Thread by @rroudt

You can learn from any book.

Start by skimming, then dive in, before going down the rabbit hole of a topic. Keep the three reading stages in mind, and you'll learn something in every reading session.

🧵 Prefer tweets? See my essay in the thread.

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”

—Francis Bacon

You can learn from any book, but that doesn't mean you should.

To make the most use of your time, you need to know what parts of a book are useful—if any. Learn to judge a book by more than its cover.

In the classic and aptly titled work How to Read a Book, we can find the different reading stages.

Know when and how to apply them, and you'll learn something in every reading session.

Apart from elementary reading, these are the levels:

• Inspectional reading
• Analytical reading
• Syntopical reading

Inspectional reading.

You should start every book by skimming it. Look at the headings, pictures, and try to pinpoint the author's blueprint of the book. After this reading stage, you decide if and what to read. Now you're tasting.

Analytical reading.

If you decide to read the book carefully, you should dig deeper— classify the type of book, figure out the core message, connect the ideas, and pinpoint the problem the author is trying to solve. Now you're swallowing the book.

Syntopical reading.

Reading widely about a topic is the deepest level of reading. By turning the language of different authors into your own words, you get a deeper understanding of the topic. At this stage, you chew and digest.

These steps look simple, but they progressively take more effort.

Instead of directly plunging in, use your time wisely by moving from one stage to the next.