How to Read a Book: the classic guide to intelligent reading

by Mortimer J. Adler

The Dimensions of Reading

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1 The Activity and Art of Reading

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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.

we moderns are inundated with facts to the detriment of understanding.

The packaging of intellectual positions and views is one of the most active enterprises of some of the best minds of our day.

Active Reading

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reading can be more or less active, and second, to point out that the more active the reading the better.

one person reads it better than another, first, by reading it more actively, and second, by performing each of the acts involved more skillfully.

The Goals of Reading: Reading for Information and Reading for Understanding

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define what we mean by the art of reading as follows: the process whereby a mind, with nothing to operate on but the symbols of the readable matter, and with no help from outside,I elevates itself by the power of its own operations. The mind passes from understanding less to understanding more.

To pass from understanding less to understanding more by your own intellectual effort in reading is something like pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. It certainly feels that way. It is a major exertion.

But all of us, without exception, can learn to read better and gradually gain more by our efforts through applying them to more rewarding materials.

this book is about the art of reading for the sake of increased understanding.

Reading as Learning: The Difference Between Learning by Instruction and Learning by Discovery

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To be informed is to know simply that something is the case. To be enlightened is to know, in addition, what it is all about: why it is the case, what its connections are with other facts, in what respects it is the same, in what respects it is different, and so forth.

Enlightenment is achieved only when, in addition to knowing what an author says, you know what he means and why he says 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.

Present and Absent Teachers

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If, however, you ask a book a question, you must answer it yourself. In this respect a book is like nature or the world. When you question it, it answers you only to the extent that you do the work of thinking and analysis yourself.

2 The Levels of Reading

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goal a reader seeks—be it entertainment, information or understanding—determines

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distinction between instruction and discovery (or between aided and unaided discovery)

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levels of reading, which are cumulative.

first level of reading we will call Elementary Reading.

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The second level of reading we will call Inspectional Reading. It is characterized by its special emphasis on time.

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another name for this level might be skimming or pre-reading.

Inspectional reading is the art of skimming systematically.

“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?”

The third level of reading we will call Analytical Reading.

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analytical reading is the best and most complete reading that is possible given unlimited time.

The fourth and highest level of reading we will call Syntopical Reading.

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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.

the syntopical reader is able to construct an analysis of the subject that may not be in any of the books.

3 The First Level of Reading: Elementary Reading

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Stages of Learning to Read

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Stages and Levels

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Higher Levels of Reading and Higher Education

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Reading and the Democratic Ideal of Education

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4 The Second Level of Reading: Inspectional Reading

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Inspectional Reading I: Systematic Skimming or Pre-reading

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Skimming or pre-reading is the first sublevel of inspectional reading.

1. LOOK AT THE TITLE PAGE AND, IF THE BOOK HAS ONE, AT ITS PREFACE.

2. STUDY THE TABLE OF CONTENTS to obtain a general sense of the book’s structure;

3. CHECK THE INDEX

READ THE PUBLISHER’S BLURB.

LOOK NOW AT THE CHAPTERS THAT SEEM TO BE PIVOTAL TO ITS ARGUMENT.

Finally, TURN THE PAGES, DIPPING IN HERE AND THERE, READING A PARAGRAPH OR TWO, SOMETIMES SEVERAL PAGES IN SEQUENCE, NEVER MORE THAN THAT.

read the last two or three pages, or, if these are an epilogue, the last few pages of the main part of the book.

Think of yourself as a detective looking for clues to a book’s general theme or idea, alert for anything that will make it clearer.

Inspectional Reading II: Superficial Reading

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