How to Read a Book

Book review for "How to Read a Book" by Adler and Van Doren.

February 23, 2021

Aeryxium

15-Minute Read

Introduction

Subtitled, “The classic guide to intelligent reading,” this often-recommended and highly regarded work on improving one’s reading promises to teach specific techniques designed to increase understanding and improve learning from the written word. It claims to feature techniques for various types of material and for various objectives, from entertainment to academic. This text was actually on a recommended reading list maintained by my alma matter in preparation for university courses though I didn’t read it at the time. Now that I find myself engaged in far more autodidacticism than I ever did before, I thought it might be worth going through.

Disclaimer

What follows is some factual information about the book, an outline of its content and a few notes on its more salient point. The idea is to provide a centralized location for my own notes and a fairly detailed overview for prospective readers. An attempt has been made to reference ideas or concepts broadly and to avoid copying entire sections or lists in order to ensure the author retains copyright. As such, this review, although it may or may not be detailed, should not be considered an adequate substitute to an actual reading of the text.

The author of this review believes everything contained herein is fair use. Please contact the site administrator if you are the copyright holder and believe any portion thereof is in violation of your reserved rights and every effort will be made to make appropriate changes.

Review
Overview
Chapter Synopses
Chapter Notes

Review

Reading is in progress so this review is not yet completed.

Overview

Book information:

Title - How to Read a Book
Authors - Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren
Publisher - Touchstone (A division of Simon & Schuster), 2014
Format - Paperback
ISBN - 978-0-671-21209-4
Type - non-fiction, self-improvement
Field - philosophy, education, literature
Synopsis - An exposition on how to read any type of book for more enjoyment and understanding.
Outline
- Preface - Exposition on the history of the text and this particular revision
- Part 1 - Chapters 1 to 5 deal with the mechanics of reading
- Part 2 - Chapters 6 to 12 deal with how to read critically and analyze the text
- Part 3 - Chapters 13 to 19 deal with how to read different types of books
- Part 4 - Chapters 20 and 21 deal with comparing and contrasting multiple works in order to properly understand a subject
- Appendices - A reading list of books across multiple topics (fiction and non-fiction) recommended by the authors and a series of exercises on the different reading levels
Citation Styles
- MLA: Adler, Mortimer Jerome, and Charles Van Doren. How to Read a Book. Simon & Schuster, 2014.
- APA: Adler, M. J., & Van Doren, C. (2014). How to read a book. Simon & Schuster.
- Chicago: Adler, Mortimer Jerome, and Van Charles Doren. How to Read a Book. Simon & Schuster, 2014.

Chapter Synopses

Chapter 1. Reading is an active pursuit, different objectives require different types of reading, knowledge is capable of being gained purely from text, reading and listening are very similar, and it is up to the student to learn, not merely for the teacher to teach. Nothing groundbreaking here, but a good reminder that students bear a responsibility in their learning.
Chapter 2. Description of the 4 levels of reading and an emphasis that they are cumulative. Also drives home that the most basic levels are as equally important at the advanced levels.
Chapter 3. Defines and explains the most basic level of reading. Includes a fascinating discussion on the history of academic reading instruction in the US (and likely the whole world), concluding that far too many students fail to achieve adequate levels of reading comprehension even after a 4-year degree.
Chapter 4. Skim and pre-read to determine if a book is worth reading. Primarily check the title, jacket information, author blurb, table of contents, preface, opening and closing pages, and a few random pages. Reading fast is less important than reading at the proper speed for a given text.
Chapter 5. Ask questions of a book, with a list of good questions given. Reading should be considered more like a conversation. Make notes in the book with underlining, circles, numbers, and notes in the margin. Practise different levels of reading to build good reading habits.
Chapter 6. You have to know what you’re reading, so classifying the book is important. Not all books are easily classified and many span multiple classifications.
Chapter 7. Summarize the point of the book in a sentence or two at most, and make a simple outline of the books parts. Some simple guidelines and insight, but also an emphasis on how important this step is when writing a book, which one could argue is a separate topic and perhaps not relevant to the discussion at hand.
Chapter 8. Find the key words of the text and understand the author’s intended meaning of them. Far too long-winded unless the reader was not previously aware of the polysemic nature of words, or the existence of synonyms.

Notes by Chapter

Quotes are attributed to the authors if not otherwise specified.
Page numbers apply to the specific version outlined in the overview.
These are primarily personal notes supplementing my own marking and marginalia in my copy of the text.

Chapter 1 - The Activity and Art of Reading

Pg 7 - Citation
- From “Let us take…” to “…book requires.”
- 2 paragraphs providing a synopsis on what to do when there is more to understand in a book than the reader was able to absorb.
- In particular, I like the inclusion of the option a reader may take to simply accept the additional material is above them and move on.
Pg 12 - Citation
- From “In the history…” to “…being taught.”
- 1 paragraph describing “learning by instruction” vs “learning by discovery”.
Pg 12 - Quote
- “although the teacher may help his student in many ways, it is the student [themselves] who must do the learning. Knowledge must grow in [their] mind if learning is to take place.”

Chapter 2 - The Levels of Reading

Pp 17-17 - Citation
- From “So it is with levels…” to “…It simply goes beyond them.”
- On the cumulative nature of reading levels.
Pg 19 - Citation
- From “most people…” to “…compounds the difficulty.”
- Drives home the point that earlier levels or reading are crucial even when reading at more advanced levels.
Pg 19 - Quote
- “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” - Francis Bacon

Chapter 3 - The First Level of Reading: Elementary Reading

Pg 21 - Citation
- From “in the observation…” to “…deprived his background.”
- Explanation of the problems involved with traditional class-based learning where all students are treated as being roughly the same in ability, skill, motivation and home life.
- Can easily be extrapolated to illustrated the lingering systemic problems with historically marginalized groups as they extend beyond just literacy.
Pg 24 - Citation
- From “The child who is not…” to “…with his peers.”
- The importance of timing in education and how bad timing has a lasting impact.
- Touches on the problems dealing with parents' expectations that their children must be exceptional in all ways.
Pg 25 - Citation
- From “At one moment…” to “…seven years old!”
- The incredible speed with which initial progress in reading occurs
- The lack of understanding at how this burst occurs
Pg 26 - Citation
- “It is of paramount importance to recognize that the four stages outlined here are all stages of the first level of reading.”
- The first stage is crucial and broad, currently only being mastered in High School (“a 10th/12th grade level”) and not even by everyone.
Pg 29 - Citation
- From “One should not…” to “…very wrong if it does.”
- Summarizes the chapter well by explaining it currently takes 20 years of formal education before one can read properly at all 4 levels, if it’s even achieved by then.
Pg 29 - Quote
- “We are on record as holding that unlimited educational opportunity–or, speaking practically, educational opportunity that is limited only be individual desire, ability, and need–is the most valuable service that society can provide for its members. That we do not yet know how to provide that kind of opportunity is no reason to give up the attempt.”
- I am critical of the inclusion of the word “need” in there, as I believe many people don’t “need” an advanced education and yet benefit greatly from it.
- Regardless, I particularly relate to the idea that “just because we don’t know how to do something doesn’t mean we don’t try” which is conveyed.

Chapter 4 - The Second Level of Reading: Inspectional Reading

Pp 32-35 - List
- Fairly extensive list of things to read when skimming.
- Includes salient points on why each item is relevant and important.
Pg 33 - Citation
- From “although occasionally…” to “…as they once were.”
- Interesting note on the decline of analytical tables of contents.
Pg 34 - Quote
- “if the blurb is nothing but a puff for the book, you will ordinarily be able to discover this at a glance. But that in itself can tell you something about the work. Perhaps the work does not say anything of importance–and that is why the blurb does not say anything either.”
- Poignant remark on the importance of confirming a book actually contains any material that is worth reading.
Pg 37 - Quote
- “understanding half of a really tough book is much better than not understanding it at all, which will be the case if you allow yourself to be stopped by the first difficult passage you come to.”
Pg 37 - Quote
- “The tremendous pleasure that can come from reading Shakespeare, for instance, was spoiled for generations of high school students who were forced to go through Julius Caesar, As You Like It, or Hamlet, scene by scene, looking up all the strange words in a glossary and studying all the scholarly footnotes.”
- This quote especially hits home as I’m trying to read texts in other languages and frequntly stumbling into words I don’t know; if I can’t deduce it from context, pushing on and not bothering with it may increase my enjoyment of the work rather than stopping to look them all up. Needs to balanced in that case with learning vocabulary however.
- Definitely drives home the value of learning to deduce by context.
Pg 38 - Quote
- “If you insist on understanding everything on a page before you go on to the next, you will not get very far.”
- Concise summation of previous quote, equally poignant.
Pg 39 - Quote
- “It is true enough that many people read some things too slowly, and that they ought to read them faster. But many people also read some things too fast, and they ought to read those things more slowly.”
Pg 40 - Citation
- From “Speed reading courses…” to “two or three lines.”
- A discussion on sub-vocalization and regression that should convince anyone who hasn’t looked into speed-reading that perhaps they should.
Pg 42 - Citation
- “There is no single right speed at which you should read.”
- Summarized several pages discussing speed reading and comprehension very nicely.

Chapter 5 - How to Be a Demanding Reader

Pg 45 - Quote
- “What kept the famous candlelight readers awake? One thing certainly–it made a difference to them, a great difference, whether or not the read the book they had in hand.”
Pg 46 - List
- Set of questions you should ask every book with descriptions and exposition on their importance.
Pg 49 - Quote
- “Reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author.”
- Excellent summary of not just the chapter, but in some ways the entirety of the work.
Pp 49-50 - List
- Description of ways to mark a book for note-taking
- Only exemplary in nature, no mention of my favourite book-marking method: the use of iconographic marginalia.
Pg 54 - Quote
- “you must learn to forget the separate acts in order to perform all of them, and indeed any of them, well. But in order to forget them as separate acts, you have to learn them first as separate acts.
Pg 55 - Quote
- “It is hard to learn to read well.”
- True for so many tasks we take for granted.

Chapter 6 - Pigeonholing a Book

Pg 60 - List (partial)
- Ch.6 and Ch.7 both deal with analytical reading and the first of 4 rules is here.
- Rule 2 on pg 75, 3 on pg 76, and 4 on pg 92.
- A summary of the 4 rules is found at the end of Ch. 7 on pg 95.
Pg 60 - Quote
- “There is so much social science in some contemporary novels, and so much fiction in much of sociology, that it is hard to keep them apart.”
- I wonder how sociologists feel about this comment.
- Nonetheless, the first part is an important note–some of my favourite novels contain excellent and accurate science, some with such incredible depth and detail that real science can be learned from them.
Pg 61 - Quote
- “It is not [the author’s] fault if you will not stop, look, and listen.”
- Context being the importance of reading the author’s remarks on a dust jacket, preface or back pages.
- Applies equally well to the entire text, or any work: the reader’s failure to understand may not necessarily be the fault of the author, particularly if the reader is ignoring the author’s remarks.
Pg 65 - Citation
- From “The practical has…” to “…may have in mind.”
- Summary of the difference between practical and theoretical works and knowledge.
Pg 74 - Citation
- From “Now, just as…” to “in an appropriate manner.”
- Apt and though-provoking paragraph on the similarities between the student/teacher relationship vis-à-vis the reader/author relationship.

Chapter 7 - X-raying a Book

Pp 75-76 - List (partial)
- The 2nd and 3rd items of the list begun in the previous chapter on pg 60 and summarized at the end of this chapter on pg 95.
- Rule on pg 92.
Pg 78 - Quote
- “They would have been better books if their authors had themselves seen the plan a little more clearly.”
- One of my small complaints about this book is that despite so much thought being given to the structure and content, there appear to me to be some failures in planning making this quote a touch ironic.
- For example: the previous chapter has one section titled Practical vs. Theoretical Books and another titled Kinds of Theoretical Books but I find myself asking why there isn’t a section on Kinds of Practical Books, which is how I always endeavour to group my work: If I list two items and plan an exposition on one, I always include an exposition on the other for completeness.
- Another example: this list being spread across two chapters, with only one item in the previous chapter, seems like it would be better served being contained within a single chapter.
Pg 80 - Citation
- From “The best-laid…” to “the whole book.”
- An explanation that no fair criticism of a work can really be made by someone who hasn’t read the entirety of said work.
Pp 88-89 - Citation
- From “We mention this…” to “will inevitably result.”
- Summarizes that the reader’s outline need not be the same as the author’s.
- Claims that if the reader and author are both perfect at their respective roles, these outlines would be the same.
- I doubt this claim and parts of this book seem to contradict it as well–the roles and motivations of the writer an author will likely differ and therefore the outlines may as well despite neither being deficient in their own responsibilities.
Pg 90 - Citation
- From “In general…” to “…teaching and being taught.”
- As with the previous point, this is proposing writing and reading obey the same rules and I’m not convinced this is true.
- It’s worth noting the authors of this book have between them done far more writing–and far more reading–than I have so it would be foolhardy to dismiss it out of hand.
Pp 90-91 - Quote
- “Just so, actually writing the book from an outline, no matter how detailed, gives the work a kind of life that it would not otherwise have had.”
- Invokes the old adage “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
Pg 92 - List (partial)
- The final rule of the list begun in the previous chapter.
- Rule 1 on pg 60, 2 on pg 75, and 3 on pg 76, with a summary of all 4 rules on pg 92.