Deciding What and How to Read

I’ve written, of late, about the overwhelming amount of information that rushes upon us every day. News and data are no longer the province of established newspapers and magazines. Countless resources now compete for our attention, including those — like the website Buzzfeed — which elude classic categories and blur the lines between news and entertainment.

With so much out there, it’s not easy deciding whom or what to read, whom or what to trust. I face this issue with students as I try to get them to recognize proper authorities and experts. The first page of a Google search, I explain, doesn’t always yield reliable or trusworthy information.

With so many resources and so many outlets telling us about ourselves and the world, it’s actually something of a difficulty deciding what to spend time on. I’m curious what readers think. If you’re a Catholic who follows blogs, what do you read, and why? How do you educate yourself on the developments within the Church? Do you spend more time reading books or reading online articles?

And, as a general matter, where do you seek intellectual nourishment? How do you decide what to read? In weighing the different venues for political, cultural and religious material, how do you sift the serious instead of the trivial, the truthful from the misleading? How much do you rely upon the news feed of Facebook or Twitter? Is that your “base camp” of daily news?

Would you rather read a national newspaper or listen to NPR?

And what kind of reader are you? Do you skim and browse, aiming for quantity over quality? Or do you read fewer materials but in greater depth?