A. It is simple enough to say that since books have classes—fiction, biography, poetry—we should separate them and take from each what is right that each should give us. Yet few people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, that would be an admirable beginning. Do not dictate to your author; try to become him. Be his fellow-worker and accomplice. If you hang back, and reserve, and criticize at first, you are preventing yourself from getting the fullest possible value from what you read. But if you open your mind as widely as possible, then signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness, from the twist, and turn of the first sentences, will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other. Steep yourself in this, acquaint yourself with this, and soon you will find that your author is giving you, or attempting to give you, something far more definite.

B. Most of our thinking does not take place at the logical stage but at the perceptual stage which precedes this. Lateral thinking is to do with changing perceptions and finding new ways of looking at things. Lateral thinking is the practical process of creativity. There are various deliberate techniques such as the use of stepping stones (produced, for instance, by reversing the usual situation). Lateral thinking turns creativity into a tool. In a patterning system such as the mind provocation is as important as analysis—and more important for changing ideas.