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The Invisible Mentor Weekly Newsletter: Brain Food Wednesdays Number 92: Reading More Books and Parallel Reading
Dear Reader,
There seems to be a name for everything. I was reading an article that was discussing ways to read more books. It references another article that talked about parallel reading. The concept is reading more than one book at the same time. The writer was saying that perhaps you’re reading a book that covers a difficult topic, and you may need a break. So you could start reading something lighter to give you a needed break. And even create the space for you to reflect on what you read.
In most articles and books that provide strategies for reading more books, they do recommend that you read several books simultaneously. So the new article wasn’t really giving you new information. What was new was the name for the concept. In fact, in March 2015, I bought a program called Read More Books, and reading more than one book at the same time was one of the strategies presented.
More recently, Turn the Page by Chris Brady also offered the same recommendation. I love murder mysteries and thrillers. So, I read them in-between business books that are often very dry and boring. But my tendency is to finish one book before I start to read another. Do you read one book at a time? Or do you have multiple books on the go?
On a different note, it’s not too late to participate in the Rainbow Reading Challenge. The Challenge officially ends on October 6th. But you can start now and complete the Challenge in the next 30 days. You’ll be reading seven books in 30 days and each of the books will have a cover that’s one of the colors of the rainbow.
Will you participate in the Rainbow Reading Challenge? Join my Facebook group Reading Rocks: Read a Book, Discover Solutions, Change the World.
[Please Read: Introducing the Rainbow Book Cover Nonfiction Reading Challenge]
Two Programs to Help You With Personal Growth
Business Knowledge Accelerator: Read Like a Leader, Digest More Books
Do you need new ideas to apply to your business? Buy the Business Knowledge Accelerator. You’ll have a list of books to read. But more importantly, you’ll learn a methodology to save time when reading nonfiction books. You’ll be introduced to a concept where you read to learn what you need to know. This is information you can use going forward. Imagine how many more books you could read in the time you saved.
Art of Learning Membership Site
How would you like to access the best, most useful information I have, that’s better than book summaries? Buy monthly access to the Bookish Note that’s behind my paywall. I group Bookish Notes together by a common theme, turning them into a course. Imagine reading themed Bookish Notes and start laying the foundation for a new skill.
Ask Avil
Reading More Books and Parallel Reading
There’s a concept called syntopic reading. You’ll read three to five books in relation to each other. In my Facebook group, the link is in my message above, for the month of October, I’m encouraging members to read five books on the same topic, then write an article that they submit to Medium and/or LinkedIn. It’s a great start to being seen as a thought leader and building your personal brand. I want to learn more about self-leadership and leadership in general. So that will be my focus.
I think that reading syntopically is reading in parallel. But you’re reading for a reason, which is to build your thought leadership.
In How to Read a Book, Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren write that there are four levels of reading. Each level of reading builds on the previous one. That means they are cumulative, so you master one level of reading before moving on to the next.
- Elementary Reading: You learn this kind of reading in elementary school. This type of reading is concerned with, “What does the sentence say?”
- Inspectional Reading: The emphasis here is on time. For example, a student has a set amount of time to read and complete assignments before the next class. The goal here is to get the most out of the book in the time you have. Inspectional reading is skimming or pre-reading. You examine the book to find out what it can teach you. You are concerned with the following questions: What is the book about? What is the structure of the book? Or what are its parts? After systematic scanning, you must be able to answer the question, “what kind of book is this?”
- Analytical Reading: This is more complex and systematic than the first two levels of reading. This is a demanding form of reading. It is an intensely active form of reading. When you read a book analytically, you are chewing and digesting the information. It is reading for the sake of understanding.
- Syntopical Reading: This is the most complex form of reading. It’s also called comparative reading. When you read syntopically, you read many books in relation to one another, and to the subject they revolve around. When you read syntopically, you are able to construct an analysis of the subject that may not be in any of the books. You’ll add your insights from reading all the books. You may have an aha moment.
If you read books that are well-written, that elevate your level of thinking, you may want to combine Inpsectional and Syntopical reading. To begin the process, write down your one-sentence purpose for reading the books syntopically. Mine will go something like this.
“I’m reading Self-Leadership, Brave Leadership, Effective Leaders and Leadership, The Furnace of Leadership, and Ignite Your Female Leadership because I want to develop thought leadership.”
The next step is to write down the questions you want answered about the topic. You’re then going to inspect the books before you start reading them, to figure out which sections are critical to your understanding of the text. After you have done that, then you will read the books syntopically – that is, read them in relation to each other.
Although it may appear that the process will take much longer, it won’t. It will take only a fraction of the time to read five books. In fact, I recommend that you spend about 30 minutes on each book. You have to remember that there is often a lot of extraneous information included in every book that you do not have to read the entire book. A lot of times, authors include information because they want to demonstrate their authority on the topic. And there are often too many case studies and examples.
Reading List
Now that the summer is over, I’m reading both fiction and nonfiction books. It’s not easy to balance life with creating Bookish Notes, participating in the Rainbow Reading Challenge, and working on a research project.
I’m still reading, Leadering: The Ways Visionary Leaders Play Bigger by Nancy Giordano. And I’m also reading How I Lost 170 Million Dollars by Noah Kagan. I’ve also read a lot of fiction. I’ll finish reading both books today.
The following list of books, I’ll eventually get to, but if you read them before me, please let me know what you think of them. I’m leaving the reading list below in the newsletter because I think the books are very much worth reading. I’m working on developing my personal brand, and I want to display my thought leadership. Therefore, I’m reading books on specific topics.
How do you use the information that you learn from the books you read? Are you creating e-books, courses, articles. I’m doing all three, but the emphasis is on building out the content on my membership site.
How are you developing your thought leadership?
Reading List
- Future Mapping (read)
- Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo
- The Airbnb Story: How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions . . . and Created Plenty of Controversy by Leigh Gallagher
- Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal by Nick Bilton
- Levers: The Framework for Building Repeatability into Your Business by Amos Schwartzfarb
- Behind the Red Door: How Elizabeth Arden’s Legacy Inspired My Coming-of-Age Story in the Beauty Industry by Louise Claire Johnson
- Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great by Carmine Gallo
- I Got There: How a Mixed-Race Kid Overcame Racism, Poverty, and Abuse to Arrive at the American Dream by JT McCormick
- One Big Thing: Discovering What You Were Born to Do by Phil Howard Cooke
- Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager Revised Edition: Gain the Mindset and Skillset for Getting What You Need to Succeed by Ken Blanchard and Susan Fowler (read)
The Invisible Mentor Blog
Blog Posts
There are several benefits of building out the content for my membership site. I have fresh content for my blog. I didn’t get started this week, but I hope to get started next week. I’m also looking for interesting women to feature on The One Problem
The One Problem
I can’t believe that I’ve published 32 podcast episodes already. The videos are short, so they’re easy enough to listen to. And if you read books, I want you to start connecting ideas between the books you read and podcast episodes you listen to. Why not come on a learning journey with me.
- Donna Knutson, Founder of Write Journeys
- Sophie Gray, Founder of DiveThru: Being Disconnected from Yourself
- The One Problem Interview with Lois McGuire, Author
- The One Problem Interview with Roberta Liebenberg, Senior Law Partner
- The One Problem Interview: Angela Payne, Founder Leed HR
- The One Problem Interview: Rose-marie Fernandez, Founder Coaching Worx
- The One Problem Interview: Reverend, Dr Cheri DiNovo
- The One Problem Interview: Hillary Sobel, Lawyer
- The One Problem: Janet Zaretsky, BS Brilliance Master
- The One Problem: Julie Foucht, Art of Feminine Marketing
- The One Problem: Evelyn Jerome Alexander, Magellan College Counseling
- The One Problem Interview with Rosalin Krieger, The Unstucker
- The One Problem Interview: Tetyana Dudnyk, Director, Technology Project Management Office
- The One Problem Interview: Maura Lustig, Transformational Coach
- The One Problem: Vicki Saunders, Founder SheEO
- Episode 17 The One Problem: Tara Hunt, Founder Truly Inc
- The One Problem Interview: Melanie Russell Talks About Partnership Agreements
- The One Problem Interview: Anthea Rossouw, Founder of Dreamcatcher
- Germain St. Denis, Consultant, Change Leadership: The One Problem Interview
- The One Problem Interview: Sandra Lisi, Leadership Coach
- The One Problem: Deena Baikowitz, Business & Career Coach
- The One Problem: Kelli Wingo, The One Problem Interview: Kelli Wingo, KMW Catalyst
- The One Problem: Patricia Roberts,Chief Operating Officer of the Gift of College
- The One Problem: The One Problem: Patti Pokorchak, Small Biz Sales Coach
- The One Problem: Adrienne Harris, Managing Partner, Portage Sales
- The One Problem: Kristy Wallace, CEO Ellevate Network
- The One Problem: Margye Solomon Talks about Aging and Relevance
- The One Problem: Deb Boulanger, Launch Lab for Women Entrepreneurs
- The One Problem: Sharon Horne Ellstrom – Stop Being Like Others, Be YOU
- The One Problem: Liz Kitchell from SheMoolah Talks Money Conversations
- The One Problem: Avil Beckford, Author of Digest 30 Books in 30 Days
- The One Problem: Interview With Kelly Daring, Author of Is Love Enough
Product Alert
7 Day Reading Makeover Challenge
This is an affordable program, for you to get started on leadership reading. Leaders read to learn what they need to know. You’ll also learn how to synthesize information.
Art of Learning Membership Site
How would you like to access the best, most useful information I have, that’s better than book summaries? Buy monthly access to the Bookish Note that’s behind my paywall. I group Bookish Notes together by a common theme, turning them into a course. Imagine reading themed Bookish Notes and starting to lay the foundation for a new skill.
Until Next Week,
Avil Beckford, Founder, The Invisible Mentor!