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As a college philosophy major, I find myself spending a large amount of time with a book in my hand. While time constraints are a problem all their own, the greatest problem I face with these sometimes difficult to understand books is actually absorbing the information I wish to retain. I want to be able to understand what the author is attempting to convey both inside and out. I want understand both the large picture and the details. Instead of just drudging through the books I believe it is important to try to hone my skills of reading; find ways to be able to understand the readings without having to read the texts multiple times. Below are nine tips that I have incorporated into my own book reading endeavors. Before Reading the Book 1.)Understand What Type of Book You're Reading Before you even attempt to read the book or text, you should take a moment and reflect upon just what type of book it is. This will allow to be able to perhaps come up with a game plan in...

There are all sorts of reasons that relationships fail and by relationships I do not mean exclusively those of the romantic sort; friends, parents, teachers, teammates, etc. can all be affected. The causes are usually highly contextual. There is not always one single cause that can be blamed and thus we are left scratching our heads trying to understand just what went wrong. There may be an underlying theme though, and in order to understand this concept you may need some background information. Siddhartha Gautama, better known as the Buddha, was attributed to having laid out what is called the "Four Noble Truths." These truths allow for one to see the world for what it is and to escape suffering and achieve for the Buddha what was called Nirvana . It is the second of these noble truths that will be important to this article, that of the truth that our desires are ultimately what cause us to suffer (for more explanation on these truths, visit here ). What did the Buddha ...