8 Tips for Reading the Basic Electrical Engineering Books Fast

Engineers are voracious readers. Reading books on engineering is an essential component of the job, whether technical literature, case studies, white papers, or manuals. Reading faster and more efficiently will make an engineer better at their job, just as reading great literature can help advance a person's career.

Here are eight quick reading ideas and techniques to help you get through those technical books quickly while maintaining a high level of comprehension.

1. Make A Reading Schedule-

People typically don't see reading as a crucial part of their day in our modern age of distraction - it's something that will be done if there's time or something that is all too often pushed into free time. Because of this attitude toward reading, people are frequently hurried and distracted when they pick up a book.

Setting aside adequate time for reading, including time for notetaking and rereading key ideas, is critical. Given that the typical reading pace for an individual is 250 words per minute, or around a page of text in most technical books, half an hour can be set aside for approximately fifteen pages of reading, depending on the intricacy of the material.

2. Read A Hard Copy If You Have The Option-

Your paper brain is not the same as your ebook brain. According to various studies, many people have lost practice in bi-literate reading, which is the act of profound absorption in texts or technical literature that leads to greater comprehension.

When we read basic electrical engineering online, we prefer to use a "non-linear" reading style in which we scan through a document and primarily read around keywords. While it's vital to be selective about what we read, research suggests that when we read from a screen, our brains often unconsciously move to this less concentrated way of reading, whether we like it.

3. Find Or Create A Peaceful Environment-

Reading technical books or materials in a highly specialised style might be exhausting. Fortunately, you can do many simple things to improve your concentration. Drinking plenty of water, breathing deeply, and avoiding distractions are just a few.

Finding a peaceful, distraction-free area where you know you won't be called on when you've set aside to read is known to allow you to process what you are reading better automatically. So find a quiet space and, if at all feasible, turn off or hide your smartphone.

4. Go Over The Text First-

When reading basic electrical engineering, there’s no need to be concerned about spoilers because they're not like fiction. What matters is that you have a solid contextual grasp of what you're about to read. Before reading, we recommend skimming the entire text and paying careful attention to subheadings and anything highlighted.

It's good to start by reading the text's introduction and conclusion. This way, you'll have a general idea of where the material is going and may use your reading to fill in the gaps.

5. Avoid Subvocalizing Words-

Subvocalization is a reading habit that many of us develop, which is beneficial to our pronunciation skills but detrimental to our reading speed. We silently pronounce each word in our heads and through mouth movements when we read silently.

Subvocalization distracts our attention from understanding the author's key points in a text; therefore, training our thoughts not to do it is an excellent approach to learning to read quicker. This is especially true in technical publications, as we remember how to pronounce complicated terms instinctively.

6. When You're Through, Write A Summary-

Though it's technically part of notetaking (item 2), we can't stress this enough: your job isn't done when you've read the last words of those technical books or manuals. So instead, we recommend looking over your notes from the beginning and comparing what you learned from the text to your intended objectives.

7. Get Some Practice With Timed Reading-

Fast reading, like nearly any other skill, requires practice. Likewise, reading technical texts more quickly is a skill that deliberate practice can develop over time. While considering all of the above, it's also a good idea to use a timer to keep track of how many words per minute you read.

Keeping track of how your reading pace changes over time is an excellent method to motivate, if not perhaps gamify, your reading.

We hope that these reading speed suggestions will assist you in improving your reading speed when it comes to technical publications. Meanwhile, why not put your skills to the test with our list of the greatest technical books for engineers? Good luck with your reading!