Are You an Active or Passive Reader?

I attended a variety of churches when I was a child: Catholic, Protestant, Nazarene, Baptist . . . and each had its own view on ‘the Word,’ ‘the Book,’ ‘the Gospel,’ the collection known as The Bible. Of all the experiences I had in those congregations, there is one that stands out in my mind, and it’s probably not one you would imagine.

One day, the esteemed leader of one of these denominations took a look at my crisp clean bible and asked, “Do you read this?”

“Yes, of course,” I responded.

“Then why does it look so new. Don’t be afraid to use it, really use it. Highlight passages that speak to you. Scribble notes in the margin. Bookmark pages.”

It was a revolutionary idea to a young girl. God was in the authorship, not in the binding. I was instructed to root around for meaning, for knowledge. The book I held in my hand was merely paper and ink. It was the philosophy, the ideas expressed on those pages that held true power.

To this day, I still highlight, scribble and bookmark everything I read. Nothing is sacred. As I read the essay “Coming to Writing” by Helen Cixous, I find a kindred spirit. For her, reading was an act of creation. The creation of meaning:

“Reading: writing the ten thousand pages of every page, bringing them to light. Grow and multiply and the page will multiply. But that means reading: making love to the text.”

Making love to a text is an interesting analogy. It begs the question “was it good for you?” If not, were you really into it or did you just lay back and wait for something astounding to happen. Are you being an active reader, or a passive reader? Are you afraid to defile the printed page or do you interact with it like the body of an intimate lover?

One of the keys to critical thinking is recognizing that letters clumped together in words, and words strung together on a page are still nothing more than ink and paper. We are the ones giving those words meaning. What we bring to a text will influence what we get out of it. As we grow, so does meaning—highlight, scribble, and bookmark. Nothing is sacred.