We tend to focus on information in a book. However, often connections between information in the book and information out of the book are valuable.
Paul Scheele proposed Syntopic Reading. The prefix syn- means “same” or “together.” The Syntopic Reading means reading multiple books on the same topic concurrently. In this book “Intellitech,” I introduce the contents of multiple books on techniques for improving intelligence. It creates a similar situation to reading multiple books.
Shigehiko Toyama also recommends this type of reading in his book ”Serendipity from Random Reading.” By quickly reading multiple books, we can find unexpected connections between books. The word ”serendipity” means to discover unexpected things.
He told an interesting story in his other book ”Lessons for ideas.” Movie films are a series of still images one by one. However, if we display them at short intervals, we do not recognize the break between still images. We feel it as a single continuous movie. It is an effect of the afterimage. By displaying the next image before the afterimage of the previous image disappears, we feel they are continuous.
He thinks a word also make something like an afterimage in your mind. Words are understood as continuous sentences by the next word coming before the afterimage of the previous word disappears. He called is a rhetorical afterimage.
The rhetorical afterimage is a memory of the last sentence. By reading new sentences while the memory remains, it encourages the understanding of those sentences. The memory does not last forever. So if you read too slowly, it may hinder your understanding.
His opinion is close to my feeling. I explained the reading for assembling information to build understanding.
Connections are not restricted between multiple books. For example, suppose you have a problem to solve now. How can you find a solution? If you do not know what to look for, you do not know what to read. You do not know the keyword to search, so you can not find a solution from the search engine. (Related: Meno’s paradox)
Even in the situation, you can read random books. After reading a book, you may find information related to your problem. You may say “this is what I was looking for!” It is the moment your problem and the information in the book connects unexpectedly. It is the moment the connection create the value of problem-solving.
TODO: related: Coherency of knowledge#todo link