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On Reading Books in 2 Hours
January 16th, 2009 by James GrantDemian Farnworth suggests four easy steps:
1. Determine your reading goal. Superficial? Inspectional? Analytical? All you really want to learn are the principles behind making ideas stick.
2. Skim the table of contents. The first 6 chapters of the book cover the principles. You’ve also got an Epilogue, Acknowledgments, Notes and the Index.
3. Determine what you have to read. According to your goal, all you really have to read are the first 6 chapters.
4. Break the chapters down into time blocks. Since you only have 2 hours, spend only 20 minutes per chapter.
Read his whole post. [HT: WTS Books]
Posted in Reading | 2 Comments »
January 16th, 2009 at 11:46 am
I find good writers give you a sense of what the paragraph is about in the first sentence. I read the first sentence and then decide if it’s worth continuing. This allows me to read numerous Puritan works in one evening!
January 16th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
I took a speed reading course sometime back. It is completely different, but has the same result as far as understanding a book. This was extremely helpful for me. Except that I realized the books that I read are either stories where I paint a picture and develop what characters sound/look like or they are books that cause me to think about big concepts. I use my skills when I am reviewing a technical book at work or taking a class, but not much else. Sure I can remember it better, but I don’t enjoy it as much.