what in this book is most helpful for me to know?
Whether that is a good question depends on your purpose.
If you pick up a book and have no purpose. How can you decide what in a book is helpful for me to know.
If it's me activating a book. Nope that question will get me peanuts on most books. To me it screams, I don't know what I want from this book because I have no purpose. It lacks intention. Helpful is weak.
For example if my purpose is to "read a book so that I can ...x..."
Then my first questions would be, What do I need to ask so I can achieve that? What don't I know? What do I need to learn? What will I know when I've achieved my purpose? What has the author got to say that can help me. With that postview and form more specific questions.
I might I might notice the author explaining something... Humm that's interesting, it looks like something that will help me towards my purpose. I've got a question and will go into more detail during activation.
Right here on the forum I'm writing out what happens in the mind so rapidly you may not even notice you did that. And it works fast because you have a purpose. If you don't know why you're reading a book, what you intend to learn, How you intend to use what you learned or what curiosity you're trying to satisfy you wind up looking at a string of words. Hoping something might smack you in the head because it's meaningful.
And in my experience, it never worked that way. I closed the book and knew little more than when I started. Test me on it two days later and I'd have failed spectacularly.
By having a purpose, I've given myself a hook for remembering what I read.
Alex
