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They are stated here in question form for a very good reason.

Reading a book on any level beyond the elementary is essentially an effort on your part to ask it questions ( and to answer them to the best of your ability ) . That should never be forgotten. And that is why there is all the difference in the world between the demanding and the undemanding reader.

The latter asks no questions-and gets no answers.

The four questions stated above summarize the whole obligation of a reader. They apply to anything worth reading

-a book or an article or even an advertisement. Inspectiona]

reading tends to provide more accurate answers to the first two questions than to the last two, but it nevertheless helps 48 HOW TO READ A BOOK

with those also. An analytical reading of a book has not been accomplished satisfactorily until you have answers to those last questions-until you have some idea of the book's truth, in whole or part, and of its significance, if only in your own scheme of things. The last question-What of it?-is probably the most important one in syntopical reading. Naturally, you will have to answer the first three questions before attempting the final one.

Knowing what the four questions are is not enough. You must remember to ask them as you read. The habit of doing that is the mark of a demanding reader. More than that, you must know how to answer them precisely and accurately. The trained ability to do that is the art of reading.

People go to sleep over good books not because they are unwilling to make the effort, but because they do not know how to make it. Good books are over your head; they would not be good for you if they were not. And books that are over your head weary you unless you can reach up to them and pull yourself up to their level. It is not the stretching that tires you, but the frustration of stretching unsuccessfully because you lack the skill to stretch effectively. To keep on reading actively, you must have not only the will to do so, but also the skill-the art that enables you to elevate yourself by mastering what at first sight seems to be beyond you.

How to Make a Book You r Own

If you have the habit of asking a book questions as you read, you are a better reader than if you do not. But, as we have indicated, merely asking questions is not enough. You have to try to answer them. And although that could be done, theoretically, in your mind only, it is much easier to do it with a pencil in your hand. The pencil then becomes the sign of your alertness while you read.

It is an old saying that you have to "read between the How to Be a Demanding Reader 49

lines" to get the most out of anything. The rules of reading are a formal way of saying this. But we want to persuade you to "write between the lines," too. Unless you do, you are not likely to do the most efficient kind of reading.

When you buy a book, you establish a property right in it, just as you do in clothes or furniture when you buy and pay for them. But the act of purchase is actually only the prelude to possession in the case of a book. Full ownership of a book only comes when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it-which comes to the same thing-is by writing in it.

Why is marking a book indispensable to reading it? First, it keeps you awake-not merely conscious, but wide awake.

Second, reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks. Third, writing your reactions down helps you to remember the thoughts of the author.

Reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author. Presumably he knows more about the subject than you do; if not, you probably should not be bothering with his book. But understanding is a two-way operation; the learner has to question himself and question the teacher. He even has to be willing to argue with the teacher, once he understands what the teacher is saying. Marking a