Coordinating meaning across sentences is crucial to reading comprehension, because sentences can take on quite different meanings depending on the surrounding context. The same need applies in a far more complex way when reading textbooks. Writers organize the material hierarchically, so readers often need to connect what they're reading now to something they read a few pages ago. But readers expect a simple format, since people first learn to read storybooks. Stories are easy to understand because the structure is simple and linear: A causes B, which causes C, and so on. Textbooks' hierarchical format and content are more challenging, so one shouldn't sit down to read a textbook and expect that the author will make the job easy. There needs to be a different approach to reading such content. This article provides tips for reading carefully, both to learn now and to develop the knowledge, skills, and habits that will make one a successful reader in the future.