People have different interests and that difference shows up even in the interest of reading. Some people prefer reading nonfiction others prefer Sci-Fi, Fantasy, self-help, or even studying textbooks for other purposes. We are presenting you some tips, and tricks to get the most benefit out of reading books.
1. General Tips
1.1 How to Choose a Book?
- There are infinite number of books in different genres as fiction, or nonfiction books, so you should know your taste on reading before you actually buy a book. Others’ thoughts and opinions regarding some books doesn’t mean that the book is worth reading it because some people life fantasy books, and others can’t stand them. You should decide whether you need emotional touching stories, mysterious cases, real cases, or even super characters! Is there certain point of view you want to explore, or know more about it?
- There are too many fictional books unlike nonfiction books, which are historical, or biographical ones. Decide if you want to learn the story behind the success of famous people, or do you want to improve the creativity of your mind by opening new ways upon your thinking through exploring several fictional stories, which some of them has an effective story behind it. The topic of the book, which meets your interest, doesn’t mean you will like it, because the way the book was written plays an important role on who satisfied you will be after you finish reading the book. You can try reading the first two pages of the book to see whether you will like the style of the author, or you won’t be interested reading it.
- Visit your local library, and get an advice from the librarian through telling him your interest, and you can explore the books you want without having to pay for reading them. The librarian might guide you to some areas in the library where you can find books for your interest.
- You can get advices from friends, and relatives for recommendations, and you can ask them about detailed feedback on the style of the author, and the plot too.
- Surf the internet, and find some reviews about the book you want to get, and it will be a great way to discover several thoughts from different people. There are some websites specialized in providing reviews for the books through real readers, but you can also find readers reviews through retail sites.
- Try to read in a book club where most of book clubs focus on specific genre of book like Sci-Fi, or mystery while some of them are more general.
1.2 Buy The Book You Are Interested in
- Check books in library since you can freely explore them, and it is so easy to have a library membership.
- You can buy the book you want in a bookstore, newsstand, or ordering it online.
- Some friends, or relatives will be glad to share their books with you if you will be finishing, and keeping their quality good.
- You can use eBooks through e-readers, tablets, or smartphones. The soft copy of a book is usually lower in price than hardcopy. However, it is not easy to bring electronic books with you on camping trips, or long vacations.
1.3 Start Actual Reading
- Prepare a suitable environment for reading with suitable lighting, and comfort seating.
- It is up to you to read the front material of a book or not. The from material is usually the acknowledgment, foreword, preface or an introduction, which all of them are about thanking supportive people, presenting it to someone or giving a brief introduction about the content of the book.
- Similar to front materials, the end materials are optional to read and they are most probably found in essays or academic editions.
1.4 Keep Pace
- You never have to finish reading a book in one sitting, so have a bookmark beside you to be prepared for reading the book over periods.
2. Reading Poems or Essays
- Quickly look at the table of contents and the index, which contains the keywords of the text while the table of contents contains the content of the text with page numbers according to chapters.
- You can jump to different chapters as you like, and you don’t have to read the full text, which some parts might not match your interest.
- You will enjoy reading if you don’t go through the regular linear style of reading, but just read the parts you are interested at and keep track of what you are reading.
- Feel free to use a pencil on your book to highlight important sentences or to write notes.
3. How to Read Textbooks
- Textbooks are a perfect source of well-presented information on several topics and you have to have a notepad beside you while you read. Read a chapter first then stop to write notes about and then at the end of the reading session, you will have your own piece of paper containing the information you have gathered.
- Textbooks, unlike other books, are usually read through chapters and you don’t have to read every single chapter, but just those related to the reason of reading.
- Start reading textbooks really, because it takes much time and of course you are reading them preparing for your course.
