Reading styles

[DogwoodTree]

Do you ever read a book backwards? I'm not talking about reading in Hebrew or some other language that is designed to go right to left instead of left to right. But like...I pick up a book about a topic I'm interested in, I check the Table of Contents, flip through the book, read through some at the end to see what conclusions the author comes to, then start digging back toward the front of the book to see how he got there. Sometimes that's enough and I don't need to read the book from the front. Other times, I'll dig in from the front (maybe skip the first chapter) and read it more carefully...if it's good.

I don't do this with every book. But I'm especially likely to use this approach if I want to quickly absorb the information or decide whether to give the book more of my time. Needless to say, I don't do this with a fiction book...but I don't read storybooks very often anyway.

For me, this is the biggest advantage to shopping in a bookstore rather than shopping online! But I shop online more because it's so much more convenient...

 

[King_Oni]

It highly depends on the book and subject matter.

While I don't read fiction as much either, most books I read don't have a conclusion in the end and might be more suited to learn from. Though I suppose, going through the TOC in the back does help out to see if the book is worth getting into.

 

[Judge]

Sometimes. The more familiar I am with the subject matter the more likely for me to skip around through the pages not in numerical order.

 

[Ylva]

ToC reading is among my hobbies.

From there I tend to go to the chapters with the most interesting titles, and then read the chapters those chapters reference specifically (eg "I will go more in depth about this in chapter six > I go read chapter six).

If it is an introduction to something, or a beginner's book, I will tend to read each chapter in sequence but only the parts of them that tell me something new.

 

[clg114]

Most of the books that I read are technical manuals, so I only read the part I need. I haven't read a novel in years, but I do read a lot. I spend a couple of hours reading the paper every morning and countless hours online, researching whatever has my attention at the time.

 

[icesyckel]

I prefer to read in the most logical order. Reading a TOC and skipping around can make sense for reference materials. However, with fictional materials, I would not usually do this.

 

[May Black]

I pick random books to read by opening them in the middle and reading a paragraph. If I like it. I'll buy the book. Once I start reading, I read from the beginning to the end, although if I really enjoy the book, I might get too curious and skim through the ending. I have really hard time stopping to read when I get into it, I've pulled all-nighters reading novels in the past.

 

[Persevero]

I might do this the second time around. In the series "A Song of Ice and Fire", for example, the second time around I wanted to make sure I got the timeline of all the important characters straight.

Sometimes a character is introduced in passing and you don't really understand who (s)he is and what's their importance until you're almost done with the book.

For the few research-based books I read I tend to just jump to the chapters that seem the most interesting, yeah

 

[icesyckel]

Charting a specific character's timeline in ASOIAF can be done more efficiently using a wiki of ice and fire than flipping through the pages of any of the books, lol (all of which I have read cover to cover, btw).

 

[Persevero]

It's more fun to do my own research (in fiction) than have other people do it for me

 

[tree]

DogwoodTree
Now I remember where I learned that technique.
The SQ3R method of approaching reading material.
Survey, Question, Read, Review, Recite......
Grade school? I think we learned that then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQ3R

 

[DogwoodTree]

Grade school? I think we learned that then.

I don't remember ever being taught to read a book this way that I described earlier...it's just what makes the most sense to me, when I want to get the meat of the book as quickly as possible without having to wade through all the details.

I do remember being taught that SQ3R method, though (there's no way I would've remembered the name of it on my own!). It's still more of a front-to-back reading (even though the first time through, it's at a very high level), and it still requires pretty detailed reading of the material. It works great for reading assignments in school (like when reading a textbook). I've bookmarked the page for further research, thanks!

 

[Beverly]

I do that, scan for what interests me most, or what I need to know if it's research, then, after I get the key information, I will, if it holds my interest, go back and read the details. I see no point in wasting time being bored if the key points are not interesting, well stated and, well written.