Books

You can get to and attain great things with books, but most people just dally with books rather than conquer them. Most people are desultory with books rather than giving dedicated effort to conquer and own the book as part of their being.

You have to read books like you're climbing a mountain. The summit is your goal. 

The higher up the mountain the more rare the book or genre, and the greater the power of the influence. There are many genre novels; there are few epic poems. The higher up the mountain the more rare the influence, and the more effort needed to engage the influence. This is how you know you're on higher ground. Works of classical literature, for instance, are rare, and for the most part they are hard to engage. 

The goal is to get parts in relation to the whole understanding of all and everything. No less is the goal for a prophet, priest, and king. Will it make you strange to other people not climbing the mountain? Yes. We're supposed to emulate Jesus, though. That will make us strange too. 

You start out catch as catch can. Then you find categories. Then you make lists. You move towards what you don't have. You go general to specific. You don't keep going over old ground. You keep climbing with understanding increasing. If you want to use academics and intellectuals as a foil or a contrast, this puts you way above academics and intellectuals. The summit, and beyond summit, is the word of God and a deep understanding of the practice of the faith.