You Can And Should Read Difficult Books Iheart

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Oct 30, 2025, 3:52 PM

you can and should read difficult books iheart

You can (and should) read difficult books Do people still need books? Life is busy and all the information we could want is just a click or scroll away. Marcie Stokman and Colleen Hutt of Well-Read Mom join Erika to share why they bring women together to read more books and to read them well. Find out why reading difficult books awakens the mind to understand life’s deepest questions. Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube

Do people still need books? Life is busy and all the information we could want is just a click or scroll away. Marcie Stokman and Colleen Hutt of Well-Read Mom join Erika to share why they bring women together to read more books and to read them well. Find out why reading difficult books awakens the mind to understand life’s deepest questions. Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube You'll still be able to report anonymously.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about why we should read those “difficult” books— the ones that challenge you and make you sweat a bit trying to figure them out. I know, I know, it’s tempting to stick to the easy stuff, especially when you don’t have much free time and responsibilities are calling. Growing up, I had no problem picking up lengthy books, but once I got into college I had so much studying to do that any book above the 400-page mark used to be a... The same went for classics, fantasy epics, and anything on the philosophical side. But that has long since changed. And I’m glad because embracing challenging reads anew opened up a whole new world of literature for me.

You see, you might not finish these books in a single sitting (okay, you definitely won’t). You’ll probably find yourself re-reading paragraphs, pondering sentences, and reaching out for your dictionary. They might make you sweat a bit, but the payoff is huge. “Good books are over your head; they would not be good for you if they were not. And books that are over your head weary you unless you can reach up to them and pull yourself up their level.” — Mortimer Adler I’ve just finished reading The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist.

It took 10x longer than expected. What slowed me down was the numerous moments I sat back in awe at what I’d just read on the page (it’s profound—you should read it). But also the fact that it’s not an easy read. It’s certainly not something you can leisurely scan through and gain an understanding of the concepts. Thanks for reading Sam Matla! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

And tt’s been a good reminder of the value of difficult books. There’s something you get from reading hard books that you don’t get from easy books. And that something is what I want to explore in this post. How to Read and Understand “Difficult” Books | EP. 58 Let’s have a chat about “difficult” books.

What are they and why should you read them? Also, let’s get into a few tips for getting the most of a challenging read. #ReadingTips #DifficultBooks #PhilosophyReading #BookLovers #IntellectualGrowth #ReadingJourney #ComplexTexts #NonFictionBooks #BookRecommendations #ReadingCommunity Send Me a Text Message with Your Questions 👋📚Take Your Reading Deeper: https://community.thereadwellpodcast.com/deep-reading-community?el=podcast Books, particularly novels, have many different purposes.

Some may aim to transport us to a different country, world or universe. Others help us to relax at night after a particularly harrowing day or to provide an alternative perspective on life. This ‘aim’ as such, is decided by the author, and they strive to write the novel in a manner that will accomplish their aim. On more than one occasion, I have picked up a novel that tested me, it fought me on every page. Every sentence, every word, every three-page long paragraph tested my perseverance and quite often I’ve finished the novel full-heartedly believing that the author aimed to break my spirit and rob me of my love... However, In the last year, I have uncovered a newfound respect and even perhaps a tentative love for these challenging books, and in doing so I have broadened my horizons beyond anything I ever...

Therefore, I intend to convince you that it is unquestionably worth the initial pain to read these infamous novels, which are some of the most difficult novels that I have ever attempted to read. “It's been a prevalent notion. Fallen sparks. Fragments of vessels broken at the Creation. And someday, somehow, before the end, a gathering back to home. A messenger from the Kingdom, arriving at the last moment.

But I tell you there is no such message, no such home -- only the millions of last moments . . . nothing more. Our history is an aggregate of last moments.” Gravity’s Rainbow has a reputation for being impenetrable, many have warned me that it is impossible to read and therefore I shouldn’t even try.

When researching the hardest book to read, out of curiosity, I found that this novel is one of the first to pop up and, in a sense, these naysayers were right. In the first 100 pages alone you meet a talking dog, an octopus trained in combat and a man who chased said dog through the ruins of a building with a toilet bowl stuck... Large amounts of the novel are designed to be incomprehensible to the average person, you will find quantum mechanics and random formulae littering the pages. You may emerge from the wreckage at the end of the story without having a single clue what as to what it was about. To be completely frank, I don’t think Thomas Pynchon entirely understood what he was trying to say. It is a complete mess and yet time and time again, I found myself in awe of the prose.

I have never been one to write in books, but for Gravity’s Rainbow, I made an exception. Entire paragraphs have been underlined in my copy for me to revisit and wonder over the beauty of the prose. Keep in mind that this novel is not for the faint-hearted,; it is full of crass language, characters named Mexico or Pointsman, subplots that appear only to immediately disappear and a plot which I... Gravity’s Rainbow is an adventure and I recommend reading other, simpler, books at the same time to give yourself a break every so often, however, I truly believe that it is a work of... Do people still need books? Life is busy and all the information we could want is just a click or scroll away.

Marcie Stokman and Colleen Hutt of Well-Read Mom join Erika to share why they bring women together to read more books and to read them well. Find out why reading difficult books awakens the mind to understand life’s deepest questions. There’s value in learning to read hard books. Perhaps the best way to explain this is with a ridiculous fitness metaphor. Sidenote. Yesterday, I talked about the hedonic treadmill of reading.

I must subconsciously be trying to get ready for my summer bikini body. I love going to the gym. I’m a powerlifter, which is a fancy term for a “person who likes to lift heavy stuff.” The program is simple; consistently try to increase how much I can lift in the squat, bench... Today, I had an insightful gym session. I squatted close to 500 pounds, so it was a very heavy workout. I don’t like talking about this side of my life because it feels boastful, but there’s a point to be made which is that heavy weights act differently from light ones.

I struggle to have good form when there’s no weight on the bar. In a squat, you want that bar to go straight down and then back up in a perfect, vertical line. If you watch the lifter from the side, the end of that barbell shouldn’t zig-zag forward or backward at all. If there is movement, then the weight on your back becomes much heavier since it’s extended away from your center of gravity. Think of holding a bowling ball with your arms outstretched, rather than close to your chest. The position changes how heavy it feels.

Home » Legacy ETC Playbook » Curiosity » Why you should read difficult books (and take this test to find out your reading level) So how should you choose your next tome? Well according to this little article from Huffpost, you should pass on the easy ‘holiday’ reads and head straight for the ones which challenge you. I’m talking those big idea books, or those books that delve so eloquently into a subject that you might even get a mild headache. The books that require the endurance and dedication of an ironman competitor. Commenting on one particular complicated but competent read, the author commented;

“The one I’ve just finished, The Sellout by Paul Beatty. It won the 2016 Man Booker Prize and was widely praised and adored, presumably by people who are more amenable to a challenge than I am. Set in the southern outskirts of Los Angeles, The Sellout was a witty, funny, extraordinarily clever book, with a strikingly original take on racism, slavery and segregation.” “And while I was repeatedly astonished by its intelligence, pausing to re-read slabs of text that had captured a truth perfectly, or marvelled at a perfect turn of phrase, I found it hard to... It almost seemed as if it was too dense with cleverness. I just found that reading it felt a little like work, or like reading an article about the history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that was informative, and hugely worthwhile, but a slog.

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