2. Use the Pronunciation Guide beginning on page A-1 at the back of the book.
3. Chapters will overlap: you will get more than "one pass" with some topics and personalities (Akbar the Great, for example). Refer frequently to the Index so you can compile the different references to topics from chapter to chapter and be able to form a more complete picture of them.
4. The book is more of an encyclopedia than a narrative. Again, use the Index to guide you to topics of interest. Use the text website the same way. No two of us are likely to read the book the same way.
5. Don't worry about the questions on map pages. I will tell you what you need to know.
6. Notice how maps are often constructed to reflect the political and cultural interests of the map makers more than technical accuracy (see p. 181, for example).
7. Read each chapter from the "outside - in": Read the introduction, then the conclusion, then scan the chronology, and after you have completed these steps, go back to read the body of the text.
8. As you read, practice the art of educated guessing (inference): based on what you know at the time, try to anticipate where a series of events may be headed even if you don't have all the facts.
9. Pay special attention to paradoxes (phenomena that seem to contain contradictions, such as the Mongol paradox on page 39) and ironies (incongruities between what we expect to happen and what actually does happen). These features abound in human experience and make history exciting, compelling, and fun.
10. Use Mr. Malcolm's chapter vocabulary and review pages.
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