I hope that these concepts of reading retention help you as much as they have helped me and that maybe they make reading a bit easier and more fun.

 

Citation

Warning: by reading this article you may believe that I spend all my time coped in my room reading books. This is completely untrue, well maybe not completely. I can say that despite my time reading books I have a lot of friends, many of these friends happen to be mythical creatures from a made up universe but for the present moment that is beyond the point. My first post under the umbrella of my passion for reading will be a book review for the first book in the “Legends of Drizzt” series. To provide some background the Legends of Drizzt series began in 1988 and is written by R.A Salvatore. There are 31 books in this series. These books are written with a basis in a fantasy world known as the Forgotten Realms which is most often used in the board game Dungeons and Dragons. The forgotten realms has a knack for making exceptionally complicated names to name cities, people, creatures, and just about everything else in this world so for the sake of simplicity I will try to keep the names to a minimum.

Citation

The book begins with a battle between two warring houses of the twisted war-driven society of the drow, also known as the dark elves. Drizzt not yet born but is this war between houses that lays the groundwork for the plot of this book. Drizzt’s house known as house Do’urden aggressively conquers a house socially ranked above the house Do’urden and there in continues a social ascension to a more powerful position in their society. This in itself may not seem so bad, especially for a race of elves cast to the underworld for their despicable nature but in drow society the only acceptable form of hostile take over is complete and ruthless elimination of the opposing house. 

Drizzt unknowingly enters this hostile world and resists the social acclimation of his people such as it being necessary for him to continually stare at the ground due to his inferior status as a male in this society. Due to the long lifespan of dark elves (about 700 years for males and up to 1000 year for females) this book quickly covers time and subsequently so will I. Drizzt grows up in the drow city known as  Menzoberranzan and it soon becomes evident that he will become the greatest warrior to ever be. He excels in all forms of fighting but most clearly with his curved swords also known as scimitars. 

Despite his deadly ability Drizzt refuses to kill another drow, almost unheard of among his people. After significant emotion turmoil and multiple sub-plots Drizzt decides to leave his ‘homeland’ and enter the infamous Under Dark leaving us wondering how in the world he is going to survive.