Questions to Ask When Reading a Book
Questions to hold in mind while reading, and to work through once you have finished. They apply to fiction and to nonfiction, and they suit a book club as well as reading alone.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Why did I pick this up, and what do I want from it?
Why ask it
Answering this in a sentence changes how you read: a book chosen for pleasure and a book chosen to settle an argument deserve different attention. It also exposes the common case where the honest answer is that someone else said you should read it.
What does the author assume I already believe?
Why ask it
Every book is written for a particular reader, and the assumptions are usually in the first chapter and never stated again. Spotting them tells you whether you are the intended audience, and which parts of the argument are simply being taken as given.
What is the claim, or the story, in one sentence?
Why ask it
If you cannot do this by a third of the way in, either the book is badly organized or you are reading passively. Try it aloud, because the sentence that sounds vague when spoken is one you have not actually understood.
What do the first ten pages tell me about how to read the rest?
Why ask it
Openings signal pace, difficulty and how much the author will explain, and they usually establish the pattern the book will follow. Rereading them once you are a hundred pages in is one of the cheapest ways to get more out of a book.
Am I still reading this out of interest, or out of obligation?
Why ask it
Worth asking around page fifty and again at the halfway point. Finishing a book you stopped caring about costs you the next one, and the reading habit is damaged more by grinding through than by abandoning.
Whose point of view am I getting, and who does not get to speak?
Why ask it
The absences are the informative part: the characters with no interior life, the people described only in aggregate, the interviews nobody conducted. Noting who is missing is the single most useful reading habit for both fiction and reporting.
What is the evidence here, and what would have changed the conclusion?
Why ask it
Ask this of nonfiction chapter by chapter, since a persuasive book can rest on very little. Be alert to argument carried entirely by anecdote, and to studies described without a number attached.
Where did I stop paying attention, and why?
Why ask it
The pages you skimmed are data. Sometimes the writing failed, sometimes the material was familiar, and sometimes you were avoiding something the book was getting at, and the three feel identical while it is happening.
Which sentence did I go back and read again?
Why ask it
The reread sentence is the one doing the work, whether because it is well made or because it says something you did not want to accept. Collecting these as you go leaves you with a record far more useful than a summary.
What do I disagree with, and can I state their case better than they did?
Why ask it
Restating the argument well is the test of whether you have understood it or only reacted to it. If your version of their position sounds obviously stupid, you are arguing with something you invented.
What is the strongest objection the author never answers?
Why ask it
Most books address the easy objections and leave one significant gap, often in a chapter that changes subject quickly. Naming that gap is how you read a persuasive book without being merely persuaded by it.
What is this book actually about, underneath its subject?
Why ask it
A book about a shipwreck may be about incompetent authority, and a management book may be about the author's regrets. The gap between subject and preoccupation is where most of the interesting material sits.
When was this written, and what did the author not know yet?
Why ask it
Publication date explains confident predictions, absent technologies and attitudes that now read badly. It also protects you from dismissing a book for lacking information nobody had at the time.
What does this book expect me to have already read?
Why ask it
Unexplained references, a name used as shorthand, an argument treated as settled: these mark the conversation the book is joining. Following two or three of them is often more valuable than finishing the book itself.
What would this look like if the opposite were true?
Why ask it
A useful test for any strong thesis, and it works on novels too. If you cannot describe what evidence would have contradicted the author, the claim may not be the kind that can be wrong.
What is the author anxious about?
Why ask it
Writers overexplain the point they fear will be rejected and return repeatedly to the objection that worries them. Noticing the repetition shows you where they feel least secure, which is usually the hinge of the whole book.
If I put this down for a month, what would still be with me?
Why ask it
Almost nobody retains the structure of a book, so the honest answer is two or three images or ideas. Writing those down at the end is what turns reading into something you can use months later.
Has this changed anything I do, or only what I say?
Why ask it
The most demanding question in the list, and the one that separates books that were absorbed from books that were merely enjoyed. Applied to nonfiction, it usually exposes how little of it survives contact with a normal week.
Who should read this, and who should not?
Why ask it
Naming the second group is what makes a recommendation trustworthy, and it forces you to be specific about what the book is good at. A book you can recommend to anyone is one you probably have not thought about carefully.
What would I ask the author that the book leaves unanswered?
Why ask it
Good books leave a clear question rather than a general admiration. If nothing comes to mind, that may be the most accurate verdict you can give.
Reading with more attention
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
How to read this way without ruining it
Ask two questions, not twenty
Interrogating every page turns reading into work and you will stop. Pick one question for while you read, usually about point of view or evidence, and one for after you finish.
Mark, do not summarize, as you go
A dog-eared page or a line in the margin costs nothing and keeps you moving. Do the thinking at the end of a chapter or the end of the book, when you can see what mattered.
Keep a single page of notes per book
Three or four quotations, one sentence on what it argued, and one on what you disagreed with. A page you will actually reread beats detailed notes you never open again.
Give yourself permission to stop
Fifty pages, or a hundred for something demanding, is a fair trial. Abandoning a book is not a failure of discipline, and the reader who stops freely finishes more books than the one who does not.
Which questions suit which book
Nonfiction and argument
- 1What is the claim, or the story, in one sentence?
- 2What is the evidence here, and what would have changed the conclusion?
- 3What is the strongest objection the author never answers?
- 4Has this changed anything I do, or only what I say?
Fiction
- 1Whose point of view am I getting, and who does not get to speak?
- 2Which sentence did I go back and read again?
- 3What is this book actually about, underneath its subject?
- 4If I put this down for a month, what would still be with me?
A book club, where everyone has finished
- 1Where did I stop paying attention, and why?
- 2What do I disagree with, and can I state their case better than they did?
- 3Who should read this, and who should not?
- 4What would I ask the author that the book leaves unanswered?
What gets in the way
Reading for the verdict
Deciding early whether you agree turns the rest of the book into evidence gathering. Hold the judgment until the end and you will notice the parts that complicate your first reaction.
Mistaking highlighting for understanding
A heavily highlighted book often means passive reading, since recognition feels like comprehension. Try closing the book at the end of a chapter and saying what it argued before marking anything.
Only reading books that confirm you
Recommendation systems and friends both narrow the range. One book a year that you expect to disagree with does more for your reading than three that flatter it.
Treating difficulty as depth
Some books are hard because the material is hard, and some are hard because the writing is bad. If a passage will not open after two attempts, it is reasonable to conclude the fault may not be yours.