Michael Gowin’s Blog

Since the 50 Books Project is now underway, it seemed a good time to introduce a related topic: how to read a book.

Wait a minute–you’re going to tell me how to read a book? I know how to read: I’ve been reading since first grade!

Well, yes, you have. But learning to read words on a page and learning to read for understanding are two different skills. My eight-year-old daughter could read many of the books on my list but she would have difficulty understanding them. I’m going to describe some of the tools and techniques I’ve developed over the years. You might also look at How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren (summarized on Wikipedia) as a helpful resource.

First, understand that I don’t read every book with the same degree of intensity or commitment and neither should you. In some cases, I’ll just skim a book to determine whether or not I want to read it more closely. Getting books from the library, for example, is a great way to evaluate titles before investing in them. And some books, like popular fiction, are just for fun. You’ll find that there are many books that don’t deserve much effort. The tips below apply when you are committed to a book and want to get the most out of it.

Own the Book
Write your name and the month/year that you purchased it on an inside page.

This identifies the book as yours, and a good book’s ideas, in turn, become part of you. It’s also helpful to include your name so that a borrower may return it or at least feel guilty for not returning it. Adding the date of purchase creates some accountability (you’re less likely just to throw it on the shelf unread) and it will later help you trace the development of your own thinking. Plus, if your book ends up in a used bookstore some day, another person can say, "Cool–John Smith read this in May 1996."

Read the Introduction
This is a very important step–don’t skip it! The author often uses the introduction to explain why the book was written, present key themes, and provide short summaries of each chapter or section. Some authors may make statements like:

• The purpose of this book is to…
• My reason for writing is…
• This book is about…

Knowing the author’s intent and having a clue about the structure and direction of the book will help you follow the author’s arguments.

Mark the Book
As you read, use a pen/pencil or highlighter to label key ideas. Though I used to use a highlighter almost exclusively, these days I’m using a pen more. Choose whatever works best for you. Marking the text does at least two things for you:

1. You read more actively with a pen in your hand. Have you ever read a book, gotten to the bottom of a page, and wondered what you just read? You’ve just read passively–your brain mechanically churned through the words (because you learned how to read in first grade, right?) but your mind didn’t process them. If you start with the intention of reading for understanding, expecting to mark up the text, you will read more actively.
2. You’ll find the things you later want to remember. Once you mark up the key ideas or make reference notes in the margin, you can go back to the book later and easily locate those ideas.

You can underline, circle, make vertical lines in the margin, write notes, use different colors–whatever. Note-taking systems are highly personal. Some people use different colored highlighters or pens, some use special symbols. Again, develop a system that works for you. Here are a few of my techniques:

Circle names of authors/titles and other thinkers.

Circle or double-underline main points in a list.

Underline big ideas.

Write references to other ideas/authors, or questions, in the margins and/or back cover.

Use vertical lines in the margin to call attention to long blocks of text.

Summarize the Book
Once you’ve read through the book and marked it up, consider summarizing your main points or transferring key ideas to a notebook or word processing file. The simple of act of writing out those ideas will help you remember them.

I typically use one of two tools at this stage: Journler, a note-taking application for the Mac, or a Moleskine notebook. If you use Windows, Microsoft’s OneNote works well.

Here’s a screen capture of some notes that I made of Dan Miller’s 48 Days to the Work You Love in Journler:

And here’s a spread of notes that I took from Garr Reynolds’ Presentation Zen in my Moleskine:

Own your book, read the introduction, mark it up, and summarize it. Do those things and you’ll get more out of your reading.

Please drop a note in the comments if you have good ideas for better reading or can recommend an application for taking notes.

Filed under: 50 Books, Lifehacks, Reading by Michael