Reading smarter

• Turn interesting ideas into actionable takeaways section that can actually change your life. Limit these to 10 takeaways only, keep what’s important
• Keep the goodreads-style reviews in an impressions section, where you can jot down what you think of the writing style, the ideas being discussed
• Have a quotes section to preserve quotes as is, to reference in presentations and when talking about the text
• Finally, a bonus section to preserve formulas, questions and exercises that are normally found in self-help books

How to read (Mortimer Adler)

• Four levels of reading:
  1. Elementary reading
  2. Inspectional reading - systematic skimming and superficial reading. Gives the gist of things
  3. Analytical reading - chewing and digesting. Thorough reading.
     1. Classify the book according to kind and subject matter
     2. State what the whole book is about with the utmost brevity
     3. Enumerate its major parts in their order and relation, and outline these parts as you have outlined the whole
     4. Define the problem or problems the author is trying to solve (thesis)
  4. Syntopical reading - comparative reading. Not about overall understanding of a particular book, but to develop fluency of the subject.\
     1. Find the relevant passages
     2. Bring the author to terms
     3. Get the questions clear
     4. Define the issues
     5. Analyze the discussion

Related: how to remember more from books you read - better humans