• Stages of Learning (seems similar to the three perspectives method)
  • Grammar (foundation/understanding)
    • Read in chronological order
    • Reading a single book
      • Write down the title and chapter
      • Read the title, back cover copy, and the table of contents
      • Don’t read the preface
      • Read without stopping
        • Dog-ear confusing passages
      • Take notes of anything that strikes you
        • Annotate!
        • But not EXTENSIVE notes
      • Summarize at the end of each section
        • What was the most important point?
        • If you could only remember one thing, what would it be?
      • Look at your chapter notes
        • Write reactions to the summarizations
      • Make an outline with the chapter summaries
      • Rename the book with a way too descriptive title and subtitle
        • Example: “The Pilgrim’s progress from this world to that which is to come: Delivered under the similitude of a dream, wherein is discovered of his setting out, his dangerous journey, and a safe arrival”
  • Logic (critical thinking/evaluating/inquiry)
    • Re-read any difficult sections and their summaries
      • Identify
        • How author summarizes it
        • The main argument
    • Why did the author write this book?
      • To present facts?
      • To convince?
      • For the emotional experience?
    • Did the write succeed in their goal? Why or why not?
  • Rhetoric (opinions)
    • So what?
    • Are you convinced? Why or why not?
    • (47) “The good reader bases his opinion on intelligent analysis, not mere reaction.”
    • Should have a reading buddy
      • Online criticisms
      • Book clubs
      • Professors
    • Socratic dialogue using quotes as your answers
• Study one subject at a time
• Read in the morning rather than the evening
• Start small: 30 min a day for 4 days a week
• Don’t check e-mail before reading
• Guard your reading time
• Thinking and reflection is better than production
• Choosing to read over working is a meaningful dissent
• “Information washes over us like a sea, and recedes without leaving its traces behind.”
• Having scaffolding/foundations makes it easier to learn and read faster (like priming)
• Z pattern reading: looking for keywords
• Have commonplace book (but with musings)
• “Education is… self-realization. He who is seeking to know himself, should be ever seeking himself in external things, and by so doing will he be best able to find, and explore his inmost light.”
• Every week, summarize what you have learned
• (42) “reading doesn’t necessarily reflect on your mental ability”
• Reading process
  • Understand the structure and argument
  • Evaluate the assertions
  • Form an opinion
• Literature is history, it reflects the society of the time.
• (52) “Some books speak to us at one time of life.”
• Attempt each book.

Summaries

Chapter 4

There are three stages: the logic stage (read and understand the gist of a book), the inquiry stage (get to the root of why the author wrote the book and why they wrote it in that way), and the rhetoric stage (whether or not the author convinced you of the book’s purpose).