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

by Mortimer J. Adler

It deals with the completeness of the author’s execution of his plan—the adequacy with which he discharges the task he has chosen.

You have no freedom of will about this. It is not your sacred privilege to decide whether you are going to agree or disagree.

If you have not been able to show that the author is uninformed, misinformed, or illogical on relevant matters, you simply cannot disagree. You must agree.

You are expressing your emotions or prejudices.

To say that an author’s analysis is incomplete is to say that he has not solved all the problems he started with, or that he has not made as good a use of his materials as possible, that he did not see all their implications and ramifications, or that he has failed to make distinctions that are relevant to his undertaking.

The last step of structural outlining is to know the problems that the author is trying to solve.

The last step of interpretation is to know which of these problems the author solved and which he did not.

The final step of criticism is the point about completeness. It touches structural outlining insofar as it considers how adequately the author has stated his problems, and interpretation insofar ...

The Third Stage of Analytical Reading

By “intrinsic reading” we mean reading a book in itself, quite apart from all other books.

By “extrinsic reading” we mean reading a book in the light of other books.

The extrinsic aids to reading fall into four categories. In the order in which we will discuss them in this chapter, they are: first, relevant experiences; second, other books; third, commentaries and abstracts; fourth, reference books.

Reading related books in relation to one another and in an order that renders the later ones more intelligible is a basic common-sense maxim of extrinsic reading.

To join this conversation, we must read the great books in relation to one another, and in an order that somehow respects chronology.

commentaries and abstracts. The thing to emphasize here is that such works should be used wisely, which is to say sparingly.

commentators are not always right in their comments on a book.

even if they are right, they may not be exhaustive.

the rule in the case of extrinsic reading is that you should not read a commentary by someone else until after you have read the book.

The rule of extrinsic reading given here applies also to abstracts and plot digests.

they can help to jog your memory of a book’s contents, if you have already read it.

abstracts are useful when you are engaged in syntopical reading, and wish to know whether a certain work is likely to be germane to your project.

what you want to know.

Second, you must know where to find out what you want to know. You must know what kind of question you are asking, and which kinds of reference books answer that kind of question.

You must know how the particular work is organized.

A theoretical book can solve its own problems. But a practical problem can only be solved by action itself.

You must know what he wanted to do—because, in the case of a practical work, knowing what he wants to do comes down to knowing what he wants you to do.

You must still, in order to answer the question about the book’s meaning or contents, discover the author’s terms, propositions, and arguments.

Is it true?,

we must ask the same questions of a historical book that we ask of any expository book.