11) Use your unconscious mind
An awful lot of thinking and mental processing goes on when you’re not aware of it. Just as with writing or any other creative thought process, full understanding of a book takes time to develop.
The mind, like the body, gets tired, especially when it’s doing just one thing for many hours. Your ability to comprehend and retain what you read drops off dramatically after an hour or so. Therefore, you should read a book in several short sessions of one to two hours apiece, rather than one long marathon.
In between, your unconscious mind will process some of what you’ve read. When you come back for the next session, start by asking yourself what you remember from your previous reading, what you think of it so far, and what you still need to learn.
12) Rehearse, and use multiple modes
Reading is exactly like martial arts, baseball, or cooking in the sense that learning and memory depend crucially on rehearsal. So — after you’ve read the book, rehearse what you’ve learned. Quiz yourself on its contents. Argue with the author. Imagine how you would defend the author’s position in your own writing.
Reading, writing, speaking, listening, and visualizing all engage different parts of the brain. For this reason, the best forms of rehearsal use multiple modes of thinking and action. Don’t just contemplate privately. Instead, talk about the book with others. Bring it up in classes. Write about it. Visualize anything that can be visualized about its contents. All of this helps fix your memory and integrate your new learning into the rest of your knowledge.
Hang in there!
When I give presentations on these ideas, students often tell me a few weeks later that they “tried it a few times and just couldn’t do it,” so they stopped. You will have to practice these techniques for a considerable length of time — at least a few months — before they come to seem natural, and they will never be easier than the comfortable, passive way we’ve all been reading for many years.
The rewards are great. Learning to read this way is a major key to a successful career as a student, scholar, or professional in almost any field.