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

Mortimer J. Adler,

Charles Van Doren

3.99 · Rating details · 18,829 ratings · 2,055 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

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Paperback, Completely Revised and Updated, 426 pages

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

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Sep 29, 2011 Nandakishore Varma rated it it was ok

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

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Jan 27, 2008 Paul rated it it was amazing

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

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Dec 03, 2013 Cecily rated it it was ok

Shelves: lit-crit, overrated

Who This Book is (not) For

It focuses mainly on reading expositional, rather than imaginative material. It was written in 1940, and revised in 1972, though it looks and feels more like a 40s book.

I read it in the hope of becoming a more analytical reader who could go on to write more coherent, concise, and original reviews. It didn’t help.

This may once have been a good book. Had I read it as an undergraduate, I may even have found bits of it slightly useful. As a middle-aged fiction reader in th ...more

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Sep 25, 2011 Sasha added it

Shelves: 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

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Apr 08, 2011 Dante rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Dante by: Doug Geivett

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

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

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Oct 24, 2014 Roy Lotz rated it liked it

Shelves: help-me-help-myself, education

The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks.

I had a lot of fun holding this book upside-down on the subway with a puzzled look on my face.

For much of his remarkably long life, Mortimer Adler was the leading proponent of the ‘Great Books’ paradigm of education. Under his leadership, the Encyclopedia Britannica published the 54-volume Great Books of the Western World (1952) as well as the Gateway to the Great Books (1963)—which, cons ...more

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Mar 04, 2017 Supratim rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

I heard about this book in a casual conversation and my interest was piqued. When I heard that the book instructs on analytical reading I knew I had to read it.

I have decided that I am not going to summarize the rules enunciated in this book. Instead I would keep my review short.

In the first chapter the authors have mentioned that “…… this book is about the art of reading for the sake of increased understanding.” The authors have clearly stated that the book intends to help people understand e ...more

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Feb 27, 2008 Jeremiah rated it it was amazing

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 pursuit of t ...more

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Oct 09, 2008 booklady rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: any reader

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

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

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Sep 04, 2008 Natasha rated it liked it

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

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Aug 13, 2013 Ted rated it liked it

Shelves: have, education-learning, non-fiction-general, americana

This is a book for readers and for those who wish to become readers.
so writes Mortimer Adler in his first sentence.

3 ½

I stopped reading this book over MD (that's 1500) days ago. Hope no one was waiting for the review. Not likely, I know.

Mortimer Adler (1902-2001) published this book in the early days of 1940. Before the U.S. had entered WW II. I guess at that point Americans were still concerned about how they should be reading books. (Adler, working at the University of Chicago, was one of the ...more

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Mar 18, 2017 Dan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-books-reading-writing

I read this in 2003. Most of it was concerned with the various levels of reading - from skimming to syntopical - and the various methods and processes involved in reading at each of those levels. There was also a lengthy section on ways to approach the reading of different genres. While I found all of this interesting, I felt it was ultimately impractical for me because focusing on the method by which I read would distract from the enjoyment reading has always afforded me. I'm sure I've subconsc I read this in 2003. Most of it was concerned with the various levels of reading - from skimming to syntopical - and the various methods and processes involved in reading at each of those levels. There was also a lengthy section on ways to approach the reading of different genres. While I found all of this interesting, I felt it was ultimately impractical for me because focusing on the method by which I read would distract from the enjoyment reading has always afforded me. I'm sure I've subconsciously incorporated some of the things I learned from Adler and Van Doren, but I can't make myself follow a set of steps or procedures to do something I enjoy doing the way I've always done it.

The first thing from the book that has stuck with me was a statement to the effect that, to be considered well-read, one should have at some point read The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, The Divine Comedy, and Paradise Lost. I'm not sure why that stuck with me or why it then became important for me to read them. Maybe it was just another "reading list" to be conquered but the almost total absence of poetry in all my years of reading made this one a little daunting. Since 2003 I've read and enjoyed all of them, and I’ve discovered that I enjoy getting into a good epic poem. One of the benefits of having read these is that my reading of books that reference or allude to them has been enhanced.

The second thing I took from Adler and Van Doren was their actual reading list, included as an appendix. Very heavy on the ancient classics, philosophy, and science, so working my way through it has been a lengthy and winding trail.

The last two things are somewhat related and are those that have most impacted my reading; not how I read, but how my reading affects me. These are the concepts of the pyramid of books and the conversation of great books – what I call the literary conversation. The authors contend that the books we read form a pyramid with the base consisting of the majority of our reading material; that which doesn't stretch our reading skills. As we move up the pyramid, we encounter books that are increasingly difficult for us because, at the time we read them, our reading skills – how we understand a book and make it our own – are not at the level necessary to grasp all that is available from the book. If we return to those books at a later date they will not seem as difficult because our reading skills will have improved in the interim. At the peak of each of our individual pyramids is the handful of books that will improve our abilities each time we read them because there is much more there than can be grasped at a single skill level. This is not to say that any given book will be at the peak of everyone's pyramid. There are too many ways for books and people to relate to each other for that to ever be the case, and that's where the literary conversation comes into play.

Complex systems have been defined as “system(s) composed of interconnected parts that as a whole exhibit one or more properties not obvious from the properties of the individual parts.” When it comes to reading, that complex system is the literary conversation. Adler and Van Doren believe that great books - those that stand the test of time and consistently stretch the reading abilities of large numbers of people - engage in a conversation with us and, through us, with each other. In my experience, the most common form of this conversation is when an author quotes or alludes to another book in his own book. The book quoted or alluded to is generally one that is considered a classic. Some instances can be fairly extensive as in Andrew Davidson's The Gargoyle wherein the protagonist experiences a chapter-long nightmare based on Dante's The Inferno. A more subtle - and to me more satisfying - form of the conversation occurs when I recognize in different authors a common theme or concept expressed from differing perspectives. I read Thomas Pynchon's V. and Umberto Eco's Baudolino about a month apart. Despite the dissimilarity of the authors and the stories, at a climactic scene in each of the books the point that, in life, the journey is often more important than the destination was expressed from almost opposite perspectives. The scene from V. gave me the perspective that sometimes, when what we've sought is almost within our grasp, we make our faith a lie so that we don't have to give up our quest by achieving its goal, while Baudolino looked at the same point from the perspective that the achievement of a goal sometimes precipitates the loss of the spirit, drive, and fellowship that were the quest. I don't know if I happen to periodically recognize such similarities because of where I am in life at the time or if Serendipity flutters her wings at just the right moment, but they always elicit from me a softly uttered, "Wow!"
...more

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Dec 01, 2013 Margitte rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed, 2015-read, nonfiction

I have been reading this book very slowly, on and off, the past two months, trying to have enough time to concentrate, focus, be analytical, critical and syntopical.

This pedagogical work is so comprehensive, it will take forever to summarize the content. In short, this book is a must-read for any serious reader of the GREAT BOOKS of all times.

It can be regarded as a manual for lecturers/teachers/reviewers, or anybody who needs to discuss a serious book. Book clubs comes to mind here for those ...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Diem rated it it was amazing

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 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. ...more

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Apr 13, 2010 Taka rated it did not like it

Shelves: japan_jul07-aug11, other

Tedious,turgid, and torturous--

Thank God I've gained a few insights from this: the usefulness of inspectional reading and how to read poetry (which consists of reading it as fast as you can and rereading it aloud). Some thoughts on syntopical reading are somewhat interesting for anyone writing dissertations and theses, but not really for the average reader without a Ph.D. to pursue.

I thank God for the insights because otherwise I would've wasted all my time. I found 90% of the information simply ...more

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May 30, 2013 travelgirlut rated it really liked it

Shelves: education

May 26, 2013: 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 mov May 26, 2013: 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!

UPDATE June 29, 2016: I've now read this book for a second time and still feel the same way as I did above. This time through I took notes while reading and I think I was able to get a better picture of how it all fits together, but I still think the second section that describes the differences in reading varying types of books to be weaker than the initial how and why section. The chapters actually taper off in usefulness the farther into the book you go.

My biggest take-away from this reading: Alder tells us that if you've read a good book well, you should never have to read it again because you've garnered everything from it that you can and learned all that it has to teach you. However, there are some great books that will always have something new to teach you because they grow with you. Those second type of books are the ones we should be looking for and reading.

I feel like I've now gotten everything from this book that it has to teach me. My task now is to take what I've learned and go use it on the great books out there in the world.

(I again plan to follow this up with The Well-Educated Mind since there is a new edition out and I want to see what's new!) ...more

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Feb 18, 2020 Farhan Khalid rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Reading can be done for three reasons:

Entertainment – to relax, hear a story

Information – to acquire facts

Understanding – to develop insight

Reading actively means mastering four levels of reading:

Elementary reading – Turning symbols into information

Inspectional reading – Getting the most from a book in a given time

Analytical reading – Thorough and complete reading for understanding

Synoptic reading – Exploring a subject through wide reading

Make every book you read your own. Use:

Highlighting ...more

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Apr 11, 2011 Jay rated it really liked it

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 book, through using the 'tools' the author provides to help understand the content: everything from the table of contents, to the introduction, to ...more

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Jul 08, 2015 Michael rated it it was amazing

Shelves: aaa-favornonfiction, xlong-over-400, philosophycrit, all-five-star, zz1940, nonfiction, historicity, literature, aa-unitedstateslit

150715: this is a later addition: in answer to the title question 'how to...' I must offer my considered reply, that might be buried, might be forgotten, might be so obvious no one ever states it. how? with joy, with pleasure, with desire, in whatever language, in translations, in genres, in history. to add to this, in personal claim: from a comfortable, shaded, breezy lanai of the condo facing the beach, listening to the surf, the wild chickens, the laughter of children in the pool...

first revi ...more

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Feb 21, 2019 CaptainWolfsborg rated it really liked it

Shelves: education, 0-re-read

Having thousands of books behind me, I thought that a book with the title How to Read a Book would fall into the same category as the books about how to walk or how to ride a bicycle. But then there's a question -- how many of those books I really understood and how many of them just gave me information, which would anyway be gone almost completely after a while? This regards primarily to expository books, since reading of literature has a different purpose.

Sometimes, the most obvious is not tha Having thousands of books behind me, I thought that a book with the title How to Read a Book would fall into the same category as the books about how to walk or how to ride a bicycle. But then there's a question -- how many of those books I really understood and how many of them just gave me information, which would anyway be gone almost completely after a while? This regards primarily to expository books, since reading of literature has a different purpose.

Sometimes, the most obvious is not that obvious, and like in any kind of endeavor there are levels of nerdiness. This one appears to be quite useful. On a global scale, 95 percent of adults are literate and they know how to read. However, the percentage of those who can read well is another story. How many of you, equipped with the normal memorization abilities, can properly recollect what you have read some years ago?

For the most part, 99% of the content is gone after a while. I believe though that insights from the books we forget still remain in some corners of our consciousness and they contribute to the wholeness of our thinking. However, in order to boost the capability of thinking and understanding, reading structured and well is of great importance. Mortimer Adler in this old book provides the methodology for doing it. The author suggests four levels of reading:

1) Elementary
2) Inspectional
3) Analytical, and
4) Syntopical reading (also known as comparative reading).

Many of us read for information, and, usually, that is enough for literature, but when it comes to expository books the aim should be understanding. And there is a big difference between reading for information and reading for understanding.

Traditional education seems to be unaware of the levels of reading and seldom provides some structure for reading for proper understanding. Therefore many of us probably have a nagging feeling that we don't know how to read well. The author fills that gap by showing which skills are needed to become good at reading. I believe, If we put hard work and apply the steps proposed the time spent on books will increase in value dramatically.

The ideas the authors suggests are worth five stars, but, the writing, unfortunately, is somewhere between two and three. It is a bit tedious and repetitive.

I need to admit, I am a very competitive person, and the amount of the books read is one of my personal KPI's - a measure which is quite useless for the reading of non-fiction books. I am going test the suggested style of reading and see if it can make a difference. ...more

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Mar 12, 2019 Alok Mishra rated it liked it

Well, this is a book that tells the readers about the 'right methods' to read a book. However, this book is for the readers who are classic in their thoughts and can bear a book without any trouble. The content might be richer only for those who believe in rich content but not in the delivery of the content.
Too much analysis might not be suitable for readers who read works for pleasure. Ideal for students of literature (mainly non-fiction readers). ...more

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Feb 01, 2021 Matthew Selby rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reading-list

The book did what it sought to do: It explained how to read actively and critically. And did it very well. The only drawbacks to this book is how it sometimes rambles on about examples, that are easy to skim, and the structure, which is kind of a mess. This is redeemed through the Appendices which include a reading list and some tests on the reading skills discussed throughout the book.

I would recommend this to anyone who wishes to improve their critical reading.

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Jun 23, 2011 Paul rated it it was amazing

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

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Jul 26, 2012 John rated it really liked it

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 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. ...more

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Aug 14, 2007 Mikol rated it it was amazing

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

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Nov 09, 2014 Jasmine rated it really liked it

Shelves: in-english, 2014, the-art-of-reading, non-fiction

"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." (p. 336).
This practical guide is about the Art of Reading. Highly recommended for readers who prefer quality over quantity. ...more

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Dec 17, 2009 K.M. Weiland rated it did not like it

Ironically, I found this book nearly unreadable. Basic tenets are presented as high concepts in a pompous, bloated style.

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Jul 26, 2011 John Harder added it

Mortimer Adler is a pompous snob. This is why I like him. Old Mort (actually he is now dead Mort) takes us through various techniques of reading, with a focus on how to gather the most from a book in the most efficient manner. Depending in the circumstances and type of book a light skim might be best, others a lifetime of study.

Much of what Adler discusses is obvious but like with all things we sometimes get lazy and ignore the fundamentals.

I love how Mort says that in the history of man only ab ...more

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Oct 21, 2017 Ana rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, literary-criticism, non-fiction, north-american-literature, books-about-books, united-states-literature

The writing style was okay, but the book needed to be trimmed a bit. Some advice was useful even to more experienced readers.

This is a good book if you're interested in reading for something other than pure enjoyment. It's a great book if you're doing research for an essay or want to explore certain themes withing the literary cannon. It tackles different types of books, but I still think Reading Like A Writer is better.

CONTENTS

Preface

PART ONE: The Dimensions of Reading

1. The Activity and ...more

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May 29, 2020 Tiffany Lee rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Wow - that's my reaction after reading it. Just simply, wow.

I have felt for a long time that I don’t read well. I try to be well-read by reading more, but this book showed me that reading well is not about the quantities of facts we remember, or the number of pages we consume, but about understanding what the author is trying to say, knowing the significance of it, and judging whether what the book presents to us is true. In order to improve your reading skills, you have to keep reading challen Wow - that's my reaction after reading it. Just simply, wow.

I have felt for a long time that I don’t read well. I try to be well-read by reading more, but this book showed me that reading well is not about the quantities of facts we remember, or the number of pages we consume, but about understanding what the author is trying to say, knowing the significance of it, and judging whether what the book presents to us is true. In order to improve your reading skills, you have to keep reading challenging books. Only those books can expand your ability in reading.

The book offers a lot of practical advice on how to read a book analytically. Quick takeaways:

* Knowing the genre of the book help you deconstruct it differently. For example, history books and scientific books present proposition differently due to the nature of the arguments presented.

* For difficult reads, you have to read it at least twice. In the first pass, aim for an inspectional reading: note the outline and the overarching idea of the book. The key is to not stop to look up words or ideas and disrupt the flow. Then second go, go through the material like you normally do while keeping in mind the outline.

* Highlight the book. Look for the propositions, supporting arguments, keywords, and sentences that puzzle you. Note the relationship between these pieces while reading.

* Ask the four questions while reading the book: What is it trying to say? How does it say it? Is it true? What of it?

* If you disagree with the author, you can only supply one of four reasons: (1) You're misinformed; (2) You're disinformed; (3) Your reasoning is flawed, and (4) Your analysis is incomplete. Everything reasons besides these four are matters of personal opinion (like rhetoric preferences).

* The suggestions above mostly do not apply to fiction or other creative writings.

Despite all the appreciation I have for How to Read a Book, I have one disagreement with the author. The book mentions that, for a practical book, if you agree with the author's premise and argument, there is no reason why you wouldn't put their practical advice into action. But how can you know that the means that the author suggested can help you achieve the ends? In the case of How to Read a Book, how do you know following his advice can help you become a good reader? In this case, I think the logic is flawed.

The book offers a lot more nuanced practical advice than what I've summarized above. Strongly encourage all curious, hungry minds to read it for yourself. ...more

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What is one book you've read so far this quarter that we ALL should read?	2	54	Oct 08, 2015 05:47PM
What is your personal reading-style?	3	97	Jun 06, 2014 08:46AM
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About Mortimer J. Adler

Mortimer J. Adler

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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 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... ...more

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“True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline.” — 1588 likes

“Reading list (1972 edition)[edit]
1. Homer – Iliad, Odyssey
2. The Old Testament
3. Aeschylus – Tragedies
4. Sophocles – Tragedies
5. Herodotus – Histories
6. Euripides – Tragedies
7. Thucydides – History of the Peloponnesian War
8. Hippocrates – Medical Writings
9. Aristophanes – Comedies
10. Plato – Dialogues
11. Aristotle – Works
12. Epicurus – Letter to Herodotus; Letter to Menoecus
13. Euclid – Elements
14. Archimedes – Works
15. Apollonius of Perga – Conic Sections
16. Cicero – Works
17. Lucretius – On the Nature of Things
18. Virgil – Works
19. Horace – Works
20. Livy – History of Rome
21. Ovid – Works
22. Plutarch – Parallel Lives; Moralia
23. Tacitus – Histories; Annals; Agricola Germania
24. Nicomachus of Gerasa – Introduction to Arithmetic
25. Epictetus – Discourses; Encheiridion
26. Ptolemy – Almagest
27. Lucian – Works
28. Marcus Aurelius – Meditations
29. Galen – On the Natural Faculties
30. The New Testament
31. Plotinus – The Enneads
32. St. Augustine – On the Teacher; Confessions; City of God; On Christian Doctrine
33. The Song of Roland
34. The Nibelungenlied
35. The Saga of Burnt Njál
36. St. Thomas Aquinas – Summa Theologica
37. Dante Alighieri – The Divine Comedy;The New Life; On Monarchy
38. Geoffrey Chaucer – Troilus and Criseyde; The Canterbury Tales
39. Leonardo da Vinci – Notebooks
40. Niccolò Machiavelli – The Prince; Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy
41. Desiderius Erasmus – The Praise of Folly
42. Nicolaus Copernicus – On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
43. Thomas More – Utopia
44. Martin Luther – Table Talk; Three Treatises
45. François Rabelais – Gargantua and Pantagruel
46. John Calvin – Institutes of the Christian Religion
47. Michel de Montaigne – Essays
48. William Gilbert – On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies
49. Miguel de Cervantes – Don Quixote
50. Edmund Spenser – Prothalamion; The Faerie Queene
51. Francis Bacon – Essays; Advancement of Learning; Novum Organum, New Atlantis
52. William Shakespeare – Poetry and Plays
53. Galileo Galilei – Starry Messenger; Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences
54. Johannes Kepler – Epitome of Copernican Astronomy; Concerning the Harmonies of the World
55. William Harvey – On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals; On the Circulation of the Blood; On the Generation of Animals
56. Thomas Hobbes – Leviathan
57. René Descartes – Rules for the Direction of the Mind; Discourse on the Method; Geometry; Meditations on First Philosophy
58. John Milton – Works
59. Molière – Comedies
60. Blaise Pascal – The Provincial Letters; Pensees; Scientific Treatises
61. Christiaan Huygens – Treatise on Light
62. Benedict de Spinoza – Ethics
63. John Locke – Letter Concerning Toleration; Of Civil Government; Essay Concerning Human Understanding;Thoughts Concerning Education
64. Jean Baptiste Racine – Tragedies
65. Isaac Newton – Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy; Optics
66. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz – Discourse on Metaphysics; New Essays Concerning Human Understanding;Monadology
67. Daniel Defoe – Robinson Crusoe
68. Jonathan Swift – A Tale of a Tub; Journal to Stella; Gulliver's Travels; A Modest Proposal
69. William Congreve – The Way of the World
70. George Berkeley – Principles of Human Knowledge
71. Alexander Pope – Essay on Criticism; Rape of the Lock; Essay on Man
72. Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu – Persian Letters; Spirit of Laws
73. Voltaire – Letters on the English; Candide; Philosophical Dictionary
74. Henry Fielding – Joseph Andrews; Tom Jones
75. Samuel Johnson – The Vanity of Human Wishes; Dictionary; Rasselas; The Lives of the Poets” — 442 likes

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