Your education becomes deeper – the more you read.

If you have exposed yourself to the best minds and the best thinking in your areas of specialization, your education has just been enhanced.

In fields where controversy is found, don’t neglect to listen to the voices that may to share your conclusions.

Your education becomes broader – the more you read.

Your reading should encompass a wide variety of topics.  Not everyone aspires to be a renaissance person but any education is improved by branching out.

I think one could make the case for A BOOK A Week being somewhat similar to a year in college, here is an example:

• A college course for a term = 1 unit
• Number of college courses for a term (3 terms x 18 hours) = 54 total units
• A great book = 1/2 unit  (No units are awared for “beach novels”, fantasy, or Harlequin romances.  These, and similar books, are for entertainment probably should not be confused with “getting and education”.)

• So, if half your books are great (26 x 1 = 26) and half your books are merely good (26 x 0.5 = 13) = 39 units

Under the above scoring system, a year of college gets you 54 units of education and a year of reading may be worth 39 units of knowledge and understanding.  And the 54 college units may be a high figure because of courses and teachers that are less then excellent.  Also, the 39 units of knowledge and understanding may be enhanced by reading books of high value.

Some of the best and brightest people I have ever met were not people with great academic credentials, but they were people who learned every day – often through extensive reading.

1. My grandfather Austin Monroe Shaffer (born 1884) never finished grade school.  He founded a respected academy and was awarded an honorary doctorate from a university.  He read widely.
2. My father Robert Shaffer graduated from high school in the middle of the Great Depression and was unable to attend college.  He played a huge role in building the school that was founded by his father.
3. A friend who did not finish college has a personal library of thousands of books he has read.
4. An acquaintance who became a billionaire listed in Forbes magazine did it without the help of a college education.  And I can go on…

We have all been blessed to know people like this.

– Roger Shaffer