How I read

in which I try to explain that there is a method to my madness. Plus some strategies on assessing good reading and the reading experience itself.

“Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.”

― Annie Proulx

The 'how to write' posts are a dime a dozen but that's not the case when it comes to 'how to read'. If a prerequisite to becoming a good writer is to be a good reader, it follows that you should have some strategies for becoming good at reading. But what is good anyway? And who defines it? I tried finding articles on how to become good at reading⁠— not the fast-and-furious reading type but the kind that teaches you how to gauge good reading and not because so-and-so said so. My search did not return many promising results so I wrote my personal take on it, plus how the right environment helps in getting the most out of reading experience. 

1. Why a cozy environment can help with the attention span and not make reading feel like a chore 

Before you dive into reading, have decent lighting around so that you don't fall asleep. I say this from the experience of a millennial with the sleeping habits of a 60-year-old. Remember friends that tea or coffee helps get into that flow state quickly. If you're the physical book type, having a highlighter or pen/pencil nearby especially helps in jotting down ideas and questions that spring up your mind. We have all been down the path of oh-I-will-remember-it-later.

Some examples of highlighting and note-taking while reading paperbacks. Excuse the clumsy scribbling. I wrote that one on a train.

Twitter, Reddit and/or Clubhouse- old friends that are nothing but distractors in this particular environment. A study suggests that it can take approximately 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task. Better to log out or just set your phone on airplane mode. Nobody wants a random notification from a family group chat while trying to remember for the millionth time what ‘non sequitur’ means.

2. Dedicating fixed reading time in the routine and committing to it

Setting aside reading time helps with accountability. I’ve found the best timings to be early morning (say if you woke up, God forbid, at 7:00 am on a weekend)  and before bedtime. Music is a very subjective case as ambient music helps some people focus. But for others jamming to music (especially loud music) makes it harder to focus and slows down your reading (for those interested in the latter, Kahneman’s capacity theory of attention talks about this). 

Non-readers in the back, I can almost hear you muttering ain't nobody got time for a 30 min uninterrupted, focused reading. But hear me out. Start with 15 mins and commit. Use an app to keep track of your reading streak, just like you do it for tracking your eating, sleeping or fitness regimens. This will decrease the odds of you cheating or your enthusiasm waning after a few days. An extreme version of accountability would be to inform someone about your goal who you cannot bear to disappoint. Agree to an accountability report with them in the next three months.   

Give the daily, focused reading (min. 15 mins) a minimum of two months which is a decent time frame for a habit to be stick. If you feel like bumping up the reading time before two months, go for it. But beware of setting any ambitious reading time goals from the get go. The goal is to become a marathon runner, not a sprinter in this activity. It is easy to start any good activity- running, cycling or swimming- when you are feeling motivated but committing to it is the hard part (you don't say). 

3. Reading more than one book at any given time

Even the best books and long form content will bore you or make you feel overwhelmed at some point. To circumvent this, have more than one book at hand at any given time so as not to not fall off the rail. Obviously the two books should not be on the same topic. Imagine reading two books on modern monetary theory or innovation stagnation at the same time (Yeah, me neither). Vary the reading flavor regularly and chances are you won't get desensitized. Try switching between some pages of a book, one long form essay/digital article and one newsletter in a day. If you treat the last two types of content as the same category of digital media, take a longer Twitter thread as a third option.

4. Setting time to think about what you have read

I cannot stress this enough. If you set aside 15 mins for reading, make sure you dedicate five mins of processing time after that (for longer reading sessions, bump it up to 10 mins). Go for a walk. Mull over what you just read. Try repeating the writer’s argument in your head. Does it have legs? Think about if you’ve heard this argument before and who was the original proponent of that idea?

If it's a nonfiction topic, see if you can play the devil's advocate. This is even more important when you are reading something you wholeheartedly agree with. Let's say you have strong opinions in favor of abolishing the student debt. Why not read one book or article that is strongly pro and one against that argument to assess its validity. You can always take some time off between reading two books that approach the same topic to avoid boredom but the point is to read on a topic from pro vs against angles to check if your position changes.

5. Reader’s block? Try reading things tangentially related to whatever topic you are reading on

Maybe you can revisit the notes you have taken or read the author's bio. Check what year they published the book. Look into if it's their first book on the topic. Try to pinpoint if you can identify any potential biases. This may sound like sleuthing but actually can be very useful for understanding what were the author’s motivations and what were their life circumstances like when they penned that piece.

It could be that you are not particularly in the armchair detective mode either. Try recalling a favorite sentence from something you recently read. What was the writing style like? Can you identify another writer who has a similar writing style? This may be illuminating to discover what writing style appeals to you.

This feels like extra work but when it comes to ideas, I am reminded of that scene from Inception where De Caprio’s character remarks that an idea is like a virus. Once it takes hold of the brain, it’s almost impossible to eradicate. You shouldn't allow an idea or opinion to have free real estate in your mind without vetting it first. Best to judge it on its merits.

6. How to tell if a writer is omitting information or not telling the whole story?

This one’s tough but watch out for how an author lays out the arguments in a chapter or an article. Highlight the topic sentence and then see if the writer provides convincing supporting arguments. Does the writer seem to fixate on one topic or person when providing examples? Do the examples provided sound like an apples to oranges comparison? Finally, does the supporting evidence blatantly fit one of the rhetorical or logical fallacies? Maybe you don’t have to do all of these but keeping these points in mind would make it easier to judge good writing from not-so-good one.

7. What to do once you have finished reading a book/article/Twitter thread

Once a book is finished, it’s time to assemble the notes- handwritten or digitally highlighted- and do the final vibe check. I do not have a rigid framework for summarizing. Some things I always try to cover in the summary notes are: 

• one sentence summary

• any quotable quotes

• if I learnt a new idea or concept that can be further investigated

• trying to come up with any counter points to the premise of the book

• how the book made me feel overall

For the last point, I go all out on the superlatives. Re-reading some of these notes a few months later, it is the last part that helps me in quick recall of the book’s salient points.

A section of my non-fiction reading list on Notion (the summary notes mentioned in the preceding paragraph go inside each of these cards).

Can these get-good-at-reading strategies be also helpful in writing? Glad you asked. 

• Applying #1 and #2 i.e. environment and reading time will come in handy when you are trying to discipline yourself into writing mode.

• Practicing #3 and #5 i.e. avoiding boredom and reader’s block will help in realizing that writer’s block is normal and you could channel that into doing stuff somewhat related to your writing practice.

• Acting on #4 i.e. reflecting on what you have read will help you later with editing your own work. For example, after finishing writing an article or a book chapter, you can quickly pinpoint if the writing is too clunky, too boring or too repetitive (Maybe someday you can even brag at the top of a brilliantly written article that you don’t have an editor. You were born this way).

• Using #6 i.e. omitting information will aid your editing chops in analyzing supporting arguments

• Following #7 i.e. summarizing will help you in circling back on your main points when wrapping things up.

I’d love to hear what your criteria of good writing is. What is an authoritative piece on your favorite topic that you’d recommend?

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Thank you to Max Nussenbaum, Jenny Kim, Maggie Blaha, Tom Matsuda, Sean Jackson, and Francis Stoner for feedback.