Check what a chapter heading promises
A chapter heading can frame your reading before the first paragraph. Keep its promise separate from what the chapter actually does.
Before reading: make the expectation small
Record the book, edition, chapter heading and opening page. In your own words, write one thing the heading makes you expect. You might expect an explanation, a change of place or a particular person's viewpoint. A title can suggest these things without promising them literally.
If the heading does not suggest anything to you, write that. Do not invent a prediction to make the exercise work. You can begin with the question the first paragraph creates instead.
After reading: choose one observed detail
Return to the heading after the chapter. Name one scene, argument step or change of emphasis that relates to it, and keep the page where you noticed it. Describe the detail before saying the title was ironic, misleading or revealing.
Ask whether your expectation changed because of the text or because you supplied an assumption. Both can be worth recording. Neither requires a verdict on whether the title is good.
Your return card
Type temporary notes for this visit or print the blank card. There is no submit action or account storage. Copy your notes before leaving; reloading may clear them.
An invented example
In an imaginary novel, a chapter is called “The Return.” You expect a traveller to arrive home. The chapter instead follows a character taking a borrowed object back to its owner.
A useful note says: “I expected a journey home; page 34 describes returning the object. The heading may be drawing attention to what is owed.” The final sentence remains your interpretation. The invented chapter has not proved a theme for the entire novel.
Keep later knowledge in a later note
If the heading means something different after another chapter, add a new dated entry with its own page. Preserve the earlier expectation rather than rewriting it as if you understood the title immediately.
Before sharing, agree on a chapter boundary. Even saying “you will understand that title later” can signal a reveal. Share your present question without hinting at an answer someone has not reached.
Use the card selectively
Try this on one heading that catches your attention. A book with numbered chapters may not call for the exercise at all. The card is a way back to a particular reading moment, not a requirement to interpret every heading.