"The method that I have developed, the fractal-summary, preserves these two strengths of progressive-summaries and improves upon it in two important ways.<p>First, it adds an additional step before we even get to the text: context. Most of these great books present a whole new system of thinking with alien terms created by the author. The problem with diving head-first into the text is that it is hard to understand each sentence without understanding the whole system. Of course, this is a chicken-and-egg problem. You also can’t fully understand the whole system without reading each sentence.<p>The purpose of the contextual step is to give you a rough and general outline of the entire system so that you can better understand what certain words mean and how each section fits into the overall structure. What this step looks like in practice, however, varies significantly. One way to gain context is to have a professor explain how a book fits into the larger philosophical canon, who its interlocutors are, and its historical context. Another way is to read an online summary of the entire book before picking up the text and reading a chapter summary before diving into each chapter. Another is to consult a glossary. Yet another is to read secondary literature that reconstructs the book. Regardless of the exact method, gaining sufficient context before diving into a text will payoff many-fold in increased comprehension and reading speed."