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Pick One Topic and Read the Hell Out of It
Read — sporadically, widely — in one subject area. Comb over that subject like you’re combing a little girl’s long, tangled hair.
I know: I’m always bashing the left hemisphere, even though it’s a marvelous thing. In recognition of its value, here’s a tip that will increase your reading’s productivity (a thing the left hemisphere cherishes):
Read intensely and broadly in one area.
Pick one area that interests you and read one book after another about it, until you find yourself becoming an expert (a left-hemispheric trophy). It’s like combing a little girl’s long hair: your comb gets caught repeatedly in the first run, it gets better in the second run, and then the third run is smooth, allowing you to switch to a brush.
I’m doing that with the era from 450 AD to 1000 AD. It’s part of a hobby that has interested me sporadically for years: showing how Hilaire Belloc’s explanation of the Fall of Rome is far more accurate than the “Whig explanation” that has dominated historical theories over the past 200 years.
Right now, I’m reading and listening to a handful of books at the same time, like Chris Wickham’s The Inheritance of Rome and Medieval Europe, as well as Peter Brown’s The Rise of…
