On Teaching: Making a Book "Ours"

We had a guest in class today, a physician at a local hospital who is also a very serious reader, and he left us with some valuable thoughts. He told us, for instance, that he doesn’t “like” all of his patients, but that he tries to appreciate their worth as unique human beings. He said the same is true of his reading: he doesn’t love every book he reads, but he does try to appreciate their literary value and the wisdom they may hold. I’ve often talked to my students about that very difference between liking and appreciating, so I cheered a little when he said that. He also said that, to him, life is like an infinite hallway with an infinite amount of doors leading off from it. When we read a book, we open one of the doors, and that door in turn leads to countless other doors, which lead to more and more doors. We can’t possibly open all the doors in this hallway, but we must remember that each book we read leads to an infinite number of discoveries. Each book, in that sense, is the beginning of a new life for us. Finally, he told my students and me that, when we read, we must try to make the book “ours”. Until we get completely “in” the book and truly make it ours, it remains just a bunch of words on a bunch of pages. If we make it ours, by annotating it, taking notes in a journal, talking to other people about it, or just reading it with care and enthusiasm, a book can literally transform our lives.