Joys Of Compounding: The Passionate Pursuit of Lifelong Learning

by Gautam Baid

Analytical reading. Analytical reading is a thorough reading. This is the stage at which you make the book your own by conversing with the author and asking many organized questions. Asking a book questions as you read makes you a better reader. But you must do more. You must attempt to answer the questions you are asking. While you could do this in your mind, Adler and Van Doren argue that it’s much easier to do this with a pencil in your hand. “The pencil,” they argue, “becomes the sign of your alertness while you read.” Adler and Van Doren share the many ways to mark a book. They recommend that we underline or circle the main points; draw vertical lines at the margin to emphasize a passage already underlined or too long to be underlined; place a star, asterisk, or other symbol at the margin for emphasis; place numbers in the margin to indicate a sequence of points made in developing an argument; place page numbers of other pages in the margin to remind ourselves where else in the book the author makes the same points; circle keywords or phrases; and write our questions (and perhaps answers) in the margin (or at the top or bottom of the pages). This is how we remember the best ideas out of the books we read, long after we have read them—by making a book our own through asking questions and seeking answers within it. As Cicero said, “Nothing so much assists learning as writing down what we wish to remember.”