Remember Anything

In the previous article we mentioned that you might want to read slow if you are reading for enjoyment.  When you are reading for enjoyment, you don’t really care how much you remember of the book.  You are reading because it is fun.  You are reading in much the same way you would watch television.  When you read to learn, you are reading for a purpose.  The basic problem most people have is that they don’t know the difference.

The basic reading skill all students need is the skill of “Active Reading.”  Active reading gives you a purpose.  It helps you ask questions as you read and, as a result, you learn more.

Therefore, the very first thing you should do when you start to read a book is to get familiar with it.  This involves at least three steps.

t, review the table of contents.  So often when we read a book, we start at the first chapter with no idea where the author is going until we get to the end of the book.  Or if the author has put the book together well you might have some clue by the end of the first chapter.  Why not find out before you ever start reading?  That’s what the table of contents is for.  It tells you exactly where the author is going and in what order he is going to cover the various topics.  Think of it as a road map for the book, not as filler for the binder.

Second, review the inside front cover, flaps, and back cover.  If you were going to listen to a lecture, you would expect to get to know the teacher a bit before you got going with the lecture.  In fact one of the benefits to a lecture is that you get a better sense of the personality of the teacher which gives you some sense as to what he means as he is teaching.

In a book, you loose some of that interaction.  Many times you don’t figure out the personality of the author until the end of the book.  Sometimes you don’t even figure it out then.  But, the cover material gives you some of that missing information.  It tells you something about the history of the person presenting the information.  What makes him an expert in the subject matter.  What other books he’s written.  Maybe even a bit about his family.  It may seem like fluff,  but, you need that information in order to connect with what the author is saying.  Often you will be able to link something he states in the book back to the history of the author that was given in the cover material.

Finally, it helps to read the preface.  This is especially true if the preface was written by the author himself.  Often the preface tells you why the book was written and what, specifically, the author hope you get out of it.  This gives you a sense as to where the author is going.  But, even if it doesn’t give you this information, the preface is valuable because it helps you get familiar with the author’s style before you get into the meat of the book.

Following these three steps will get you well on your way to understanding the mind set of the author, giving you questions you want the book to answer, keeping you on the look out for specific information and turning you into an active, rather than passive, reader.

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