10 Tips To Become An Expert In A New Topic By Reading Books

By reading and working through books, you can quickly familiarize yourself with a new topic. In this way, you can even become an expert in a particular field with the help of a few books. This section presents various concepts and steps to make this process as efficient as possible.

1. Research and Record Prior Knowledge

In the first step, you should do some preliminary research on the topic by looking at a few articles or videos. This will give you an overview of the subject and help you identify what interests you about it. Next, you should record your prior knowledge in the field in the form of a mind map. Write the main branches with the most important subfields of the topic and note down keywords on the sub-branches related to what you already know about each corresponding subfield. This way, you will have an overview of the structure of the subject area and points of connection for new knowledge in this area, which you can easily link to your prior knowledge. Additionally, you will later have the opportunity to compare your new knowledge with your prior knowledge, allowing you to recognize your progress.

2. Selecting the Right Books

Next, you should find out which books are available in the field and which ones will be the most helpful to you. Create a list of interesting books and get an overview of each one by looking through the book, examining the front and back covers, and reviewing the table of contents. If you like the structure and content of the book, you should also read some reviews and summaries. Afterward, you can decide on the books from which you expect the greatest benefit. Additional tips for choosing the right books can be found here.

3. Formulating Questions

After selecting the right books, you should gain an overview of them. For each book, review the table of contents, one or two chapters, and the summary of the book. It’s also useful to gather some information about the authors. Afterward, you can formulate questions about the books and the topic in general. While reading the books, pay special attention to finding clues that answer your questions. For questions that you cannot find answers to in the books, you can then look them up in other sources.

4. Creating Highlights and Notes

While reading the books, you should highlight the most important passages. You can use a highlighter for individual sentences and mark longer passages with a star or vertical line in the margin. Additionally, you should circle keywords and technical terms. At the same time, you can also take notes on what you have read. For this purpose, you can use the cornell method and journal technique. This allows you to write down your insights, ideas, and possible applications of what you have read. Furthermore, you should define the technical terms used in the book as the author uses them. You can find more information about creating highlights and notes here.

5. Syntopical Reading

Syntopical reading refers to the ability to explore a topic by reading multiple books on the subject, comparing them, and contrasting them with one another. The goal is to synthesize the content of these books into something new that goes beyond the individual texts.

This comparative reading of books is primarily practiced by authors and professors to develop new ideas or theses through the comparison of various books and authors in a specific field. However, it can also be used to expand knowledge in a professional or personal interest area. Here are some suggestions for syntopical reading:

• Find a unified definition for the key terms of your topic that all or at least most authors use.
• Formulate some questions to which all or most authors provide direct or indirect answers. Then summarize the respective opinions of the authors.
• Define both the major and minor disagreements by finding opposing answers from the authors to the various questions. Remember that a point of contention does not always exist explicitly between or among the authors but often arises when interpreting the authors’ opinions on topics they may not have primarily addressed.
• Analyze the discussion by identifying the questions and issues and clearly showing the relationships between the problems.

6. Summarizing the Books

After reading the books, you should summarize them in writing and as visually as possible. You can start by creating a mind map for each book, which provides an overview of the structure and content of the book. In the mind map, describe the most important topics and statements of the book using keywords. Additionally, you can explain more complex concepts using the feynman technique, as well as various diagrams and charts. Once you have explained the individual books and concepts, you can create a summary of the entire subject area. You can achieve this, for example, by creating a presentation, a memoflip, or a concept map.

7. Retaining the Content of the Books Long-Term

To store the content of the books, you should incorporate the summaries into your knowledge base and use spaced repetition to bring it into long-term memory. Additionally, in the beginning, it is useful to review the mind maps for each book a few times and recall the context you associate with each keyword. You can also memorize the mind map using the loci method so that you can recall it anytime and already have images of the individual keywords in your mind.

8. Applying What You Have Read

If the subject area you have worked on also includes practical approaches, you should apply what you have learned. To do this, you can create an action plan that outlines all the beliefs, habits, and individual actions you want to implement. You can then schedule a fixed time block to put the action plan into practice.

9. Teaching the Content

To understand and retain the information even better, it is very helpful to teach it to someone else. This creates a win-win situation, as the other person learns the material, and you deepen your understanding of the subject through explaining it and addressing their questions.

10. Expanding and Developing Your Own Ideas

Once you have stored all the available information relevant to your goal, you can start searching for your own ideas. Further develop specific processes and methods. Try to explain them more clearly. Take a step further and discover new connections. Combine and expand existing information or develop your own concepts.