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September 22, 2006

How to read a book

(With apologies to Mortimer Adler)

Many denizens of the academic world (including the one with whom I cohabit) are magical creatures who can pick up a book, sail through it cover to cover, and remember what they read.

I am not among them.

I am a slow reader. I become consumed by prose, and I plod through it. Afterwards, I have little memory of what I've read, and even that begins to fade quickly.

So I have developed my own magic, a system of reading for Slow Readers with Busy Schedules and Faulty Memories:


  1. Read the back cover and dust jacket. They're usually cheezy and inflated, but they provide some clues.
  2. Read the introduction. But do not read it start to finish. Instead, follow Becky's Magic Formula: read the first few paragraphs (usually 2-5) and then the last few paragraphs. Close the book and write down what you remember. Reopen the book and go back to the middle part of the introduction, the part that you skipped on the first pass. Don't read it; just read the first sentence of each paragraph. Close the book and write down what you remember.
  3. Read the conclusion, following Becky's Magic Formula.
  4. Decide whether it's necessary or useful to read the remaining chapters of the book. If so, which ones? Pick the most compelling chapters, and read them, following Becky's Magic Formula.
  5. Decide whether it's necessary or useful to have a full comprehension of the work. If so, do that linear reading that you used to begin with before you learned Becky's Magic Formula.

I understand that I have offended and scandalized some of my readers, and I apologize. I don't intend to inflict injury; rather, I want to save the everlasting academic souls of academic readers who are drowning in prose. I recognize, too, that what I've just described simply doesn't and shouldn't work for imaginative literature, especially poetry and fiction. But for everything else? Works like crazy.
  • Don't tell yourself that this sounds like too much time-consuming work. This system saves time.It takes a little practice, but it actually saves time and increases comprehension, because when you overview a text before reading it cover to cover, you know what to expect before the linear reading and can therefore process it more quickly and with greater comprehension.
  • Don't tell yourself that you'll skip the notetaking part; the notetaking forces you to think about and understand what you've just read, and it provides a record to which you, with your crummy memory, can return when you're writing articles, studying for exams, and what not.
  • Don't feel like a criminal. There is no law that says you must start at the beginning and march through to the end. You're the owner, not the servant, of your books. The author is dead.
  • Don't feel like you're not really reading unless you read linearly, from start to finish. Oh, yes, you are. If you're a slow academic reader with a faulty memory who's studying in the humanities, I will bet the ranch that you're not reading everything. You're spending countless hours at the task but still not getting it done. Instead, you're starting off at the beginning of your books and never making it to the end. So ask yourself, is it better to read pieces of books without understanding them, or to get an overview of the entire argument?
  • Don't feel like you're not really reading unless you read every word of the work. Oh, yes, you are. What I'm describing here is an analytic rather than obedient reading system. You get to decide how much of a work is useful and necessary to read. And when you decide not to read the whole thing (as I usually do), you at least have a general sense of the argument of the work.

    And a parting note: Do all this on some sort of notetaking software. All my reading notes (4.01 GB at this moment; I take reading very seriously and am a voracious reader) are in Microsoft Word files, but that's because my notetaking system was set up before notetaking software was invented. Yes, I could import it to notetaking software now, but my secretary just never shows up for work. You, on the other hand: You would be insane to take your notes by hand or in word processing files.

    If you don't believe me about all this, do it anyway. You're due for an act of faith.

    Posted by senioritis at September 22, 2006 06:18 AM

    Comments

    Thank's for this tip. As I explained last week, my memory's not so great without strong visual narratives, and I'm a slow reader to boot. I'll give this method a try this weekend.

    Posted by: John at September 22, 2006 08:03 AM

    I’ve been working on actually doing something like this, but somehow needed permission. As you mention in your later points, I feel guilty about not reading everything. This just might save my exam-preparin’ ass.

    Posted by: Krista at September 22, 2006 09:14 AM

    Thank you for posting. I've been judging myself for a long time on this.

    Posted by: Marcia at September 22, 2006 09:34 AM

    I love this. It’s great to know that I'm not the only slow reader in the academic world. Your magic formula makes so much sense. Bravo and thanks!

    Posted by: Brittany at September 22, 2006 10:27 AM

    Oh, it's not that I'm a slow reader. In fact, I read TOO FAST. That zippy context reading ain't too helpful if you don't go back and re-read (sloooowly) the important stuff. And how do you identify the important stuff? Through the Method! :)

    Posted by: susansinclair at September 22, 2006 01:59 PM

    I don't know if I'm necessarily a slow reader as much as an academic drowning in unread journals, articles and books. Your system makes sense to me as I've been wishing there were a "Current Theories in Composition Digest," that would boil everything down to its essence, explain how it fits into the overall scheme of things and list major scholars working on it. I bought a timeline program that may or may not become that very project.

    Posted by: joanna at September 23, 2006 10:06 AM

    Glad it's useful, friends. Joanna: pretty interesting. I'll be interested in seeing/hearing about the results!

    Posted by: senioritis at September 23, 2006 10:45 AM