Reading, fast and slow

‘The problem is,’ said the professor, ‘most students read Augustine’s Confessions too fast.’

The problem is, most of us read the important things too fast, and everything else too slowly.

As you know by now, there is more reading at College than you can do, and too little time to do it all. So let’s consider three questions:

• What do we want from a reading?

• When should we read slowly, and when should we read fast?

• How can we read faster and still profit from it?

1. What do we want from a reading?

Well, for a lot of academic reading, you often need only the main ideas. That is, not everything at College should be read in fine detail.

Of course, when you prepare a sermon, exegete a passage, evaluate an historical document, or critically review an article, then you should read the slowly, repeatedly, and meditatively. But even then, you want to start with a global overview – the big picture – and add the details after that.

2. When should we read slowly, and when should we read fast?

Always skim or scan on the first go:

• To see if it is a useful source. (If you are doing research, not every source is valuable.)

• To locate the useful information in it

• To see if you need to look at it in further detail

• To give yourself a general framework to fit the details into. Most detailed reading requires you to read more than once, or at least to build on a framework.

I recommend using a top-down strategy like the SQ3R method to help you do this. Besides, remember the benefits of pre-reading: When you later go on to read the text line-by-line, you will read it faster, understand it better, and retain more. It’s a great investment.

3. How can we read faster and still profit from it?

These are a few basic tips for pre-reading. You will develop your own, but these are some that I consistently use:

Articles and chapters from books:

• An abstract or synopsis – especially helpful in database searches

• Headings

• Sidebars and text boxes

• Any graphics or images

• The introduction and summary, if present

Note: For edited books, the introduction may give a breakdown of what each chapter is about. For academic journals – especially a special issue on a topic – an editorial or introduction will often give this information.

Books:

• Dust jackets, introduction, preface, and table of contents

• A couple book reviews

• And I ask myself: Which chapters do I need? Select carefully.

A note on reading book reviews:

• I frequently search for book reviews on the Library catalogue or on Google. I especially like a few good reviews from academic journals or experts. Reviews are usually just a couple pages long, and:

  • Help me decide if I even want to read it

  • Give me a great orientation to the book

  • Help me read it better and more discerningly

  • For many books, helps me decide which chapters I need and which I can skip.

• But remember, a few good reviews are preparation for reading. They are never a substitute for reading, thinking, or your own scholarship. But they can be a great orientation to a new field or a new book.

• Reviews by experts will often point you to other works on the topic, or point out what is missing in a book.

• Look for reviews by experts, especially in journals. Avoid consumer reviews on public or commercial sites.

For research, start by reading just enough to get you started. Too much irrelevant material will confuse you, misdirect you, and waste valuable time. But get started, and you will soon see what you don’t know. Then you can go back and find that missing information.

For set readings and class preparation, you can cover more territory using these methods:

• Pick your two or three most difficult subjects and prepare for those. If you get more done, that’s a bonus, but prepare for your toughest subjects as often as possible. Prepare for the others as you can.

• Which readings? Well, that depends, but I suggest:

  • As many mandatory readings as possible.

  • Readings that especially interest you.

• Read them in how much detail?:

  • Pre-read for big points. And as often as you can, go on to read for detail. But at least put the big framework in place first. Then you will have a framework to build on when you start class.

  • And be encouraged, even if you can’t read everything: Any preparation is better than none. Any preparation helps you learn better and retain more in class.

Of course, you don’t want to read everything so functionally and heartlessly as this. Recreational reading, devotional reading, great books, tax notices, new recipes, and poetry all demand very different approaches. And much of your academic reading requires multiple readings to get the detail. But not everything.

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