How To Be A Better Reader

In a recent video, I talked about how to read more books. But I want to shift the focus a little bit because I would argue that there's something even more

valuable to you as a reader and perhaps as a person, and that is your ability to read well. Quantity isn't always

read well. Quantity isn't always quality. And you could read for several

quality. And you could read for several hours a day every day, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to understand or connect with the heart and

soul of what an author or a book is really saying. I'm reminded of Donna

really saying. I'm reminded of Donna Tart's novel, The Secret History. Uh,

one of the characters, Julian Morrow, he said something like, "It's better to know one book intimately than to know a hundred superficially." I believe in

hundred superficially." I believe in that, uh, at least in spirit. And I

believe that becoming a better reader is a worthwhile pursuit. So today I want to shift the focus from how you can read more to how you can read better. You

know, people have a lot of different ideas about what it means to be a good reader or a better reader. You know, for me, it has nothing to do with being able

to read faster. And a lot of people will also tell you that to be a good reader, you have to read the really hard and really challenging books. Now,

challenging yourself matters, of course.

Uh, and as you grow as a reader, you'll naturally gravitate toward, you know, more demanding books, but becoming a good reader usually happens by working with material that's just beyond your

current level. You know, challenging

current level. You know, challenging enough to stretch you a little bit, but not so difficult that comprehension becomes a problem. reading extremely

hard books tends to be what skilled readers can handle, you know, after they've developed the necessary vocabulary or or the the attention or the processing ability. You know, in

that sense, reading very difficult books is more often the outcome of having strong reading skills rather than the primary method for building them. So,

when you boil it down, being a good reader is primarily about three different things. It's about

different things. It's about understanding more. It's about

understanding more. It's about remembering more and then being able to do these two things flexibly across different kinds of texts.

Now, another thing that you'll often hear people say is that you can build reading comprehension skills just by reading lots of books. And there are grains of truth to that. The more you

read, the more vocabulary you absorb, uh the more familiar you become with how sentences and stories tend to work. But

there's a limit to how far just simple exposure will take you. You know, it helps, sure, but it helps slowly. And

that kind of undirected practice mostly improves comprehension in a sort of broad or general way. But one thing that can really accelerate your progress is deliberate focused practice. We have

decades of research showing that when you focus on specific reading skills, uh things like summarizing or uh noticing how a text is organized or, you know,

making inferences, uh your comprehension improves and it improves more quickly.

And this holds true for adults or more developed readers as well. So my first suggestion is not just that you practice, but that you practice in a way that'll help you isolate those cognitive

processes. Now, to help with this, for

processes. Now, to help with this, for most people, I would recommend How to Read a Book by Adler and Van Doran. Uh,

this is a classic. Uh, for me, it was assigned reading when I was an undergraduate, but honestly, I would recommend it for anyone, whether you're a student or a serious reader or or even

a casual reader. If you're interested in improving your reading comprehension, then this is a great resource. In a way, it it kind of reads like a manual for active and intentional reading. The main

gist of this is that reading isn't just one skill. It's really a set of uh

one skill. It's really a set of uh progressively deeper levels of cognitive processing. So they structure the whole

processing. So they structure the whole book around these levels. There's four

of them altogether. And uh each has its own goals and uh its own techniques. And

there's a lot here also for both fiction and non-fiction. It's a really fantastic

and non-fiction. It's a really fantastic resource. I can't recommend it enough.

resource. I can't recommend it enough.

You know, making notes is probably the most effective thing you can do for remembering what you read. However, it's

only going to help when you do something new with the information. Simply copying

over sentences, word for word, that's not really going to move the needle. You

need to uh transform the text in some way. For example, you could write a

way. For example, you could write a basic one-page summary for each chapter or or maybe for the whole story, you know, whenever you're finished. a really

small and simple thing to do, but memory strengthens when you have to reconstruct the story and the characters in your own mind. Uh, other things you could do is

mind. Uh, other things you could do is maybe restate an idea from the book in your own words or you could uh jot down a a quick reaction or you could pose questions about what you're reading. You

know, make inferences. You know, those moments of mental effort are what's going to make the story stick. And the

same is true for underlining and highlighting. I mean, don't get me

highlighting. I mean, don't get me wrong, I underline, too. There's nothing

wrong with that. But on its own, that kind of passive marking has a surprisingly small effect on long-term memory. So, if you do mark or highlight

memory. So, if you do mark or highlight something on a page, follow it up with a brief note in the margin or or even some kind of simple that you've designated in

advance to kind of note something that's meaningful, uh, an asterisk or a question mark. anything that leaves a

question mark. anything that leaves a breadcrumb trail for your mind to return to later. But keep it simple. You want

to later. But keep it simple. You want

to still enjoy reading without uh making it feel like homework. You're not making a full study guide. You you just want a visible record of your thinking. Now,

another thing that you can do uh that has really nothing to do with note-taking, but another thing that you can do is uh spread your reading out across several different sessions

instead of trying to cram it all into a single long session. And when you do this, you're taking advantage of what psychologists call the spacing effect.

Uh it sounds a little counterintuitive, but actually a little forgetting between sessions is actually good for memory because, you know, each time you return to the book, your brain has to

reconstruct the ideas. It has to reconstruct the characters and kind of rebuild the world. And that act of rebuilding is what makes the memory

stick. So, if you're like me and you

stick. So, if you're like me and you actually enjoy reading during these really long and uninterrupted sessions, uh try to take a break once in a while.

You know, get some air, make some coffee, make some tea, just spend a few moments reflecting on what you've read.

Uh even brief spaced out sessions create stronger, more durable understanding than one giant push.

You know, different types of books make different demands on your attention. Uh

you don't read a poem the same way that you read a mystery novel. And you

wouldn't read philosophy the same way you would say a memoir. And even within fiction, you know, a plot-driven thriller asks for something very different than say, you know, Tony

Morrison or Virginia Wolf. One of the easiest ways to start practicing this is simply to notice what kind of text you're reading and then let that shape your approach. For example, with uh

your approach. For example, with uh plotheavy fiction, you might focus on maybe tracking events or character motivations. You know, what do people

motivations. You know, what do people want? You know, what do they fear? What

want? You know, what do they fear? What

do they choose? With literary fiction, your attention might shift toward language or theme or symbolism. And then

with non-fiction, you might look for structure. How arguments are built, how

structure. How arguments are built, how evidence is organized, or what problem is the author trying to solve. I

mentioned how to read a book earlier.

Not only is this a great resource for the kind of focus practice I mentioned already, but it's also an excellent guide for helping you understand these different types of books. For example,

how to read practical books, how to read imaginative literature, reading stories, plays, and poems, how to read history, how to read science and mathematics, how to read philosophy, how to read social

science. This is a wonderful guide for

science. This is a wonderful guide for how to navigate all of those different kinds of books. I can't recommend it enough. And it's great because it does

enough. And it's great because it does get easier. You know, over time, your

get easier. You know, over time, your brain begins to recognize these patterns automatically. You know, when you

automatically. You know, when you encounter a dense passage, you'll naturally slow down. Or when you hit a familiar genre, you'll pick up cues more

quickly. When the writing gets abstract

quickly. When the writing gets abstract or or philosophical, you'll instinctively switch to a more critical or reflective mode. Ultimately, being a

flexible reader is about awareness. you

know, awareness of the text, awareness of your thinking, uh, an awareness of when to lean in and when to slow down, or maybe when to simply just let the

book just kind of wash over you. It's

not about reading harder books, you know, just for the sake of it. It's

about becoming a reader who can meet any book on its own terms, you know, and that's when reading becomes not only easier but richer and deeper and far

more rewarding.