It has happened to me multiple times before.
The experience of struggling fruitlessly with a difficult book that started with high hopes of enlightenment.
You know what I am talking about.
The eyes keep regressing back to the paragraph before. The brain struggles to make sense. Each page is a colossal effort. And you are making less progress then a lizard on the wall.
Why does reading this book, which held such promise while buying it, feel like a very big mistake now?
I mean, wasn’t this supposed to be brilliant reading experience with a lot of Aha! moments?
If you are with me till now and nodding your head vigorously, then I empathize with you.
And I am also here to tell you that
“It’s not them, it’s us.”
What is a Difficult Book, Essentially?
You have a mind. And then there is this book that you want to read.
The author has written this book with the goal of communicating something to you.
It follows that our success in reading this book will be determined by how well we are able to receive every idea that the writer had intended to communicate.
Now, this of course, is too simple a representation.
Let’s take it a step forward.
There are two possibilities here. Either you understand everything the author has to say perfectly well or you do not.
In the first case, everything that the author has to say is completely intelligible to you from start to end.
Everything makes sense. The book is a breeze and you will finish it in days, sooner rather than later.
However, all it means is that you might have increased your store of information but you could not have increased your understanding.
Think about it.
Since this book is already making sense to you, it means that the symbols on the page are merely expressing the common understanding you already had with the author.
Now let’s take the second case, the one that we are concerned with in this post.
Let’s assume that you are having trouble understanding the author.
Let’s even assume, as is more often the case, that you understand enough to know that this book is above your head.
This is a good thing.
You have finally come across a book, that can take you from a state of understanding less to a state of understanding more.
This means that the author knows more than you. There is an initial inequality in your levels of understanding.
And this superiority of the writer is what allows us to learn from him, to understand insights that we, as potential readers, lack.
This, essentially, is what constitutes a difficult book.
And let me also tell you that this is the best thing that could happen.
Rather than feeling frustrated or defeated about coming across such a book, we should be excited.
Because that’s when the best kind of reading happens. That’s when enlightenment happens. That’s when we actually go from understanding less to understanding more.
As a matter of fact, I have already talked about the best ways to choose good books to read.
That leads us to the question
“How do we go about reading a difficult book?”
“How do we overcome this inequality between the superior writer and ourselves?”
The Secret of Reading a Difficult Book
When it comes to reading and understanding books, much of it depends on the goals of your reading as well as how well you optimize your reading schedules.
However, there is also something else to keep in mind, when it comes to reading difficult books.
The answer lies in an important and helpful rule of reading that is often overlooked.
That rule is simply this
“In tackling a difficult book for the first time, read it through without ever stopping to look up or ponder the things you do not understand right away.”
Sounds simple enough, right?
But here is the trouble.
Due to some reason, we have this sticky habit of not moving forward unless and until we understand everything on that page.
This happens to me a lot and I am sure you can relate.
Whenever I encounter a difficult page in a book, I spend hours going back and forth. Re-reading the same paragraphs again in an attempt to understand what is being said.
I’d consult the dictionary, go over the author references and even search on Google with terms like “simplified” and “explained”.
We have to stop doing that.
It’s crucial to understand that a difficult book deserves more than one reading. Hence, it’s okay to not get everything in the first run itself.
We need to pay attention to what we can understand and not be stopped by the stuff that we don’t grasp immediately.
It’s fair to assume that we are not going to understand that difficult passage just by sticking to it and re-reading it multiple times.
So, move forward and you will come to the part that does make sense to you. Focus on that.
This way, you will have a much better chance of understanding it on a
Why You Should be Following This Rule?
Most of us were taught, since our school days, to pay extra attention to things that we do not understand.
But when these things are done prematurely, they only impede our reading, instead of helping it.
They stop us from developing an effective reading habit.
Think of the time when you go to watch a movie.
You come across a scene in the first twenty minutes, which you can’t explain. Do you stop the movie there?
No, right?
You go on and watch the entire movie and eventually, things fall into place.
And even if you don’t understand a few things in the first watch, it makes a lot more sense when you watch it the second time.
We have all been there, right?
We start observing the subtle things we missed, the odd actions make much more sense and we start seeing the plot more holistically.
It’s the same thing when you come across difficult books.
Now, lets suppose that you understand just 50% of the difficult book in the first try.
In any case, even if you don’t go for a second reading, understanding half of a really tough book is much better and useful than not understanding it at all.
So, don’t get beaten by the first difficult passage you encounter. If you insist on understanding everything one every page, you will not get very far.
You will miss the forest for the trees.
The goal here is not to get everything in the first read itself.
The goal of reading a difficult book in the first attempt is to just understand enough that it makes further learning attempts easier.
Key Takeaways
The most delightful and fulfilling reading happens when we read books to gain increased understanding.
And that can only happen when we read difficult books.
When reading a book becomes tough, frustrating and uncomfortable, it’s a signal that tells us that there is something to be learned here.
As a matter of fact, I have compiled a reading list of such books, which can help students and young professionals, increase their learning about the world.
There is a possibility for us to elevate ourselves to a better understanding of the subject being discussed.
And in order to do this, we have to race through even the hardest book, when we read it the first time.
We need to ensure that we do not get bogged down by every difficult word, passage or concept we come across.
That, in essence, is the mark of a good reader.
And that’s how you read a difficult book.
Thanks for reading the article. I hope it added value to you.
Since you read an article on books and reading, I thought you might also be interested in getting more recommendations on good books to read.
I send out a weekly newsletter called Brain Food, which contains helpful books, podcast and other content recommendations which will teach you something new and helpful.
I call it “Mastering the best of what other people have already figured out.” Think of it as your personal consultant.
Let me know if you are interested
References
How to read a book, The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Dorren
