How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading Paperback – August 15, 1972

Below are key excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:1- "Perhaps we know more about the world than we used to. and 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. There is a sense in which we moderns are inundated with facts to the detriment of understanding."2- "Thinking is only one part of the activity of learning. One must also use one's senses and imagination. One must observe, and remember, and construct imaginatively what cannot be observed. There is, again, a tendency to stress the role of these activities in the process of unaided discovery and to forget or minimize their place in the process of being taught through reading or listening. For example, many people assume that though a poet must use his imagination in writing a poem they do not have to use their imagination in reading it. The art of reading, in short, includes all of the same skills that are involved in the art of unaided discovery: keenness of observation, readily available memory, range of imagination, and, of course, an intellect trained in analysis and reflection. The reason for this is that reading in this sense is discovery, too— although with help instead of without it."3- "The first level of reading we will call Elementary Reading. Other names might be rudimentary reading, basic reading or initial reading; any one of these terms serves to suggest that as one masters this level one passes from nonliteracy to at least beginning literacy. In mastering this level, one learns the rudiments of the art of reading, receives basic training in reading, and acquires initial reading skills. We prefer the name elementary reading, however, because this level of reading is ordinarily learned in elementary school...At this level of reading, the question asked of the reader is "What does the sentence say?" That could be conceived as a complex and difficult question, of course. We mean it here, however, in its simplest sense."4- "The second level of reading we will call Inspectional Reading. It is characterized by its special emphasis on time When reading at this level, the student is allowed a set time to complete an assigned amount of reading. He might be allowed fifteen minutes to read this book, for instance or even a book twice as long...Whereas the question that is asked at the first level is "What does the sentence say?" the question typically asked at this level is "What is the book about?" That is a surface question; others of a similar nature are "What is the structure of the book or "What are its parts?""5- "The third level of reading we will call Analytical Reading. It is both a more complex and a more systematic activity than either of the two levels of reading discussed so far. Depending on the difficulty of the text to be read, it makes more or less heavy demands on the reader. Analytical reading is thorough reading, complete reading. or good reading—the best reading you can do. If inspectional reading is the best and most complete reading that is possible given a limited time, then analytical reading is the best and most complete reading that is possible given unlimited time...On this level of reading, the reader grasps a book—the metaphor is apt—and works at it until the book becomes his own. Francis Bacon once remarked that "some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." Reading a book analytically is chewing and digesting it."6- "The fourth and highest level of reading we will call Syntopical Reading. It is the most complex and systematic type of reading of all. It makes very heavy demands on the reader, even if the materials he is reading are themselves relatively easy and unsophisticated. Another name for this level might be comparative reading. When reading syntopically, the reader reads many books, not just one, and places them in relation to one another and to a subject about which they all revolve. But mere comparison of texts is not enough. Syntopical reading involves more. With the help of the books read, the svntopical reader is able to construct an analysis of the subject that may not be in any of he hooks. It is obvious, therefore, that syntopical reading is the most active and effortful kind of reading."7- "Every book should be read no more slowly than it deserves, and no more quickly than you can read it with satisfaction and comprehension. In any event, the speed at which they read, be it fast or slow, is but a fractional part of most people's problem with reading. Skimming or pre-reading a book is always a good idea; it is necessary when you do not know, as is often the case, whether the book you have in hand is worth reading carefully. You will find that out by skimming it. It is generally desirable to skim even a book that you intend to read carefully, to get some idea of its form and structure."8- "The first stage of inspectional reading-the stage we have called systematic skimming—serves to prepare the analytical reader to answer the questions that must be asked during the first stage of that level. Systematic skimming, in other words. anticipates the comprehension of a book's structure. And the second stage of inspectional reading—the stage we have called superficial reading—serves the reader when he comes to the second stage of reading at the analytical level. Superficial reading is the first necessary step in the interpretation of a book's contents."9- "The art of reading on any level above the elementary consists in the habit of asking the right questions in the right order. There are four main questions you must ask about any book. 1. What is the book about as a whole?...2. What is being said in detail, and how?...Is the book true, in whole or part? WHAT OF IT? If the book has given you information. you must ask about its significance. Why does the author think it is important to know these things? Is it important to you to know them? And if the book has not only informed you, but also enlightened you, it is necessary to seek further enlightenment by asking what else follows, what is further implied or suggested."10- "It is hard to learn to read well. Not only is reading, especially analytical reading, a very complex activity-much more complex than skiing; it is also much more of a mental activity. The beginning skier must think of physical acts that he can later forget and perform almost automatically. It is relatively easy to think of and be conscious of physical acts. It is much harder to think of mental acts, as the beginning analytical reader must do; in a sense, he is thinking about his own thoughts. Most of us are unaccustomed to doing this. Nevertheless, it can be done, and a person who does it cannot help learning to read much better."11- "Teachability is often confused with subservience. A person is wrongly thought to be teachable if he is passive and pliable. On the contrary, teachability is an extremely active virtue. No one is really teachable who does not freely exercise his power of independent judgment. He can be trained, perhaps, but not taught. The most teachable reader is, therefore, the most critical. He is the reader who finally responds to a book by the greatest effort to make up his own mind on the matters the author has discussed."12- "The First Stage of Analytical Reading: Rules for Finding What a Book Is About 1. Classify the book according to kind and subject matter. 2. State what the whole book is about with the utmost brevity. 3. Enumerate its major parts in their order and relation and outline these parts as you have outlined the whole. 4. Define the problem or problems the author has tried to solve. The Second Stage of Analytical Reading: Rules for Interpreting a Book's Contents 5. Come to terms with the author by interpreting his key words. 6. Grasp the author's leading propositions by dealing with ^is most important sentences. 7. Know the author's arguments, by finding them in, or constructing them out of, sequences of sentences. 8. Determine which of his problems the author has solved. and which he has not; and of the latter, decide which the author knew he had failed to solve. The Third Stage of Analytical Reading: Rules for Criticizing a Book as a Communication of Knowledge A. General Maxims of Intellectual Etiquette 9. Do not begin criticism until you have completed your outline and your interpretation of the book. (Do not say you agree, disagree, or suspend judgment, until you can say 1 understand.") 10. Do not disagree disputatiously or contentiously. 11. Demonstrate that you recognize the difference between knowledge and mere personal opinion by presenting good reasons for any critical judgment you make. B. Special Criteria for Points of Criticism 12. Show wherein the author is uninformed. 13. Show wherein the author is misinformed. 14. Show wherein the author is illogical. 15. Show wherein the author's analysis or account is incomplete. Note: Of these last four, the first three are criteria for disagreement. Failing in all of these, you must agree, at least in part, although you may suspend judgment on the whole, in the light of the last point."13- " Few people have ever read any book in this ideal manner, and those who have, probably read very few books this way. The ideal remains, however, the measure of achievement. You are a good reader to the degree in which you approximate it."14- "The great writers have always been great readers, but that does not mean that they read all the books that, in their day, were listed as the indispensable ones. In many cases, they read fewer books than are now required in most of our colleges, but what they did read, they read well. Because they had mastered these books, they became peers with their authors. They were entitled to become authorities in their own right. In the natural course of events, a good student frequently becomes a teacher, and so, too, a good reader becomes an author. Our intention here is not to lead you from reading to writing. It is rather to remind you that one approaches the ideal of good reading by applying the rules we have described in the reading of a single book, and not by trying? to become superficially acquainted with a larger number. There are, of course, many books worth reading well. There is a much larger number that should be only inspected. To become well-read, in every sense of the word, one must know how to use whatever skill one possesses with discrimination—by reading every book according to its merits."15- "History is the story of what led up to now. It is the present that interests us—that and the future. The future will be partly determined by the present. Thus, you can learn something about the future, too, from a historian, even from one who like Thucydides lived more than two thousand years ago. Let us sum up these two suggestions for reading history. The first is: if you can, read more than one history of an event or period that interests you. The second is: read a history not only to learn what really happened at a particular time and place in the past, but also to learn the way men act in all times and places, especially now."16- "Thus the most important thing to know, when reading any report of current happenings, is who is writing the report. What is involved here is not so much an acquaintance with the reporter himself as with the kind of mind he has. The various sorts of filter-reporters fall into groups. To understand what kind of filter our reporter's mind is, we must ask a series of questions about it. This amounts to asking a series of questions about it. This amounts to asking a series of questions about any material dealing with current events. The questions are these: 1. What does the author want to prove? 2. Whom does he want to convince? 3. What special knowledge does he assume? 4. What Special language does he use? 5. Does he really know what he is talking about?"17- "A curious paradox is involved in any project of syntopical reading. Although this level of reading is defined as the reading of two or more books on the same subject, which implies that the identification of the subject matter occurs before the reading begins, it is in a s sense true that the identification of the subject matter must follow the reading, not precede it. In the case of love, you might have to read a dozen or a hundred works before you could decide what you were reading about. And when you had done that, you might have to conclude that half of the works you had read were not on the subject at all."18- "As we have seen, there are two main stages of syntopical reading. One is preparatory, and the other is syntopical reading proper. Let us write out all of these steps for review.I. Surveying the Field Preparatory to Syntopical Reading 1. Create a tentative bibliography of your subject by recourse to library, catalogues, advisors, and bibliographies in books. 2. Inspect all of the books on the tentative bibliography to ascertain which are germane to your subject, and also to acquire a clearer idea of the subject. These two steps are not, strictly speaking, chronologically distinct; that is, the two steps have an effect on each other, with the second, in particular, serving to modify the first.II. Syntopical Reading of the Bibliography Amassed in Stage I 1. Inspect the books already identified as relevant to your subject in Stage I in order to find the most relevant passages. 2. Bring the authors to terms by constructing a neutral terminology of the subject that all, or the great majority, of the authors can be interpreted as employing, whether they actually employ the words or not. 3. Establish a set of neutral propositions for all of the authors by framing a set of questions to which all or most of the authors can be interpreted as giving answers, whether they actually treat the questions explicitly or not. 4. Define the issues, both major and minor ones, by ranging the opposing answers of authors to the various questions on one side of an issue or another. You should remember that an issue does not always exist explicitly between or among authors, but that it sometimes has to be constructed by interpretation of the authors' views on matters that may not have been their primary concern. 5. Analyze the discussion by ordering the questions and issues in such a way as to throw maximum light on the subject. More general issues should precede less general ones, and relations among issues should be clearly indicated. Note: Dialectical detachment or objectivity should, ideally. be maintained throughout. One way to insure this is always to accompany an interpretation of an author's views on an issue with an actual quotation from his text."19- "If the book belongs to the second class of books to which we referred before, you find, on returning to it, that there was less there than you remembered. The reason, of course, is that yourself have grown in the meantime. Your mind is fuller. your understanding greater. The book has not changed, but you have. Such a return is inevitably disappointing. But ff the book belongs to the highest class—the very small number of inexhaustible books-you discover on returning that the hook seems to have grown with you. You see new things in it-whole sets of new things—that you did not see before. Your previous understanding of the book is not invalidated (assuming that you read it well the first time); it is just as true as it ever was, and in the same ways that it was true before. But now it is true in still other ways, too."20- "Reading well, which means reading actively, is thus not only a good in itself, nor is it merely a means to advancement in our work or career. It also serves to keep our minds alive and growing."

Reading is something many people find valuable, whether it be for recreation or education—most people in today's world know how to read. Loads of people are likely satisfied with their current reading abilities, and perhaps even more do not have any intention to increase the amount of reading nor the intensify the difficulty of the books that they choose to read. In fact, many people have the ability to read but simply choose to not exercise it. However, for those of us who enjoy reading and wish to improve our reading skills, I cannot recommend How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading highly enough.The book was originally published in 1940, and the most recent edition was published (with updated and timely content) in 1972. It aims to provide a guide for comprehensive reading for the general reader—"from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading. You learn how to pigeonhole a book, X-ray it, extract the author's message, criticize. You are taught the different reading techniques for reading practical books, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy and social science." (From the publisher's blurb.)The authors, Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, introduce the concept of four levels of reading: elementary reading, inspectional reading, analytical reading, and syntopical reading. The levels are cumulative, which means that each gradation includes the techniques and skills of the lower levels.Elementary reading is essentially the baseline ability to read that is taught at the pre-school/kindergarten, elementary and junior high school levels. These reading skills include reading readiness, word mastery, vocabulary growth and the utilization of context, and the ability to read almost anything (albeit in a relatively unsophisticated manner). This is the level of reading that perhaps the majority of the population has achieved. What is truly outstanding about reading is that once one has developed the elementary reading skills, she can teach herself to learn the skills involved with the higher levels of reading.Inspectional reading involves two main concepts: systematic skimming or pre-reading, and superficial reading. Skimming or pre-reading involves looking at a book's title page, preface, table of contents, index, publisher's blurb, apparently-pivotal chapters, and true skimming of its content. Superficial reading is comprised of trudging through a book's content in its entirety for the first time, without ever stopping to look up or ponder the things that one does not understand right away. At this point in reading a book, one should start asking herself the four basic questions of reading:What is the book about as a whole?What is being said in detail, and how?Is the book true, in whole or part?What of it?These questions are thoroughly fleshed out in the book, and I do not wish to focus too much on them in this review. It would be much better for you to check out this book for yourself, although I must warn you that to read it honestly is more like working through a workbook than an easy read. It takes a fair amount of effort on the part of the reader, but she is handsomely rewarded at the end of her journey.Moving on, the book discusses note-taking techniques, which were very lacking in my own personal wheelhouse—it had been since my days at university that I regularly took notes in books, and even then, I didn't have an efficient education that demonstrated how to mark a book so that I would increase my level of understanding and retention. However, How to Read a Book certainly fills in where my formal education was lacking in this department. Even this brief section alone was worth reading the entire book, for me.The next section of the book—the main bulk of it, in fact—covers the third level of reading: analytical reading. This part is incredibly valuable for readers wishing to improve their overall skill set, including full chapters on the following topics: pigeonholing a book, X-raying a book, coming to terms with an author, determining an author's message, criticizing a book fairly, agreeing or disagreeing with an author, and aids to reading. Again, I do not intend this review to fully explore the book's contents, and will leave it at that.Following the section covering analytical reading, the authors explore another tangent: the various ways to approach different types of reading matter. From practical books to imaginative literature, history to science and mathematics, and a few more, this section adapts the four questions that must be asked when reading anything so that they are more applicable to specific types of reading. It was quite interesting for me to consider various types of books and reflect on my reading history and consider what I would truly like to spend my time reading in the future. The final chapter in this section discussed the reading of social science, which often requires reading multiple books about a topic. Because that is essentially the concept behind syntopical reading, it serves as a perfect segue into the next section of the book.The final section of the book, "The Ultimate Goals of Reading", focuses on syntopical reading and the concept of reading and the growth of the mind. Syntopical reading is truly an interesting concept for me. It involves creating a tentative bibliography (generally including hundreds of books) of a central subject, quickly inspecting each book, re-inspecting all of the books that are specifically pertinent to the topic to identify the relevant passages within, creating a neutral terminology that can be used to discuss the opinions of multiple authors, establishing a set of neutral propositions by framing a set of questions to ask each author, defining the major and minor issues and assigning authors to the various sides of each issue, and providing an analysis of the discussion of the topic. This is a highly-advanced level of reading that one would embark on to do true work in a field, with the hope of providing an unheard analysis of a topic's discussion that many authors have participated in over time. It is possible that one's syntopical reading of a topic could culminate in a book that would push the discussion of a topic even further—in fact, this is indeed often the ultimate goal. The final chapter of the book offers a recap of the previous sections and discusses what good books can do for us, the various classes of books (with regard to what one can get out of reading and re-reading them), and the growth of the mind.There are two appendices included, the first being an extremely valuable "Recommended Reading List". I must admit that this list makes my mouth salivate in anticipation of many more years of reading excellent books and the possibility of furthering my personal reading ability. The second appendix includes exercises and tests at the various four levels of reading. This is the one section of the book that I have yet to read—I may choose to explore these exercises in the future, although it will involve reading several other books from the aforementioned reading list, so it is likely to be a longterm project.Overall, this is one of the best books I have read in the past several years. I am confident that the advice contained within it will help me improve my reading skills while simultaneously increasing the level of enjoyment that I get out of my reading practice. I must admit that when I first started reading the book, I was a bit disappointed that it is heavily biased toward non-fiction reading, when in the past I have reaped so much enjoyment from reading fiction. However, the skills that I have learned from How to Read a Book will only serve to improve my relation to non-fiction books, something that has been somewhat lacking for me previously. This is one book that I do plan on working with further in the future, whether it is simply picking it up from time to time to skim through the notes I took on its pages, choosing my next book from its impressive reading list, or working through the second appendix's reading exercises and tests.5/5 stars. 424 pages.