My Son’s (Brilliant) Non-Fiction Reading Method
Last week I related to you, dear reader, the conversation I had with my son David on how to efficiently consume non-fiction books.
We were riding down GA400 on our motorcycles when he introduced me to this topic. Here we were traveling a little faster then we should have been going, talking helmet to helmet by Bluetooth. And what were we talking about? How to read non-fiction books even faster. Crazy, right?
After the ride, I wrote a blog post on what I remembered from the conversation. Later David said he had written out his steps, too. He said, “I did the same thing. I’ll send it to you.”
Truth be told, David has the experience, and I am full of theory. He is actually practicing the steps he outlines below.
David’s non-fiction book process
Write initial questions.
Read the table of contents. It shows you where everything is and where you are going.
Read the first and last paragraph of every chapter.
Write down any questions you have after doing so.
Read the introduction and conclusion in full.
Quickly read/scan the book (with a pen) to answer your questions. Underline, write in the margins, answer your questions, and revisit the questions after each chapter.
Extra credit:
Type up the answers to the questions.
Type out any significant quotes you underlined.
Write an overview of the book, putting the most important answers into context and your own plain language. This gives you a chance to consolidate your thoughts.
Write a quick summary—a 30 second explanation, Twitter post, elevator pitch, etc.
Then, figure out what you are going to do with the rest of your week because you should finish and summarize most business books in 2 to 4 hours using this technique. Oh! And your comprehension and retention will likely go up.
30 minutes to 1 hour for steps 1 through 4.
1 to 2 hours for steps 5 and 6
30 minutes to 1 hour for steps 7 through 10.
I hope this helps you save time and speed up learning. There are so many books I am interested in and so little time to read them. I know this will help me.
If you have some suggestions on this topic you want to share with my readers, please write them in the comments section of the website.
Good reading is good learning.