We all love reading books, but how do we read efficiently and intelligently? What are the strategies for becoming a better reader? You will find all the answers to these questions from the books listed below. Let’s celebrate National Reading Month in March by improving our reading skills. 

Note: Descriptions are provided by the publishers

You Are What You Read : A Practical Guide to Reading Well by Robert DiYanni

We are what we read, according to Robert DiYanni. Reading may delight us or move us; we may read for instruction or inspiration. But more than this, in reading we discover ourselves. We gain access to the lives of others, explore the limitless possibilities of human existence, develop our understanding of the world around us, and find respite from the hectic demands of everyday life. In You Are What You Read, DiYanni provides a practical guide that shows how we can increase the benefits and pleasures of literature by becoming more skillful and engaged readers.

10 Days to Faster Reading by Abby Marks-Beale

Jump-Start Your Reading Skills! Speed reading used to require months of training. Now you can rev up your reading in just a few minutes a day. With quizzes to determine your present reading level and exercises to introduce new skills quickly, 10 Days to Faster Reading will improve your reading comprehension and speed as it shows you how to: Break the Bad Habits That Slow You Down, Develop Your Powers of Concentration, Cut Your Reading Time in Half, Use Proven, Specially Designed, Reading Techniques and Boost the Power of Your Peripheral Vision. 

Language at the Speed of Sight : How We Read, Why So Many Can’t, and What Can Be Done About It by Mark S. Seidenberg

Understanding the science of reading is more important than ever–for us, and for our children. Seidenberg helps us do so by drawing on cutting-edge research in machine learning, linguistics, and early childhood development. Language at the Speed of Sight offers an erudite and scathing examination of this most human of activities, and concrete proposals for how our society can produce better readers.

The Art of Mindful Reading : Embracing the Wisdom of Words by Ella Berthoud

The healing power of reading has been renowned since Aristotle; focus, flow and enlightenment can all be discovered through this universal act. Bibliotherapist Ella Berthoud explores how reading mindfully can shape the person you are, teach empathy with others and give you your moral backbone. Through meditative exercises, engaging anecdote and expert insight, discover the enriching potential of reading for mindfulness.

On Reading Well : Finding the Good Life Through Great Books by Karen Swallow Prior

Reading good literature well requires one to practice numerous virtues, such as patience, diligence, and prudence. And learning to judge wisely a character in a book, in turn, forms the reader’s own character. Acclaimed author Karen Swallow Prior takes readers on a guided tour through works of great literature both ancient and modern, exploring twelve virtues that philosophers and theologians throughout history have identified as most essential for good character and the good life.

How to Read Nonfiction Like a Professor : A Smart, Irreverent Guide to Biography, History, Journalism, Blogs, and Everything in Between by Thomas C Foster

After laying out general principles of reading nonfiction, How to Read Nonfiction Like a Professor offers advice for specific reading strategies in various genres from histories and biographies to science and technology to social media. Throughout, the emphasis will be on understanding writers’ biases, interrogating claims, analyzing arguments, remaining wary of broad assertions and easy answers, and thinking critically about the written and spoken materials readers encounter.

What We See When We Read : A Phenomenology, with Illustrations by Peter Mendelsund

In this remarkable work of nonfiction, Knopf’s Associate Art Director Peter Mendelsund combines his profession, as an award-winning designer; his first career, as a classically trained pianist; and his first love, literature—he considers himself first and foremost as a reader—into what is sure to be one of the most provocative and unusual investigations into how we understand the act of reading.

Contemporary’s Breakthroughs in Critical Reading : Developing Reading and Critical Thinking Skills by Patricia Ann Benner

The Breakthroughs series improves students’ content–area reading skills while building valuable problem-solving proficiency. Breakthroughs in Critical Reading helps students learn to understand what they read by identifying the main idea and details, summarizing and paraphrasing, recognizing the organization of ideas, and more.

Helping Your Child Overcome Reading Challenges by Diane H. Tracey

When your child struggles with learning to read, it can feel overwhelming. What causes reading difficulties? How can you support your child on the road to a rich and rewarding literacy life? Drawing on her dual expertise as a literacy specialist and a psychotherapist, Diane Tracey takes a unique and holistic approach to supporting children’s health and emotional well-being along with their reading skills.

How to Read a Book by Mortimer Jerome Adler

Originally published in 1940, this book is a rare phenomenon, a living classic that introduces and elucidates the various levels of reading and how to achieve them—from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading. Readers will learn when and how to “judge a book by its cover,” and also how to X-ray it, read critically, and extract the author’s message from the text.

Reader, Come Home : The Reading Brain in a Digital World by Maryanne Wolf (also available as an e-audiobook)

The author of the acclaimed Proust and the Squid follows up with a lively, ambitious, and deeply informative book that considers the future of the reading brain and our capacity for critical thinking, empathy, and reflection as we become increasingly dependent on digital technologies.

What to Read and Why by Francine Prose (also available as an e-audiobook) 

In an age defined by hyper-connectivity and constant stimulation, Francine Prose makes a compelling case for the solitary act of reading and the great enjoyment it brings. Inspiring and illuminating, What to Read and Why includes selections culled from Prose’s previous essays, reviews, and introductions, combined with new, never-before-published pieces that focus on her favorite works of fiction and nonfiction, on works by masters of the short story, and even on books by photographers like Diane Arbus.

How to Raise a Reader by Paul Pamela (also available as an ebook)

Do you remember your first visit to where the wild things are? How about curling up for hours on end to discover the secret of the Sorcerer’s Stone? Combining clear, practical advice with inspiration, wisdom, tips, and curated reading lists, How to Raise a Reader shows you how to instill the joy and time-stopping pleasure of reading.

How to Read Now : Essays by Elaine Castillo (also available as an ebook) 

How to Read Now explores the politics and ethics of reading, and insists that we are capable of something better: a more engaged relationship not just with our fiction and our art, but with our buried and entangled histories. Smart, funny, galvanizing, and sometimes profane, Castillo attacks the stale questions and less-than-critical proclamations that masquerade as vital discussion: reimagining the cartography of the classics, building a moral case against the settler colonialism of lauded writers like Joan Didion, taking aim at Nobel Prize winners and toppling indie filmmakers, and celebrating glorious moments in everything from popular TV like The Watchmen to the films of Wong Kar-wai and the work of contemporary poets like Tommy Pico.

— Hongmei, Adult Services & Acquisitions Librarian