How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading

3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 · rating details · 3,296 ratings · 426 reviews

How to Read a Book, originally published in 1940, has become a rare phenomenon, a living classic. It is the best and most successful guide to reading comprehension for the general reader. And now it has been completely rewritten and updated.

You are told about the various levels of reading and how to achieve them – from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and

...more

Paperback, Completely Revised and Updated, 426 pages

Published August 15th 1972 by Simon & Schuster, Inc (first published 1940)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer

A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille

The Original Homeschooling Series by Charlotte M. Mason

Best Homeschooling Books

7th out of 127 books — 143 voters

Walking the Corporate Beat by Michael Tabman

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

Books Every Businessperson Should Read

3rd out of 194 books — 73 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Oct 04, 2012 Nandakishore Varma rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary-craft

How do you read a book?

Look at the cover, probably glance at the blurb; run your eye down the table of contents, perhaps; possibly rifle through the book... then plunge right in into Chapter One.

Right?

Wrong! According to Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, the authors of How to Read a Book.

According to them, this is only the first level of reading, called “Elementary” reading: and this is the only level the majority of readers in this world have reached. They posit three more levels: “Inspe...more

51 likes · like · see review

Apr 19, 2013 Steve aka Sckenda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: about-books, self-help

"Good books are over your head; they would not be good for you if they were not. And books that are over your head weary you unless you can reach up to them and pull yourself up to their level. It is not the stretching that tires you, but the frustration of stretching unsuccessfully because you lack the skill to stretch effectively. "--Mortimer Adler

Mortimer Adler wants to teach you to be a demanding reader and to invest you with the skills of stretching by learning the art of active reading. “...more "Good books are over your head; they would not be good for you if they were not. And books that are over your head weary you unless you can reach up to them and pull yourself up to their level. It is not the stretching that tires you, but the frustration of stretching unsuccessfully because you lack the skill to stretch effectively. "--Mortimer Adler

Mortimer Adler wants to teach you to be a demanding reader and to invest you with the skills of stretching by learning the art of active reading. “An undemanding reader asks no questions and gets no answers.” A demanding reader marks his book as a form of interaction with the author and thereby pays his respect.

First, Adler thinks we should grasp the unity of the whole for any work of fiction. We have achieved this if we can express the plot in a sentence or two and if we can understand how the writer constructed the whole out of its parts (i.e., the techniques that the author takes to develop his plot). He also suggests that, as we read, we write a one or two sentence summary of each chapter. Through the act of condensing and summarizing we absorb the work.

Adler suggests that we not criticize imaginative writing until we have grasped the unities and fully appreciate what the author has tried to make us experience. The good reader makes an honest effort to appreciate the work by having the experience that the author tried to produce. Adler suggests that we not settle for a blanket statement of whether we like or dislike a book but instead challenge ourselves to objectify our reactions by pointing to those things in the book that caused them. The better we can reflectively discern the causes of our pleasure in reading the nearer we will come to knowing the artistic virtues.

For works of nonfiction, Adler thinks we first should systematically skim the book to get the overall main points-- a process which he calls “inspectional reading.” We inspect a book by reading the author’s introduction, first chapter, and last chapter. Then we read the first and last paragraphs of each chapter and the first sentence of each paragraph in between.

After skimming a nonfiction book, we should read it analytically by asking organized questions of the writer. To analyze the book we briefly summarize the main themes, arguments and subarguments of the author in our own words. Then we should outline the support for these arguments and try to probe those points by attempting to show wherein the author is uniformed, misinformed, illogical, or incomplete. Only then are we really in a position to know whether we agree or disagree.

Finally, according to Adler, the deepest level of reading is “syntopical reading,” which requires a reader to compare the present book with other books, before and after it, which address related topics. This is known as "The Great Conversation."

Activity is the essence of good reading. When you question a book it answers you only to the extent that you do the work of thinking and analysis yourself. Active reading can be hard work and time consuming, but Adler believes that it is more important to be deeply read rather than widely read. Good reading is a voyage of discovery– the process of learning something by research, by investigation, or by reflection without direct teaching.

originally reviewed March 1, 2012 (less)

29 likes · like · see review

Mar 20, 2013 Jay Liu rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: partially-read

It changed the way I read books (I read primarily non-fiction). Reading is no longer just "look at every word until they are all seen," nor is it like a tape that plays from the beginning to the end. This book taught me the value of skimming books as a way of time management. From this, I also became better aware of how to connect with the author of a particular book, through using the 'tools' the author provides to help understand the content: everything from the table of contents, to the intro...more

10 likes · like · see review

Oct 23, 2012 مهند rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ثقافة-culture

كتاب قيم مؤلف منذ فترة طويلة من قبل خبير امريكي
حول طرق القراءة الحديثة
بالرغم من كوني قارئ قديم الا انني بين الفترة والاخرى اقرأ كتب من هذا النمط
وهو دليل على اننا جميعا مهما وصلنا من تقدم في مختلف المعارف فأن ذلك لا يشكل الا نقطة البداية
سبحان الله!!
كيف تقرأ كتابا وكلا منا قرأ الاف الكتب!! ذلك هو النقص في جملة بني البشر
وترى منا من يحمل في داخله جبروت لا يخشى به احدا وهو غير قادر على الصمود امام اقل الامراض فتكا!! ومع علمه بذلك فهو يخالف ويعاند تلك الحقائق الشاملة كجزء من المنظومة اللامرئية المتحكم...more

12 likes · like · see review

Oct 09, 2008 booklady rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: any reader

Shelves: 2005, 2006, books-on-books, education, non-fiction, literature, 1990s, classic, favorites, worth-reading-over-and-over

Read this with my two daughters when they were in seventh and eighth grades respectively. It not only teaches how to read different materials, but also gives a list of must-read books. Every serious reader needs to read this book! Both of my daughters say they still use things they learned from this book in their reading. (But they weren't terribly crazy about the book when we read it! Ha!)

Most important thing about the book--while there are many useful books you will read over the course of you...more

14 likes · like · see review

Mar 24, 2012 Dante rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Dante by: Doug Geivett

Shelves: expository, non-fiction, practical, reading, favorites, reference

I'm reading this awesome book again. I'll be writing my notes for each chapter below (It will be like a "running account" of my summary of and thoughts about every chapter). So, be warned, this is going to be a very, very, very long review. I hope I'll be able to write a shorter version after I'm done with the book.

Overview

Basically, How to Read a Book is a practical book. It aims to help people become intelligent readers. To read intelligently means to read actively. To read actively means to r...more

21 likes · like · see review

Jan 27, 2008 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: education

Probably one of the most important books you can read. I outlined the first three levels of reading a while back and I saved it. I'll post that for my "review."

How To Read A Book:

(This is an outline of part of Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren’s excellent book, "How To Read A Book." The outline takes one up to the third level of reading - analytical reading. There is a fourth level, syntopical reading, but most of the intended readers of this outline, and your every day reader, does not re...more

38 likes · like · see review

Aug 31, 2012 Pj rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary, non-fiction

I would have liked this more if I had read it 10-15 years ago. There is alot of good material in the book. What held me back was that I, as an avid reader, already do a great amount of what they say to do. The best analogy I can find would be Penn and Teller being asked to read a book called How to Do Magic.

I thought Adler and Van Doren repeated themselves too often. This may be a good device for getting your message across, but over 400 pages the reader should be excused for losing patience.

I...more

3 likes · like · see review

Mar 19, 2008 Jeremiah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: education

In junior high & high school I made it my job to avoid reading altogether, just like politicians who avoid hard questions. When I was twenty I hadn't read a book since I was in fourth grade, was only partially literate, & was a high school drop out with no intentions of ever cracking another book or attending another school....then I became a Christian. Jesus not only transformed my desires, habits, and life's direction; he radically transformed two things: my desire to learn and my purs...more

14 likes · like · see review

Apr 12, 2011 Игорь Емельянов rated it 4 of 5 stars

Начать следует с ошеломительного утверждения: мы не умеем читать. Вы не умеете читать книги, этого не умею делать я и ваш преподаватель по литературе. Наверное, каждый из нас замечал, как читая какую-нибудь книгу, мысленно отвлекался, а через несколько страниц понимал, что только что занимался фоновым чтением, ничего не поняв и не запомнив. Примерно так и выглядит ваше сегодняшнее чтение по сравнению с тем способом чтения, о котором говорится в книге Мортимера Адлера.
Читать дальше...

3 likes · like · see review

Dec 22, 2011 Pavel Kalugin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Написал большой пост об эффективном чтении книг на основе этой книги Адлера и собственного опыта чтения http://pavelkalugin.ru/2011/04/25/pravila-chteniya/.

5 likes · like · see review

Apr 19, 2013 Zelda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

This is a tremendous personal victory for me for two reasons, the first of which has to do with the book itself and the second of which has to do with a concerted reallocation of time.

Ever since I first learned of the book's existence I understood that it was a book that I really SHOULD read. And I had an intention to read it. A desire to read it. And yet, I never read it. I did lots of other things that could have gone without doing. So, it really wasn't a matter of time. Celebrities got fat a...more This is a tremendous personal victory for me for two reasons, the first of which has to do with the book itself and the second of which has to do with a concerted reallocation of time.

Ever since I first learned of the book's existence I understood that it was a book that I really SHOULD read. And I had an intention to read it. A desire to read it. And yet, I never read it. I did lots of other things that could have gone without doing. So, it really wasn't a matter of time. Celebrities got fat and thin and pregnant and married and arrested and fired and would have done all of those things even if I had not been so fastidious about tracking it.

Inspired by a listening to a Susan Wise Bauer lecture on self education, I set aside time before my morning workout to read a book. I didn't have to get up any earlier than was my habit. I just had to swap online time for book time. I set a goal of reading 4 mornings a week for a minimum of 30 minutes. I decided to start with this book because my ultimate goal was to tackle some selections from the Great Books compendium in preparation for guiding my homeschooled eldest daughter through a Great Books education.

After the first morning, I was so invigorated by the reading that I decided not to take the next day off but to continue the reading. And I never did take a morning off after that. It has become one of the highlights of my day. I would feel deprived if I could not start my day this way.

The book. What a revelation. I am the reader being spoken of in the places where he refers to readers that have read wide but not deep. Prolific readers who couldn't tell you what they had just read if their lives depended upon it. For shame! I took all of Adler's advice on how to REALLY read a book to heart. The trend today is for authors to begin each book that deals with how to embark upon a new venture or how to approach an old venture in a new way by saying, "This seems hard but it is really QUITE EASY!" Not Adler. Adler tells you upfront: Reading a book well is hard. It requires a great deal of effort. It will become frustrating sometimes. It will still be worth it.

I outlined the book as I read which meant it took even longer to read but for perhaps the first time I closed a book with a sense that I truly understood it. I had not skimmed over vast sections of it with an arrogant sense of already knowing the gist of it. And now that I think about it, I've spent most of my life "gist" reading most books.

I felt an enormous sense of relief when Adler explained that the reason why we give up on books that seem over our heads is because they ARE over our heads and it is incumbent upon us to raise ourselves to that level. I had always assumed that I should understand it and the fact that I did not meant I was too stupid to ever understand it. I would give up and read something "light" and excuse it as a "palate cleanser" (looking at you, Bridget Jones right next to the dusty and never-read Tom Jones on my shelf).

I won't get into the mechanics of the book but to say that it is impeccably organized. The vocabulary might be challenging but don't worry. You can do this. You should do this. And there should be a class in every school that teaches this book and the approach to reading that it prescribes. Adler would not approve of my classification of his book but here it is: Game Changer. Cannot over-recommend. (less)

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 04, 2010 Najibah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-on-books, read-2010, non-fiction, read-but-not-own, in-tsl

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Buku ini secara keseluruhannya cuba mengajar kita menjadi pembaca yang lebih aktif, supaya berhasil mendapatkan lebih manfaat dari bahan bacaan. Manakala tujuan tertinggi dan terakhir dari kegiatan membaca adalah untuk meninggikan akal budi.

Manfaat Membaca: Pengetahuan & Kefahaman

Ada dua manfaat utama daripada membaca, pertama menambah pengetahuan dan kedua menambah pemahaman. Pengetahuan hanya melibatkan fakta, manakala pemahaman melibatkan keupayaan mendalami makna di sebalik fakta serta m...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 04, 2008 Natasha rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: serious readers

Recommended to Natasha by: Oliver DeMille

Shelves: education

I read this book because I live by the mantra, "Life is Short---Read Fast" and I hoped it would teach me how to read faster. Instead it teaches you to read slower, analytically. It also teaches you how to "date" a book---to decide if you really want to spend the time to read the whole thing before commiting yourself to it. This book has a rather pedantic tone, which makes it a little dry to plow through. But I kept at it because there were philosophical gems interspersed throughout the pages. On...more

7 likes · like · see review

Sep 02, 2007 Mikol rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this book in the mid-seventies. I was in my early twenties I think. I had a voracious appetite for books. This volume really helped me organize the way that I read and helped me be discerning regarding what books to read.

One idea from the book that I still recall 30 years later is his discussion about teachers, dead and alive. Books were the dead teachers, but teachers nonetheless. And as a result of the published work, one could get to know the teacher if the work was of good quality and...more

7 likes · like · see review

May 30, 2013 travelgirlut rated it 4 of 5 stars

My kids laughed at me when they saw I was getting a book about how to read a book. I'm an avid reader so I honestly didn't think I would get much from reading this, but I have to be honest, I usually don't remember much about what I read once I'm finished. This book teaches you how to get the most from books that are actually worth reading.

Some important points I gleaned:
- Not all books are worth reading well. Some are only worthy of a cursory read-through.
- A good book should move us from unde...more My kids laughed at me when they saw I was getting a book about how to read a book. I'm an avid reader so I honestly didn't think I would get much from reading this, but I have to be honest, I usually don't remember much about what I read once I'm finished. This book teaches you how to get the most from books that are actually worth reading.

Some important points I gleaned:
- Not all books are worth reading well. Some are only worthy of a cursory read-through.
- A good book should move us from understanding less to understanding more, not just give us new facts or knowledge.
- Reading is like having a conversation with the author, which is really kind of cool if you think about it. You can talk to Plato or Aristotle or even Hitler if you want, just by reading the words they put down on a page. And we should be talking back to the authors, finding the truth or fallacies in what they say, analyzing their words and coming up with our own to counter theirs.

While this book was very strong in explaining the whys of reading better, I felt it fell a little flat in the how department, especially in the sections at the end explaining how to read specific types of books. I would wrap my brain around how reading fiction is different than non-fiction and just need a concrete example to cement it all, and it would move on to something else.

If you wanted to pair this book with another that gives more hand-holding in the how-to department, I would read this one first, then follow it up with The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had. The-Well Educated Mind gives very specific step-by-step instructions on the actual reading of books, but is much weaker in the why department. So between the two, you can get a complete picture of how and why this process works to get our brains moving and learning.

Besides the actual content of the book, I found How to Read a Book to be written in such a way that I found it a pleasure to read. Something about how the authors put words together made me feel smarter just reading it. They used intelligent words and phrasing that pushed me just enough without feeling pompous. Even in the drier sections of the book, I found myself slowing down just to enjoy the words. I realize this marks me out as a bit of a word nerd, but oh well!(less)

like · see review

May 13, 2013 Erika RS rated it 4 of 5 stars

How to Read a Book describes techniques for reading more effectively. It focuses on reading for understanding rather than reading for pleasure, so the techniques describe tend to apply less to fiction than to nonfiction. However, the techniques described can be applied, with modification, to fiction if your goal in reading a particular work is more than entertainment.

The authors divide reading into four levels. The first level of reading is basic reading and comprehension. They spend little time...more

like · see review

Apr 10, 2013 Courtney rated it 4 of 5 stars

Pros: Great ideas worth thinking about, changed the way I read books, and gave me new understanding, not just knowledge about how to read. He makes his points in a very methodical fashion, which helped me think about the best way to structure books.

Cons: Clinical and slow at times. So methodical that it could get repetitive

I enjoyed the methodical nature of this. It was a lesson in both reading and logical thinking. I got a lot out of the practical suggestions on how to read, and enjoyed the the...more

like · see review

Jul 21, 2012 Greg Talbot rated it 4 of 5 stars

At 26, I don't feel a bit silly thumbing through "How to Read a Book", I think it's rock solid advice to anyone who wants to improve their reading skills. I imagine an audience in formative years or more established readers were learn a lot from a book like this.

Goodreads readers, we probably read a lot, and quicky. The question we should be mindful of is if we are choosing to read wisely. If we take the perspective as Adler and Van Doren do, that reading is always a conversation, how well are...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 18, 2012 Daniel Lucraft rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a great book, anyone who wants to get more out of their reading should read it.

Still, I found it a bit uneven. For instance, in the book Adler sets out methods to help you to solve two distinct problems:

1. How to read a book.
2. How to, given a topic, select a bibliography, read a dozen or so books on that topic, then create as a product a dialectical analysis of the historical dialogue on that topic.

The first he calls Analytical Reading, the second he calls Syntopical Reading.

I don't...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 23, 2011 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: landmark-books, philosophy, studying-thinking

It's not how much you read, but how well--and this book gives you specific, step-by-step techniques to get you to read as well as possible.

First of all, who would be so presumptuous as to advise fellow adults on how to read--a skill notionally possessed by everyone who's made it through public school? Well, Mortimer J. Adler, philosopher, longtime editor of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and moving force behind the Britannica Great Books of the Western World series; and Charles Van Doren, Adler's...more

5 likes · like · see review

Jul 12, 2009 Mike Knox rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This book promotes reading as an active art. The goal of reading ought to be more than increased knowledge; rather, it strives for increased understanding. Thus the authors can talk about reading as a form of research, elevating the task of reading far above its stereotype of passivity.

The authors describe four ascending levels of reading: (1) Elementary; (2) Inspectional; (3) Analytical; and (4) Syntopical. The levels are cumulative in the sense that, if you are to read at say level 3, you will...more

2 likes · like · see review

Aug 16, 2012 Audrey rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

This book had some good information, but it was redundant and wordy. I liked their analysis of syntopical reading (functionally, reading in depth on a single topic, usually as part of a research project), but the rest of their tips and analysis were a) lost in caveats and asides, b) intuitive for me, or c) something I disagreed with.

As an example of something I disagreed, the authors recommend a quick read, without stopping, of every book you acquire. If you don't understand a concept, they want...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 22, 2012 Jared rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Good: If have recently graduated from High School and are about to attend college then I strongly recommend this book. It will help you know how to do research projects (it's chapter on synoptical reading) understand your text books, and if you in English class give some good hints on reading poetry, and dramatic plays.

The Bad: The author does have a tone of voice that can be grating (a little too authoritative). He claims the book was written for the 8th grade level but I don't know very m...more

like · see review

Apr 18, 2012 Charity Troy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-library

This book tries to teach the reader to read analytically, and therefore to teach the reader to read better and expand their mind after each book. It is broken into parts. The first is about the different levels a reader can be at. Part 2 is about analytical reading, which would seem to be the meat of the book, but is really just common sense, like to understand something before criticizing it. This part is mainly about expository books, so a large part is just one type of book. Part 3 covers ho...more

like · see review

Jan 20, 2012 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is absolutely fantastic for anyone looking to read more analytically. The book attacks the problem with great clarity and rigor. It is not a list of cheap tricks to magically improve your reading, but rather a guide for learning from a book as you would a teacher. It provides a gamut of advice from small investments that can benefit the reading of any book to exhaustive and time-consuming strategies for fully engaging a book that you have determined to be worth understanding completely...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 25, 2011 Sasha Martinez added it

Shelves: books-read-in-2011

It’s such a dinosaur. Cranky, snooty, stuffy, pedantic, often condescending. It’s a manual. For intelligent reading. Very textbook-y, very fundamental. Very practical. Like some invisible ruler cracked against my keyboard-clobbering knuckles, like a pesky voice in your head.

It’s like having tea with your cane-thumping retiree-professor of a great-grandfather. Him demanding why you aren’t wearing hose, and will you please stand up straight? You bide your time, you promised you’d keep him company....more

7 likes · like · see review

Jan 18, 2013 Terrie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

The first half of this book was eye-opening, interesting, and very beneficial to me. It consists of steps to achieve greater comprehension, focus, sorting of information, what types of questions to ask of yourself and the author as you read expository books. I wish I had read this in college.

The second half is devoted to novels,reference works,lyrical poetry, scientific,mathematical, social science, philosophy, and religious books. I found almost all of it quite boring.

His comments on cannoniz...more

like · see review

Aug 03, 2012 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I love this book. This is not to say that I bear it the kind of feeling that puts it on a shelf of 'All Time Classics', but I do have a certain affinity for it; it is the love of admiration.

As a life-long reader, I admit that I scoffed at the title. My children did too, along with complete strangers (I had more people approach me about this book than any other I have ever read). The reaction was always the same: a mixed incredulity that a person should read a book about how to read a book. Doesn...more I love this book. This is not to say that I bear it the kind of feeling that puts it on a shelf of 'All Time Classics', but I do have a certain affinity for it; it is the love of admiration.

As a life-long reader, I admit that I scoffed at the title. My children did too, along with complete strangers (I had more people approach me about this book than any other I have ever read). The reaction was always the same: a mixed incredulity that a person should read a book about how to read a book. Doesn't this seem counter-intuitive? Shouldn't you already know how to read a book before tackling this 400 page tome? Why was the book so thick? And, really--what was it about?

Yet this is precisely why I love this book. Adler and Van Doren have tackled the unenviable task of analyzing how to most effectively read a book. I believe that people of average intelligence who have also been reading for most of their lives will find that these prescriptions are really just descriptions of what they have been doing intuitively for the better part of their lives. The steps that the authors present are commonsense depictions of what (as they put it) an ideal reader should be doing in the first place. Again, reasonably intelligent people who have been reading actively throughout their lives should feel that these are obvious steps.

Which brings me back to why I love this book: As an instructor, I find that the majority of readers in the world DO NOT follow these steps. If I could--if the curriculum were up to me--I would force every student who entered college to first read this book before being allowed to sign up for classes. The book not only provides steps to properly reading a book, but it also provides two other important features that every student needs: 1) A basic primer in critical thinking skills; 2) A passionate defense of the lost love of knowledge. Those two principles are lost in our modern culture of fast-times and easy sensations; Adler and Van Doren's work provides a throwback to an earlier age wherein erudition and the improvement of the self were the chief concerns of educated people (I also would like to note that I recognize that these aims have been lost somewhat in the post-modern intellectual age). Though I have no illusions that this book would solve the conditioning that students bring to a learning environment, I do think that it would be a great first step towards (perhaps) igniting some passion buried deep in them. I also think that it would help them to analyze their world, especially since this book discounts the notion that 'Because I feel like it' is a valid reason for maintaining a position. As this book points out, this is not a tenable opinion.

I hope that the previous paragraph makes it clear that this work is invaluable to the early college student. I also believe it is beneficial to post-college professionals: by becoming familiar with this work, a graduate has access to succinct phrases which can help to clarify their thoughts AND which may prove beneficial in educating others or in showing sound logical principles to those who have not spent much time in regards to critical thinking. In essence, I think that any serious thinker may find him or herself cheering on the logic inherent in this great work.

Let me close by saying that I think my review may sound a bit snobby ('Oh, knowledge is so great! Oh, society is stupid, etc.'). I want to defend that approach by saying that I think that we need more books like this, ones that give an alternative modeling to social identities and that provide a real, tangible intellectual approach to science and the humanities. There are too many meme-bites on the internet that celebrate an intellectual lifestyle without actually contributing much substance to what is being celebrated. This book exhibits a serious attempt at intellectual models that can help anyone to become (gasp!) a better person.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 06, 2012 Henrik Hallberg rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is how I like my books: putting the magnifying glass on something I've considered self-evident, almost mundane. Treating the subject from the ground up, making the scales fall from my eyes with that exquisite combination of passion and logic, eloquence and intellectual honesty. Books that I find myself reading slower, and that I close with a genuine understanding of the subject that has become part of myself.

In the final chapter, the authors explain how there are some books that you read on...more

1 like · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Well-Trained ...: How Many of You Actually Read a Book 3-4 times?	1	21	Oct 07, 2012 08:45am
The Well-Trained ...: Preface	1	12	Jul 09, 2012 07:40pm
The Filipino Group: [Buddy Reads] How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler and Charles van Doren (Kwesi 章英狮, Maldita & Dante), Start: November 25, Friday	56	37	Dec 24, 2011 12:47am

combine
Other Editions (22)

More editions...

Genres

Non Fiction

208 users

Education

87 users

Writing > Books About Books

58 users

Reference

55 users

Language > Writing

40 users

Self Help

38 users

Philosophy

30 users

Literature

22 users

How To

22 users

Classics

21 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Mortimer J. Adler

Mortimer Jerome Adler was an American educator, philosopher, and popular author. As a philosopher he worked with Aristotelian and Thomistic thought. He lived for the longest stretches in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and San Mateo. He worked for Columbia University, the University of Chicago, Encyclopædia Britannica, and Adler's own Institute for Philosophical Research.

Adler was born in N...more Mortimer Jerome Adler was an American educator, philosopher, and popular author. As a philosopher he worked with Aristotelian and Thomistic thought. He lived for the longest stretches in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and San Mateo. He worked for Columbia University, the University of Chicago, Encyclopædia Britannica, and Adler's own Institute for Philosophical Research.

Adler was born in New York City on December 28, 1902, to Jewish immigrants. He dropped out of school at age 14 to become a copy boy for the New York Sun, with the ultimate aspiration to become a journalist. Adler soon returned to school to take writing classes at night where he discovered the works of men he would come to call heroes: Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, John Stuart Mill and others. He went on to study at Columbia University and contributed to the student literary magazine, The Morningside, (a poem "Choice" in 1922 when Charles A. Wagner was editor-in-chief and Whittaker Chambers an associate editor). Though he failed to pass the required swimming test for a bachelor's degree (a matter that was rectified when Columbia gave him an honorary degree in 1983), he stayed at the university and eventually received an instructorship and finally a doctorate in psychology. While at Columbia University, Adler wrote his first book: Dialectic, published in 1927.

In 1930 Robert Hutchins, the newly appointed president of the University of Chicago, whom Adler had befriended some years earlier, arranged for Chicago’s law school to hire him as a professor of the philosophy of law; the philosophers at Chicago (who included James H. Tufts, E.A. Burtt, and George H. Mead) had "entertained grave doubts as to Mr. Adler's competence in the field [of philosophy]" and resisted Adler's appointment to the University's Department of Philosophy. Adler was the first "non-lawyer" to join the law school faculty. Adler also taught philosophy to business executives at the Aspen Institute.

Adler and Hutchins went on to found the Great Books of the Western World program and the Great Books Foundation. Adler founded and served as director of the Institute for Philosophical Research in 1952. He also served on the Board of Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica since its inception in 1949, and succeeded Hutchins as its chairman from 1974. As the director of editorial planning for the fifteenth edition of Britannica from 1965, he was instrumental in the major reorganization of knowledge embodied in that edition. He introduced the Paideia Proposal which resulted in his founding the Paideia Program, a grade-school curriculum centered around guided reading and discussion of difficult works (as judged for each grade). With Max Weismann, he founded The Center for the Study of The Great Ideas.

Adler long strove to bring philosophy to the masses, and some of his works (such as How to Read a Book) became popular bestsellers. He was also an advocate of economic democracy and wrote an influential preface to Louis Kelso's The Capitalist Manifesto. Adler was often aided in his thinking and writing by Arthur Rubin, an old friend from his Columbia undergraduate days. In his own words:

Unlike many of my contemporaries, I never write books for my fellow professors to read. I have no interest in the academic audience at all. I'm interested in Joe Doakes. A general audience can read any book I write—and they do.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortimer...(less)

More about Mortimer J. Adler...

Books by Mortimer J. Adler

How to Think About the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About How to Read a Boo...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from How to Read a Book: Th...

“True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline.” — 1,256 people liked it

“....a good book can teach you about the world and about yourself. You learn more than how to read better; you also learn more about life. You become wiser. Not just more knowledgeable - books that provide nothing but information can produce that result. But wiser, in the sense that you are more deeply aware of the great and enduring truths of human life.” — 61 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading
avg rating	preview: How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading Goodreads rating: 3.94 (3296 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/567610.How_to_Read_a_Book?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1310993739l/567610.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/567610.How_to_Read_a_Book?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J. Adler[/url]

How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website