---
name: "reading_nonfiction"
description: "Read nonfiction so the ideas stick: set a reading purpose, skim-first survey, active annotation while reading, and a post-read synthesis note. Use when someone wants to read a nonfiction book well, retain what they read, build a reading workflow, annotate a textbook or report, or turn a book into usable notes. Not speed reading drills (use speed-reading), not a standing note system (use note-taking-systems), not condensing existing notes (use note-summarization)."
metadata: { "includeInPrompt": true }
---

# Reading Nonfiction

## Purpose
Turn a nonfiction read into durable understanding. Most people finish a book and keep little of it. This skill runs a four-phase workflow: set a purpose, survey before diving in, annotate while reading, synthesize after. Each phase produces something concrete the next phase uses.

## Workflow

### 1. Set a reading purpose (5 minutes, before opening the book)
Ask, or get from the user:
- **Why this book?** What decision, project, or question does it feed?
- **What will you do with it?** Apply it, cite it, discuss it, build on it.
- **Three questions** you want answered. Write them down. These steer everything after.

If the purpose is vague ("I want to learn about X"), sharpen it to one sentence: "I am reading this to ___." A book without a purpose gets skimmed; a book with one gets read.

### 2. Skim-first survey (10 to 15 minutes, before deep reading)
Methodical, not casual. Touch, in order: title and subtitle, table of contents, introduction or preface, one representative chapter's first and last pages, the conclusion, the index (scan for terms you care about). Read the back-cover or publisher blurb if there is one.

Then decide the **read mode** and say it out loud:
- **Deep**: thesis and argument matter to your purpose. Read every chapter, annotate, synthesize per chapter.
- **Targeted**: two or three chapters answer your questions. Deep-read those, survey the rest.
- **Skim-only**: the survey answered your questions or the book is mostly padding. Skim the rest, harvest quotes and data, move on.

Most books land in targeted or skim-only. Deep is for the few that earn it.

### 3. Annotate while reading
Mark the text (pen, highlighter, or sticky tabs for borrowed books) and keep a personal symbol key. Minimum working set: underline key definitions and claims; circle unfamiliar terms; star passages you will cite or revisit; question mark in the margin for anything unclear or dubious; arrow connecting an idea back to an earlier page. See references/annotation-systems.md for a fuller key.

Rules that keep annotations useful:
- Read a paragraph or section first, then mark. Never annotate sentence by sentence; you will highlight everything and learn nothing.
- Write margin notes as questions, reactions, or connections, not summaries. "Is this evidence or anecdote?" beats "says evidence here."
- After each section, write one sentence in your own words: what this section says. If you cannot, you did not get it. Reread.
- Track the author's argument, not just facts: what is claimed, what evidence is offered, what is assumed.

### 4. Synthesize after reading (within 24 hours)
Do this from memory first, then check against the annotations. Produce the synthesis note (template in assets/synthesis-note-template.md):
1. Three-sentence summary of the whole book, without looking.
2. The thesis in one sentence: the author's central claim.
3. The three strongest arguments, each with the evidence offered and whether it held up.
4. What you accept, what you reject, and why. Understand before you judge: no verdict until you can state the argument fairly.
5. What you will do with it: the action, decision, or connection to your purpose from phase 1.

Then hand the note to the standing note system (see note-taking-systems) and delete or shelve the raw annotations. Annotations are scaffolding; the synthesis note is the building.

## Output Contract
- **Before reading:** deliver a reading plan: purpose sentence, three questions, read mode, and the chapters the mode covers.
- **After reading:** deliver a filled synthesis note using assets/synthesis-note-template.md. If the user provides their annotations, distill them into the note; if they ask for judgment on the book, include accept/reject with reasons.
- **Always:** name the read mode you chose and why. A plan without a mode is just good intentions.

## Operating Rules
1. Understand before judging. Never offer a verdict on an argument you cannot state fairly first.
2. Match effort to purpose. A skim-only read that answers the user's questions is a success, not a failure.
3. Never invent quotes, page numbers, statistics, or dates from a book. If you do not have the text, say so and work from what is provided.
4. Hand off at the boundaries: pace drills belong to speed-reading, long-term storage to note-taking-systems, condensing raw notes to note-summarization. Reference them; do not rebuild them.
5. If the user is reading for a specific use (a talk, a report, a decision), the synthesis note leads with what serves that use.
6. Keep language plain. No em dashes, no press-release phrasing.