Turbocharge Your Career in the Process
Do you believe that if you read more books, you can turbocharge your career in the process? I do believe that, but it all hinges on reading the right books – and reading enough of them. And when I talk about reading more books, the cheat hack I'm referring to, is not speed reading. I am going to teach you how to cheat at reading more books by reading selectively.
How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading (A Touchstone book)
On the website, Paper Choice, I found a definition for selective reading, “[Selective Reading] is a process of reading with purpose…. Reading with purpose will mean only reading the texts that keep the useful information.” If you read more books selectively, in a year, you will notice that you have read more books than usual, since you are reading with purpose. But you’ll also be more knowledgeable about whatever topic you focused on.
This year, a major focus on The Invisible Mentor blog, is to help my readers learn the 10 key skills needed for future jobs. Therefore, business professionals will be reading more books for professional development. Reading one book on a topic, will not enable you to master it. You need to read five of the best books to do so. I have also mentioned that I am reading books, so that I can craft book summaries to teach you the key skills. I plan to sell these summaries. And I have already read several books on each key skill. Right now, I am cleaning up my notes before I begin any writing the summaries.
There are business professionals, who will not want to buy the book summaries to learn the 10 keys skills, because they want to learn them on their own. I have two ideas for you. The first one is that I plan to do a curated post for each of the 10 skills. So, if you read only one book on the topic, then read all the posts and videos I curated, you stand a good chance of learning each skill. But you have to take the next step by applying what you have learn. That’s the way to master any topic of interest.
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Turbocharge Your Career This Year
Practice Selective Reading to Read More Books
Above, I mentioned that I had two ideas for you to learn the 10 key skills without buying my book summaries when they are ready. Some sales professionals may think this is a huge mistake. But I do not believe that. This year, I am focusing on a world that is filled with abundance – where there is enough for everyone. The second idea is selective reading. I have written on the topic before, but this time around I go deeper into the topic.
I think that the definition of selective reading by Paper Choice, is not good enough for what I am thinking. To me, it sounds like superficial reading, and that will not work when you are trying to learn and master a subject. Before I delve deeper into selective reading, I would like to talk about the 80/20 Rule.
The 80/20 Rule (Pareto Principle)
In the book, The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More with Less, Richard Koch writes,
“What is the 80/20 Principle? The 80/20 Principle tells us that in any population, some things are likely to be much more important than others. A good benchmark or hypothesis is that 80 per cent of results or outputs flow from 20 per cent of causes, and sometimes from a much smaller proportion of powerful forces…. The 80/20 Principle is not a magic formula. Sometimes the relationship between results and causes is closer to 70/30 than to 80/20 or 80/1. But it is very rarely true that 50 per cent of causes lead to 50 per cent of results. The universe is predictably unbalanced. Few things really matter.”
In terms of reading books, my interpretation of the 80/20 Rule, is that if you read 20 percent of a book, you can grasp 80 percent of the content. But the big question, is “Which 20 percent of the book should you read?” And that’s where selective reading comes in.
Now, it’s worth mentioning that I am writing a series of books on reading. The first one is on the Strategic Reading Challenge, which is finished, just needs editing. The second book is on Selective Reading, so I’ve been conducting research on the topic. And the last book is on profiting from the books you read.
The Art of Selective Reading
I have mentioned the book, How to Read a Book
, several times on this blog. But what I am not sure that I have mentioned, is that I am re-reading the book again. I have read the entire book once, and certain sections several times. The book is more like a reference guide. But I believe that if I am going to target this blog, by narrowing the niche, it’s worth the time investment, to read How to Read a Book, in its entirety, once again.
In How to Read a Book, Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren writes that there are four levels of reading. And the book contains important information on how to read a book selectively, while getting the most from the book’s content. And that’s the practice I have in mind for you to read more books.
Cheat at Reading More Books: Four Levels of Reading
Each level of reading builds on the previous one. That means they are cumulative, so you master one level of reading before moving on to the next.
- Elementary Reading: You learn this kind of reading in elementary school. This type of reading is concerned with, “What does the sentence say?”
- Inspectional Reading: The emphasis here is on time. For example, a student has a set amount of time to read and complete assignments before the next class. The goal here is to get the most out of the book in the time you have. Inspectional reading is skimming or pre-reading. You examine the book to find out what it can teach you. You are concerned with the following questions: What is the book about? What is the structure of the book? Or what are its parts? After systematic scanning, you must be able to answer the question, “what kind of book is this?”
- Analytical Reading: This is more complex and systematic than the first two levels of reading. This is a demanding form of reading. It is an intensely active form of reading. When you read a book analytically, you are chewing and digesting the information. It is reading for the sake of understanding.
- Syntopical Reading: This is the most complex form of reading. It's also called comparative reading. When you read syntopically, you read many books in relation to one another, and to the subject they revolve around. When you read syntopically, you are able to construct an analysis of the subject that may not be in any of the books. You’ll add your insights from reading all the books. You may have an aha moment.
After reading the description of each level of reading, you may have recognized it already, but inspectional reading is selective reading. Not every book deserves to be read cover to cover, but certain sections may need detailed reading. When learning the key skills, if you read books that are well-written, that elevate your level of thinking, you may want to combine Inpsectional, Analytical and Syntopical reading.
What this means, is that you are going to first inspect the books before you start reading, to figure out which 20 percent or so of the book you are going to read. Since it’s been said countless times, that to master a book, you have read the five best books on the topic, then the 20 percent or so of each book that you read, you would read in detail. After you have done that, then you will read the books syntopically – that is, read them in relation to each other.
Although it may appear that the process will take much longer, it won’t, it will take only a fraction of the time to read five books. You have to remember that there is often a lot of extraneous information included in every book, that you do not have to read. A lot of times, authors include information because they want to demonstrate their authority on the topic.
Cheat at Reading More Books: How to Read Selectively
There are two types of inspectional reading – systematic skimming or pre-reading, and superficial reading. Systematic skimming is the first level of inspectional reading, and you read this way to discover if the book is worth reading.
How to Skim a Book
- Look at the title, subtitle, preface, or any section that gives you insight into the author’s angle on the topic. This gives you a good overview of the subject.
- Study the Table of Contents. This is the structure of the book. Read it carefully.
- Check the Index quickly to understand the range of topics that the book covers. If something catches your eyes, go to the section and read it. This gives you an understanding of the author’s attitude toward the topic.
- Read the publisher’s blurb about the book. Oftentimes, the author writes this section, and is usually a summary of the main points in the book. At this stage, you may be able to decide if the book is really worth reading.
- Based on your scan of the Table of Contents, look at the chapters that appear to be pivotal to the arguments in the book. You will often find summary statements for a chapter at the beginning and end.
- Turn the pages, dipping into the book. Read a paragraph or two, and even a few pages. Thumb through the books looking for critical information. Read the epilogue and last few pages of the main part of the book. This process takes a few minutes to no more than an hour.
Superficial Reading
To elevate your level of reading, you have to read more difficult books. When you are reading a difficult book, the authors of How to Read a Book recommend that you read the book through once without taking notes, or even trying to understand all of the book. When you finish reading the book, you will grasp some of the book, while some parts will go over your head. After the first reading, write down what you understood and got out of the book.
Final Thoughts on How to Cheat at Reading More Books to Turbocharge Your Career
By practicing selective reading (inspectional reading with elements of analytical and syntopical reading), the way that How to Read a Book recommends, you will be able to read more books this year. Some of the books will only have a few sections that are dedicated to learning the 10 key skills, while others will have most chapters focused on the topic.
But that’s okay, because your reading is cumulative, and will have the compound effect. Therefore, if you read more books for career development, you will turbocharge your career this year. I hope that I have given you some times on how to cheat at reading more books. The cheat hack is to read with purpose and intention.
In other posts, I will write about analytical reading and syntopical reading, which are both important to learning and mastering the best skills for the future.
