How to Read a Book

Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren

What do you mean I need to learn how to read a book? I've been doing just that most of my life! Of course I can read a book! Oh, you mean those harder expository books that tend to get complicated. Or you also mean reading a number of books at the same time about the same subject - like I'm doing in school right now. Now I understand.

How to Read a Book teaches the reader how to actively read a book, especially non-fiction, to understand it better. Did you mark your books if/when you were in college? After not daring to mar books in public high school, it seemed sacrilege to mark the textbooks in college. But didn't those highlights or notes help you when you studied for the tests? Didn't you remember the content and concepts better? Exactly.

I have never before thought to look at the whole table of contents or index of a book closely before I read it. I might look at the table for the chapter I have to read next, but to look it over first to get an idea of the direction of the text? It never occurred to me to try that.

The last section of How to Read a Book deals with reading books syntopically. This involves inspecting and reading multiple books at one time on one subject. In this method of study, the reader doesn't have to read every word, but pull out the important sections of the books that match and contradict each other.

These skills are difficult for a reader like me to learn. I have always read every word or not read at all. Admittedly I have often read every word and not have absorbed a thing. I used active reading skills when I was first in college many years ago, but had dropped them by the time I finished. This book is recommended by the graduate school professors of my current class. In this class the reading assignments are heavy and we are advised to read the texts syntopically. Perhaps by the time I have finished graduate school I will have mastered active and syntopic reading. In the meantime, How to Read a Book is an excellent aid to learning how to read actively.