Ideas On How To Read A Book

By Russ Riendeau, Ph.D.

In the interview, the sales professional with 12 years of experience, a man 35 years old, earning $64,000 a year, was asked if he read books on professional selling to improve his skills.

"Nope, I don't read books on selling. I learn by doing," he confidently said.

At that moment, the interview was over. He had just admitted he was not motivated enough or too naive or too arrogant to commit to improving his skills, and evidence of his income suggested his skills were not competitive to secure a larger income.

How would you have to answer the same question posed to this sales professional?

Are you a natural reader? No need to nudge you to grab a book? Always been a part of who you are? Great.

?Are you a grinder reader? You read because you have to, not your natural sport?? Distracted, hard to sit in one spot to read? Impatient with the lack of immediate impact from reading? Take it or leave it, kind of reader? Stay tuned, as learning how to read a book can change the non-reader into a wannabe reader with some strategies one may not have considered.

?There is an art and strategy to reading a book. Regardless of a physical book, ebook, Kindle, the mindset is the same. Grabbing the book, bending the spine and turning to page one may be a nice start to a romance novel, coffee table book or who-dun-it? mystery to avoid spoiling the ending. Yet, when reading a book with the specific purpose; to understand something, confirm/deny impressions, professional development, history, politics, biographies, vetting theories or scientific reviews, the methods of study and intentions of reading are critical to first determine how to get the best out of your time.

?For those of us that love to read, grabbing an armful of books from the library and heading to the beach or your study is a passionate sport. We don’t need to be goaded, shamed or pressured into reading.? And there are others, that read because they are told to read this or that, mandated by work or they need to “kill time” or can’t find something else that will teach them the subject matter other than reading up on the subject. Both these reader archetypes extremes can benefit from understanding the art of preparing to read and the actual process. (Note: This challenge also relates to reading magazines, articles, newspapers, reports, summaries, etc.)

?As a behavioral scientist, I study and write about psychology-related topics around learning, business, neuroscience and selling psychology. The topic of how to read a book is one that we don’t often read about, let alone even consider. Like you, I was never taught or coached from any teacher in my life about learning skills and techniques to enhance my reading abilities. I first took a rapid reading course decades ago and it made a profound impact on my reading speed and comprehension and enhanced my desire to read more. Read faster and I could go out and play faster. Read faster and I could learn more. Read more and I could earn more.

?For business professionals, the ability to capture, absorb and integrate new learning is the best way to add value to your business, add income to your checkbook, add wisdom to your team knowledge and add insight to your overall understanding of your world. Reading is powerful, impactful and life changing.

?Here are some quick tips and strategies to help you read faster, with better comprehension and better retain what you learn. This is not an all-inclusive list but will be a good start to test drive some new habits you’d not considered.

?Questions to ask yourself even before you begin a book:

?·????? Why am I reading this book right now? Pleasure, knowledge, relaxation, business, movement, a change agent, told to read it?

·????? What is my intention to how to use the knowledge I will gain after reading it?

·????? What do I know about the subject already?

·????? What other books have I read on this subject that are similar/conflicting?

·????? Is this a current topic or a re-visited topic?

·????? What do I know about the author’s life, their history, their agenda, their perspective?

·????? Do I trust the author has the credentials to deliver the content accurately?

·????? Will I be expected to summarize this book to someone or a group?

·????? Will I need to write on this topic at a later date?

?Complete a fast review of the book:?

·????How long will the book take to read?

·????? Have I read the back cover, testimonials, and table of contents before starting?

·????? Have I read the author bio and researched more about the author’s work and point of view?

·????? Is the book readable given font size, my reading habits, vision, lighting, time allowed and energy commitments?

·????? ?Can I commit time and energy to starting right now?

?Once you’ve decided to commit to reading the book, here are next? steps:

·????? Expand the book’s spine and let it breath. Thumb all the pages and allow the air to open up the book’s pages to make it easier to read. Feel the weight of the book and the excitement of the words you will read.

·????? Read the “table of contents” first to completely to gain familiar with new terms, common knowledge, and style of author

·????? Read the “glossary of terms” at the back of the book, as this will save hours of time reading by refreshing your vocabulary, as well as reading more with purpose.

·????? Skim the footnotes at the end to see how complex or easy the subject is explained.

·????? Read all the chapter summaries if available before starting the book. This will immediately give you a working knowledge of the book’s energy, insights and useful ideas as you read the rest of the book. (Note: some business books are often so pedantic at the beginning, you can begin reading the book at the half-way point to avoid all the boilerplate info you have already from life experience.)

·????? Remember: If you are not liking this book: it’s boring, confusing, hard to read, you can walk away. Life’s too short to waste time reading something that is not teaching you or giving you joy.

·????? If there are not chapter summaries, consider first reading the first few pages and the last few pages of each chapter or section. This, again, will enhance your awareness and purpose for reading the book and will save you time in sections that are slow or redundant. You will also gain over 50% of the gist of the book in these pages, as the writer needs to capture your attention at the beginning of each chapter and leave you wanting more at the end of the chapter.

·????? If there are pictures, charts, graphs, etc., skim all of these first to gain quick insights to the book’s content.

·????? Now turn each page of the book and scan the page. Don’t read the page but just let your eyes drizzle down the page, seeing fragments, bold words, headings, quotes, phrases. Don’t worry about comprehension, you’re merely engaging your awareness and starting the concentration process your mind needs to engage the subject matter and your attention.

·????? Now decide on how you want to read this book—or you may have just read enough to know you don’t need to read it or you have enough information to move on to a higher level of reading on the subject.

·????? If you’ve decided to commit to the book and based on your early dissection of the book, should you consider reading it from front to back or from back to front? Or perhaps starting at the halfway point? This is an important question and trust your judgement here to how you feel about the subject matter. If you read it back to front, you may find you the content is more useful and you don’t need the early basics of the subject from the beginning. Worst case is you simply start at the front and read it through.

?Reading with a pen or highlighter?

·????? How-to books, business books and the like often have checklists, summaries, graphs, questions, exercises that are helpful to use a pen to write notes or take the quizzes. I often will keep a pen in hand when reading the summaries to jot notes and then ditch the pen when reading the entire book to speed up reading and not get caught up in too much excess time. Bending over the page corners is my go-to way to reclaim ideas after finishing. If it’s your book, this is OK. My librarian wife is not a fan of bending any book page over, regardless of if I own it or even wrote it.

·????? Highlighters are good for prepping to take a test or form formulas and such but reading and highlighting research shows the mind is less apt to remember what you are highlighting because you’re telling the brain “don’t worry about remembering this stuff, I’ll come back later to read it,” so you don’t recall or remember it as easily.

?After reading the book…

?Given the human mind will forgot 70% of what it reads within days, reinforcement of learning is a critical habit of finishing a book. When done with a business book or instructional book, I make it a point to review the book within a week after I’ve read it, should it not become part of my daily review. Reviewing within a week, strengthens memorial recall, gives the mind a chance to review and process more ideas as time has passed and you’ve lived with the ideas.

?Writing a short summary of the book is a good way to reinforce what you’ve learned, as well as writing a friend an email and telling them about the book’s lessons. The teacher learns more as they teach.

?Lastly, I encourage you to keep a list of all the books you read every year. The list helps to recall ideas and learning you’ve forgotten, and in business, you can use this list to share your knowledge with colleagues—even impress managers if you’re looking for a new job to demonstrate your intellectual prowess.

?And of course, I encourage you to re-read this article within a week to anchor the strategies and share this with a reader friend, colleague or your business team for additional value. There are many great books on this subject as well.

?Russ Riendeau’s new book, The Elephant In The Fairway, is available on Amazon Kindle.

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