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BFW: How to Read Multiple Books at the Same Time
Dear Reader,
Hello Brain Food Wednesday readers!
Welcome to another edition of Brain Food Wednesdays, your weekly intellectual feast. In this edition, issue 223, we talk about syntopical reading.
Introduction
Many people have several books on the go. Usually I read one book at a time, else I complete none of them. However, there is one situation where it makes sense to read multiple books at a time. Not sure if you’ve heard of this concept before, but it’s reading syntopically. This means you usually read three to five books in relation to each other.
Syntopic reading is important, especially when you need to quickly understand the fundamentals of a topic or subject. Perhaps a new project was reassigned to you, and you don’t have the level of knowledge you need to work on it. Or you may think of building your personal brand, and you need to expand your expertise, so you can build a foundation on which you can later build. Syntopic reading can help you.
How to Read Multiple Books at Once
In the timeless classic, How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren write about syntopic reading. It’s reading three to five books in relation to each other. The PhotoReading course by Learning Strategies has advanced the concept. When you read books syntopically, you spend about 30 minutes on each book.
Most of you know that’s doable. I’ve written many times about reading the sections of a book that answer the questions you have. Or provide the solutions to the problems you’re facing. Today, we’re focussing on reading multiple books on the same topic. As is the case when reading any book, write your one-sentence purpose for why you need to read multiple books on the same topic.
The next step is to craft the questions that you have about the topic. What do you need to know to work on the project? Or what information is necessary for you to build a foundation on the subject?
Create a table. In one column, list the questions you want answered, one question for each row. In the other columns, write the name of each book, and in each row, add the answer to each of your questions. The answers to each question may vary since different authors will provide the answers.
This is a quick and easy way to get information on one topic from multiple perspectives.
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Warm regards,
Avil Beckford
Brain Food Wednesdays
Editor, Brain Food Wednesdays
Founder, The Invisible Mentor & Art of Learning Leadership Academy