Does the borg really produce great readers? How much did you actually read when in?

by likeabird 23 Replies latest jw friends

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  likeabird

  I've been reading a lot and learning even more (project deadlines to meet), getting this overwhelming satisfaction and feeling good.

  And then I stopped and realised that I never got that feeling when reading borg publications.

  I also realized that I have probably read more non-fiction books in the last month than I did during my whole life in the borg.

  For all my reading (and I was fully in) I read no more than two WT books cover to cover. None of my study books were studied cover to cover and WTs were usually quickly underlined and rarely properly studied. Magazines were usually flicked through and resolutions to read them cover to cover rarely lasted more than a few weeks.

  I did manage to read the Bible through once - but that was because I was always afraid someone door to door would ask me if I had, so I figured I should just crack on with it. Attempts to read it a second time never got me past the first five chapters of Genesis.

  So for all the bravado for making great readers out of us all, how was it with you?

  How much did you read when in?
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  Shador

  Heh. I read and still read a lot. I've read much WT stuff, but that was because I was forced to. Never really cared for it or let it get to me. But I have read tonnes of non-WT stuff. Mostly SF and Fantasy novels - I have read literally hundreds of books.
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  mrsjones5

  I did way more secular reading than wt reading. Never made it through any wt book and usually skimmed the mags. Mother hated that I never studied and marked my copy of the wt but since I hardly answered during the study there was no point. Loved those dirty looks. :D
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  gma-tired2

  I read all the time. Still do. But never WT stuff much. Give me a good novel and I'm happy
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  mrsjones5

  A year or so ago there was a topic about the reading level of wt publications. I think it was somewhere around 3rd to 5th grade level?
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  Satanus

  At the beginning, i read a few wt books. I tried reading throught the bible a few times. I ended up reading it in sections, maybe i read the whole thing. After a couple of wt yrs, i started reading other things a lot more. Mainly, i read science and science fiction. I must have read hundreds of sf books. When i exited wt, and entered my christain phase, i stopped the sf and started w bible background, theology, church histroy, stories of the catholic saints. Also, history and psychology. So, i did read a lot.

  Leaving the christian phase, i cut down drastically on my reading. I still do a bit on some subjects that interest me, but nothing like i did.

  S
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  St George of England

  I have never read much JW stuff and still do not. I can skim read pretty well.

  However I am an avid reader of other subjects, always non fiction and technical.

  I wish I had read and studied WT publications more when I was young, I would have probably realised years ago what a load of twaddle it really is.

  George
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  Simon

  I was an avid reader (seems I only have time for mostly tech-books nowadays).

  For me it was a form of mental escape.
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  likeabird

  I read a lot of fiction when I was in, also a way to escape, but even if what I was reading was totally tame, I couldn't even talk about that to my service partners as they would always tell me how they never had time to read anything other than WT stuff. Some had even deliberately given up reading fiction as it was too distracting for them.

  Even though I was all in at the time, I knew I would never sink to such lows. I just decided to shut my mouth and keep reading. And like you, George, I just skimmed anything WT to keep myself covered.
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  Bungi Bill

  I have always been an avid reader, and this is what played a large part in getting me into trouble:

  - i.e. when my newly converted JW grandmother started supplying us with WTS literature, I read everything I could get my hands on. That is what then led me into the JW religion.

  For 28 years, I read everything that the WTS printed. During the majority of that time, Fred Franz was the writer of their hard-bound books. Whatever has been said about the reading skills required to understand the current WTS books, this wasn't the case back then (when Mad Freddy used to come up with seldom-used words of the English language such as "revivify"). While the content of his books was straight out of Cloud Cuckoo Land, you would have struggled to read these with only Grade 5 reading skills.

  I also once read the bible from cover to cover - and a lot of good that did me, too! I only did that for exactly the same reasons as already been stated by Likeabird.

  So, in answer to your question about whethe ror not the borg makes us into good readers, with me it was the opposite:

  - it was my already being an avid reader that brought me into the borg. (Unfortunately though, I had yet to learn critical reading skills).

  Bill.