Active Reading
It’s the pillar of our reading life.
It’s not a magic pill.
It’s not something you can ‘turn on.’
It’s the frame of mind you adopt upon opening each and every single book.
There, you’re presented with two paths:
You can sit back (not just literally) and let the author lecture you.
Their ideas flow over you like a waterfall, and whatever you catch…
…you catch.
Or, you can take matters into your own hands.
You become the figurative police interrogator -the bad cop with the book at your table.
Here, you’re the master. Instead of being pulled along by the author, you steer the reigns, and all of your engagement is cleverly crafted to serve you.
But why the need for active reading in the first place?
Isn't this all obvious?
Literature is a busy world with many twists and turns.
Add internet gurus to the equation, and you’re left with a foggy picture, full of misconceptions.
One of the most damaging ideas is that reading is a one-way street -a lecture from the author, with you as the clueless student.
Not quite.
It’s more like a game of catch.
Say your friend throws you a ball. You touch, fumble, and drop it to the ground.
Who’s to blame?
Well, it depends. A bad throw never helps, but equally, a sloppy catch could be to blame.
Your reading is the same: two-way.
Sure, the author can serve up a terrible throw.
Untrained writers will lack clarity in their ideas, and will weigh themselves down with clunky words, incoherent sentences and a messy structure. Their unlucky readers will have to stretch to understand the text- that is, if they don’t get bored and drift away.
It’s a fair excuse, but passive readers will fumble the ball, no matter how well it’s thrown.
They’ll miss the author’s point, take everything at face value and fail to reflect on the deeper meaning.
I assume you spend your time on fine works, with at least passable writing, so once the ball is in the air, it’s usually our responsibility to catch it well.
It means:
Staying alert.
Forming links.
Asking questions.
Reading with a purpose.
Plucking the finest ideas.
Applying relevant concepts.
And reflecting.. for more than 5 minutes.
Everything on this list serves active reading.
Sounds like a lot of fuss..
Why not glide through the book free from the worry of all this thinking?
Two rewards make it worth every scrap of effort.
First, you understand more.
I hated when I sank hours and hours into a great book, only to go blank the next day.
“Shit….what did I just read?”
I’d sit in silence, struggling to recall more than a measly one or two ideas from the book.
Nada. Nilch. Nothing.
And if I did manage to pull out some key takeaways, they were like my flashcards back in school: doomed to be forgotten a few days later.
Active reading puts an end to this curse.
By engaging with the text, we break through the surface and begin to understand.
Words spell ideas.
Ideas form connections.
Connections herald wisdom.
Wisdom is the highest end of reading, and this is your ticket there.
Second, you’re able to ‘apply’ more.
I slap the apostrophes there for good reason.
In the self-help guru space, they love to stress the importance of ‘applying’ what you read.
And they’re right…
…at least, in the context of personal development.
Practical books exist to help you make change in the real world, and only then are they truly ‘complete.’
But trying to find ‘lessons’ in the classics is shallow and short-sighted, like hiring an engineer to build an IKEA stool.
Sure, you’ll find inspiration, morals and guidance, but restricting your radar to ‘practical takeaways’ will hold you back from deeper contemplation. If all you learned from Homer’s epic poems was how to be a better communicator in life… you missed the point.
For denser books, ‘applying’ ideas will look different.
It can be as simple as reflection.
It can be to live another life in fiction -to see the character’s struggles, triumphs and dreams.
It can be a flourish of practical advice beyond surface-level self-improvement tips.
It can be for wisdom’s sake.
There’s a time and a place for both types of ‘application’- deep or shallow -and you’re the judge.
Even so, both types have a common thread: action.
Through active reading, you breathe life into the ideas on the page.
Dead words become animate, changing your actions and your perspective of the world as it unfolds around you.
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I hope this fills you with the fire to wake up your reading, but every fire needs to be sustained.
How can you take this principle and use it?
It’s all well and good to use flowery, abstract ideas like ‘active reading,’ but doing it is another story.
There are a few no-fuss steps you can take to reach this end:
First, define your purpose.
Why did you pick up the book?
What are you hoping to find?
Diving into a book without a purpose to fuel you is a slippery slope to passive reading.
Having a goal sets you up for success. You have a north star to guide you -something to orient your reading in a productive direction.
Second, ask questions you wish to answer.
This is the core of active reading, because nobody will answer the door if you never knock.
You’ve got your purpose already, from before.
Now all it takes is forming questions whose answers will fulfill this purpose.
For example, I recently finished Confessions of a Cartel Hitman by Martin Corona, a memoir of the author’s criminal life.
I wanted a change of pace after reading a bunch of Greek tragedies, so here it was.
This book was more on the fun side. At face value, it’s not the most deep or insightful read, but my purpose in reading flipped that around.
I love reading about crime from an anthropology perspective- gang loyalty, status, belonging -all that juicy stuff.
This book was a first-hand account, and no doubt precious for my goals in learning more about the criminal world.
I tailored my questions to serve this goal:
Where can I see examples of cooperation?
How does the gang world differ from us regular folk?
Why do they risk their life for all this?
A 'cheesy' autobiography became a valuable learning opportunity -all because my purpose was defined before I jumped in.
You and I are different, so I won’t pretend like I can answer for your purpose. There’s a million reasons to read, and a billion different questions you could ask.
You’re the boss behind your reading, but I’d still like to offer four basic questions should you wish for a starting point:
What is the book about?
What are the author’s ideas?
What do I do with this knowledge?
To what extent is this true?
(I ripped these off from How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler. As ancient dad wisdom goes: don’t fix what ain’t broke)
Third, form connections to what you already know.
You are the sum of your experience and education -call it...the trunk of your learning life.
Active reading is how you graft new branches to this trunk, building onto an ever growing project. Starting from scratch is impossible in this game.
Everything new is viewed in light of the old -the things you already know.
By forming connections, you see how the author’s ideas fit.
Old perspectives burn away…
…and new ones rise from the ashes.
Gaps are exposed -missing links you must amend. And best of all, your existing knowledge acts as scaffolding to help you pick up new concepts faster.
The more of the puzzle you piece together, the easier it gets to finish.
I love to form connections by linking the notes I write to similar ideas, then reflecting on how they come together to form something unique.
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These are three great starting points to stand up straight, kick your drowsy brain into action and squeeze any book of the insight it’s hiding from you.
Seize control, ask for what you seek, and learn with a renewed vigor!
Happy reading,
Odysseas