Book Review – How to Read a Book

The important points in this book are:

• Reading for quality is more important than reading for quantity.
• We are taught basic reading in schools, but never really taught comprehensive intelligent reading.
• People should learn the importance of ‘active reading.’
• Readers should seek enlightenment rather than information.
• We should challenge books with the goal of fully understanding it.
• Greater understanding is reached only when the information we are reading is more complex than we can comprehend. Basically, if it is hard to read, we should be reading it!

“Good books are over your head; they would not be good for you if they were not.”

There are four levels of reading:

1. Elementary Reading
2. Inspectional Reading
3. Analytical Reading
4. Syntopical Reading

Level 1: Elementary Reading

This is the reading we are taught in school. It is the basics - ABCs, phonics, etc. Unfortunately, this is where most of the reading instruction stops. Many of us don’t progress beyond comprehension. We should strive to attain higher levels of reading.

Level 2: Inspectional Reading

This is the kind of reading we do in order to decide if the book is worth our time. This is where we inspect the book through an effort of skimming - or pre-reading. To do this effectively we should spend an hour reviewing the following areas of the book: preface, title page, table of contents, publisher’s blurb, the first page of crucial chapters, and also the last pages of the book.

“It is generally desirable to skim even a book that you intend to read carefully, to get some idea of its form and structure.

Level 3: Analytical Reading

At this point, you have dissected the book, understood its basic structure and the author’s intent on writing it. Now it is time to read the book for enlightenment and understanding. This is where we perform active, engaged learning. There are four questions you should ask yourself during this stage of reading:

1. What is the book about as a whole?
2. What is being said in detail and how?
3. Is this book true, in whole or part?
4. What of it?

"Enlightenment is achieved only when, in addition to knowing what an author says, you know what he means and why he says it."

Level 4: Syntopical Reading

At this level, you should be able to read different books on the same subject and understand how they align with each other. There are five steps to analytical reading:

1. Find the relevant passages - The goal is to help you understand your question, not the entire book.
2. Define your terms - Define a "neutral terminology" that is not specific to one particular author.
3. Get the questions clear - Establish for ourselves a set of neutral propositions.
4. Define the issues - Make each issue understandable under each authors terms.
5. Analyze the discussion - Organize the issues and figure out how they relate to each other.

How I Applied the Concepts

As a non-fiction reader and a learner, this book inspired me to slow down, study and make these books my own. I am working on a process that applies some of the concepts of this book. My new approach to reading is as follows:

1. Pre-read the book by spending time with the 'edges' of the book - the preface, introductory, title page, last pages of the book, etc.
2. See if there is an abstract available on getAbstract. If so, print it out and mark it up.
3. Read the book.
4. Summarize the book here on vickinieto.com

If I review the getAbstract and find I really like the book I will buy the actual paper book. I believe that in order for me to really understand a book I need to make it my own. I started following the recommendations I found in this book. Here are the following tools and techniques I use to make the book my own:

1. Highlight major points. - my favorite highlighters
2. Write in the margins. - my favorite pens
3. Use asterisks and stars in the margin.
4. Use numbers to indicate a sequence of points.
5. References to other parts of the books in the margin.
6. Circling of keywords or phrases.
7. Write questions at the top or bottom of the page.
8. Use bookmarkers throughout the book. - my favorite dividers and tags

These techniques have forced me to slow down my reading and enjoy a richer and more immersive reading experience. This has given me a much greater understanding of the books and has truly taken my reading to a higher level.