Summarize the following:
Are there pictures or art that can give you a clue on the topics you may be studying? What about the title? Is this a book for beginners or for someone with more skill?  Use the title for a more specific idea on the course. If it's a history book, will you be studying World History or Early American History? What do you already know about this subject? What about the authors, publisher and publishing date? Is this an old book or is it pretty current? How many chapters does the textbook have, and about how long are they? What about sub-chapters? What are the titles of the chapters and sub-chapters? Is there a glossary or a series of appendices? What about a bibliography? What types of words does the index have in it? Quickly flip through the pages. What immediately catches your attention? Take note of the chapter titles, bold words and vocabulary, photos, drawings, charts and diagrams. What do they tell you about things you'll be learning in the book? You can also skim to evaluate the difficulty of reading level for the text. Select one random page that is mostly text (not many visuals) and read it for comprehension. Time how long it takes you to read it.
Look at the cover. Review the table of contents, index, and glossary. Skim the textbook for headlines and visuals.