Okay, so we might read books that serve our professional development. But they aren’t designed to challenge you. They’re designed to be consumed and digested during our commute or a single plane trip—this is especially so for most business books.

Now we read to complete the book, as if finishing a book or article is an end in itself. It’s not. Reading is a skill that advances an understanding of yourself and the world around you, challenging you and fostering your growth.

For reading to accomplish these vital tasks, you have to radically alter how you perceive and approach reading. Here are a few guidelines to help transform your experience with books:

1) Seek out books that will challenge your understanding about human nature. An excellent place to start is ancient Greek philosophy with the works of Plato and Aristotle. Even if you’re not interested in philosophy per se, the ancient Greeks set the foundation upon which Western civilization is based, informing virtually every field of study including law, politics, health, psychology, and natural and social sciences.

2) Instead of reading to complete a book, seek answers to specific questions. This will give your reading more purpose and focus.

3) When reading difficult books, first try to understand the author’s central message. Then open an inner dialogue with the author, comparing and critiquing the work based on what you believe (or know) to be true. In reading the Great Books of the Western World, for example, you’re reading a historical progression of ideas. To witness the development of the understanding and challenges man has faced, read with an open mind and appreciate the context of the author’s time period as best as you can.

4) Make reading a priority. Most people claim they don’t have time to read books anymore. If you don’t consciously carve out time blocks for daily reading, who’s responsible for this lack of time? Left unchecked, life’s busyness will rob you of the joys and benefits of serious reading.

5) Highlight and mark up challenging books, taking notes, capturing ideas as you read. If your purpose in reading is to deepen your knowledge and understanding, you need to approach book reading in a more serious, active way.

As I’ve mentioned in prior posts, Adler’s How to Read a Book is an excellent guide to learn the art of reading.

Related posts:

1. Reading with Purpose
2. Reading Categories
3. How to Read a Book

The more knowledgeable we are, the better equipped we become at managing the challenges that lie ahead.

According to this Gallup poll, about half of Americans are reading a book. National averages for book reading continues to decline each year. Our time is fragmented with endless distractions.

So here’s the question: How much time do you invest reading each week?

If your first thought was “not enough” consider this: The quality of your reading time is more important than how many hours you spend reading.

You might be able to plow through one or two nonfiction books each week, but how much valuable information do you retain? What insights have you applied to your life? How have you grown as a consequence of reading each book?

Most of us were never taught how to read a book. We think we’re just supposed to read a book from cover to cover, going from page to page, line to line, word to word.

Reading, for most people, is passive. Do you invest time contemplating the validity of the author’s claims and its implications to the world around you? An active reader does. Effective reading requires active participation of time and energy in the focused execution of study, inquisitive thinking and repetition.

School might be out but learning is our perennial imperative. As our available reading time continues to shrink in the modern world, learning how to read a book effectively is a valuable skill. I know of no better place to start than Mortimer Adler & Charles Van Doren’s classic, How to Read a Book.

Related posts:

1. How to Read a Book
2. Five Strategies to Improve Reading Effectiveness
3. Reading Categories

But we were never taught how to read a book. As elementary as this may sound, effectively reading a nonfiction book is a skill, a critical one we didn’t learn in school. How can we train our minds to read books more effectively? Luckily, we have at our disposal Mortimer Adler & Charles Van Doren’s How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading.

Originally published in 1940, this book is a seminal guide to how to approach reading a book. Incidentally, professor at University of Chicago Mortimer Adler was one of the two editors responsible for formulating the Great Books of the Western World curriculum, so he’s more than qualified to instruct us on how to read.

The book breaks down the four levels of readings: Elementary, Inspectional, Analytical, and Syntopical. (Most of us never really go beyond the first level of elementary reading.) It also provides specific strategies for reading more efficiently as well as how to approach different kinds of reading material like literature, plays, history, science, philosophy, and social science.

Perhaps most importantly, the authors show you how to read critically and analyze a book, learning from the material at a much deeper level. If you read all nonfiction books at the same rate and if you assume you need to read every book from start to finish in a linear fashion, How to Read a Book will transform your ability to learn and read effectively.

Related posts:

1. Do you know how to read a book?
2. Reading Categories
3. Reading with Purpose