Every non-fiction book has the same DNA; here’s how to spot them

What you are about to read is a teaser for an analytical reading workshop that I’m developing. The main goal is to distil a semester's worth of reading skills from an English degree into a practical, 4-part series that’ll supercharge your reading heading into 2026. The early-bird release date will be the first week of December, so click the button below to register an early-bird offer when it’s out!  

(1)The Idea: Every non-fiction book is governed by the same rules

In 2019, I turned my back on the world I knew: chemistry, physics and mathematics and plunged into a foreign world of history, literature and philosophy. As someone who had zero training in the humanities, one issue stood out: I didn’t have a reader’s gaze.

The reader’s gaze is a rare quality of a seasoned reader. They can look at a densely packed page and see logical connections, heated arguments and riveting anecdotes. Whereas when most of us sit down to read a non-fiction book, all we see is a jumbled mess of ideas, data and rabbit holes.

So, out of desperation, I set out to find the best practices to help me develop this X-ray vision. And what I discovered throughout my 7-year journey totally blew my mind:

Every non-fiction book, regardless of its genre or form (philosophy, history, political treatise, etc.), has the same blueprint. And once we understand this blueprint, we’ll be free to read anything we want with ease.

Everything clicked. I realised that books no longer intimidated me. Once we’ve grasped the basic principles of reading non-fiction, the application is universal.  

Let’s start with a common mistake most people make. Whenever they commit to reading a non-fiction book, they’ll all start with what I call the scrapbooking trap. They begin with trying to hold onto every detail of the book: random dates, scientific studies and anecdotes without setting up any context. So, after a hard, strenuous readthrough, they feel demoralised and start to think that they’re too stupid to read. Well, this is a simple fix if you understand the DNA of most non-fiction books.

Firstly, every non-fiction book has one purpose: to get you to see the author's view of the world. This is true for history books, self-help books and even philosophy books. And under that general aim, there are key ideas that are backed up by finer details such as statistics, anecdotes and research.

Do you see the problem with scrapbooking now?

If we obsess over the details without having an overview of the author’s ideas, then those details become useless. Instead, we need to work backwards: see what the author’s proposing, then attach the finer details to those broader questions.  

And three main features in non-fiction books will help you identify those ideas.

1: Table of contents. This is the part of any non-fiction book most writers lose sleep over, but we rarely pay attention to it. When we read it correctly, these 1-2 pages will give us an X-ray vision into the skeleton of the book, showing us how the ideas progress in the chapters, the ways the author constructs an argument, and which parts of the book are important for our learning purposes. Before you start reading any non-fiction book, spend a few minutes studying the table of contents. This will prevent an aimless wander through the chapters.

2: Subheadings. Sub-headings in a chapter point out the main units of ideas in a non-fiction book, and they are your express ticket to getting a quick overview of a chapter. Before you try to read every word, read all the subheadings in a chapter. This will give you a solid overview of the key ideas while setting up the context for a deeper reading later. 

3: No subheadings? Pay attention to the first sentence of each paragraph. Eric Hayot, in his book The Elements of Academic Style identified a common trait shared among well-written paragraphs: they tend to start with something general, get specific and end with something general again. This is good news for us: you’ll likely find the main ideas in the first sentence of every paragraph.

This process is called an initial skim, and it’s important to perform it before you start reading any non-fiction book.

So, that’s the theory. Now, let’s put it into your weekly reading practice.

(2) The Prompts:

1: Run through the inspectional process on a non-fiction book you’re reading this week. Read the table of contents, then the sub-headings and wrap it up by scanning the first sentence of every paragraph of a chapter. Do you have a clearer sense of the text now?

2: Write down a quick summary of a non-fiction book you’re reading. This shouldn’t exceed 150 words, and this summary will act as your anchor as you do an in-depth re-read later.

We’ll cover analytical reading in-depth in this upcoming workshop! Then again, enter your email address below to join in on the early-bird offers in December, and I’ll see you in the workshop!