How To Read A Book

What are the big ideas?

1. Syntopical Reading: A Unique Approach to Comparing and Contrasting Ideas

The book introduces the concept of syntopical reading as a unique approach to understanding complex subjects by comparing and contrasting ideas from multiple authors on the same topic. This method goes beyond simple summary or comparison, requiring readers to construct neutral terminology, propositions, and issues in order to gain a deeper understanding of the subject matter. 2. The Importance of Preparation in Syntopical Reading The book emphasizes the importance of preparation before engaging in syntopical reading. This includes creating a bibliography, inspecting relevant books, and defining key terms and propositions. By carefully preparing for the reading process, readers can maximize their understanding and appreciation of complex ideas.

3. Active Engagement in Reading The book advocates for active engagement in the reading process, emphasizing the importance of taking notes, clarifying uncertainties, and reflecting on the significance of what is being read. This approach encourages readers to be proactive learners rather than passive consumers of information.
4. The Role of Neutral Terminology and Propositions in Syntopical Reading The book introduces the concept of neutral terminology and propositions as essential tools for effective syntopical reading. By constructing a shared vocabulary and set of assumptions, readers can more easily compare and contrast ideas across different texts, leading to deeper insights and understanding.
5. The Ongoing Nature of Understanding Complex Ideas The book highlights the ongoing nature of understanding complex ideas through the process of syntopical reading. This involves rereading, researching related topics, and seeking guidance from experts or colleagues, demonstrating that learning is a continuous journey rather than a one-time event.

Summary

Preface

Takeaways

• The ability to read different things at appropriate speeds is crucial for achieving all the purposes of reading.
• Most formal training in reading stops after elementary level, leaving many older students and adults with insufficient reading skills.
• This new edition of How to Read a Book introduces variable-speed-reading as a solution to improve comprehension and speed in reading.
• A pyramid of books to read, broad at the bottom and tapering at the top, is essential for acquiring higher levels of skill in reading.
• The book's organization and content have been updated and expanded, including the distinction of four levels of reading and the different ways to approach different kinds of reading materials.
• Syntopical Reading, which involves reading a number of related books in relation to one another, is a wholly new addition to this edition.
• Co-author Charles Van Doren has contributed significantly to the book's updates, recasting, and rewriting, along with constructive criticism and help from friend Arthur L. H. Rubin.

Quotes

“One constant is that, to achieve all the purposes of reading, the desideratum must be the ability to read different things at different—appropriate—speeds, not everything at the greatest possible speed. As Pascal observed three hundred years ago, “When we read too fast or too slowly, we understand nothing.” Since”

1. The Activity and Art of Reading

Takeaways

• Reading is essential for gaining understanding and knowledge about the world.
• Modern communication media like radio and television have taken over some functions of reading, but they may not enhance understanding as much as reading does.
• Knowledge is not the only prerequisite for understanding; too many facts can be as detrimental to understanding as too few.
• The packaging of intellectual positions and views can make thinking seem unnecessary, leading people to insert packaged opinions into their minds instead of forming their own.
• To truly understand, it's important to engage in critical thinking and form your own opinions rather than relying on packaged information.

Quotes

“(…) it may be seriously questioned whether the advent of modern communications media has much enhanced our understanding of the world in which we live.(…) Perhaps we know more about the world than we used to, and insofar as knowledge is prerequisite to understanding, that is all to the good. But knowledge is not as much a prerequisite to understanding as is commonly supposed. We do not have to know everything about something in order to understand it; too many facts are often as much of an obstacle to understanding as too few. There is a sense in which we moderns are inundated with facts to the detriment of understanding. (…) One of the reasons for this situation is that the very media we have mentioned are so designed as to make thinking seem unnecessary (though this is only an appearance). The packaging of intellectual positions and views is one of the most active enterprises of some of the best minds of our day. The viewer of television, the listener to radio, the reader of magazines, is presented with a whole complex of elements—all the way from ingenious rhetoric to carefully selected data and statistics—to make it easy for him to “make up his own mind” with the minimum of difficulty and effort. But the packaging is often done so effectively that the viewer, listener, or reader does not make up his own mind at all. Instead, he inserts a packaged opinion into his mind, somewhat like inserting a cassette into a cassette player. He then pushes a button and “plays back” the opinion whenever it seems appropriate to do so. He has performer acceptably without having had to think.”

Active Reading

Takeaways

• Reading can be more or less active, and the more active the reading, the better.
• Reading is like catching in baseball - it's an activity that requires skill and effort.
• Successful communication between writer and reader occurs when what the writer intended to convey is received by the reader.
• Writers vary in their skill level, and some are easier to "catch" than others.
• A piece of writing can be received more or less completely, depending on the reader's level of activity and skill.
• Active reading involves performing a large number of separate acts skillfully, resulting in better comprehension.

The Goals of Reading: Reading for Information and Reading for Understanding

Takeaways

• Reading involves two possible relations between your mind and the text: either you understand everything perfectly, or you don't.
• If you don't understand the text perfectly, you can either seek external help or try to elevate your understanding using only your mind.
• The art of reading is the process of elevating your understanding through your own intellectual efforts.
• Reading for information and reading for understanding are two distinct goals of reading.
• Reading for information increases your store of knowledge, while reading for understanding improves your comprehension and insight.
• To read for understanding, there must be initial inequality in understanding between the writer and the reader, and the reader must be able to overcome this inequality to some degree.
• The art of reading involves learning from those who are "superior" to you in understanding, and requires effort, skill, and engagement with rewarding materials.
• While this book focuses on the art of reading for understanding, reading for entertainment is also a valid goal, although it requires less effort and has no rules.
• Any book that can be read for understanding or information can also be read for entertainment, but not all entertaining books can be read for understanding.

Quotes

“we can learn only from our “betters.” We must know who they are and how to learn from them.”

“In short, we can only learn from our "betters".”

Reading as Learning: The Difference Between Learning by Instruction and Learning by Discovery

Takeaways

• Learning can be categorized into being informed (gaining information) and being enlightened (understanding the context and significance of the information).
• Being able to recall information does not equate to being enlightened; true understanding goes beyond mere memorization.
• Reading too widely without understanding or retaining the material can lead to "doctoral ignorance."
• There are two types of learning: instruction (aided discovery) and discovery without a teacher (unaided discovery).
• Both aided and unaided discovery require active learning, with the primary difference being the materials used for learning.
• Thinking is essential in both aided and unaided discovery, as well as in different types of reading and listening.
• Reading and listening involve thinking, observation, memory, imagination, and analysis just like unaided discovery.
• To truly understand and learn from reading, one must engage with the text actively, using all the skills involved in unaided discovery.

Quotes

“Getting more information is learning, and so is coming to understand what you did not understand before. But there is an important difference between these two kinds of learning.”

“To be informed is to know simply that something is the case. To be enlightened is to know, in addition, what it is all about: why it is the case, what its connections are with other facts, in what respects it is the same, in what respects it is different, and so forth. This distinction is familiar in terms of the differences between being able to remember something and being able to explain it. If you remember what an author says, you have learned something from reading him. If what he says is true, you have even learned something about the world. But whether it is a fact about the book or a fact about the world that you have learned, you have gained nothing but information if you have exercised only your memory. You have not been enlightened. Enlightenment is achieved only when, in addition to knowing what an author says, you know what he means and why he says it.”

“Montaigne speaks of “an abecedarian ignorance that precedes knowledge, and a doctoral ignorance that comes after it.” The first is the ignorance of those who, not knowing their ABC’s, cannot read at all. The second is the ignorance of those who have misread many books. They are, as Alexander Pope rightly calls them, bookful blockheads, ignorantly read. There have always been literate ignoramuses who have read too widely and not well. The Greeks had a name for such a mixture of learning and folly which might be applied to the bookish but poorly read of all ages. They are all sophomores.”

“...It is only obvious that teaching is a very special art, sharing withonly two other arts-argriculture and medicin-an exceptionally important characteristic.”

“The art of reading, in short, includes all of the same skills that are involved in the art of unaided discovery: keenness of observation, readily available memory, range of imagination, and, of course, an intellect trained in analysis and reflection.”

Present and Absent Teachers

Takeaways

• Treat both reading and listening as ways of learning from teachers, but prioritize reading since it involves learning from an absent teacher.
• When questioning a book or the world, you must do the work of thinking and analysis yourself, unlike when asking a living teacher.
• Even when a living teacher answers your question, you still need to understand it for true explanation.
• However, a living teacher can give you a lift in understanding, which is not possible with just a book.
• For those not in school or reading books not assigned, learning depends mainly on books alone, making it crucial to know how to make books teach well.
• The primary goal of this book is to help readers learn how to make books teach them well for their continuing education.

Quotes

“If you ask a living teacher a question, he will probably answer you. If you are puzzled by what he says, you can save yourself the trouble of thinking by asking him what he means. If, however, you ask a book a question, you must answer it yourself. In this respect a book is like nature or the world. When you question it, it answers you only to the extent that you do the work of thinking an analysis yourself.”

2. The Levels of Reading

Takeaways

• There are four levels of reading: Elementary, Inspectional, Analytical, and Syntopical.
• Elementary Reading is mastering the basics of recognizing individual words, usually learned in elementary school.
• Inspectional Reading focuses on getting the most out of a book in a short amount of time through systematic skimming.
• Analytical Reading is thorough, complete, and active reading, best for understanding complex texts.
• Syntopical Reading involves reading and comparing multiple books to construct a new analysis of a subject, the most rewarding but also the most challenging level of reading.
• Higher levels of reading include lower levels; mastering lower levels is essential for moving up.
• Most people are unaware of the value of Inspectional Reading and start a book without knowing its structure, making it harder to grasp its content.
• Analytical Reading is crucial for understanding complex texts and moving from less understanding to more, but may not be necessary for information or entertainment.

3. The First Level of Reading: Elementary Reading

Takeaways

• The United States has a long-standing commitment to educate all citizens and make them literate, with the goal of creating a highly developed industrial society.
• Three main methods have been used to teach reading: synthetic (ABC method), phonic, and sight method (analytical).
• Each method has been successful for some students but not for others, and recent decades have seen increased criticism of reading instruction, particularly for those who struggle.
• New approaches to reading instruction have emerged due to growing high school and college populations, including eclectic, individualized, language-experience, and programmed instruction methods.
• New mediums like the Initial Teaching Alphabet (i.t.a.) and alternative methods like "total immersion," "foreign-language-school," and "see-say" or "word method" have also been introduced.
• No single method has yet been identified as a panacea for all reading difficulties, and ongoing research is essential to address the diverse needs of learners.

Quotes

“It is traditional in America to criticize the schools; for more than a century, parents, self-styled experts, and educators themselves have attacked and indicted the educational system.”

Stages of Learning to Read

Takeaways

• Recognize the four stages of learning to read: reading readiness (birth to age 6-7), learning to read simple materials (sight words and basic skills), rapid vocabulary building and context clues (reading for various purposes), and refining and enhancing skills (assimilating reading experiences).
• Ensure children are physically, intellectually, linguistically, and personally ready before teaching them to read to prevent frustration and dislike for reading.
• Allow children to develop reading skills at their own pace, as pushing too early can be counterproductive.
• Observe the "magical" moment when children discover meaning in symbols, which may be the most astonishing intellectual feat they perform.
• Encourage children to explore different types of content and purposes for reading, such as for fun, curiosity, or expanding horizons.
• Acknowledge that not all students reach the mature stage of reading in their early teens due to various factors, including home environment and personal problems.
• Address overall reading deficiencies in America by focusing on all levels of reading, not just reading readiness and rudimentary skills.

Stages and Levels

Takeaways

• The four stages of learning to read (reading readiness, word mastery, vocabulary growth and context utilization, and mature reading) all fall under the first level of reading.
• These stages correspond to different grade levels in elementary school, with each stage building upon the skills learned in the previous one.
• Mastering the four stages of elementary reading is a prerequisite for becoming a proficient reader who can learn independently and tackle more advanced reading levels.
• Teachers play a crucial role in helping children progress through the stages of elementary reading by answering questions and addressing difficulties that arise.
• As a reader, you must have already attained ninth grade literacy and mastered the elementary level of reading to be able to learn from this book.

Quotes

“The first stage of elementary reading—reading readiness—corresponds to pre-school and kindergarten experiences.”

Higher Levels of Reading and Higher Education

Takeaways

• High schools and colleges have started to provide remedial reading instruction due to an increase in students unable to read effectively.
• Remedial reading instruction only brings students up to the level they should have achieved in elementary school.
• Higher levels of reading instruction are not widely offered in colleges, with only a few exceptions.
• A good high school should produce graduates who are competent analytical readers, and a good college should produce competent syntopical readers.
• A college degree should represent general competence in reading, enabling independent research on almost any subject.
• Four years of graduate school should not be necessary to learn how to read, and something is wrong if it is.
• The issues with reading education can be corrected by implementing courses based on the program described in the book.
• The proposed solution is largely common sense and not arcane or new.

Quotes

“To this day, most institutions of higher learning either do not know how to instruct students in reading beyond the elementary level, or lack the facilities and personnel to do so.”

Reading and the Democratic Ideal of Education

Takeaways

• Acknowledge the challenge: Recognize that many freshmen struggle with reading at an elementary level, and addressing this issue is the current priority.
• Emphasize the value of education: Advocate for unlimited educational opportunity, limited only by individual desire, ability, and need.
• Strive for more than functional literacy: Understand that becoming a nation of truly competent readers is essential, as functional literacy will not be sufficient for the future world.
• Encourage continuous improvement: Realize that even after addressing the current challenges, there is still more work to be done in order to meet the needs of the future.

Quotes

“Reading and the Democratic Ideal of Education”

“...We must also realize-students, teachers, and laymen alike-that even when we have accomplished the task that lies before us, we will not have accomplished the whole task. We must be more than a nation of functional literates. We must become a nation of truly competent readers, recognizing all that the word competent implies. Nothing less wil satisfy the needs of the world that is coming.”

4. The Second Level of Reading: Inspectional Reading

Takeaways

• Inspectional reading is a distinct level of reading that is more advanced than elementary reading and less detailed than analytical reading.
• Elementary reading skills are necessary for inspectional reading, including the ability to read steadily and understand most sentences and paragraphs.

Inspectional Reading I: Systematic Skimming or Pre-reading

Takeaways

• When you first encounter a book, skim it to determine if it's worth a more thorough reading.
• Start by looking at the title page, preface, and table of contents to understand the book's subject and structure.
• Check the index to get an idea of the topics and authors covered, and read some cited passages for context.
• Read the publisher's blurb for additional insight into the book's content and main points.
• Identify pivotal chapters in the book and read their opening or closing summary statements.
• Thumb through the book, reading paragraphs or pages to get a sense of the main contention and overall flow.
• Always read the last few pages, where authors often summarize their work's key contributions.
• Skimming saves time, helps you grasp more information, and makes reading more efficient by keeping you engaged and focused on finding clues to the book's main theme or idea.

Quotes

“TURN THE PAGES, DIPPING IN HERE AND THERE, READING A PARAGRAPH OR TWO, SOMETIMES SEVERAL PAGES IN SEQUENCE, NEVER MORE THAN THAT.”

“Think of yourself as a detective looking for clues to a book's general theme or idea, alert for anything that will make it clearer. Heeding the suggestions we have made will help you sustain this attitude. You will be surprised to find out how much time you will save, pleased to see how much more you will grasp, and relieved to discover how much easier it can be than you supposed.”

Inspectional Reading II: Superficial Reading

Takeaways

• Don't be discouraged by a difficult book - the mistake is expecting too much from the first reading.
• Read a difficult book through without stopping to look up or ponder things you don't understand right away.
• Focus on what you do understand and keep reading - you'll soon come to things you do understand.
• Don't let yourself get stalled or tripped up by things you don't understand immediately.
• Understanding some of a difficult book is better than understanding none of it.
• Avoid looking up unfamiliar words, studying scholarly footnotes, or consulting secondary sources while reading a difficult book for the first time.
• Reading a book at one sitting can provide a greater understanding than studying it pedantically.
• When reading an expository work, focus on understanding the big picture instead of getting lost in the details.

Quotes

“In tackling a difficult book for the first time, read it through without ever stopping to look up or ponder the things you do not understand right away.”

“Read the book through, undeterred and undismayed by the paragraphs, footnotes, comments, and references that escape you. If you let yourself get stalled, if you allow yourself to be tripped up by any one of these stumbling blocks, you are lost.”

“If a book is easy and fits nicely into all your language conventions and thought forms, then you probably will not grow much from reading it. It may be entertaining, but not enlarging to your understanding. It’s the hard books that count. Raking is easy, but all you get is leaves; digging is hard, but you might find diamonds.”

On Reading Speeds

Takeaways

• Inspectional reading is a quick way to get the most out of a book in limited time, accomplished in two rapid steps.
• Speed reading courses can be beneficial, but they should teach you to read at various speeds, not just one faster speed.
• The ideal is to know when to use different speeds for appropriate materials, as some books deserve only a fast reading while others require slow, careful reading.
• Difficulties in comprehending complex books usually stem from a lack of understanding of reading rules and strategies, not physiological or psychological factors.
• Inspectional reading is quick due to faster reading and reading less of the book, with different goals in mind.
• Analytical reading should include varying speeds, as some parts of even difficult books can be read quickly while others need slow, thorough reading.

Fixations and Regressions

Takeaways

• Most people continue to sub-vocalize and fixate on words or short phrases while reading, which slows them down.
• Inefficient readers often regress, or re-read, previously read phrases or sentences.
• The mind can grasp larger amounts of text at once if the eyes provide it with the information.
• To correct fixations and regressions, you can train yourself to move your hand quickly across a line of text and force your eyes to keep up.
• Regular practice of this technique can significantly increase your reading speed.

Quotes

“The student can read as fast as his mind will let him, not as slow as his eyes make him.”

The Problem of Comprehension

Takeaways

• Speed reading can increase your reading rate and concentration, but it may not necessarily improve comprehension beyond a basic level.
• Comprehension involves more than just answering simple questions of fact about a text; it requires the ability to understand and analyze the deeper meaning and implications of what is being read.
• Different parts of a text may require different reading speeds for full comprehension; some parts may be quickly skimmed, while others may require slow, analytical reading.
• Words and phrases that are particularly important or meaningful should be dwelt upon and considered at length for proper understanding.
• Speed reading courses often do not focus on improving comprehension beyond a basic level; this book, however, aims to improve analytical reading and understanding.

Summary of Inspectional Reading

Takeaways

• Read at a speed that suits the material: read quickly if the material is not worth careful reading, and read slowly if it deserves more attention.
• Always skim or pre-read a book to determine its worth and understand its structure.

Quotes

“Great speed in reading is a dubious achievement; it is of value only if what you have to read is not worth reading. A better formula is this: Every book should be read no more slowly than it deserves, and no more quickly than you can read it with satisfaction and comprehension.”

“Finally, do not try to understand every word or page of a difficult book the first time through. This is the most important rule of all; it is the essence of inspectional reading. Do not be afraid to be, or to seem to be, superficial. Race through even the hardest book. You will then be prepared to read it well the second time.”

5. How to Be a Demanding Reader

Takeaways

• Reading to sleep is easy, but staying awake requires effort and a purpose.
• Your goal in reading determines whether you stay awake or not.
• Reading to profit requires active reading and making an effort.
• Using a good book as a sedative is a waste - it should be read actively for understanding.
• Many people fail to carry out their reading plans due to lack of knowledge on how to be demanding readers.
• Demanding readers keep their minds on what they are doing by making it do the work required for understanding.

Quotes

“The rules for reading yourself to sleep are easier to follow than are the rules for staying awake while reading. Get into bed in a comfortable position, make sure the light is inadequate enough to cause slight eyestrain, choose a book that is either terribly difficult or terribly boring—in any event, one that you do not really care whether you read or not—and you will be asleep in a few minutes. Those who are experts in relaxing with a book do not have to wait for nightfall. A comfortable chair in the library will do any time”

“To use a good book as a sedative is conspicuous waste.”

The Essence of Active Reading: The Four Basic Questions a Reader Asks

Takeaways

• To be an active reader, ask questions as you read and strive to answer them.
• The four main questions to ask about any book are:
  • What is the book about as a whole?
  • What is being said in detail, and how?
  • Is the book true, in whole or part?
  • What of it? Assess the significance and implications of the book.
• The habit of asking these questions while reading is crucial for understanding and evaluating a book effectively.
• Applying these questions helps you elevate your reading skills, enabling you to understand and engage with complex texts.
• Developing the skill to answer these questions precisely and accurately is the art of reading that allows you to engage with challenging books successfully.

Quotes

“The undemanding reader asks no questions-and gets no answers.”

“Good books are over your head; they would not be good for you if they were not. And books that are over your head weary you unless you can reach up to them and pull yourself up their level.”

How to Make a Book Your Own

Takeaways

• Ask questions as you read and try to answer them.
• Use a pencil to write in a book to help answer questions and stay engaged.
• Make reading an active process by writing down your reactions and thoughts.
• Treat reading as a conversation with the author, questioning and arguing when necessary.
• Use various marking methods such as underlining, circling key words, and writing in the margins to emphasize important points and record your thoughts.
• Create a personal index of the author's points on the back endpapers to express your intellectual ownership of the book.
• After finishing the book, outline the structure of the book on the front endpapers to measure your understanding of the work and express your intellectual ownership.

Quotes

“When you buy a book, you establish a property right in it, just as you do in clothes or furniture when you buy and pay for them. But the act of purchase is actually only the prelude to possession in the case of a book. Full ownership of a book only comes when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it—which comes to the same thing—is by writing in it.”

“The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks.”

“Reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author. Presumably he knows more about the subject than you do; if not, you probably should not be bothering with his book. But understanding is a two-way operation; the learner has to question himself and question the teacher, once he understands what the teacher is saying. Marking a book is literally an expression of your differences or your agreements with the author. It is the highest respect you can pay him.”

The Three Kinds of Note-making

Takeaways

• When conducting an inspectional reading, focus on making structural notes about the book's kind, overall topic, and structural order.
• Record these structural notes on the contents or title page for easy reference.
• During an analytical reading, make conceptual notes about the author's ideas and your own understanding of the subject matter.
• When conducting a syntopical reading of several books on one subject, make conceptual notes that may reference multiple books.
• Expert readers can go a step further and make dialectical notes about the shape of the discussion engaged in by all authors in a syntopical reading.
• Dialectical notes often require a separate sheet of paper to capture the structure of concepts and order of statements about the subject matter.

Forming the Habit of Reading

Takeaways

• To master any art or skill, you must form the habit of operating according to its rules.
• Practicing an activity regularly will improve your facility and readiness to do it.
• Simply knowing the rules of an art is not enough; you must possess the habit of practicing it.
• Being an artist means following rules, even if the final product seems original or rule-breaking.
• Artistic skills, such as preparing canvas or mixing paints, require following specific rules.
• Mastery of a craft or skill comes from habitually operating according to its rules.

Quotes

“Now there is no other way of forming a habit of operation than by operating.”

“one learns to do by doing.”

From Many Rules to One Habit

Takeaways

• Mastering complex skills, like reading and skiing, requires breaking them down into smaller, separate acts and practicing each one until it becomes automatic.
• At first, you must focus on each individual act, giving it your full attention.
• As you become more proficient in each act, they will begin to coalesce and work together smoothly.
• The ultimate goal is to reach a stage where you can focus on the overall performance and the end goal, rather than the individual acts.
• Learning to read well is a complex and mental activity, requiring conscious effort to think about your own thoughts as you read.
• Patience and perseverance are essential when learning complex skills like reading, as they involve mastering multiple rules and techniques.

Quotes

“Reading is like skiing. When done well, when done by an expert, both reading and skiing are graceful, harmonious, activities. When done by a beginner, both are awkward, frustrating, and slow. Learning to ski is one of the most humiliating experiences an adult can undergo (that is one reason to start young). After all, an adult has been walking for a long time; he knows where his feet are; he knows how to put one foot in front of the other in order to get somewhere. But as soon as he puts skis on his feet, it is as though he had to learn to walk all over again. He slips and slides, falls down, has trouble getting up, gets his skis crossed, tumbles again, and generally looks- and feels- like a fool. Even the best instructor seems at first to be of no help. The ease with which the instructor performs actions that he says are simple but that the student secretly believes are impossible is almost insulting. How can you remember everything the instructors says you have to remember? Bend your knees. Look down the hill Keep your weight on the downhill ski. Keep your back straight, but nevertheless lean forward. The admonitions seem endless-how can you think about all that and still ski? The point about skiing, of course, is that you should not be thinking about the separate acts that, together, make a smooth turn or series of linked turns- instead, you should merely be looking ahead of you down the hill, anticipating bumps and other skiers, enjoying the feel of the cold wind on your cheeks, smiling with pleasure at the fluid grace of your body as you speed down the mountain. In other words, 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. only then can you put them together to become a good skier.”

6. Pigeonholing a Book

Takeaways

• Reading a whole book, especially a long and challenging one, presents the most difficult challenges for readers.
• If you can read a lengthy and complex work, such as an epic poem or a novel, you can easily read shorter and simpler materials like a lyric or a short story.
• The same applies to expository books, such as histories, philosophical works, or scientific treatises - if you can read those, you can also handle articles or abstracts on the same topic.
• The rules for reading books also apply to other materials like articles or short stories, although they may need to be adapted slightly to fit the specific material.

Quotes

“beginning of this book that the instruction in reading that it provides applies to anything you have to or want to read. However,”

The Importance of Classifying Books

Takeaways

• Determine the type of book you are reading (fiction or nonfiction) early in the process.
• Understand that categorizing books can be complex, as some books contain elements of both fiction and nonfiction.
• Recognize that there are various kinds of expository (nonfiction) books, each conveying knowledge in a unique way.
• Inspect the book thoroughly, including the title, subtitle, table of contents, preface or introduction, index, and dust jacket, to help determine its content and purpose.
• Utilize the author's "signal flags" (such as the title and preface) to understand the book's direction and focus before reading.

Quotes

“There are genuine mysteries in the world that mark the limits of human knowing and thinking. Wisdom is fortified, not destroyed, by understanding its limitations. Ignorance does not make a fool as surely as self-deception.”

What You Can Learn from the Title of a Book

Takeaways

• Many readers overlook the significance of book titles and prefaces, often leading to confusion about the book's content and themes.
• Reading a book's title and preface carefully can provide essential information and help classify the type of book, making it easier to understand.
• To effectively classify books, one must have broad categories and principles of classification in mind, such as distinguishing between theoretical and practical works.
• Books with similar titles may not necessarily belong to the same category, requiring a careful examination of chapter headings and content for proper classification.
• Understanding the main distinction between theoretical and practical works is crucial for intelligently classifying expository books across various disciplines.

Practical vs. Theoretical Books

Takeaways

• "Theoretical" and "practical" refer to knowledge and action, respectively.
• Intelligent action depends on knowledge, which can be used for various purposes such as controlling nature or directing human conduct.
• Practical books teach you how to do something, while theoretical books teach you what is the case.
• Expository books, manuals, and rule books are practical, while books about what is and how we know it are theoretical.
• A book's title can often indicate whether it is theoretical or practical.
• Practical books contain words like "should," "ought," "good," "bad," "ends," and "means," while theoretical books focus on what is true and the facts.
• Not all books fit neatly into one category, and some authors may not know the difference between theory and practice.
• It is beneficial for readers to detect an author's approach to their problem.

Kinds of Theoretical Books

Takeaways

• History books focus on narrating particular events or things that existed and underwent changes in the past, often with commentary on their significance.
• History is chronotopic, dealing with events or things that existed or occurred in a specific date and place.
• Science books seek laws or generalizations about matters that can happen at any time or place, not focusing on specific past events.
• A scientific book emphasizes things that lie outside the scope of normal daily experience, while a philosophical book refers to experiences within the reader's common experience.
• Scientific arguments are proven through special experiences and observations, while philosophical arguments are supported by pointing to experiences common to all.
• Historical statements differ from scientific and philosophical ones in terms of argumentation and interpretation of facts.
• History books are narrative in form and must be written poetically, following the rules for telling a good story.
• Recognizing the differences between history, science, and philosophy is essential for understanding and following the arguments presented in each type of book.

Quotes

“It is only when you try to refine the obvious, and give the distinctions greater precision, that you get into difficulties. For”

“Philosophy is like science and unlike history in that it seeks general truths rather than an account of particular events, either in the near or distant past.”

7. X-raying a Book

Takeaways

• Read a book with "X-ray eyes" to understand its underlying structure.
• State the unity of the whole book in a single sentence or short paragraph.
• Identify the main point or theme of the book, not just its subject matter.
• Express the unity of the book in a few words, showing that you have grasped it definitively.
• Recognize that a good book is a complex unity with organically related parts.
• Understand that each major part of a book has a certain independence and unique structure.
• Identify how each part of the book contributes to the intelligibility of the whole.
• Find the plan or structure in lesser works, even if it's not immediately apparent.
• Recognize that better books have greater complexity and simplicity due to their well-organized parts.

Of Plots and Plans: Stating the Unity of a Book

Takeaways

• A good story or book has a single unity of action, a main thread of plot that ties everything together.
• Recognize the essential plot of a story to understand its unity, such as "boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl."
• The author may help you understand the unity of their work, but it is ultimately the reader's responsibility to find it by reading the whole book.
• The unity of a history or fiction book can be summarized in a single thread of plot.
• Different readers may state the unity of a book differently, but there can still be an objective check on the accuracy and fidelity of those statements.

Mastering the Multiplicity: The Art of Outlining a Book

Takeaways

• Grasp the major parts of a book's structure in addition to its unity for a comprehensive understanding.
• Outline the parts of a book to reveal its complexity and interior structure.
• The ideal performance described by a rule can be approximated, allowing for human limitations and the finite nature of books.
• The degree of approximation varies depending on the character of the book and your purpose in reading it.
• The limitations on approximation are not only due to time and effort but also the finite and imperfect nature of books.
• An outline can reveal aspects of a book that may not be immediately apparent.
• The real structure of a book must be discovered by looking beneath its surface, using chapter headings and sectional divisions as guides for your own activity.
• Comprehending a book's real structure is essential for effectively following Rule 2 (stating the unity of a book).
• Outlining the parts of a book helps confirm the adequacy of your understanding of its main theme or point.

Quotes

“A good rule always describes the ideal performance.”

The Reciprocal Arts of Reading and Writing

Takeaways

• Writing and reading are reciprocal activities, with authors aiming to conceal the structure of their work and readers trying to uncover it.
• A good book has a balance between a clear skeleton (outline) and well-developed content (flesh) that adds depth and life to the work.

Quotes

“The reader tries to uncover the skeleton that the book conceals. The author starts with the skeleton and tries to cover it up. His aim is to conceal the skeleton artistically or, in other words, to put flesh on the bare bones. If he is a good writer, he does not bury a puny skeleton under a mass of fat; on the other hand, neither should the flesh be too thin, so that the bones show through. If the flesh is thick enough, and if the flabbiness is avoided, the joints will be detectable and the motion of the parts will reveal the articulation.”

Discovering the Author’s Intentions

Takeaways

• Identify the author's main question and subordinate questions.
• Formulate the author's problems as precisely as possible.
• Determine the order of questions, addressing primary and secondary ones.
• Understand how finding the author's problems contributes to grasping unity and structure.
• Avoid intentional fallacy, but attempt to understand the author's intentions.
• Learn various types of theoretical and practical questions to detect problems in a book.
• Adapt these questions when analyzing works of imaginative literature.

The First Stage of Analytical Reading

Takeaways

• The first four rules of analytical reading are interconnected and help you understand a book's structure.
• These rules enable you to answer the first basic question about a book: "What is the book about as a whole?"
• Classify the book by kind and subject matter.
• State the whole book's theme in the briefest way possible.
• Enumerate and outline the major parts of the book and their relationships.
• Define the problem or problems the author is trying to solve.
• Applying these rules is not necessarily a chronological process; they can be accomplished simultaneously with practice.
• Your understanding will improve in accuracy as you apply other rules and answer other questions about the book.

Quotes

“THE FIRST STAGE OF ANALYTICAL READING, OR RULES FOR FINDING WHAT A BOOK IS ABOUT 1. Classify the book according to kind and subject matter. 2. State what the whole book is about with the utmost brevity. 3. Enumerate its major parts in their order and relation, and outline these parts as you have outlined the whole. 4. Define the problem or problems the author is trying to solve.”

8. Coming to Terms with an Author

Takeaways

• Follow the four rules of analytical reading to understand a book's topic and structure.
• "Coming to terms" is the first step beyond outlining in analytical reading.
• Coming to terms is crucial for successful communication of knowledge from author to reader.
• A term is the basic unit of communicable knowledge.
• Coming to terms is the initial stage in establishing a productive dialogue with the author.

Words vs. Terms

Takeaways

• A term is a word used unambiguously, while a word can have multiple meanings.
• Successful communication occurs when both parties use the same words with the same meanings, creating a "common something."
• Finding important words and understanding how the author uses them is crucial for interpreting an expository work.
• Language is an imperfect medium for conveying knowledge, making it essential to use language skillfully in expository works.
• Both writer and reader must work together to achieve effective communication, as each brings diverse skills to the process.
• Words can be vehicles for many terms, and one term can be expressed by many words; clear communication relies on understanding this distinction.

Quotes

“As arts, grammar and logic are concerned with language in relation to thought and thought in relation to language. That is why skill in both reading and writing is gained through these arts.”

Finding the Key Words

Takeaways

• Not all words in a book are equally important. Focus on words used in a special way by the author.
• Common words, like "reading," may have a different meaning based on context. Recognize shifts in word usage.
• Be aware that familiarity with word meanings can change over time and place. Adjust your understanding accordingly when reading older or translated works.
• Most words can be read as you would use them in conversation, but key words will likely require more effort to understand.
• The most important words for you as a reader are those that give you trouble and may indicate where further understanding is needed.
• If you understand a word without difficulty, it's likely that you've already come to terms with the author's usage of that word.
• Focus on identifying and understanding the words that cause you trouble, as they are likely important for the author as well.

Quotes

“Find and interpreting the important words.”

Technical Words and Special Vocabularies

Takeaways

• Look for explicitly stressed words in a text, as authors may use typographical devices or definitions to highlight important terms.
• In every field of knowledge, there is a technical vocabulary that is crucial to understanding the subject matter.
• If the author doesn't point out the technical words, readers can locate them through prior knowledge or by knowing what words must be technical because they are not ordinary.
• An author quarreling with other writers about a particular word indicates that it is important to their argument.
• Identify an author's special vocabulary, which includes the words that carry their analysis and argument.
• Pay close attention to words that are not immediately understandable and make a deliberate effort to find their meanings.
• Distinguish between words you understand and those you don't, and focus on clarifying the latter to ensure proper interpretation of the text.
• Avoid non-active or undemanding reading, which often leads to inattention to words and failure to come to terms with the author's ideas.

Quotes

“The reader who fails to ponder, or at least mark, the words he does not understand is headed for disaster.”

“If you are reading a book that can increase your understanding, it stands to reason that not all of its words will be completely intelligible to you. If you proceed as if they were all ordinary words, all on the same level of general intelligibility as the words of a newspaper article, you will make no headway toward interpretation of the book. You might just as well be reading a newspaper, for the book cannot enlighten you if you do not try to understand it.”

Finding the Meanings

Takeaways

• Identify important words in a text that trouble you.
• Determine if the word has one or many meanings.
• If the word has many meanings, try to understand how they are related.
• Note the places where the word changes meaning and consider why the author shifted its usage.
• Discover the meaning of an unknown word by using the meanings of all the other words in the context that you do understand.
• Understand that errors will be made, but they can be corrected through practice and experience.
• Recognize the difference between an author's vocabulary and terminology.
• Be aware that one word can represent several terms, and one term can be represented by several words used synonymously.
• Understand that phrases can also be terms, and two phrases may express the same term.
• Practice analytical reading to increase comprehension of any book by finding its important words, identifying their shifting meanings, and coming to terms with them.

Quotes

“You will find that your comprehension of any book will be enormously increased if you only go to the trouble of finding its important words, identifying their shifting meanings, and coming to terms. Seldom does such a small change in habit have such a large effect.”

9. Determining an Author’s Message

Takeaways

• A proposition is a declaration of an author's judgment or knowledge about something.
• To understand an author's message, readers must first understand the author's propositions.
• An author's propositions are not convincing unless they are supported by reasons or evidence.
• Arguments are made up of a series of statements, with some providing the reasons or grounds for the conclusion.
• To fully understand the contents of a book, you must identify its propositions and arguments through careful reading and interpretation.

Sentences vs. Propositions

Takeaways

• Sentences and paragraphs are grammatical units, while propositions and arguments are logical units.
• Words and terms do not have a one-to-one relationship; one word can have many meanings and two or more words can have the same meaning.
• Not every sentence in a book expresses a proposition; some sentences express questions, wishes, or intentions.
• Propositions are the answers to questions and are declarations of knowledge or opinion.
• Distinguish the various propositions that a long, complex sentence contains to make a discriminating judgment on what the writer is saying.
• Even a grammatically simple sentence sometimes expresses two or more propositions through ambiguity or complexity.
• One and the same proposition can be expressed by two or more different sentences through synonymous words and phrases.
• Some knowledge of grammar is indispensable to a reader to penetrate beneath the surface of language and communicate effectively.
• Mark the most important sentences in a book and discover the propositions they contain.
• Locate or construct the basic arguments in the book by finding them in the connection of sentences, not necessarily paragraphs.
• The rules about propositions and arguments are quite different when reading a poetical work, such as a novel, play, or poem.

Quotes

“You cannot begin to deal with terms, propositions, and arguments—the elements of thought—until you can penetrate beneath the surface of language.”

Finding the Key Sentences

Takeaways

• Identify key sentences that require careful interpretation and are likely to be the most important things the author has to say.
• Look for sentences that express the author's main affirmations, denials, and reasons, which often form the heart of their communication.
• Utilize authors' typographical cues, such as underlining or labeling, to help locate essential sentences.
• Pay attention to the difference between easily understood passages and challenging ones to find significant sentences.
• Identify important words as a clue to important sentences, and mark terms for better understanding of propositions.
• Locate sentences that form a sequence with a beginning, middle, and end, as they are likely to be part of the main argument.
• Recognize an argument when you see one, keeping in mind that arguments take time to state and progress logically from premises to conclusions.
• Focus on understanding the author's ideas rather than getting sidetracked by other interests, such as language or historical context.

Quotes

“Perhaps you are beginning to see how essential a part of reading it is to be perplexed and know it. Wonder is the beginning of wisdom in learning from books as well as from nature. If you never ask yourself any questions about the meaning of a passage, you cannot expect the book to give you any insight you do not already possess.”

“The human mind is as naturally sensitive to arguments as the eye is to colors. (There may be some people who are argument-blind!) But the eye will not see if it is not kept open, and the mind will not follow an argument if it is not awake.”

Finding the Propositions

Takeaways

• Identify the main sentences and find the proposition or propositions they contain.
• Understanding a sentence's propositions requires basic grammar knowledge, such as the role of adjectives, adverbs, and verbs.
• Interpret the sentence in context with surrounding sentences and use a larger context than when finding the terms that words express.
• Separate all related propositions in complicated sentences, as they usually express more than one.
• "State in your own words" is the best test to ensure understanding of a proposition or propositions.
• Translate the sentence into another English sentence to confirm understanding of thought, not just words.
• Recognize equivalent statements of the same proposition and offer equivalent statements yourself.
• Compare related works in syntopical reading by seeing through language to terms and propositions.
• Exemplify or illustrate the proposition to ensure some acquaintance with actual or possible facts it refers to or is relevant to.
• Avoid "verbalism" by using words with regard for thoughts they should convey and awareness of experiences they should refer to.
• Master grammar and logic to prevent slavery to words and develop analytical reading skills.

Quotes

“The vice of “verbalism” can be defined as the bad habit of using words without regard for the thoughts they should convey and without awareness of the experiences to which they should refer. It is playing with words. As the two tests we have suggested indicate, “verbalism” is the besetting sin of those who fail to read analytically. Such readers never get beyond the words. They possess what they read as a verbal memory that they can recite emptily. One of the charges made by certain modern educators against the liberal arts is that they tend to verbalism, but just the opposite seems to be the case. The failure in reading—the omnipresent verbalism—of those who have not been trained in the arts of grammar and logic shows how lack of such discipline results in slavery to words rather than mastery of them.”

Finding the Arguments

Takeaways

• An argument is a logical unit consisting of a sequence of propositions, some of which give reasons for another.
• An argument may be expressed in a single sentence or spread over several sentences or paragraphs.
• Some paragraphs do not express an argument at all, and should be read quickly.
• Your task as a reader is to find or construct the important arguments in a book, by gathering together the sequence of sentences that state the propositions that compose the argument.
• Good authors try to reveal their thought and make it easy for the reader to follow their arguments, but not all authors do this in the same way.
• A well-constructed book summarizes its arguments for the reader, making it easier to interpret.
• Be aware of missing steps in an argument, as their omission can be misleading.
• You must be able to put any good argument into a nutshell, even if it is built upon other arguments.
• Every argument must involve a number of statements, some giving reasons for a conclusion and others being assumptions or self-evident propositions.
• Discriminate between inductive and deductive reasoning in arguments.
• Observe what things the author says he must assume, what he says can be proved or evidenced, and what need not be proved because it is self-evident.
• Self-evident propositions are indemonstrable but undeniable truths based on common experience and common-sense knowledge, not on organized bodies of knowledge such as philosophy, mathematics, science, or history.

Quotes

“One of the most familiar tricks of the orator or propagandist is to leave certain things unsaid, things that are highly relevant to the argument, but that might be challenged if they were made explicit. While”

Finding the Solutions

Takeaways

• Identify the major problems the author aimed to solve in their book.
• Determine which problems the author solved and if they raised new ones.
• Recognize which problems the author was aware they did not solve.
• Apply Rule 8 (find out the author's solutions) to ensure understanding of the book.
• After understanding the book, feel confident to argue with the author and express your thoughts.

The Second Stage of Analytical Reading

Takeaways

• To understand what a book is saying in detail, follow these rules for the second stage of analytical reading: come to terms with the author's key words, grasp their leading propositions, know their arguments, and determine which problems they have solved.
• Interpret the author's key words to understand their perspective.
• Identify the author's most important sentences to grasp their main points.
• Find or construct the author's arguments from sequences of sentences.
• Determine which problems the author has solved and which they have not, and identify which unsolved problems the author was aware of.

10. Criticizing a Book Fairly

Takeaways

• The ninth rule of reading is: "Rule 9. You must be able to say, with reasonable certainty, 'I understand,' before you can say any one of the following things: 'I agree,' or 'I disagree,' or 'I suspend judgment.'"
• The three critical positions you can take are: "I agree," "I disagree," or "I suspend judgment."
• You can be wrong in agreeing just as much as in disagreeing.
• To suspend judgment is also a critical position and it means that something has not been shown.
• You should not make the error of thinking that criticism is always disagreement.
• You should not make the error of thinking that criticism is always negative.
• Criticism can also be positive and it can mean that you agree with something but want to clarify a point or add something to it.
• You should not ignore criticisms that are not based on understanding.
• You should ask the critic to state your position for you if they cannot do it satisfactorily.
• The same applies to questions asked in lectures or speeches where someone says "I don't know what you mean, but I think you're wrong."

Quotes

“A good book deserves an active reading. The activity of reading does not stop with the work of understanding what a book says. It must be completed by the work of criticism, the work of judging. The undemanding reader fails to satisfy this requirement, probably even more than he fails to analyze and interpret. He not only makes no effort to understand; he also dismisses a book simply by putting it aside and forgetting it. Worse than faintly praising it, he damns it by giving it no critical consideration whatever.”

“Remember Bacon’s recommendation to the reader: “Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.”

“To be equally serious in receiving such communication, one must be not only a responsive but also a responsible listener. You are responsive to the extent that you follow what has been said and note the intention that prompts it. But you also have the responsibility of taking a position. When you take it, it is yours, not the author's. To regard anyone except yourself as responsible for your judgment is to be a slave, not a free man. It is from this fact that the liberal arts acquire their name. (P. 140)”

“We hope you have not made the error of supposing that to criticize is always to disagree. (...) To agree is just as much of an exercise of critical judgment on your part as to disagree.”

“To agree without understanding is inane. To disagree without understanding is impudent.”

“Is it too much to expect from the schools that they train their students not only to interpret but to criticize; that is, to discriminate what is sound from error and falsehood, to suspend judgement if they are not convinced, or to judge with reason if they agree or disagree?”

“Men are creatures of passion and prejudice. The language they must use to communicate is an imperfect medium, clouded by emotion and colored by interest, as well as inadequately transparent for thought.”

“... The person who, at any stage of a conversation, disagrees, should at least hope to reach agreement in the end. He should be as much prepared to have his own mind changed as seek to change the mind of another ... No one who looks upon disagreement as an occasion for teaching another should forget that it is also an occasion for being taught.”

“The trouble is that many people regard disagreement as unrelated to either teaching or being taught. They think that everything is just a matter of opinion. I have mine, and you have yours; and our right to our opinions is as inviolable as our right to private property. On such a view, communication cannot be profitable if the profit to be gained is an increase in knowledge. Conversation is hardly better than a ping-pong game of opposed opinions, a game in which no one keeps score, no one wins, and everyone is satisfied because he does not lose - that is, he ends up holding the same opinions he started with.”

11. Agreeing or Disagreeing with an Author

Takeaways

• A book can be evaluated based on its soundness, completeness, and communication of knowledge.
• Soundness is determined by whether the author's premises are true, whether they support the conclusions drawn, and whether the reasoning is logical.
• Completeness is determined by whether the author has solved all the problems he started with, made good use of his materials, and seen all the implications and ramifications of his undertaking.
• Communication of knowledge is determined by whether the author has stated his problems adequately and solved them satisfactorily.
• To evaluate a book's soundness, one should look for errors in the author's premises, reasoning, or execution of their plan.
• To evaluate a book's completeness, one should consider whether the author has addressed all the relevant issues and explored all the implications of their undertaking.
• To evaluate a book's communication of knowledge, one should consider whether the author has stated their problems clearly and solved them satisfactorily.
• A reader who understands a book but does not agree with its conclusions must be able to show that the author is uninformed, misinformed, or illogical in relevant respects.
• A reader who agrees with a book in part must agree with the author as far as they have gone and cannot withhold agreement simply because they do not like the conclusions.
• The four rules of analytical reading - structural outlining, interpretation, criticism, and comparison - help a reader answer the questions "What is it about?", "What is being said in detail, and how?", "Is it true?", and "What of it?".
• The first rule of analytical reading is to classify the book according to kind and subject matter.
• The second rule is to state what the whole book is about with the utmost brevity.
• The third rule is to enumerate the book's major parts in their order and relation and outline these parts as one has outlined the whole.
• The fourth rule is to define the problem or problems the author has tried to solve.
• The fifth rule is to come to terms with the author by interpreting their key words.
• The sixth rule is to grasp the author's leading propositions by dealing with their most important sentences.

Quotes

“True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline.”

“You must be able to say, with reasonable certainty, "I understand," before you can say "I agree," or "I disagree," or "I suspend judgment.”

“Do not say you agree, disagree, or suspend judgement until you can say “I understand”

“Even when you have been somewhat enlightened by what you have read, you are called upon to continue the serach for significance.”

“When we speak of someone as “well-read,” we should have this ideal in mind. Too often, we use that phrase to mean the quantity rather than the quality of reading. A person who has read widely but not well deserves to be pitied rather than praised. As Thomas Hobbes said, “If I read as many books as most men do, I would be as dull-witted as they are.”

12. Aids to Reading

Takeaways

• The choice of reading material depends on the purpose and motivation for reading.
• Fiction provides entertainment, escape, and insights into human nature. It can also help develop empathy, creativity, and critical thinking skills.
• Nonfiction informs and educates about facts, concepts, and ideas. It can also inspire, persuade, and challenge beliefs and values.
• Reading scientific texts requires a different approach than reading fiction or poetry. The reader must be patient, persistent, and willing to learn technical terms and concepts.
• Technical manuals require a specific set of skills, including the ability to follow instructions carefully and accurately.
• Academic texts require the ability to analyze complex arguments, understand jargon, and evaluate evidence.
• Periodicals provide up-to-date information on current events and trends in various fields. They also offer diverse perspectives and opinions.
• Newspapers provide quick and concise reports on local, national, and international news. They also offer editorials, opinion pieces, and features.
• Magazines offer a range of topics, from entertainment to education, and often include visuals and multimedia content. They are designed to be accessible and engaging.
• Digital texts require the ability to navigate various formats, such as hypertext and multimedia, and to evaluate the credibility of sources. They also offer interactive features and opportunities for collaboration and communication.

Quotes

“The great authors were great readers, and one way to understand them is to read the books they read.”

“...The first dictionaries were glossaries of Homeric words, intended to help Romans read the Iliad and Odyssey as well as other Greek literature employing the 'archaic' Homeric vocabulary.”

“There is no more irritating fellow than the one who tries to settle an argument about communism, or justice, or freedom, by quoting from the dictionary. Lexicographers may be respected as authorities on word usage, but they are not the ultimate founts of wisdom.”

“The man who knew an encyclopedia by heart would be in grave danger of incurring the title idiot savant—“learned fool.”

13. How to Read Practical Books

Takeaways

• Practical problems are solved by taking practical action, not by reading about it.
• Practical books contain rules and principles that can be applied to practical situations.
• The reader must apply the rules and principles to specific cases, exercising practical judgment in doing so.
• Practical books may also contain theoretical knowledge, which underlies the rules and makes them intelligible.
• Practical books fall into two main groups: those that present rules, and those that explain the principles underlying the rules.
• In reading a practical book, the reader should look for the rules or principles being presented, and consider the arguments for their soundness.
• The reader should also try to derive practical rules from the principles being presented, and consider how they can be applied in practice.
• The ultimate significance of practical principles is found in the rules they lead to and the actions they recommend.
• In judging a practical book, the reader should consider whether the rules or principles being presented are practically true, i.e., whether they work and lead to the right end.
• The reader should also consider whether they accord with his own goals and values, as this will affect his judgment of their truth or falsity.
• The role of persuasion is important in practical writing, as it aims to win the reader to certain ends and actions.
• The intelligent reader of practical books reads between the lines or in the margins, trying to see the rules that may not be expressed but that can be derived from the principles.
• An intelligent reader also tries to figure out how the rules should be applied in practice, deriving practical conclusions from theoretical principles.

Quotes

“A lecture has been well described as the process whereby the notes of the teacher become the notes of the student without passing through the mind of either.”

“... a practical problem can only be solved by action itself. When your practical problem is how to earn a living, a book on how to make friends and influence people cannot solve it, though it may suggest things to do. Nothing short of the doing solves the problem. It is solved only by earning a living.”

“The best protection against propaganda of any sort is the recognition of it for what it is. Only hidden and undetected oratory is really insidious. What reaches the heart without going through the mind is likely to bounce back and put the mind out of business. Propaganda taken in that way is like a drug you do not know you are swallowing. The effect is mysterious; you do not know afterwards why you feel or think the way you do.”

“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you”

14. How to Read Imaginative Literature

Takeaways

• Classify a work of imaginative literature according to its kind.
• Grasp the unity of the whole work.
• Discover how the whole is constructed out of all its parts.
• Do not look for terms, propositions, and arguments in imaginative literature.
• Do not criticize fiction by the standards of truth and consistency that properly apply to communication of knowledge.
• Rules for reading imaginative literature are meant to clear away all that stops us from feeling as deeply as we possibly can.
• The language of imaginative literature is used differently than in expository writing, relying on implied meanings and metaphors rather than explicitness and unambiguousness.
• In imaginative literature, the plot is the unity of the whole story, and it is conveyed through actions and speeches rather than a logical argument or exposition.
• Imaginative literature teaches derivatively by creating experiences from which we can learn, rather than providing novel experiences like expository writing does.
• The "truth" of a good story is its verisimilitude, its intrinsic probability or plausibility, rather than its correspondence to reality or facts.

Quotes

“Imaginative literature primarily pleases rather than teaches. It is much easier to be pleased than taught, but much harder to know why one is pleased. Beauty is harder to analyze than truth.”

“Don't try to resist the effect that a work of imaginative literature has on you.”

15. Suggestions for Reading Stories, Plays, and Poems

Takeaways

• A good poem can be worked at, re-read, and thought about over and over for the rest of your life.
• You will never stop finding new things in it, new pleasures and delights, and also new ideas about yourself and the world.
• We are certain that you know what we mean when we say that there is a central core that most people, if they were feeling reasonable about the matter, would admit was poetry.
• If we tried to state precisely what the central core consisted in, we would probably get into trouble, and so we will not try.
• Nevertheless, we are certain that nine times out of ten, or perhaps even ninety-nine times out of a hundred, you would agree with us that X was a poem and Y was not.
• The first rule to follow in reading a lyric is to read it through without stopping, whether you think you understand it or not.
• The second bit of advice is this. One thing we do know about the staging of Greek plays is that the tragic actors wore buskins on their feet that elevated them several inches above the ground.
• But the members of the chorus did not wear buskins, though they sometimes wore masks.
• The third rule for reading lyrics is to read it through again—but read it out loud.
• In most good lyrics there is some kind of conflict. Some times two antagonists—either individual people, or images, or ideas—are named, and then the conflict between them is described.
• In other poems, the conflict is only implied and not stated. For example, a large number of great lyric poems are about the conflict between love and time, between life and death, between the beauty of transient things and the triumph of eternity.
• The fourth rule for reading lyrics is this: Read the poem through again—but read it out loud.
• The fifth rule for reading lyrics is to discover the key words in a poem by an act of rhetorical discernment.
• In most good lyrics there is some kind of conflict. Some times two antagonists—either individual people, or images, or ideas—are named, and then the conflict between them is described.

Quotes

“As E. B. White once remarked, “A despot doesn’t fear eloquent writers preaching freedom—he fears a drunken poet who may crack a joke that will take hold.”

“the essence of tragedy is time, or rather the lack of it. There is no problem in any Greek tragedy that could not have been solved if there had been enough time, but there is never enough. Decisions, choices have to be made in a moment, there is no time to think and weigh the consequences; and, since even tragic heroes are fallible—especially fallible, perhaps—the decisions are wrong. It is easy for us to see what should have been done, but would we have been able to see in time? That is the question that you should always ask in reading any Greek tragedy.”

16. How to Read History

Takeaways

• Reading for information and reading for understanding are two different things.
• Reading for understanding is the most important kind of reading, because it is what you do when you read books.
• Reading for information is necessary, but it is usually about current events, and you can often rely on condensations of that information, like those in Time or Newsweek.
• When you read a digest of information, you have to read between the lines to determine what was left out.
• To do this, you need to know something about the character of the person who did the condensing, which in turn requires a good deal of knowledge about his background and assumptions.
• In order to understand an author’s assumptions and background, you have to be able to answer five questions: (1) What does he want to prove? (2) Whom does he want to convince? (3) What special knowledge does he assume? (4) What special language does he use? (5) Does he really know what he is talking about?
• These questions are variations on the four questions that should be asked of any expository book: (1) What does the author want to prove? (2) Whom does he want to convince? (3) What kind of evidence does he use? (4) How persuasive is that evidence?
• The more specialized the language an author uses, the more likely it is that he assumes his reader knows something about the subject matter that the reader may not know.
• A reporter or digest writer may also have an interest in your understanding a situation in a certain way, and this interest may affect his reporting of it.
• When you read a digest or condensation of information, therefore, you have to be able to infer what was left out and why it was left out. This requires a good deal of experience and practice.

Quotes

“Human beings are curious, and especially curious about other human beings.”

17. How to Read Science and Mathematics

Takeaways

• Scientific works often contain mathematics or describe experiments, making them more challenging for some readers.
• Reading scientific classics can provide a deeper understanding of the history and foundations of scientific ideas.
• Popular science articles and books are written for a wider audience but may still require active reading.
• Theoretical scientific works may have practical implications, requiring both theoretical understanding and practical application.
• Mathematics, as a subject, is often mysterious and requires careful study to understand.
• Reading scientific works actively involves identifying the subject matter, discovering the relations between parts and the whole, coming to terms with propositions and arguments, and working towards understanding before assessing significance.

Quotes

“Scientific objectivity is not the absence of initial bias. It is attained by frank confession of it.”

“We are not told, or not told early enough so that it sinks in, that mathematics is a language, and that we can learn it like any other, including our own. We have to learn our own language twice, first when we learn to speak it, second when we learn to read it. Fortunately, mathematics has to be learned only once, since it is almost wholly a written language.”

“Mathematics is one of the major modern mysteries. Perhaps it is the leading one, occupying a place in our society similar to the religious mysteries of another age. If we want to know something about what our age is all about, we should have some understanding of what mathematics is, and of how the mathematician operates and thinks.”

18. How to Read Philosophy

Takeaways

• Reading is an activity of the mind.
• The mind is capable of a wide range of activities, from the most simple to the most complex.
• Reading is not one activity, but many.
• Reading is a complex skill, one that must be learned and practiced.
• Reading is not merely a matter of getting information or ideas into your head; it also involves making sense of them and remembering them.
• You must read actively, not passively, in order to read well.
• To read well you must learn to use a variety of strategies, including prediction, questioning, and summarizing.
• Good reading habits are essential for good reading.
• The first step in developing good reading habits is to make a plan for reading any given book, using some or all of the rules discussed above.
• The second step is to stick to your plan; this requires discipline and self-discipline, which you can develop only by practice.
• A reader who reads well is able to understand and appreciate whatever book he chooses to read; he has the skills to learn from any book what it has to teach him.
• In addition to reading books, you should also learn about the great ideas and thinkers of history by reading secondary sources such as encyclopedias, biographies, and anthologies; these will give you the background knowledge you need in order to fully understand any particular book you choose to read in depth.
• Reading is an art that can be learned; it requires effort and practice, but the rewards are great: a lifetime of pleasure and learning from books that can take you anywhere you want to go and let you do anything you want to do.

Quotes

“The ability to retain a child's view of the world with at the same time a mature understanding of what it means to retain it, is extremely rare - and a person who has these qualities is likely to be able to contribute something really important to our thinking.”

“I have seen the fruits of adult education. It can be done. And anyone who has worked in adult education knows that he must appeal for self-help. There are no monitors to keep adults at the task. There are no examinations and grades, none of the machinery of external discipline. The person who learns something out of school is self-disciplined. He works for merit in his own eyes, not credit from the registrar. (1940 ed. page 104)”

“The complexities of adult life get in the way of the truth. The great philosophers have always been able to clear away the complexities and see simple distinctions - simple once they are stated, vastly difficult before. If we are to follow them we too must be childishly simple in our questions - and maturely wise in our replies..”

“Happiness, as Aristotle says, is the quality of a whole life. He means whole not only in a temporal sense but also in terms of all the aspects from which a life can be viewed”

“... always keep in mind that an article of faith is not something that the faithful assume. Faith, for those who have it, is the most certain form of knowledge, not a tentative opinion.”

“The characteristics of this kind of reading are perhaps summed up in the word “orthodox,” which is almost always applicable. The word comes from two Greek roots, meaning “right opinion.” These are books for which there is one and only one right reading; any other reading or interpretation is fraught with peril, from the loss of an “A” to the damnation of one’s soul. This characteristic carries with it an obligation. The faithful reader of a canonical book is obliged to make sense out of it and to find it true in one or another sense of “true.” If he cannot do this by himself, he is obliged to go to someone who can. This may be a priest or a rabbi, or it may be his superior in the party hierarchy, or it may be his professor. In any case, he is obliged to accept the resolution of his problem that is offered him. He reads essentially without freedom; but in return for this he gains a kind of satisfaction that is possibly never obtained when reading other books.”

19. How to Read Social Science

Takeaways

• Syntopical reading is the process of comparing and contrasting multiple works on the same subject to gain a deeper understanding.
• Social science literature often requires syntopical reading due to its interdisciplinary nature, which can include elements of philosophy, history, and science.
• Understanding the key terms, propositions, and arguments in each work is necessary for effective syntopical reading.
• Identifying the author's assumptions and biases is crucial when engaging with social science literature, as these can significantly impact their conclusions.
• Synthesizing multiple works on a subject requires an understanding of the similarities and differences between them, as well as an ability to draw connections and build upon each other's ideas.
• Practical applications of syntopical reading include policy analysis, academic research, and professional development in fields like law, education, and psychology.

20. The Fourth Level of Reading: Syntopical Reading

Takeaways

Syntopical Reading: The Key Takeaways

Syntopical reading is a process of reading that enables the reader to understand a subject by comparing and contrasting the views of authors who have written about it. It is a way of reading that can be applied to any subject, and it is especially useful for those who want to understand the great ideas of our tradition.

The process of syntopical reading consists of two main stages: preparing to read syntopically, and syntopical reading proper. Preparation involves assembling a bibliography of books relevant to the subject, and then inspecting those books in order to select the most relevant passages. The second stage involves reading those passages with a view to understanding the authors’ views on the issues, which in turn requires the reader to construct a neutral terminology for the subject and to identify the questions or issues that divide or unite the authors. Finally, the discussion is analyzed by ordering these questions and issues in such a way as to throw maximum light on the subject.

The key steps in syntopical reading are as follows:

• Preparation for syntopical reading:
  • Create a tentative bibliography of your subject by recourse to library catalogues, advisors, and bibliographies in books.
  • Inspect all of the books on the tentative bibliography to ascertain which are germane to your subject, and also to acquire a clearer idea of the subject.
• Syntopical reading:
  • Inspect the books already identified as relevant to your subject in Stage I in order to find the most relevant passages.
  • Bring the authors to terms by constructing a neutral terminology of the subject that all, or the great majority, of the authors can be interpreted as employing, whether they actually employ the words or not.
  • Establish a set of neutral propositions for all of the authors by framing a set of questions to which all or most of the authors can be interpreted as giving answers, whether they actually treat the questions explicitly or not.
  • Define the issues, both major and minor ones, by ranging the opposing answers of authors to the various questions on one side of an issue or another. You should remember that an issue does not always exist explicitly between or among authors, but that it sometimes has to be constructed by interpretation of the authors’ views on matters that

21. Reading and the Growth of the Mind

Takeaways

• Understanding a complex book requires active engagement and effort from the reader.
• Preparation before reading includes familiarizing oneself with background information, setting goals for reading, and gathering necessary resources.
• While reading, it is essential to focus on understanding the main ideas and arguments, take notes, and clarify any uncertainties through rereading or research.
• After finishing the book, reflecting on its significance, summarizing its content, evaluating its strengths and weaknesses, and considering its impact on one's thoughts and perspectives are crucial steps in the learning process.
• The process of understanding a complex book is an ongoing journey that may involve rereading, researching related topics, and seeking guidance from experts or colleagues.

Quotes

“You must tackle books that are beyond you, or, as we have said, books that are over your head. Only books of that sort will make you stretch your mind. And unless you stretch, you will not learn.”

“....a good book can teach you about the world and about yourself. You learn more than how to read better; you also learn more about life. You become wiser. Not just more knowledgeable - books that provide nothing but information can produce that result. But wiser, in the sense that you are more deeply aware of the great and enduring truths of human life.”

“The mind can atrophy, like the muscles, if it is not used.”

“Television, radio, and all the sources of amusement and information that surround us in our daily lives are also artificial props. They can give us the impression that our minds are active, because we are required to react to stimuli from the outside. But the power of those external stimuli to keep us going is limited. They are like drugs. We grow used to them, and we continuously need more and more of them. Eventually, they have little or no effect. Then, if we lack resources within ourselves, we cease to grow intellectually, morally, and spiritually. And we we cease to grow, we begin to die.”

“Reading well, which means reading actively, is thus not only a good in itself, nor is it merely a means to advancement in our work or career. It also serves to keep our minds alive and growing.”

“Reading list (1972 edition)[edit]

1. Homer – Iliad, Odyssey
2. The Old Testament
3. Aeschylus – Tragedies
4. Sophocles – Tragedies
5. Herodotus – Histories
6. Euripides – Tragedies
7. Thucydides – History of the Peloponnesian War
8. Hippocrates – Medical Writings
9. Aristophanes – Comedies
10. Plato – Dialogues
11. Aristotle – Works
12. Epicurus – Letter to Herodotus; Letter to Menoecus
13. Euclid – Elements
14. Archimedes – Works
15. Apollonius of Perga – Conic Sections
16. Cicero – Works
17. Lucretius – On the Nature of Things
18. Virgil – Works
19. Horace – Works
20. Livy – History of Rome
21. Ovid – Works
22. Plutarch – Parallel Lives; Moralia
23. Tacitus – Histories; Annals; Agricola Germania
24. Nicomachus of Gerasa – Introduction to Arithmetic
25. Epictetus – Discourses; Encheiridion
26. Ptolemy – Almagest
27. Lucian – Works
28. Marcus Aurelius – Meditations
29. Galen – On the Natural Faculties
30. The New Testament
31. Plotinus – The Enneads
32. St. Augustine – On the Teacher; Confessions; City of God; On Christian Doctrine
33. The Song of Roland
34. The Nibelungenlied
35. The Saga of Burnt Njál
36. St. Thomas Aquinas – Summa Theologica
37. Dante Alighieri – The Divine Comedy;The New Life; On Monarchy
38. Geoffrey Chaucer – Troilus and Criseyde; The Canterbury Tales
39. Leonardo da Vinci – Notebooks
40. Niccolò Machiavelli – The Prince; Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy
41. Desiderius Erasmus – The Praise of Folly
42. Nicolaus Copernicus – On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
43. Thomas More – Utopia
44. Martin Luther – Table Talk; Three Treatises
45. François Rabelais – Gargantua and Pantagruel
46. John Calvin – Institutes of the Christian Religion
47. Michel de Montaigne – Essays
48. William Gilbert – On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies
49. Miguel de Cervantes – Don Quixote
50. Edmund Spenser – Prothalamion; The Faerie Queene
51. Francis Bacon – Essays; Advancement of Learning; Novum Organum, New Atlantis
52. William Shakespeare – Poetry and Plays
53. Galileo Galilei – Starry Messenger; Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences
54. Johannes Kepler – Epitome of Copernican Astronomy; Concerning the Harmonies of the World
55. William Harvey – On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals; On the Circulation of the Blood; On the Generation of Animals
56. Thomas Hobbes – Leviathan
57. René Descartes – Rules for the Direction of the Mind; Discourse on the Method; Geometry; Meditations on First Philosophy
58. John Milton – Works
59. Molière – Comedies
60. Blaise Pascal – The Provincial Letters; Pensees; Scientific Treatises
61. Christiaan Huygens – Treatise on Light
62. Benedict de Spinoza – Ethics
63. John Locke – Letter Concerning Toleration; Of Civil Government; Essay Concerning Human Understanding;Thoughts Concerning Education
64. Jean Baptiste Racine – Tragedies
65. Isaac Newton – Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy; Optics
66. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz – Discourse on Metaphysics; New Essays Concerning Human Understanding;Monadology
67. Daniel Defoe – Robinson Crusoe
68. Jonathan Swift – A Tale of a Tub; Journal to Stella; Gulliver's Travels; A Modest Proposal
69. William Congreve – The Way of the World
70. George Berkeley – Principles of Human Knowledge
71. Alexander Pope – Essay on Criticism; Rape of the Lock; Essay on Man
72. Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu – Persian Letters; Spirit of Laws
73. Voltaire – Letters on the English; Candide; Philosophical Dictionary
74. Henry Fielding – Joseph Andrews; Tom Jones
75. Samuel Johnson – The Vanity of Human Wishes; Dictionary; Rasselas; The Lives of the Poets”

“76. David Hume – Treatise on Human Nature; Essays Moral and Political; An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding 77. Jean-Jacques Rousseau – On the Origin of Inequality; On the Political Economy; Emile – or, On Education, The Social Contract

78. Laurence Sterne – Tristram Shandy; A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy
79. Adam Smith – The Theory of Moral Sentiments; The Wealth of Nations
80. Immanuel Kant – Critique of Pure Reason; Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals; Critique of Practical Reason; The Science of Right; Critique of Judgment; Perpetual Peace
81. Edward Gibbon – The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; Autobiography
82. James Boswell – Journal; Life of Samuel Johnson, Ll.D.
83. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier – Traité Élémentaire de Chimie (Elements of Chemistry)
84. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison – Federalist Papers
85. Jeremy Bentham – Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation; Theory of Fictions
86. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – Faust; Poetry and Truth
87. Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier – Analytical Theory of Heat
88. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel – Phenomenology of Spirit; Philosophy of Right; Lectures on the Philosophy of History
89. William Wordsworth – Poems
90. Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Poems; Biographia Literaria
91. Jane Austen – Pride and Prejudice; Emma
92. Carl von Clausewitz – On War
93. Stendhal – The Red and the Black; The Charterhouse of Parma; On Love
94. Lord Byron – Don Juan
95. Arthur Schopenhauer – Studies in Pessimism
96. Michael Faraday – Chemical History of a Candle; Experimental Researches in Electricity
97. Charles Lyell – Principles of Geology
98. Auguste Comte – The Positive Philosophy
99. Honoré de Balzac – Père Goriot; Eugenie Grandet
100. Ralph Waldo Emerson – Representative Men; Essays; Journal
101. Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter
102. Alexis de Tocqueville – Democracy in America
103. John Stuart Mill – A System of Logic; On Liberty; Representative Government; Utilitarianism; The Subjection of Women; Autobiography
104. Charles Darwin – The Origin of Species; The Descent of Man; Autobiography
105. Charles Dickens – Pickwick Papers; David Copperfield; Hard Times
106. Claude Bernard – Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine
107. Henry David Thoreau – Civil Disobedience; Walden
108. Karl Marx – Capital; Communist Manifesto
109. George Eliot – Adam Bede; Middlemarch
110. Herman Melville – Moby-Dick; Billy Budd
111. Fyodor Dostoevsky – Crime and Punishment; The Idiot; The Brothers Karamazov
112. Gustave Flaubert – Madame Bovary; Three Stories
113. Henrik Ibsen – Plays
114. Leo Tolstoy – War and Peace; Anna Karenina; What is Art?; Twenty-Three Tales
115. Mark Twain – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; The Mysterious Stranger
116. William James – The Principles of Psychology; The Varieties of Religious Experience; Pragmatism; Essays in Radical Empiricism
117. Henry James – The American; The Ambassadors
118. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche – Thus Spoke Zarathustra; Beyond Good and Evil; The Genealogy of Morals;The Will to Power
119. Jules Henri Poincaré – Science and Hypothesis; Science and Method
120. Sigmund Freud – The Interpretation of Dreams; Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis; Civilization and Its Discontents; New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis
121. George Bernard Shaw – Plays and Prefaces”

“The First Level of Reading: Elementary Reading”

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