Want to read like the pros? It’s not about chapter 1

Photo by Raj Eiamworakul on Unsplash

I like a good book. There are few things better to me than finding a fun book and reading from cover to cover.

It’s also a bad way to learn.

You may have seen all of the articles about how highly successful people read. It’s a useful habit for understanding and compounding on knowledge. Maybe you’ve tried to implement it yourself, except it didn’t work.

The problem might not be entirely your fault. It might be because you’re taking your habits from reading for fun over to reading to learn.

There’s nothing wrong with relaxing with a fiction book: it’s just not the same reading that the pros are doing.

Wikipedia is better than most Chapter 1's

For almost any non-fiction, you could open up the Wikipedia article for the subject and understand the same ideas as chapter 1 of any non-fiction book.

Any book, fiction or non-fiction, has to assume that you don’t know much about the subject. Even highly technical books, like about Astrophysics or Nuclear Engineering, will likely start with some of the easier subjects or with a general overview.

Why? Because these Chapter 1’s are designed for people browsing the book to read. It’s an introduction to the subject…