How to Read a Book

One of the benefits of living in Qatar by myself I have a lot of time to do the things I can never get to.  Reading and watching movies is a simple pleasure in life and I never make time to do either.  Well the long flights to Qatar and the quiet nights allow me to do both.

Recently, I picked up a book recommended several years ago by a proffessor of mine at the University of Baltimore.

How to Read a Book. The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading.

by Mortimer J. Adler

I just finished this book.

Everytime I told my wife that I was reading the book she would laugh and say that is funny.  You are reading a book on "How to Read a Book"!  It does seem funny, but the subject matter was engaging and in the end it is a very practical book and it was fun to read.  I would recommend the book to anyone looking for knowlege in books.

Mortimer Adler was a philosopher who found active and structured reading a requirment in learning and using the knowledge to make learned opinions on the information gathered.

The book is presented in four parts that are summarized below.

Key to the structure he provided in the book is the fifteen steps in performing analytical reading:

1. The first Stage of Analytical Reading: Rules for finding out what a book is about.
• Classify the book according to the kind and subject matter
• Stat what the whole book is about with the utmost brevity
• Enumerate its major parts in their order and relation, and outline these parts as you have outlined the whole.
• Define the problem or problems the author has tried to solve.
2. The second Stage of Analytical Reading: Rules for interpreting a Books Contents
• Come to tems with the author by interpreting his key words.
• Grasp the authors leading propositions by dealing with his most important sentences.
• Know the author's arguments by finding them in, or constructing them out of, sequences of sentences
• Determine which of his problems the author has solved, and which he has not; and of the latter, decide which the author knew he had failed to solve.
3. The third stage of Analytical Reading: Rules for Criticizing a Book as a Communication of Knowledge.
• General Maxims of Intellectual Etiquette
• Do not begin criticism until you have completed your outline and your interpretation of the book.
• Do not disagree disputatiously or contentiously.
• Demonstrate that you recognize the difference between knowledge and mere personal opinion by presenting good reasons for any critical judgement you make.
• Special Criteria for Points of Criticism
• Show wherin the author is uninformed
• Show wherin the author is misinformed
• Show wherin the author is illogical
• Show wherin the author's analysis or account is incomplete.

Adler also provides an outline for how to read practical books (such as this one), imaginative literature, stories, plays, and poems; history (interesting he encourages to keep in mind that history is written long after the fact and often romanticises the period; also autobiographies and biographies are from a single point of view and tends to make the person appear favorable); science and mathematics; philosopy; and finally social science.

The book concludes with a section on syntopical reading, wherein the reader is studying a particular topic by reading/researching several books.

Finally, the book concludes with a recommended reading list and exercises to demonstrate how to apply what is taught in this "practical" book.

I found the book very enjoyable and would recommend it to any serious reader.  I hope I live long enough to read the "recommended" list.