0
0
What’s difficult about reading books – open, read, close. If reading is a way to have fun or spend a free evening, then the above is enough. But if you want to learn something useful, gain knowledge and experience, it’s not so easy. There are many scientific papers on the topic “How to read books correctly” by domestic and foreign scientists. Let’s focus on one study, which was published in the 40’s by Mortimer Adler, but is still relevant today. Adler argued that books can be read in 4 ways:
Elementary reading is the easiest way. We read, understand the meaning, follow the plot.
Inspectional reading is the method used when you need to read a large volume in a short amount of time. Quickly go through the beginning of the page and the end, trying to remember the main things.
Analytical reading – complete immersion in the text. With this method of reading carefully, slowly, take notes. The main thing is to understand and remember what you have read.
Exploratory reading is a way of reading professional books. Several sources on the same topic are read at the same time.
Of the listed ways, let’s elaborate on inspection reading and analytical reading. Both of these ways are relevant to the modern person, but not everyone owns them.
Inspection reading
The main feature of this method is superficial reading. Such a skill can come in handy in situations where there is no time for thoughtful reading. For example, when it is necessary to quickly assess the suitability of a book or not, to refresh your memory of what you have read. So, how do you learn to read books this way? Inspection reading consists of these steps:
We read the title, study the cover of the book. By the way, many do not do this, going straight to the content. And in vain. Authors always pay great attention to the design of books. Exterior design has a certain message, guessing that much will be understandable, even without seeing the text. Of course, this is true only for paper editions.
We study the first pages. To decide whether you need this book, be sure to study the abstract, the preface and the prologue. You can get an idea of any book this way.
Examine the titles and last lines. This recommendation is for scholarly and business literature. Looking at the end of the book you learn the main conclusions and decide whether the publication is suitable or not.
Examine the reviews. This is useful, but only if the reviews are written by real people.
What is all this for? To understand in a few minutes whether this book is necessary, whether it is suitable and to choose what is necessary.
Analytical Reading.
This type of reading will take a long time, so it should only be used for works that you want to remember for years to come and get everything the author put into his work. So, how do you learn to read books properly? The analytical way includes the following:
Learning information about the author. The personality of the author is important. For example, if a book about how to achieve material wealth is written by a person who himself cannot boast of a large fortune, then there will be no trust in both the author and his advice.
Spend a few minutes studying the book, using the inspection method. A brief analysis won’t hurt, it will allow us to create a preliminary opinion of the work.
Let’s go back to the difficult and unclear points. We read the book quickly, without going into individual points. Text that interested or incomprehensible, mark the bookmark, read on. The book is read, and now go back to the parts that are unclear or interesting. Read carefully, if necessary, use additional sources for better understanding.
Write a summary. After you have read the book, write a report. It should answer the following questions: What is the book about? What are the main events? Why did they happen? What is your attitude to what you have read? Does your opinion coincide with the author’s point of view? What are the conclusions?
This way of reading can be called work. It requires a lot of time and attention, but it allows you to remember what you read for a long time, to understand the author’s ideas. It is not necessary to use an analytical way to read love stories or detectives. But if the book struck, and the author made you think about important things, the method – that’s what you need. How do you read your favorite books? What do you do to better remember what you read?
