Written by: Judith McCartney on February 1, 2025

Leaders are Readers! (apologies to my peers. I am catching up on my blog posts. This is For HOW TO READ A BOOK)

A leader is many things, but a leader demonstrates that they are life-long learners. Being a life-long learner provides those we lead and work alongside with resources that can have a greater impact on the work we do.  For those of us who are involved in faith-based social justice vocations, in most cases, you do not have any sort of compensation for annual conferences, coaches or multiple resources that one needs to be at the top of our game.  Yet we do have online resources like e-books, podcasts, academic articles and books we can take out from a library. Reading is an exceptional opportunity for those of us who cannot afford much to be trained in the conventional ways I mentioned earlier.  Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers!

Before reading How to Read a Book, I thought that reading was just…reading. While reading this book I was reminded of a memory I had in my Art Program back in 1985. Yes, I know, that was a very long time ago! That was a time when most graphics were done by screen printing or free hand. Our professor was preparing us for a life in the art world and said to us, “Friends, I want you to learn one thing! Time is MONEY!! You need to pace quickly, and you need to have a professional product if you want to survive!”  I was only 17, and boy, did I feel pressured about how I was going to do that. I feel the same about this newfound resource of reading, I feel overwhelmed, and I wonder how I’ll ever learn to use this knowledge in real-time. What I do know is that it will be an asset.

I have some executive friends who read a book a week. I’ve always been intrigued about this weekly discipline of reading a book, but I never asked how they were able to accomplish this.  I think I get it now! IYKYK (If you know, you know). I had an AHA moment when I understood the relationship between inspectional reading and analytical reading.  Inspectional reading is, first, skimming, and second, superficial reading, the anticipated first two steps in analytical reading.  Skimming helps to prepare you for the first step of analytical reading, identifying the subject matter and outlining its structure. Superficial reading is a preparation for the second step when you are called to interpret the content of a book by coming to terms with the author, stating his propositions, and following his arguments.[1] I feel like I’m very far away from truly understanding all there is to know about How to read a book yet this is an incredible launching pad towards greater intelligent reading.

I’m currently sitting in this awareness that I can be more through this new knowledge. I feel such a great tension because gaining this new knowledge means I need to take the time to fully understand it and then have a real-time working model of reading. I’m overwhelmed; I’m filled with imposter syndrome that I might not be capable of doing this, but I have no choice but to lean into this. When I come across experiences where I feel overwhelmed, I intentionally push myself to simplify and lean into it.  From this reading, I am reminded that reading a book is a dialogue; there is the engagement of what the book is saying, there is a critique, and for me, there is an outcome of “how will I activate what I have learned.” That outcome is important for me.

Here are the Four levels of reading: Elementary Reading (basic level of reading, understanding words, recognizing grammar), Inspectional Reading (referred to as skimming or pre-reading, trying to grasp the main point of a book) , Analytical Reading (its thorough, more deliberate, trying to fully understand the book), and Syntopical Reading (the highest level of reading, syntopical reading, reading multiple books on the same subject and comparing their ideas, creating a dialogue between different texts, sytnthesizing information, gaining a more comprehensive understanding of a topic. Syntopical requires a sophisticated level of reading skill and often used for academic and research contexts).

One main take away would be the 5 steps to Syntopical reading. I learn best when I understand the concepts and then how to activate it. The 5 steps were quite helpful In helping me to know how to activate syntopical reading:[2],

• Step 1: Find the Relevant Passages
• Step 2: Bringing the Authors to Terms. You are faced with many authors and need to try and understand them, yet we also need to find a way to have it solve our problem
• Step 3: Getting the questions clear.
• Step 4: Define the issue
• Step 5: Analyzing the Discussion

I’m realizing how much I do not know and what a great responsibility I have to be a reader of integrity. Today, I see reading as a stewardship issue for me. I’m excited as today I see how much I’ve grown from reading this book.

[1] Adler, Mortimer J., and Charles Van Doren. How to Read a Book. Revised and Updated edition. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972, p. 305

[2] [2] Adler, Mortimer J., and Charles Van Doren. How to Read a Book. Revised and Updated edition. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972, p. 305-313

About the Author

Judith McCartney