If like me, you read a vast number of books, I find it doesn’t come without its own challenges even though my time spent in books, are amongst the most blessed hours I spend,discovering the beauty and mysteries of God.I have what appears to me, quite severe cognitive deficits in this illness, and my memoryis one thing that takes a hit. And that includes remembering well, the books that I read. Add to that, that I am distracted by intractible pain in my body which is also severeenough to detract from my ability to read with understanding well, its certainly a challenge in its own right.A few tips for over-coming some of the problems we face when reading books, so that we get  as much profit from them as we can:

Ask why we are reading this particular book. Is it merely the author that attracted you to that book? Is it a subject you have special interest in? How do you hope to profit and gain spiritually from reading this particular book? Setting those criterias and goals in onesmind before starting the book, may help to keep them in ones mind while reading and so make them more able for us to achieve.

Are you getting enough decent sleep? This is one thing that is known to interefere with our memories, and I find my sleep disorders above anything else will give me severe memorychallenges. Reading when we are fully alert gives us the best hope of most recall.

Are you seeming to understand what you are reading as you read it? Is it making sense to you, or is it merely your eyes passing over words with little to nothing more than that? Do the words make sense and create pictures in your mind conveyed from the words in the book?

Are there difficult words that you do not understand or know the meaning of? Use a dictionary, to look up difficult or new words to you. Read the words aloud. That helps our recall greatly. When charles Dickens wrote his novels, he acted out the parts of his characters.

Are you distracted or weighed down by the cares of life? (whatever they may be in your own particular case). Distractions like that, family, money, work, etc, etc, will all deteract if weighing upon our minds from our ability to read well and read with understanding and recall.

Are you investing in what you are reading with your mind? Does it have your attention? Take notes, a journal to keep ideas or concepts that you have read at your fingertipes so that you can revise what you have read, and meditate upon it, from your notes.

Reading frequently makes reading with recall easier. It is like anything we do, the more we do it, we build our muscles to be able to do it better with exercise. When I first started reading after a 13 year break of reading nothing abuot seven years ago, I could neither read with absorption or any recall at all. Now I can read Jonathan Edwards in his original manuscript with ease. Excercise and doing something frequently pays dividends.

The books we Christains read are often what would be termed difficult books or heavy going. There are steps we can take which can make the hard work more relaxing and profitable. Know and find your ideal reading conditions. What room you read in; how much quiet you need. How much light; what kind of seating suits you best, etc, etc.

If you are finding the book difficult, do not become discouraged and give up. Remember the notes you made initially of why you wanted to read this particular book,

Don’t read for the sake of reading. In other words, when you have gone past the pointphysically of being able to read well, you are tired, or you are too distracted, or you just need a break, then break away from the book and come back fresh. It will help prevent you becoming discouraged by the book becoming harder than it is, and more burdensome

because your heart is not really in it right now.

When you do break from your book, don’t break for too long. Don’t take a week or two, before picking the book back up, because by then you will have likely forgotten much of what you have read, which in itself is a discouragment to continuing, and the longer you leave it, the harder it may be to come back to it at all. Resolve and be determined to finish the book. Set a deadline if it will help, and try to keep to it. of a date you would like the book to be finished by.

Few men, if any, have iron memories. How soon is a sermon preached forgotten, when a sermon written remains! Augustine writing to Volusian, saith, “That which is written is always at hand to be read when the reader is at leisure.” Men do not easily forget their own names, nor otheir father’s house, nor the wives of their bosoms, nor the fruit of their loins, not to eat their daily bread; and yet, ah! how easily do they forget that word of grace, that should be dearer to them than all! Most mens’ memories, especially in the great concernments of their souls, are like a sieve or boulter, where the good corn and fine flour goes through, but the light chaff and coarse bran remain behind; or like a strainer, where the sweet liquor is strained out, but the dregs left behind; or like a grate that lets the pure water run away, but if there be any straws, sticks, mud or filth, that it holds as it were with iron bands. Most men’s memories are very treacherous, espeically in good things; few mens’ memories are a holy ark, a heavenly storehouse or magazine for their souls, and therefore they stand in more need of the written word.” [Thomas Brooks–Mute Christian under the Rod dedicatory epistle]