Inspectional Reading

• Read the cover and preface.
• Read the table of contents, which will give you a feel for the map of the book.
• Understand the language of the book. This means skimming the index. Not only will this give you an idea of the range of topics covered but it will also tell you the other people the book connects to and the jargon used in the book.
• Identify the pivotal points.
• Read the end. Authors generally do a good job summarizing their work in the last few pages. This is where they sum up what they think is most important about their work.
• Listen to an interview or podcast of the author.

Skimming helps you reach a decision point: Does this book deserve more of my time and attention? Why?

Unless you’re reading for entertainment, if you can’t answer that question, you can toss the book.

Mastering intelligent skimming will:

• save you a lot of time because most books are not worth reading
• offer knowledge of the book’s blueprint and contents so you know where to find stuff if you need it in the future
• and improve retention, if you decide to read the book in its entirety because you’ve primed your brain with the contents.

This is used when you’re taking a book that’s notably above your level.

A superficial reading means that you quickly read from start to finish without stopping to ponder the things you don’t understand. The reason this works is that by reading the book from start to finish, you’ll have a great overview of what’s going on. You might only understand 25% of what’s going on but that’s better than nothing. Should you decide to go back and re-read the book, a lot of the things that gave you pause the first time would have been resolved.

Superficial reading is the first step towards analytical reading – that is, understanding and interpreting a book’s contents. If you stop and go over everything you don’t understand on your first reading, you get lost. Sure you finish the book but you’ve lost sight of where you’ve been and where you’ve come.

Inspectional reading should be able to answer the questions, what kind of book is it? what is it about? and what is the structure, or blueprint, of the book “whereby the author develops his conception or understanding of that general subject matter?”