How I Read

I read badly for most of my life. I got through books, but I couldn’t tell you a month later what was actually in them — not the argument, not the examples, nothing that would change how I thought about anything. I was completing books rather than reading them.

The thing that fixed it was embarrassingly simple: I started reading more slowly, and I started reading some things twice.

The two-read rule

For anything I actually want to understand — not just survey — I read it twice. The first read is for orientation: what’s the shape of this? What’s the central claim? Where does it get interesting? I don’t take notes on the first read. I’m just getting the map.

The second read is slower. This is when I argue. I read with a pencil and I mark things I agree with, things I’m skeptical of, and things I want to think about more. I write in the margins. Not summaries — questions.

This doubles the time, which means I read fewer books. That turned out to be fine. I’d rather genuinely understand four books than have skimmed twelve.

On articles

Articles I read once and fast. Most of them don’t deserve a second pass. The test I use: did this give me a new way to see something, or did it just tell me something I already suspected? If the latter, I close the tab and forget it. If the former, I write a note — not a summary of the article, but the thing it made me think.

What I’m still figuring out

My marginalia habit is good but my synthesis habit is weak. I have a lot of marked-up books and not enough threads connecting them. That’s the next thing to work on.