I'm pursuing a Master's in Social Studies Education and am filling some content-area courses this semester. I knew this going in, but with one Poli Sci and one History course (outside of my other ed courses) the syllabi look daunting. How can I manage to read a book a week on top of all the work for my other courses and a part time job? It seems like it's more than just time management, almost a sort of skimming/reading technique that nobody ever taught me during my B.A. in History. I know this is kind of meta, but I am trying to ask historians a question after all.
Read the introduction of the book closely, or read a good book review first. This will usually summarize the main points of the book and the author's main argument.
As you go through each chapter, read the introduction of the chapter and then just the first sentence of the paragraphs. Then read the conclusion closely. Of course, depending on what you are reading and why, you may want to read certain parts more closely.
When you get to the final chapter, read that more closely as well. The author will summarize the main points again and the important aspects they want you to take a away from the book.
At the risk of doing something Very Bad here, I wrote a blog post on just this topic. (Disclaimer: it’s not monetized in any way).
The short version is that in grad school, you’re reading for the author’s argument, not for details: no one is going to ask for name/date/place in a graduate history seminar.
Your task as a reader is to answer two basic questions:
If you can answer these two questions, 75% of your work is done.
The rest of what you need to address in your reading of the material consists of:
Does the author’s argument make sense?
Is the author’s argument convincing? (This is similar to, but not the same as, the previous question. It is perfectly possible for someone to put forward a sensical argument and then do a poor job of backing it up. This is, in fact, a good place to start your evaluation of the text.)
Looking at book reviews can help. It is, in fact, quite possible to spend only a couple of hours with a book and have plenty to say about it — it takes some practice, but you can get there!