How To Be A Demanding Reader

1. Must read as actively as possible if you want to profit from your reading
1. Good books deserve this kind of reading
3. Even if the book to be read is worthy, many of us fail in our reading plans because we do not know how to be demanding readers (I know I have this issue!)
4. Prescription for active reading: ask yourself ?'s while you read that you have to answer during your reading
   A.  what is the book about as a whole?
   B.  what is being said in detail and how?
   C.  is the book true in whole or part?
   D.  what of it?

5.  Must get into the habit of asking and answering these ?'s as you read, this is the mark of a demanding reader
6.  Must be able to answer them acurately, that is the art of reading

"Good books are not over your head"

7.  To fully own a book you make yourself a part of it, by writing in it!

~only recently have I allowed myself this freedom.  I like to keep my books in perfect condition.  Anyone else struggle with this?~

8.  Why is writing/marking in a book important to achieve our goal as an active, engaged reader?
   A.  keeps you awake
   B.  active reading is thinking and thinking tends to be expressed in words or writing
   C.  writing things down helps you remember them

"Reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author"

Some ways to mark your books
  1.  underlining major points, forceful statements
  2.  vertical lines in margin to emphasize a statement already underlined or a passage to long for underlining.
  3.  star, asterisk or other mark in margin, use sparingly, to makr the 10-12 most important passages in the book, could fold corners down *What??, gasp!*
  4.  numbers in margin, sequence of points author made
  5.  #'s of other pages in margin to indicate where author has made similar or contradictory statments.  "RT" = refer to
  6.  circling of key words or phrases
  7.  notes in margin, top or bottom of page to record ?'s or thoughts

~blank pages at the back of a book is for notetaking?  did anyone else know this? 

9.  Three kinds of notemaking
  A.  inspectional-answer the ?'s "what kind of book is it?  "what is it about?" make notes on contents page or title page, these notes will concern the structure of the book.  Called structural note making.
  B.  conceptual-author's and your own ideas as they've been broadend by the reading of the book.
  C.  dialectical-notes on the shape of the discussion that is happening w/ all the authors of several books that you are reading of the same subject.

Analytical reader is thinking about her own thoughts, and a person who does this will learn to be a much better reader.