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

by Mortimer J. Adler

Francis Bacon once remarked that “some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” Reading a book analytically is chewing and digesting it.

In tackling a difficult book for the first time, read it through without ever stopping to look up or ponder the things you do not understand right away.

Every book should be read no more slowly than it deserves, and no more quickly than you can read it with satisfaction and comprehension.

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