How To-16: "How to Skim Through a Book"

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If you don't have much time and you need to determine whether a book is worth purchasing 'skimming skills' will aid you in the process.

Steps

1. Read the Title - dead giveaway.
   
2. Read the subtitle - some titles are ambiguous, but subtitles tend to shed more light.
   
3. Read the preface - usually the writer(s) explain exactly what the book is about.
   
4. Look at the Table of Contents - this will give you further information on the books subject structure and components.
   
5. Read the Publisher's blurb - usually located in the back, some are found in the book's dust cover. This too is an excellent way to discover the gist of a book.
   
6. Identify important chapters to read and less important chapters.
   
7. Read the first and last lines of each paragraph to get a feel for the flow of argument and the topics of the chapter.
   

Tips

• Take notes, since you are not reading you will need these notes to help you remember.
  
• Reading topic sentences and concluding sentences only works if the title is professionally written non-fiction.
  
• Check out the "Index" of a book. This will give you somewhat of a bird's view of subjects and amount of space the writer devotes to each topic. This is called a "subject index."
  
• Some books even offer a index of authors the writer refers to in the book. This is called an "author index."
  
• Some religious books index Scripture passages. This is called a "Scripture index."
  
• Finally, you may want to consult books which will help you develop active reading skills, a classic one would be "How to Read A Book" by Adler and Van Doren.
  

Warnings

• Publisher blurbs are often written by a marketing department and so although seldom inaccurate, they may bear little or no resemblance to the material, veracity, accuracy or approach the book takes to the material.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Pick a Book to Read
  
• How to Think of Topics for a Short Story
  
• How to Learn Speed Reading
  
• How to Read Uninteresting Books
  
• How to Write a Short Story
  

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