Reading levels
- Reading to Entertain - The level of reading taught in our elementary schools.
- Reading to Inform - A superficial read. You skim, dive in and out, get a feel for the book, and get the gist.
- Reading to Understand - The real workhorse of reading. This is a thorough reading where you chew on things and digest them.
- Reading to Master - If you just read one book on a topic, odds are you have a lot of blind spots in your knowledge. Synoptical reading is reading various books and articles on the same topic, finding and evaluating the contradictions, and forming an opinion.
Tip
Reading takes effort. Choosing where and how to apply that effort makes the difference.
Reading and notes
There are three steps to effectively taking notes while reading:
- At the end of each chapter write a few bullet points that summarise what you’ve read and make it personal if you can, apply it to something in your life. Also, note any unanswered questions. When you’re done the book, put it down for a week.
- Pick up the book again and go through all your notes. Most of these will be garbage but there will be lots you want to remember. Write the good stuff on the inside cover of the book along with a page number.
- Copy out the excerpts by hand or make it digital.
References
- How to take smart notes - personal note
- youtube.com/video "You are not stupid: How to learn difficult things with Obsidian"
- youtube.com/video "Become A Reading TITAN With The Four Reading Levels"
- youtube.com/playlist "Reading megaclass"
- dev.to/blog "Master the art of retaining knowledge"