There is a difference between reading for understanding and reading for information.

A useful heuristic: Anything easily digested is reading for information.

That means you’re reading for information. It means you’re likely to parrot an opinion that isn’t yours as if you had done the work.

“Marking a book is literally an experience of your differences or agreements with the author. It is the highest respect you can pay him.”

— Edgar Allen Poe

If it doesn’t hurt, you’re not learning. You need to find writers who are more knowledgeable on a particular subject than yourself. By narrowing the gap between the author and yourself, you get smarter.

Elementary Reading
Inspectional Reading
Analytical Reading
Syntopical Reading

The goal of reading determines how you read.

Inspectional reading allows us to look at the author’s blueprint and evaluate the merits of a deeper reading experience.

Skimming helps you reach to a decision point: Does this book deserve more of my time and attention? If not, you put it down.

Francis Bacon once remarked, “some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”

Analytical reading is a thorough reading.

I highly recommend you use marginalia to converse with the author.

Syntopical Reading involves reading many books on the same subject and comparing and contrasting ideas, vocabulary, and arguments.

The goal is not to achieve an overall understanding of any particular book, but rather to understand the subject and develop a deep fluency.

Reading is all about asking the right questions in the right order and seeking answers.

There are four main questions you need to ask of every book:

What is this book about?
What is being said in detail, and how?
Is this book true in whole or in part?
What of it?