Having a clear question in mind or a topic you're focusing on can make all the difference in helping you to remember and recall information. While this can be as easy as defining a subject to look into beforehand, if time is no object <a href="http://productivity.stackexchange.com/questions/8638/what-methods-can-i-undertake-to-ensure-i-get-the-most-possible-information-fro">here's how to effectively "hack" your brain </a>into being impressed with the subject matter:

Question to start reading

Understanding how to get the most out of your time reading starts with understanding why we remember things at all, and then figuring out the best way to use that information. Without purpose and intention, the ideas sparked while reading easily slip away. Learning to hold onto them means understanding how our memory works. For the purposes of reading retention, we can think of our memory as being basically <a href="http://www.oldandsold.com/articles06/memory-17.shtml">made up of three components </a>: When you're impressed by something, there's a <a href="http://www.spring.org.uk/2014/08/how-to-learn-anything-better-by-tweaking-your-mindset.php">much higher probability </a>that you'll remember it. This could mean a phrase or quote that catches you off guard or changes the way you think about a certain topic. Or an interesting fact that you'll want to teach someone later on.

Read with intention impress someone

Warren Buffett, who <a href="https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/05/the-buffett-formula-how-to-get-smarter/">says he spends 80% of his time </a>reading and writing, attributes a huge amount of his success to a single book: The Intelligent Investor , by his mentor Benjamin Graham. For Malcolm Gladwell, it was Richard Nisbett's The Person and the Situation <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/books/review/malcolm-gladwell-by-the-book.html">that inspired his string </a>of New York Times bestselling books. These are what economist Tyler Cowen calls " <a href="http://ryanholiday.net/quake-reading/">quake books </a>"-pieces of writing that are so powerful they shake up your entire worldview.

Reading to teach

As author and avid reader <a href="http://ryanholiday.net/how-to-read-more-a-lot-more/">Ryan Holiday explains </a>: "Whatever problem you're struggling with is probably addressed in some book somewhere written by someone a lot smarter than you." Every story has been experienced, recorded, and published by someone at some point in time. Beyond just stories, books provide life lessons-a set of proven theories and anecdotes that you can apply to your own life. So there's the why of reading, but what about the how ? Too often we get through a book, flip the last page, sit back, and think, "What the hell did I just read?" Reading and being able to use what you've read are completely different things.

Draw from others experience through reading

A random sampling of the world's most successful people will show one common trait: a love of reading. Reading is the easiest way to <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201401/reading-fiction-improves-brain-connectivity-and-function">continue the learning process </a>, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/oct/08/literary-fiction-improves-empathy-study">increase empathy </a>, <a href="http://www.sparringmind.com/creative-thinking/">boost creativity </a>, and even just <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ibCtsHgz3Y">unwind from a long day </a>. But books can also change the way we think and live.

Benefit of reading

A random sampling of the world's most successful people will show one common trait: a love of reading. Reading is the easiest way to continue the learning process, increase empathy, boost creativity, and even just unwind from a long day. But books can also change the way we think and live.

Question to start reading

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