Some notes derived from https://fs.blog/how-to-read-a-book/
If you don’t learn the last two levels, you’ll go through life like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.
This doesn’t mean that everything should be read the same way. It shouldn’t. Why you are reading should match how you are reading. Your level of effort needs to match the importance of the material. If you read a romance novel and legal document the same way, you’re in for a life of misery.
This is the level of reading taught in our elementary schools. If you’re reading this website, you already know how.
Some people think skimming and reading quickly is a bad idea. It’s not. The point of a quick skim is to determine if the book is worth reading deeply in the first place. Most are not.
There are two kinds of inspectional reading:
At this point, you have the main idea. Often, that’s enough. Think about all the pop-psychology books. Simply skimming the introduction gives you 90% of the value.
Inspectional reading gives you the structure and an overview of the author’s arguments and opinions. Because you didn’t read deeply, you won’t understand all the nuances, but you’ll get the gist. Most times, you can stop right here. Put the book down and go on to the next one. But sometimes, you’ll want to know more about the book.
Francis Bacon once remarked, “some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” You can think of analytical reading as doing that chewing and digesting. This is the real work of reading. If inspectional reading is the best you can do quickly, analytical reading is the best you can do with time. At this point, you start to engage your mind and do the work required to understand what’s being said. I recommend writing in your book and using our Blank Sheet notetaking method.
There are four rules to Analytical Reading
You’ll probably notice that while those sound pretty easy, they involve a lot of work. Luckily, the inspectional reading you did earlier has primed you for this and made it easier. If you are reading to understand, you need to integrate the ideas into your head. You do the work of digesting the material and making it your own. Done correctly, this helps you understand the book. That does not mean, however, that you understand the broader subject. You can’t simply read one book or article and claim to be an expert. If you really want to master the subject, you need to dive into the subject entirely reading multiple books and comparing and contrasting them. That’s where syntopical reading comes in.
Syntopical reading is the most demanding and challenging reading of all. Reading to master something involves reading many books on the same subject and comparing and contrasting ideas, vocabulary, and arguments. To do this, you must identify relevant passages, translate terminology, define the issues, explore issues through multiple lenses, and frame questions that need answering. The goal is not to achieve an overall understanding of any particular book but rather to understand the broader subject and develop deep fluency. Doing this means identifying and filling in your blind spots about the subject,
When reading to master something, there are four keys to keep in mind
To enhance your reading, Adler recommends various note-taking techniques:
The demanding reader asks the right questions and seeks answers.
There are four main questions you need to ask of every book:
Last modified 15 September 2025