How I Read

Currently I am reading How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill. This will be the next book I blog about. I thought this might be a good time to explain how I read.

First, I read the book to get an overview of it. After this, I typically write a brief paragraph. Then I go the book through more carefully, taking notes and contemplating what it says. Even a short book like How the Irish Saved Civilization will likely cover several entries.

Fiction works a bit differently. I read the whole thing to get an idea of how it turns out, then I analyze the plot as a whole. The primary difference is that I judge fiction based on artistic merits or entertainment value, while I judge nonfiction on what I learned, with entertainment factor and style as distant contributing factors.