6. For most novels, biographies, and books about travel, hobbies or personal interests, if you are an average reader, you should have no trouble at all absorbing meaning and pleasure out of 300 printed words every 60 seconds.
7. One of the most commonly overlooked ways to build trust is to be loyal to those who are not present. Now if you were to criticize the boss, I would suggest we go to him and explore how things might be improved. You may assume that I would act with equal respect if someone were to criticize you.
8. Why is marking up a book necessary to reading it? First, it keeps you awake. In the second place, reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. The marked book is usually the thought-through book. Finally, writing helps you remember the thoughts you had, or the thoughts the author expressed.
9. For the 30th high-school reunion, Dalkoff went back and visited Mrs. Brauch, who had retired. He told her what her four words had done for him. He told her that because she had given him the confidence to be a writer, he had been able to pass that confidence on to the woman who would become his wife, who became a writer herself.
10. To be happy, we must have enjoyable leisure time and satisfying work. I doubt that my great-grandmother, who raised 14 children and took in washing, had much of either. She did have a network of close friends and family, and maybe this is what fulfilled her. If she was happy with what she had, perhaps it was because she didn’t expect life to be very different.