Concept
Inspectional Reading
Inspectional reading is Adler and Van Doren's systematic skimming: in a fixed, short time you examine a book's title, preface, contents, index, opening and closing chapters and a few pages here and there, to learn what kind of book it is, what it argues and whether it deserves a full reading.
Most readers either start on page one and plod forward or give up after a chapter. Adler and Van Doren propose a step in between. Inspectional reading has two parts. Systematic skimming means reading the title and subtitle, the preface, the table of contents and the index, then the chapters that look central, then dipping into a few paragraphs and the last pages, where authors often sum up. Superficial reading means reading a difficult book once straight through without stopping to puzzle over what you do not understand, to get the shape of the whole before going deeper. Both are deliberately fast. The result is an answer to practical questions: what is this book about, how is it organised, what kind of book is it, and is it worth more of my time. A reader who inspects first rarely abandons a good book halfway, and rarely wastes a month on a weak one.
A real-life example
Onur, a junior lawyer in Ankara, has a week to understand a dense book on contract negotiation before a client meeting. Instead of starting on page one, he spends thirty minutes on the contents, the index and the last chapter, then reads straight through without stopping at the hard parts. By the evening he can say what the book argues and which three chapters he must read closely.
How to use it
- 1Set a timer for twenty to thirty minutes and inspect the book: title, preface, contents, index, a few central chapters and the ending.
- 2Read a hard book once straight through without stopping, then decide where to slow down.
- 3Write two sentences afterwards: what the book is about and whether it earns a full reading.