How to be a BETTER Reader
Welcome to Part 3 in my series on How to Become a Better and More Discerning Reader. In Part 1 I shared how this series came to be and previewed the series on books and reading. In Part 2, I shared some thoughts on reading ebooks versus hard copies of books. Both have many merits and there are advantages and disadvantages to each mode of reading books.
Today I share some best practices on how to read BETTER. I polled 13 different friends on their reading habits and best practices and share those today in Part 3 of this series. Some of the practices suggested by one friend might contradict the advice another friend provided. I combed through their feedback and today I provide the best of all of the great feedback I received.
1. Top answer on the board: Always read with a pen/highlighter in hand. Be ready to highlight, underline, or write notes in the margins of your book or in your Kindle/reading app.
Along those lines, some suggested having some paper, notebook or a note taking app on your device nearby so you could take notes/record what you’re learning.
Personally, I like to use either the last page of a chapter I finish to summarize the chapter, or the inside cover of a book to take notes from the whole book. This make it easy to find my highlights whenever I am looking for them.
Review highlighted/underlined material and develop book notes from your materials.
Some use Evernote or OneNote for taking notes and compiling book notes/highlights. Use the dictate function of your phone to load notes into Evernote. This doesn’t disrupt your flow of reading, but you’ll need to make sure you check dictation for accuracy.
You can either summarize the author’s thoughts in your own words (which increases your understanding since it forces you to summarize) or you can copy verbatim sentences to help preserve the thoughts and voice of the author.
The idea of taking notes falls under the premise that we read to learn and grow, not just to consume content. We need more application, not information.
Note: Kindle notes are automatically captured when you highlight and underline in your Kindle books. You can easily transfer your notes from Kindle/Amazon to Word or Evernote. Michael Hyatt wrote a post on transferring notes from your Kindle into Evernote.
Why should I take notes? Taking notes:
Reinforces key ideas.
Allows me to go back and familiarize myself with the material later on.
Forces me to be active, not just a passive reader. The more you interact with a book, the more you will remember and apply what you’re reading.
At a minimum, try to pair down to at least 3-5 takeaways for each book you read. This helps remind you of what you learned and helps easily communicate to others highlights and takeaways. When you read something you really like, share it/use it as soon as possible. The more I teach it, the more it sticks
2. Read with others. This helps hold you accountable to read, provides discipleship opportunities, helps you learn from others when they take notes, gives you different perspectives on the same chapter, and helps you better apply what you learn when you discuss the contents of a book or chapter.
For example, I read the book What He Must Be:... If He Marries My Daughter with a group of 20 other guys. Every week we had to come to the discussion with two questions and two main takeaways. This led to great discussion every week and a great set of book notes when we finished the book.
Another suggestion: When I read the book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, each member of the group was asked to be ready to lead discussion every week. We picked a name out of a hat every week, so you never knew if you were going to lead but you were always ready to go in case your name was picked.
Kristen and I enjoy reading books with our community group. We have some built in accountability and group discussion times helps reinforce what we’re learning as we read.
3. Read different types of books for different reasons and in different ways. I love this suggestion. Most of the readers on this blog are Christians, and I know that’s probably the most read genre among my readers. But, be free and enjoy books from all kinds of genres. I know I do!
4. Read one book at a time, or read several books at one time. There are two schools of thought here.
One friend’s suggestion: "Immerse yourself in one book. Success in reading is retaining what you've read. Dive in and read your book in a relatively short period of time; perhaps a week or two at the most. Don't allow it to drag on. Most of the books that have impacted me were books I read in big chunks and short periods of time."
My suggestion/practice: I read 6-10 different books at any time and jump back and forth between them depending on the mood I’m in and what I want to read. It’s very rare that I read one book from cover to cover without reading several other books at the same time. I like having some light books in my current collection for those times when I want a light, mindless read.
5. Some like reading with music in the background, especially music without lyrics (i.e. as found on Spotify)
6. Eliminate distractions and figure out the time of the day you best read. For example, I love to read at night, but I usually fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, so night time reading does not work well for me.
7. Several people suggested reading the book How to Read a Book. I read this book my first year of seminary and I definitely didn’t love it (or even like it). But many people do love this book. It helps teach you how to start reading more regularly, what to look for whenever you start a book, and helps you discern how to read different types/genres of books.
8. Slightly off topic, but still relevant: How to read blogs. There is so much noise out there in the blog world and I suggest some way to help you cut back/pair down through all the noise. A few suggestions:
Learn how to scan headlines for articles that interest you.
Use Reeder or Feedly to subscribe to multiple blogs and to help you quickly scan through blog posts.
Check out something like the Weekend Reader. This weekly email drills down deep on a different topic every week and provides a set of articles to read related to the topic of the week.
9. Bonus thought: Just read… readers are leaders and leaders are readers. Model this for your kids. TV, internet, games, devices all pull for their attention. Books are different. They will do what they see you do. Model it for them. It’s OK to bribe them or reward them for reading! (i.e. ice cream).
Thank you to John Cox, Ryan Nixon, Adam Tarnow, Rob Barry, Preston Hagaman, Garrett Raburn, Brett Bradshaw, Jeff Ward, Greg Crooks, Joe Daly, Kevin Cook, Luke Friesen, and Beau Fournet for their outstanding contributions to this post and series!
In Part 4 I will discuss how to choose what to read next. There are so many good choices of books (And, at the same time, so many bad ones). How do you decide what book(s) to read next?
Your Turn:
What other reading best practices would you share for other readers?
What do you do to help you read BETTER instead of just reading more?