Get the Most of the Book Your Read: Part 1

There are 4 levels of reading. Levels are a better term than any other like kind or type for kinds would mean that they are distinct and autonomous. As for levels, they imply that the higher levels include the lesser ones. Levels is a term that implies that they are cumulative and that the first level is kept in the second, the second is not lost in the third and fourth.

The Elementary Reading (or rudimentary reading, basic or initial reading)

We go from non-literacy to beginning of literacy. It is necessary at this level to acquire the rudiments of the art of reading, to receive basic training in reading and acquire initial reading skills. The skills for this level are acquired in Elementary school hence our choice of this name for it. It is usually for children and their first encounter with reading. It is about recognizing the individual words on the page or the board. At this stage, we are concerned with identifying actual words which precede understanding them and perceiving what they mean. The question asked to the reader here is: WHAT DOES THE SENTENCE SAY?

Inspectional Reading

Inspectional reading is characterized by its concern about time. It is about reading some materials within an allotted time span, ex: 10 minutes to read 2 pages. It is about getting the most out of a book within a given time, usually too short to get out of the book everything that could be gotten. The technique used is PRE-READING or SKIMMING: it consists in casual or random browsing through a book. The aim of this level: examine the “surface” of the book, learn everything that surface can teach. The typical question here is WHAT IS THE BOOK ABOUT? WHAT IS THE STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK? WHAT ARE ITS PARTS? etc. The reader must be able to answer the question: WHAT KIND OF BOOK/TEXT IS IT: a novel, a history, a book on humanities, etc. Attitudes people who ignore this level have: they start reading a book without reading about author, title, table of content. They start on page one and work through it. As a consequence they achieve a superficial knowledge of the book. A Skimming will help you find if the book is useful, what parts of it are useful as not everything will be useful to you as a reader.

Analytical Reading

It is a more complex and a more systematic activity than levels 1 and 2. It makes more demands/efforts on reader. It is thorough, complete reading, or good reading. The main difference here is that there is no time limit like in Inspectional reading. It is the best and most complete reading that is possible given unlimited time, the exact opposite of Inspectional which is the best and most complete reading possible given a limited time. It is here that the reader must make the content of the book his. Francis Bacon had rightly said: “some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” ( Adler & Doren 1972: 19) Analytical reading is chewing and digesting. If your goal is simply information or entertainment, then analytical reading will be necessary. Analytical reading is preeminently for the sake understanding. This stage of reading is necessary to bring your mind from understanding less to understanding more.

Syntopical Reading

The highest level but also the most complex and systematic type of reading. It makes very heavy demands on the reader; this does not mean that the materials to be read are particularly difficult themselves. Other names for this level are: comparative reading. Reading syntopically is about placing the one book we are reading in the relation to others read and to a subject about which they all revolve. It does not consist in mere comparison. It can construct an analysis of the subject that may not be in any of the books. It is therefore the most active and effortful kind of reading.

INSPECTIONAL READING

To do inspectional reading involves that you can effectively read on the elementary level. That is why we say that levels of reading are cumulative. Here you must be able to read a text without having to stop to look up the meaning of many words, and without stumbling over grammar and syntax. The reader at this stage must be able to make sense of a majority of the sentences
and paragraphs. There are two types of Inspectional reading which are aspects of a single skill when you become a regular reader. For a beginner, it is advised to consider them as two different steps or activities. For what concerns us (university level) the experienced reader learns to perform both steps simultaneously.

Step 1

Systematic skimming or Pre-reading: We assume two elements in the situation: we do not know yet anything about the book (we do not know whether we want to read it or not, whether it deserves an analytical reading) You have a vague sense that it does or contains both information and insights that would be valuable to you and that you only have a limited time in
which to find all this out. First sublevel of inspectional reading: skim or pre-read the book. This tells you if the book
requires a more careful reading. Some suggestions of how to do it.

1. Look at the title page and if the book has one, at its preface. Read each quickly. Note especially the subtitles or other indications.
2. Study the table of contents to have a general sense of the book’s structure.
3. Check the index
4. Read the publisher’s blurb (which usually consists of a summary of the book,information about author, opinions about the book, etc)
5. Look at chapters that seem pivotal to the argument: very often they have summary statements in their opening or closing pages.
6. Turn pages, dipping in here and there. Reading a paragraph or two, sometimes several pages in sequence, not more than that. After these steps you should know if the book has some interest for you after a few minutes. As we see, this is a very active sort of reading.

Step 2

Superficial reading: In reading a difficult book for the first time, read it through without ever stopping to look up or ponder the things you do not understand right away. Pay attention to what you can understand and do not be stopped by what you cannot immediately grasp. Concentrate on what you understand. Don’t get undeterred by the paragraphs, footnotes, comments and references you not understand. What you understand now, no matter how small it is, will help you when you go back to parts you did not understand on the first reading. Even if you do not go back, understanding half of a really tough book is much better than not understanding it at all (which will be thecase if you allow yourself to be stopped by the first difficult passage you come to.) We were told to pay attention to things we did not understand, to go to dictionaries for unfamiliar words, encyclopedia, to consult footnotes, scholarly commentaries, etc. When these things are done prematurely, they only impede our reading, instead of helping it. If you look up all the strange words in a glossary and footnotes, you will miss the pleasure that comes from reading interesting books like Shakespear’s Hamlet, Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel, etc. For those courageous enough to read through by using this way, by the time you are at the end, you have forgotten the beginning and lost sight of the whole. All these steps must be taken rapidly. Today films for eyes movements are presented as the solution to problem of reading. If they cut down reading speed, films are different from reading. Unlike the eye, the mind can grasp a sentence or even a paragraph at glance - if only the eyes will provide it with the information it needs.

NB: Some people use reading as a sedative (sleeping pills). If this is you are goal, there are several rules which it will be useless for us to deal with. I f your aim is to profit from the read as is the case here, to grow in mind and spirit – you have to keep awake which is the same with reading as actively as possible == making an effort for which you expect to be repaid.