Questions to Ask Before Reading a Book
Twenty questions to run through before you commit to a book: why you are picking it up now, who wrote it and when, what the contents page actually promises, how much attention it will demand, who argues the other side, and what would make you put it down. Most can be answered in ten minutes with the book in your hands.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Why am I picking this up now?
Why ask it
The honest answers vary: curiosity, a problem you are stuck on, a recommendation you feel obliged by, or avoidance of a harder book. Naming it changes how you read, and sometimes tells you to put it back.
Who recommended it, and do we usually want the same things from a book?
Why ask it
A recommendation carries the taste of the person making it. Someone who reads for argument will press a book on you that a reader looking for stories will find dry. The mismatch, not the book, is usually why a recommendation fails.
Who wrote it, and what were they doing before they wrote it?
Why ask it
A practitioner, a journalist and an academic write differently about the same subject: one has cases, one has interviews, one has data and caveats. Knowing which you are holding tells you what kind of claim to trust in it.
When was it written, and does that matter for this subject?
Why ask it
For a novel, rarely. For medicine, technology, law or economics, a decade can invalidate the specifics while leaving the framing useful. Check the copyright page, and check whether you are holding a revised edition or a reprint.
Is this the original work, or someone's book about it?
Why ask it
Popular treatments and summaries are often clearer than the source and sometimes misrepresent it. Decide deliberately which you want, because reading the commentary and believing you have read the original is a common and awkward outcome.
What does the contents page promise?
Why ask it
Chapter titles reveal whether the book is an argument that develops or a set of themes assembled to reach a publishable length. Repetition across the middle chapters usually means one idea stretched, and you can read accordingly.
What does the introduction say the book is for, and does it say who it is not for?
Why ask it
Good introductions state the claim and the limits. If the introduction is all promise and no scope, you are likely reading marketing rather than a description, and the chapters often follow the same pattern.
If I read two pages at random, do I like the sentences?
Why ask it
Prose is the thing you will spend the most hours with, and the opening pages are the most heavily edited in the book. Sampling the middle tells you what the whole is like, and whether you will actually finish it.
Is there one idea here, and could I get it from an article instead?
Why ask it
Many non-fiction books are an essay plus supporting anecdotes. If the core claim is visible from the contents and the conclusion, a long review or interview may give you what you need and free up a week.
How long is it once notes and appendices are taken out?
Why ask it
A stated page count can include a hundred pages of endnotes. Knowing the real reading length lets you plan honestly rather than abandoning it at page 80 with a feeling of failure.
How much attention does this need: something I can read tired, or something for a desk?
Why ask it
Matching a book to the time you actually have is the difference between reading it and carrying it around for a month. A dense book allocated to a commute is usually the one that stalls.
Do I have the background the first chapter assumes?
Why ask it
Skim the first chapter for undefined terms and unexplained references. If several are unfamiliar, you have found a prerequisite, and reading a gentler introduction first is faster than pushing through and retaining nothing.
Am I reading this for pleasure, to learn something, or to have read it?
Why ask it
All three are legitimate, but they call for different approaches. The third one is worth being honest about, because a book read to be seen reading it usually gets abandoned or skimmed and remembered as a duty.
If the book is right, what would I do differently?
Why ask it
For practical books, this is the whole test. If you cannot name one concrete change the argument would imply, either the book is not practical or you are reading it for reassurance rather than for change.
What does the author gain from this conclusion?
Why ask it
A consultant selling a method, an executive writing a memoir, and a researcher defending a career position all have reasons to overstate. This is not a reason to dismiss a book, only a reason to know where to press harder.
Who disagrees with this book, and have I read any of them?
Why ask it
Ten minutes finding a serious critical review will show you the weakest part of the argument before you spend a week absorbing it. If nobody credible disagrees, that is worth knowing too.
What is the evidence made of?
Why ask it
Look at the notes. Interviews, studies, archives, or the author's own experience all lead to different levels of confidence. A book with a long bibliography of other popular books is largely a synthesis, and worth treating as one.
How am I going to remember it?
Why ask it
Margins, a notebook, a summary written after each chapter, or nothing at all. Deciding in advance is what separates a book you can still use in a year from one you know you liked and cannot quote.
When am I actually going to read it, and what am I giving up to do it?
Why ask it
Reading time comes out of something else: another book, an evening, sleep. Naming the trade makes it a choice rather than a source of guilt, and it also surfaces books you want to have read but do not want to read.
What would make me stop, and am I willing to?
Why ask it
Set a condition in advance, a chapter count or a date. Books abandoned deliberately cost you nothing; books abandoned by drift sit on the shelf as an accusation and quietly stop you starting anything else.
Ten minutes with a book before you commit
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
What to look at, in order
Contents page, then the last chapter
The contents show the shape of the argument and the conclusion shows where it lands. Reading the end first spoils very little non-fiction and tells you whether the journey is worth taking.
The index and the notes
Look up two or three things you already know something about and see how they are handled. Then check whether the sources are primary research, journalism, or other popular books. This is the fastest way to gauge depth.
Two pages from the middle
Openings are polished for browsers. A page from chapter six tells you what the prose is like when the author is working, and whether the examples have started repeating.
The author's note or acknowledgements
These often reveal who funded the work, who the intended readership was, and how long it took. That context changes how you read the confident passages.
Match the book to how you will read it
- Dense argument needs a desk, daylight and a pencil. Assigning it to a tired half-hour before sleep is why it will stall.
- Narrative and biography survive interruption well, which makes them better commuting or holiday reading.
- Reference and technical books are usually meant to be used rather than read cover to cover. Read the parts you need and stop feeling guilty about the rest.
- If a book is required for work or study, decide up front which chapters actually matter and read those properly rather than all of it badly.
- Two books on the same subject at once is often faster than one, because each explains what the other assumes.
Keeping what you read
Write three lines when you finish a chapter
The claim, the evidence, and your objection. It takes two minutes and it is the difference between a book you can discuss and a book you can only recommend.
Argue in the margins
Marking where you disagree is more useful later than underlining what sounded good. Agreement is easy to remember; the objection you had at the time is the thing you will want back.
Do one thing before you start the next book
For any practical book, act on a single recommendation immediately. Reading three more books on the subject is the most common way of avoiding the change the first one asked for.
Common mistakes
- Judging a book by its first ten pages, which are written to sell it.
- Reading a summary and remembering it as the original.
- Starting a book you lack the background for, then concluding you are not interested in the subject.
- Finishing a bad book out of obligation to a stranger who wrote it.
- Buying three books on a topic instead of finishing one and acting on it.