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    Tips for difficult reading needed

    Well, not that difficult, but in this case Thames and Hudson art books. I remember very little of what I read from them, and need to get much better if I'm to do an art history MA one day.

    As Socrates might say, can this be taught? And anyone got any tips?

    #2
    Tips for difficult reading needed

    Take notes?

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      #3
      Tips for difficult reading needed

      I do that all the time but I end up with notes I can't remember and then have to try and learn off by heart. It may well be the only way, but I feel that I should have come on a bit from when I was 18.

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        #4
        Tips for difficult reading needed

        As Socrates might say, can this be taught? And anyone got any tips?

        Socrates asked for tips?

        I'm brutal. I deface books like crazy, I highlight, scribble in margins all the stuff that offends bibliophiles. If I don't catch what matters when I read it, and keep it in context, then it's gone. I haven't been able to find another way. If I take notes and reference them with page numbers I lose too much meaning. It's ugly but it works.

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          #5
          Tips for difficult reading needed

          I'm with the notes and defacement crowd, so long as you're prepared to look at the very splendid Thames & Hudson books as a learning aid rather than treasured possessions. It was a long time after I left university that I could stop reading a book with a pencil in my hand. Underline, annotate. Buy a notebook too (preferably hardback, but that's just my stationery fetish coming through) and keep notes on what you've just read.

          Lately I started using those sticky coloured page markers and making references that way, and I kept notes. A small post-it note with a few words summarising a key point or subject on the page stuck to the page can be useful too, especially if you're coming back to the book again after a while. Highlighters, too. Can't go wrong with highlighters.

          And good luck. An Art History MA sounds a fantastic idea.

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            #6
            Tips for difficult reading needed

            Amor de Cosmos wrote:
            [i]I'm brutal. I deface books like crazy, I highlight, scribble in margins all the stuff that offends bibliophiles.
            I have been considering moving to Canada. However, now I'm on a mission.

            How are the customs security people about lots of high-powered rifles and explosives being brought into the country?

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              #7
              Tips for difficult reading needed

              Tubby -

              Read the texts 'out loud', even if this means just whispering or murmuring to yourself. I don't know if you're better at absorbing spoken information - conversations, lectures, podcasts, etc. - but this might help.

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                #8
                Tips for difficult reading needed

                Have a constant 'dialogue' with the text, and don't be afraid to disagree or doubt - 'voice' your arguments or doubts (to yourself or even aloud). Try to personalise/ re-contextualise/ associate the ideas to make them more vivid and therefore hopefully more memorable.

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                  #9
                  Tips for difficult reading needed

                  Heh, believe me Erwin, Tubby has no difficulty expressing his doubts and disagreements with art history books, or with taking their arguments personally. Particularly the ones that talk about post-colonialism, patriarchy and that.

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                    #10
                    Tips for difficult reading needed

                    That's harsh. I only do that if they're having a go at me. You missed out feminism and structralist and Freudian.

                    I once sought the advice of Amor de Cosmos on this and he said that much "new" art history is aggressive. Maybe that is part of the problem.

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                      #11
                      Tips for difficult reading needed

                      Even when reading about nudes?

                      I really need to get better at this. I just did a post on another thread that I checked before posting and found I'd misread what I was responding to astonishingly badly.

                      Either I misread or forget. What a scholar I am.

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                        #12
                        Tips for difficult reading needed

                        try to imagine they`re all Indians. that helped me through Ulysses.

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                          #13
                          Tips for difficult reading needed

                          I'm interested in getting better at retaining arguments. I understand them but never remember them. I don't seem to get any better with practice either.

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                            #14
                            Tips for difficult reading needed

                            When I was in grad school, I would take notes after I finished each chapter, trying to boil down its arguments, then my thoughts about it. If you're really serious, you might want to consider doing something like writing a precis for each book that you read. It's a slog, and it can get annoying after a while, but they can come in very handy later, especially if you have to look at a text again. You can just look at what you wrote and then have a quick skim in the text.

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                              #15
                              Tips for difficult reading needed

                              What Amor said, and practice.

                              What Inca says also works, I just don't have anything like the self-discipline required.

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                                #16
                                Tips for difficult reading needed

                                The best way for me (and many people) to retain information is to make a set of flashcards and then go over them over and over. You'd think that this can only work with very discrete facts, but I found that I could also use it to remember arguments and bigger ideas too.

                                Each argument usually can be given a name, so you put that on the front of the card, then on the back, you briefly sketch (with arrows and circles and whatever) the key elements and moves of that argument. If it contains special terminology, then each one of those terms should also get it's own flash card. And then, of course, there should be a flash card in the stack for the person who made that argument, and on the back it should say that he made it.

                                Usually, it's good to start out with all of these related cards next to each other in order as you go through the stack, but once you've done that a few times, shuffle them up.

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                                  #17
                                  Tips for difficult reading needed

                                  Amor & Inca's comments are both very good. I would also suggest writing a lot: the more you write your own material using the new ideas you have learned the more it will stick in your mind. Book reviews, comparative analysis, short case studies, vicious denunciations of other peopkle's life's work, whatever works for you.

                                  My students often say that they can't remember the things they learn in class. I usually suggest that the more they link argument & examples in their minds, the easier it is to retain. Complex ideas can be 'tied on' to some concrete anchors and hopefully each helps you to remember the other.

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                                    #18
                                    Tips for difficult reading needed

                                    I would also suggest writing a lot: the more you write your own material using the new ideas you have learned the more it will stick in your mind.

                                    Absolutely. One of the best tricks is to keep a reading log — several grad courses I've taken require it and making it a habit is a great idea.

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