Is reading this really worth it? I've started but it's so boring and don't bring much to the table. Will this book really change something on my reading life? It seems it's only stuff I know covered up by beautiful words and tiresome repetitions.

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9 years ago
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Jignesh Darji Yes, this book is worth it. Yes, this book will change a lot on your reading.

This book was written in a very different time where authors like to talk too much and convey too little. Author has filled it with sound advice wrapped in a lot of criticism of the education system and approach to education and reading. To really learn from the book, you'll need to see past the rhetoric.

How to go about reading this book if you find it too boring, and/or repetitive:
- Look at the outline - understand the structure of the book and draw the big picture.
- Read a summary of the levels of reading the author mentions (Elementary, Inspectional, Analytical, and Syntopical) and the steps to achieve each level. The book is about these 4 levels and how to achieve them. That's all. If you know this, you can skip all the rhetoric and finish the book really quickly while still taking-in all that the author wanted to convey.

I hope this will be of some help.

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Richard Kolivoski Yes. Bear with it for a while. All the advice will begin to come together and you will begin to read deeply.

If you read for entertainment, this book will not help much. It is only powerful when you are tackling books that are content rich.

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James Morrison Well..... what you should do is look at the table of contents and pick out a chapter or two that might interest you. Perhaps your skills are too advanced already for this book. I knew a lot of it already, but then again there was always a fresh little bit of information that I found valuable here and there.

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Jorge Banda Yes! M.J. Adler is a great philosopher focusing on written knowledge and instructional books. I greatly enjoy his diction. This book contains a lot of good advise on reading to gain understanding and knowledge, not just on reading any kind of book. The book lists at the end of this book also show you a great library worth collecting.

Some times it really seems like he is just filling the book with aimless wording, I guess this is his style of writing (a side effect of his philosophical approach to written material), nevertheless, I do recommend his books. If you enjoy philosophy, you will most definitely love the way Adler writes.

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