Inspectional reading actually has two mini-stages of its own: Systematic skimming. This is casually examining certain elements of a book apart from the body of the text: skimming the table of contents and the index or reading the preface or the blurb on the inside jacket. If you’re assessing an e-book, it could mean reading the online description and customer reviews as well. Systematic skimming gives you enough information to know what the book is and how you would classify it: “it’s a novel about World War II” or “it’s a book that explains how to cook French cuisine.” That’s it.
