Nowadays, there is some feeling that reading is not as necessary as it once was. Radio, television, and other electronic communications devices have taken over many of the functions once served by printed books in the past, just as photography has taken over functions once served by painting or other graphic arts. Admittedly, television serves some of these functions extremely well; the visual communication of news events, for example, can exert far stronger impact on the viewer than the reader of a newspaper. The ability of radio to give us information while we are engaged in doing other things - for instance, driving a car - is remarkable. However, it may be seriously questioned whether the advent of advanced communications media has much enhanced our understanding of the world in which our ancestors had lived in the past and in which we are living now. 
   Perhaps we know more about the world than our forefathers used to. Insofar as knowledge is prerequisite to understanding, that is all to the good, but knowledge is not as much a prerequisite to understanding as is commonly supposed. We do not have to know everything about something in order to understand it; too many facts are often as much of an obstacle to understanding as too few. In this information age, there is a sense in which we are inundated with facts to the detriment of our genuine understanding.
   One of the reasons for this situation is that the very media we have mentioned are so designed as to make our thinking seem unnecessary. The package of intellectual positions and views is one of the most active enterprises of some of the best minds of our day. The viewer of television, the listener to radio, and the reader of magazines are presented with a whole complex of elements to make it easy for then to make up their own minds with the minimum of difficulty and effort. But the package is often done so effectively that the viewer, listener, or reader does not make up his own mind at all. Instead, he inserts a packaged opinion into his mind, just like inserting a cassette tape into its player. He then pushes a button and plays back the opinion whenever it seems appropriate for him to do so. He performs spontaneously without check or having to think.
  Since reading of any sort is an activity, all reading turns out to some degree to be active. Completely passive reading is impossible; we cannot read with our eyes immobilized and our minds asleep. When we contrast active with passive reading, our purpose is to call attention to the fact that reading can be more or less active. Of course, the more active the reading the better. One reader is better than another as he is capable of a greater range of activity in reading and exert more effort while reading any book. Doubtlessly, it is more beneficial for him if he demands more of himself and of the text before him.
  To be an active reader, you are adviced to ask questions while you read - questions that you yourself must try to answer in the course of reading. The first question you must ask about the book is "What is the book about as a whole?" You must try to discover the main theme of the book, and how the author develops this theme by subdividing it into subordinate themes or topics. Then you move on to discover the main ideas, assertions, and arguments that constitute the author's main ideas. The third question is "Whether the book is true or false in what way?" Perhaps you cannot answer this question until you have answered the first two because you have to know that is being said before you can decide whether it is true or not. When you understand a book thoroughly, you can easily make up your own mind. Lastly, if the book has given you sufficient information, you must know about its significance by asking "Why does the author think it is important to know what he writes about?" If the book has not only informed you but also enlightened you, it is necessary to seek what is further implied or suggested. In this way, active reading will always lead an innocent reader to discovery regardless of whether the discovery makes him an heir of the spiritual life of past ages or not.

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