Reader Type

J picked today's theme for us to write about. To reflect on these two quotes.

"Readers may be divided into four classes:

1) Sponges, who absorb all that they read and return it in nearly the same state, only a little dirtied.
2) Sand-glasses, who retain nothing and are content to get through a book for the sake of getting through the time.
3) Strain-bags, who retain merely the dregs of what they read.
4) Mogul diamonds, equally rare and valuable, who profit by what they read, and enable others to profit by it also”     

-Samuel Coleridge

"Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking."  

-Albert Einstein

I have at different times been a reader of all four stripes Coleridge talks about. 

A Sponge when the book was an interesting and fast paced read with very little food for thought. I may have paused at a turn of phrase or two but not nearly long enough to absorb.

A definite sand glass when needing to plow through a book that everyone is talking about and I have no real interest in. The idea is to make sure it is checked of my Read list and move on.

The strain bag is a harder one. This would be in response to books that are either too big or complex and do not leave the reader with an overall impression. Instead, you retain the parts that were the heaviest.

Mogul diamond when on rare occasion I have recommended a book I love deeply to someone else and they have come back and told me they were so glad that they read it. These would be off the beaten track books, the ones the do not make it to the bestseller lists and remain largely obscure. Running into them is happenstance and finding someone to share it with even more so.

And finally, guilty as charged as far as lazy habits of thinking and I read too much. DB would like to correct that by getting me into running.