The Insightful Reader by I.C. Robledo

The Synopsis:

Read for Insights, Improve Your Life, and Make an Impact
The problem is most of us learn how to read superficially in school, rather than in a deep and meaningful way. The Insightful Reader will help you to choose the right books to read, get more out of what you read, create a better life through reading, and ultimately to become an insightful reader, learner, and thinker. Whether you read hundreds of books or just a few per year, you will benefit from this book.

Inside, you will discover how to:

– Find high quality, interesting books efficiently

– Hunt for insights instead of meaningless facts

– Make more time to read and stop making excuses

– Take notes adaptively, depending on your goals

– Stop getting distracted while reading

– Read different books differently, depending on your purpose

– Learn more effectively from very challenging books (e.g., college textbooks or highly technical texts)

– Apply what you read

I received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.

Review:

So, this is basically a book that teaches you how to read books. As an already-avid reader, I applied several of the recommended techniques as I read it, which felt a little ironic, and skipped some sections. A lot of the information was irrelevant for me, as I already know how to find books to read, keep track of what I read, read from a variety of genres, etc. In general, though, it was an interesting book and I did learn a couple of new things about reading. He justified my enormous collection of books that I have yet to read, and included some great resources and tons of book recommendations, which I appreciated.

My only real complaint is that I was a bit confused about his target audience. The book is designed to teach people how to read and appreciate books, and so I felt like most of the target audience wouldn’t really be inclined to read a book like this? In my opinion, I feel like the book would have better served non-readers if it had been done in a series of blog posts with bullet points. Some of the sections felt overly wordy, and I don’t feel like much would have been lost if he condensed it.

Overall, it was an interesting read. It inspired me to be more intentional about reading, and to apply techniques such as taking notes and adopting a more comprehensive approach to learning.