"Books are not made to be believed but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a book, we mustn't ask ourselves what it says but what it means . . ."

-Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

Academic reading, unfortunately, must be for critical thinking not for pleasure. While most people learn to read at an early age, the techniques of critical reading usually pass us by. The material in academia may be daunting because of obscure language or large numbers of pages, but there are ways to make your job easier. This handout introduces you to some methods I have developed over the years to handle the task of grasping large books with complex arguments.

The most important thing to understand in reading critically is that every work you will come across has an argument. Your purpose in reading is to grasp this argument and evaluate it. Some authors present their arguments clearly and cogently, others obscurely and languidly. Some write better than others, but all have a point to make. You need to figure out what this point is as quickly as possible and decide if it is convincing.

You don't have to read every word of a book to understand it. In fact, reading too closely may keep you from understanding the argument. It is easy to get lost in the trees when looking for the forest.

Before you begin reading, think about why you are reading the book: Is it for some background information? For writing a critical essay? For models of academic styles? Knowing what you are looking for in a book is a big help.

Once you have decided what you need to get out of the book, pick it up and look at it. Pay attention to any packaging written by others--this is not cheating. Read the jacket, editor's introduction or other material. This may give you background material about the author or the issues, and a good introduction to the argument and purpose of the book. But be careful--they may have a different purpose than the author. They are often arguments in themselves. Jackets, for instance, often focus on the sexier aspects of the work in ways that may differ from the author's. Still, packaging may give hints about the intended audience. Does the publisher want to sell it to a specialist, general educated, or mass market? You can judge a book by its cover, to some degree.

Open to the title page. Note the publisher. Is it an academic university press, a popular-mass press, or an alternative publisher? This may help you get a better sense of the material's style, audience, and even position. Something published by the Hoover Institution (right wing) will most likely differ greatly in argument, topic, and even style from something put out by South End Press (left wing).

When was it written? The time and place a book appeared makes a big difference. For instance, books about Soviet-East European relations have very different perspectives if they were written before or after 1989. Similarly, contemporary accounts of an event may be quite different than those created years later.

Read the table of contents. Think about the title, chapter headings, and subtitles. What do they mean? They often give away the argument or the perspective of the author.

Read the preface. The preface often provides a summary of the book's argument and the reasons the author carried out their project.

Read the acknowledgments. They help place the author. You can know someone by the friends they keep. If you don't recognize the names, which you probably won't, look them up in Blais or another reference tool. You may be able to get sense of the person's school of thought this way.

Read the introduction and conclusion before the body of the book. Note the first and last page of each. These should hold keys to what the author thinks is significant. How do they pose their problem? How does the author propose to prove their argument?

Next look again at the table of contents. Are some chapters more important than others? Pay more careful attention to those as you read than chapters the author uses simply to set the stage.

Read each chapter quickly. Think about how it fits into the overall argument. Consider the point of the chapter. Is their sufficient evidence? Does the chapter work?

When you are done with the chapters, read the conclusion again, this time more carefully. Perhaps refer back to the introduction and preface for a sense of what the author set out to do. Did the book work? How does it fit into ongoing debates?

Remember as your read: don't let yourself get lulled into a dream or trapped in details and secondary arguments. Keep your mind on the big points.