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Abstract

Maybe the reasons for my discomfort are me-centred. After all, I am not an astrophysicist. I’m not worthy of licking the quarks in Sheldon Cooper’s couch, let alone chatting with his horny cronies about massless particles. All I know about physics is that it has something to do with that guy those fig cookies are named after.</p><p id="b505">Liu’s massive smattering of astrophysicist babble terrified me. Dictionary.com became my home page. I kept reminding myself that this piece of science fiction had to be upping my IQ.</p><h2 id="d36e">Seeking smarter</h2><p id="f312">Growth excites me. I like challenges. As I continually lecture my students, <i>How else do we advance, stretch, and thrive if we avoid a little bit of distressing discomfort</i>?</p><p id="f324" type="7">Nothing worth having comes easy. Jeanette Coton</p><p id="1a7e">Provocations are rarely simple. They’re hardly ever loaded with as much fun as Amazon’s Black Friday sale. Challenges come with costs. Cixin Liu cost me a few levels of confidence and a few mindfork-caused-headaches.</p><h2 id="7342">The Limits</h2><p id="ea5c">In order for a text to grow you without tossing you into straitjacket-existence, it has to be the right amount of challenge. In elementary school, we refer to these as “just right” or “good fit” reads. We compare them to footwear. Just as you wouldn’t don chest waders to run a marathon, you don’t want to grab a book that is so arduous it deflates you.</p><blockquote id="26a9"><p>Read two or three pages and ask yourself these questions:</p></blockquote><blockquote id="f

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977"><p><b>Will it be an easy, fun book to read?</b> Do I understand what I am reading? Do I know almost every word? When I read it aloud, can I read it smoothly? Do I think the topic will interest me? <a href="https://www.readingrockets.org/article/selecting-books-your-child-finding-just-right-books">Reading Rockets</a></p></blockquote><h2 id="654d">Takeaways</h2><p id="c5d9">Delve into literature that makes your gray matter feel as though it’s been stuffed into a blender. Google Daoism, when China embraced communism, and terms such as “priceps”. A little discomfort expands your brain.</p><p id="12de">I’m not sure that I’m much more competent than I was previously. NASA hasn’t yet responded to my application and extraterrestrials aren’t flocking to frequencies from my homemade radio transmitter. But I felt stupid. And it stretched me.</p><p id="bcb8"><i>©Jennifer J. McDougall 2022</i></p><div id="1bfd" class="link-block"> <a href="https://baos.pub/the-book-that-changed-the-narrative-i-told-myself-about-my-mother-42d7d099be85"> <div> <div> <h2>The Book That Changed The Narrative I Told Myself About My Mother</h2> <div><h3>Glennon Doyle’s “Untamed” was an uppercut to my beliefs</h3></div> <div><p>baos.pub</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*aVsVv6SLBTlayoH0m2wvlQ.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

Read Books That Make You Feel Stupid

Cixin Liu’s Three-Body Problem stretched me

We can only grow as readers by stretching a little past what is comfortable. Danika Ellis

Normally I don’t like being uncomfortable. Who does, really? Whether it’s supper with inlaws, heels taller than a stray weasel, or brain strain, I’d really rather be draped in cozy flannel and swallowed into a couch.

Don’t you appreciate stories that make you feel like a warm mug of tea on a -30 degree day? Well, spoiler: Cixin Liu’s book is not one of those books. And that’s a good thing. Unlike Harlequin-type romances where massive biceps and glistening brows accompany brain cells on autopilot, Liu’s book is a thinker.

Near the tale’s beginning, I was all fired up reading the quote, “How many other acts of humankind that had seemed normal or even righteous were, in reality, evil?” (p.27) But then, dear friends, it went downhill. Or uphill if the cerebral glass is half full.

Why the discomfort

Liu’s massive smattering of astrophysicist babble terrified me. Dictionary.com became my home page. I kept reminding myself that this piece of science fiction had to be upping my IQ.

Seeking smarter

Growth excites me. I like challenges. As I continually lecture my students, How else do we advance, stretch, and thrive if we avoid a little bit of distressing discomfort?

Nothing worth having comes easy. Jeanette Coton

Provocations are rarely simple. They’re hardly ever loaded with as much fun as Amazon’s Black Friday sale. Challenges come with costs. Cixin Liu cost me a few levels of confidence and a few mindfork-caused-headaches.

The Limits

In order for a text to grow you without tossing you into straitjacket-existence, it has to be the right amount of challenge. In elementary school, we refer to these as “just right” or “good fit” reads. We compare them to footwear. Just as you wouldn’t don chest waders to run a marathon, you don’t want to grab a book that is so arduous it deflates you.

Read two or three pages and ask yourself these questions:

Will it be an easy, fun book to read? Do I understand what I am reading? Do I know almost every word? When I read it aloud, can I read it smoothly? Do I think the topic will interest me? Reading Rockets

Takeaways

Delve into literature that makes your gray matter feel as though it’s been stuffed into a blender. Google Daoism, when China embraced communism, and terms such as “priceps”. A little discomfort expands your brain.

I’m not sure that I’m much more competent than I was previously. NASA hasn’t yet responded to my application and extraterrestrials aren’t flocking to frequencies from my homemade radio transmitter. But I felt stupid. And it stretched me.

The Book That Changed The Narrative I Told Myself About My Mother

Glennon Doyle’s “Untamed” was an uppercut to my beliefs

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