A method to madness: Getting most out of what you read.
Sometimes it happens, you’ve finished reading a book after some effort and put it aside in your ‘Finished reading’ list (Which is still eclipsed by the sheer volume in your ‘To be read’ list). But, after a few weeks, you cannot seem to recall anything significant about it. You know you read it, but haven’t the faintest to show for it. If someone asks, what is the name of the protagonist, even that might confound you. It did to me.
With millions of books already published, and countless new ones coming out every year, I have already resigned to the possibility that, even given a lifetime, the total number I can consume is a minute subset. (That is not an exaggeration; The wizards at Google estimate there are approximately 1.3 billion books published in the world. And, for a typical human living 80 years, they’d have to read 1.8 million each year, for every day of your life to finish them. Yeah, not happening)
Final verdict, there is less time read, let alone reread, for us to then also forget what we once read. Which is probably why, some veteran bibliophiles of lore, postulate that one has to find the small number of books that deeply affects them, and then reread these countless times. But that is neither here nor there, and we have communed to determine how to improve our meagre talents in reading, while making best use of the most precious resource in our life.
Each person approaches reading differently. Some read for leisure, others for academia, yet others for self-improvement, and quite a few to find meaning in life. There is no ‘one size fit all’ method for effective reading. At least in my humble opinion. So what I shall try to do, is explain how I go about with the process of reading, and hope you gain some insights which can then be applied on your own. Shall we begin?
Designing a reading routine (Pre/ Current/ Post)
Humans are creatures of habit. An average office worker, (living in a world not ‘plagued’ by the God of pestilence) wakes up, grooms, gets dressed, has breakfast, gets in his/ her car and drives through traffic to punch into the same cubicle every day of the working week. Most would’ve noticed how, on certain days, you go from waking up to reaching the office while not remembering how you went through all the intermediate steps.
This is because our brains love to automate things. Automated routines consume less of our precious cognitive processing power, reserving them for future use. In simpler terms this means setting up a routine/ habit makes it easier for our minds to get into a task.
Reading too involves getting into a certain mindset, which requires focus and comprehension, with a smidgen of subconscious mapping of connections. It Helps then, if you devise a set of steps which cues your mind to the fact that you are preparing to engage in the task of reading; much like a countdown timer & horn primes race car driven to put pedal to their metal.
I like to divide this routine into three parts which serve better comprehension, recall and internalization. These are the
- Pre-reading Routine.
- Routine while reading.
- Post-reading Routine.
If you wish, to give it a more aesthetic appeal; you may call them the reading rituals.
The pre-reading Routine/ Ritual
Articulating your intentions:
Very few people start reading a book with no purpose. Even if someone who picked out a random title from the local bookstore something about that particular book caught your attention. Might be because it was placed in the Best seller section; Or maybe it had an eye-catching cover; or maybe you heard someone mention it in passing. Whatever the reason, try and write it down or articulate it.
E.g.1 I’m about to read War & Peace by Tolstoy, because everyone and their mother says it’s the defining literary masterpiece of our generation. So I want to know for myself if it is worth all the effort.
E.g.2 I watched the Lord of the rings movies and now want to read the books to see if they are as magnificent as the movies.
E.g.3 My friend would not shut up about how Atomic Habits by James Clear changed her life and wants me to read it as well. So for her sake, I want to give it a try.
It’s a simple thing, but having a vague notion of something in your mind, and actually putting that notion down in concrete words makes a gulf of difference as to how you approach a book.
Doing some research about the book:
Before starting you can search resources online which tell you about the book. Just make sure they don’t spoil too much or take away from the actual experience. These can be articles or blog posts along the lines of ’10 Reasons you should read War & Peace’ or ‘Why every student must read Shakespeare’s Macbeth’. In this day and age you can also find video essays which discuss several well known classics.
Or you can use the old ways, and ask someone who has read the book, their thoughts and opinions. Some books also have a historical context surrounding their publication. For example, ‘Man’s search for meaning by Victor Frankl’ is one of the most influential books of the 20th century. It consists mostly of Frankl’s own ordeals in a Nazi concentration camp during WWII and the lessons he came to learn from them. While it is not strictly necessary to know of these events while reading the book (it does expound on them), doing so makes the reading experiences more engaging and fruitful.
E.g. I got to know about Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s magnum opus ‘One hundred years of Solitude’ from a Ted-Ed video which did an excellent job of getting me hooked. Reading the book opened up to me the world of Latin American literature in all its glory.
Designing your reading space.
There is no doubt to the fact that reading is an activity which requires some amount of mental focus. Which is not to say it is an activity which induces fatigue, quite the opposite. Reading before bed is often cited as a relaxing activity for better sleep.
But whether you are reading for leisure or for school/work it helps to have a dedicated environment from where you can engage in the activity. This can be a comfy couch with a soft pillow, your bed, or sitting behind a desk. Hell, if your environment allows it, go out and find a nice spot in the park or beach, under the shade. With cool winds, cackling of birds and susurration of the waves. Which is what I try and do on weekends; go to read by the ocean shores. It can add some flavor to your pursuit.
Generally I read at my desk, and most of what I read are eBooks. If you can read on a phone, or have a dedicated E-reader device, good for you. Sometimes it feels better to have a physical book on hand with its new smell, and running your fingers through the coarseness of the pages.
Whatever the medium, try and design your environment for focus & better comprehension. This can mean having the right elevation of chair, right kind of pillows, setting the mood with some ambient music, being in a closed room where no one can disturb you, any number of things.
As for me, I usually have a pitcher of black tea/coffee at arms reach. If mood permits, there will be either Ambient noises or Instrumental music playing in my ears. For the purpose of Reading, lyrical music is often distracting. You can find your own flavor, there are several playlists present on the internet, such as Murakami’s Jazz collections.
To further facilitate me getting into the right mindset, I have a pet cue; Light an incense stick before sitting down to read. This whole thing works in a manner similar to the warm up routine or pre game rituals which athletes engage in to get into the game mindset.
The final preparation before beginning, is to have ready a pen & paper, or for the more technically adept, note taking app. For longer books, which require reading across several days or weeks, you can use a tool like google docs for extensive note taking.
With all these preparations complete, we are now ready to start
At the time of reading proper:
Follow a reading pace which suits you
There are resources online which prescribe the best methods to start reading. Some suggest initial skimming through the titles and then reading in depth; Others tell you to read from any portion you want to, Yet others to read from page 1 to end, including the preface.
Not much I want to share here; do what is comfortable for you. Oh, and there is no set speed or number of pages/ words which you need to finish per hour or day; there is no set milestone. Reading is a marathon, not a sprint, it is not about who is faster. The pace is what you set it.
And you need to set a pace. While all of us want to read for 5–6 hours straight, reality doesn’t always comply. It is recommended to read at most 20–30 minutes in a stretch, with 5–15 minutes break in between reading sessions. The famous Pomodoro Technique. Again, this would depend on your individual reading capabilities.
It also helps to set reading goals for the day. Hardcore readers like Warren Buffet recommend reading 500 page per day, which might work for him, not so much for the average person. On good days I set for a much manageable goal of 50 pages or so, over multiple sessions. But, if you want to read just 10 pages daily, that is entirely your decision. Reading even one page a day, properly, would put you ahead of the crowd.
Take Notes
There are bound to be portions of a book which you find interesting, or perhaps baffle you. Whatever they are, try and take note of them. This can be a well written dialogue, Character development, scenes and plot points which caught your eye. You can also write down your thoughts about how events are unfolding in a certain part of the story, when, say, a character says or does something which goes against your expectations.
In regards to non-fiction titles, in the same manner, jot down key ideas and concepts, preferably in your own words, which makes recollection easier. This can be done at the end of each chapter to keep the thread of the overall narrative and to understand what the author is trying to communicate to us.
For my personal use, I like to create subheadings, such as ‘Notable Prose’, ‘Dramatis personae’, ‘Thoughts’, ‘Themes’, which then get populated as I get through the book. Note taking also allows you, as the reader, to take an active participation in the activity, working in a manner similar to the articulation listed earlier.
The Post-reading Activities
Once you have finished, try to write a synopsis of the plot, or in case of nonfiction titles, the key concepts. This summarization allows you to neatly close the narrative and get some closure for that part of the process.
Now skim through your notes and pick out those parts which stand out. Spent some time cogitating why they appeal to you and what you learned from the whole book.
Write a review of the book:
If you are up for it, try a hand at writing a review for the book. Make it comprehensive even. Note down the themes and motifs which stood out, the particular style of writing, parts which you liked/ hated, interesting characters, text & subtext, anything. It can also be how some portions of the book made you reminisce about things from your own past and life.
Write it and share this review online, through a blog or in discussion forums, so that you can get the views of other readers. Go to online websites such as Cliff Notes or SparkNotes, where you can find extensive resources which delve in depth into the book, its themes and characters. Go through them, and identify what you learned, and what you missed.
Keep the Book aside:
Now you have completed a proper acquaintance with the book, a so-called first date if you may. After some days, perhaps during the weekends, revisit what all you had written down about the book, try to recall how you felt when you read certain parts, analyze if new connections emerged where previously there were none.
For additional understanding, you can follow the metadata concerning the author themselves. Interviews and lectures given by them, in regards to this book, or writing in general. Scholarly publications expounding the virtues of the literature, anything, as long as you have the time and interest. Not all books would have extensive metadata surrounding them.
Note: There are mountains worth of reviews, analysis and thought pieces as to why War & Peace is a modern masterpiece; but the same cannot be expected for the more esoteric/ niche genres.
Bonus Activity:
Relevant for fiction/ literary titles. Pick a scene or portion of the story, or the story as a whole; parts which you felt could’ve been written better/ different. Using the same characters and setting, rewrite it in your own words. I.e. for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, what if Sirius Black didn’t die? How would the narrative change? At the expense of wandering into the territory or parody/ fanfiction, this activity would allow us to see firsthand how a certain event in the narrative shaped those which came afterwards.
Closing Thoughts
As mentioned at the beginning, this is merely my method for gaining a better experience for the books I read. Most people tend to read for leisure and don’t need/ want to go into deep understanding of a book. They just want to chillax, destress and pass some time.
Some just want to know if Miranda & Ferdinand end up together at the end of ‘The Tempest’. They don’t care about what Shakespeare hoped to symbolize by the grotesque Caliban being a slave to the sorcerer Prospero.
For you my friends, nothing more is needed but lay back, pick up a book and start reading. For reading is one of those activities which is a reward in itself.
