Strategies and Systems for Smarter Reading and Better Retention
By: Zen Chan
Tags: Books, Learning, System, How To, Reading

“Reading, like unaided discovery, is learning from an absent teacher. “ — Van Doren, Charles; Mortimer J. Adler.

No one teaches me how to read properly.

Everybody reads — no matter whether it is a book, a medium post, or Social Media. We encountered multiple stages during education that require us to read. But in all of them, no one teaches us about reading books to gain increased understanding.

When I was in school, my first memory of reading was in a classroom with many students. We all said out loud, word-by-word, after the teacher. We then learned the fundamental method to read. That was the slowest and least effective way.

Reading is the best learning.

I am blessed that my secondary school teacher, Miss Ngai, taught and guided me to build the habit of reading. Although she is not here, I know she would be glad that I keep reading.

For me, the most addicting thing about reading is the moment from not knowing the first impression of understanding. I am addicted to learning new things. Lighting up a lightbulb above my head is one of the best things of my daily life.

People who love to learn like me could not be more satisfied than learning how to read more efficiently. It is because reading is the most direct and required no assistance from anyone but yourself.

From my own experience, having a better reading skill is not about how sophisticated your language skills are. Although the language is the barrier, once you have the moderate skill to read, it is a system you can learn and practice.

Learning how to read not only mean reading faster but also have a deeper understanding of the material. By gradually increasing reading skills, you can read books that seemed too challenging in the past.

How to read a book

Image by Mark Rojo from Pixabay

Reading for fun and reading for learning are two different things. In this article, I will focus on reading as a means to gain knowledge instead of entertainment. Books, as silent teachers, can be separated into different levels of reading.

The most important reference is to build a reading system, without question, “How to read a book” by Van Doren, Charles, and Mortimer J. Adler. From this book, you will learn how to create your own reading system to read any book.

The first important concept of learning how to read is through Active Reading instead of a passive one. Passive reading is what we did in the classroom when teachers “reading” the book out loud. Students are required to receive what teachers prepared and digested passively.

Active Reading, on the other hand, is normally done alone. It requires readers to absorb information from the book by asking questions during the time you are on the book. You need to keep track of yourself about the answers to the questions below during the reading journey.

1# What is the book about?

Any book would have a message to be received. The author does not simply write a book to say nothing. For a practical book, the goal should be clear and properly stated at the beginning.

You can further split your answers to be more specific, like “What is this chapter is about?” or “What is this section want to say?”

You can compare your answers to the outline of the author to see if there is any gap. If there are differences between the reader and the author, the follow-up question is why.

2# How is the author trying to prove his/her arguments?

After looking for what the book is about, you need to find the author's supporting arguments. I suggest making notes on the page and highlights the statement sentences.

Proofs could be in the form of assumptions, mathematical equations, or another book or research paper. Finding the proof of a point can help you further analyze if this is true or worth agreeing to.

If you know 1# and 2#, you can easily estimate how well the book is written. A “good book” for you is the one telling exactly what you want to know about and giving you verifiable examples of how to prove the points. The book's statements' consistency can also tell you if the author has a persuasive message to tell.

3# Do you agree with his/her argument, and why?

After you check the author’s arguments' validity does not imply that you should agree with them. But whether you agree or disagree, you should come up with the reasons behind the answers.

As said, a good book answers all your questions by the contents of the book alone. But if you cannot find what you are looking for in the book, there are chances that you may find it from the examples, references, or further readings suggested by the author.

Asking why to yourself keeps you active in reading. It is like attending a lesson without a teacher. Active reading is, in simple terms, a way of asking and finding answers from a book.