(007) Reading: How to read a book
Because you think you learnt that at school.
“How to read a book” by Mortimer Adler is a classic book first published in 1940. Charles Van Doren has been the co-author of the 1972 edition. Its purpose is to improve reading skills. It explains the four different levels of reading and how to achieve them to become a better reader.
The first level of reading: Elementary reading
Definition
Elementary reading means moving from non-literacy to at least a beginning of literacy.
Method
Learning to read, or learning in general, can be achieved by one or both of the following two processes:
learning by instruction: Instruction occurs when one person teaches to another through speech or writing. Learning by instruction could be described as learning by aided discovery.
learning by discovery: the process of learning something by research, by investigation, or by reflection, without being taught.
The second level of reading: Inspectional reading
Definition
Inspectional reading means obtaining a superficial knowledge of the book within a given time, in order to decide if this book deserves an analytical reading (third level of reading). Such paradigm allows to answers to the three following questions:
What kind of book is it?
What is the book about?
What is the structural order of the work whereby the author develops his conception or understanding of that general subject matter?
Systematic skimming or pre-reading
discover whether the book requires a more careful reading, and decide to read it analytically or not to read it
should last between a few minutes and an hour
necessary when you don’t know if the book is worth reading carefully
desirable when you know that the book if worth reading carefully to understand its structure
Skimming habits
Look at the title page and, if the book has one, at its preface. Read each quickly.
Study the table of content.
Check the index. Make a quick estimate of the range of topics covered and of the kind of books and authors referred to.
Read the publisher’s blurb.
Look at the chapters that seems pivotal to its argument. Read the summary statements.
Turn the pages, dipping in here and there, reading a paragraph or two, sometimes several pages in sequence, never more than that.
Superficial reading
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.
Do not look up words in the dictionary or ideas in the encyclopedia. Do not look at footnotes or commentaries. Try to figure them out in your first reading.
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.
You should use speed reading techniques when efficient.
Speed reading techniques
avoid subvocalization
decrease the number of eye fixations when reading a line
do not regress to read words you already read
read at various speeds and know when each speed is appropriate
Great speed in reading is a dubious achievement; it is of value only if what you have to read is not really worth reading.
Active reading habit
Build the habit of asking these four questions for each and every book you read. The trained ability to do that is the art of reading:
What is the book about as a whole?
What is being said in detail, and how?
Is the book true, in whole or in part?
What of it? (Why the author thinks it is important to know these things?)
Note-taking
The notes taken at this level of reading are called the structural notes while those taken at the analytical level are the conceptual notes, and those taken at the syntopical level are called dialectical notes.
Reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author. The learner has to question the teacher and himself. Mark the book as an expression of your agreements or disagreements with the author:
underlining
vertical lines at the margin
star, asterisk, or other doodad at the margin
numbers in the margin
numbers of other pages in the margin
circling of key words or phrases
writing in the margin, at the top or at the bottom of the page
The third level of reading: Analytical reading
Definition
Analytical reading means a thorough, complete reading. It is hardly ever necessary if your goal in reading is simply information or entertainment. Analytical reading It is preeminently for the sake of understanding.
There are 15 Rules of analytical reading. Those rules are split into three stages.
First stage of analytical reading
Rules for finding what a book is about:
Rule 1: Classify the book according to kind and subject matter. You must know what kind of book you are reading, and you should know this as early in the process as possible, preferably before you begin to read.
Rule 2: State what the whole book is about with the utmost brevity (a single sentence or at most a few sentences).
Rule 3: Enumerate its major parts in their order and relation, and outline these parts as you have outlined the whole. Even when you become more skilled, you will not want to read every book with the same degree of effort. You will not find it profitable.
Rule 4: Define the problem or problems the author is trying to solve. Do not fall into the intentional fallacy, that is the fallacy of thinking you can discover what was in an author’s mind from the book he has written, especially for literary works. The author’s problems could be theoretical questions or practical questions.
Second stage of analytical reading
Rules for finding what a book says (interpreting its contents):
Rule 5: Come to terms with the author by interpreting his key words. As a reader, the most important words are those that give you trouble.
Rule 6: Grasp the author’s leading propositions by dealing with his most important sentences. Unless we are exclusively interested in the author’s personality, we should not be satisfied with knowing what his opinions are. His propositions are nothing but expressions of personal opinion unless they are supported by reasons. If it is the book and the subject with which it deals that we are interested in, and not just the author, we want to know not merely what his propositions are, but also why he thinks we should be persuaded to accept them.
Rule 7: Know the author’s arguments, by finding them in, or constructing them out of, sequences of sentences.
Rule 8: Determine which of his problems the author has solved, and which he has not; and as to the latter, decide which the author knew he had failed to solve.
Third stage of analytical reading
Rules for criticizing a book as a communication of knowledge:
General maxims of intellectual etiquette
Rule 9: Do not begin criticism until you have completed your outline and your interpretation of the book. 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. Do not say you agree, disagree, or suspend judgement, until you can say “I understand”. The most teachable reader is the most critical. Teachability requires that a teacher be fully heard and understood before he is judged.
Rule 10: Do not disagree disputatiously or contentiously.
Rule 11: Demonstrate that you recognize the difference between knowledge and mere personal opinion by presenting good reasons for any critical judgement you make.
Special criteria for points of criticism
Rule 12: Show wherein the author is uninformed. The author lacks some piece of knowledge that is relevant to the problem he is trying to solve. To support this remark, you must be able yourself to state the knowledge that the author lacks and show how it is relevant, how it makes a difference to his conclusions.
Rule 13: Show wherein the author is misinformed. The author asserts what is not the case. It consist in making assertions contrary to facts. To support the remark, you must be able to argue the truth or greater probability of a position contrary to the author’s.
Rule 14: Show wherein the author is illogical. The author has committed a logical fallacy that you can demonstrate.
Rule 15: Show wherein the author’s analysis or account is incomplete. The author has not solved all the problems he started with, or that he has missed implications or ramifications. To support this, the reader can define the inadequacy between the problem and the resolution precisely.
The fourth level of reading: Syntopical reading
Definitions
Syntopical reading means reading many books and placing them in relation to one another and to a subject about which they all revolve. The syntopical reader is able to construct an analysis of the subject that may not be in any of the books. It is the most complex and systemic type of reading.
intrinsic reading: reading a book in itself, quite apart from all other books.
extrinsic reading: reading a book in the light of other books, not in itself apart from all other books.
dialectical objectivity: the objectivity required by a syntopical reader to argument on a topic while looking at all authors’ sides and to take no sides.
Aids to reading
Relevant experience:
common experience: experience available to all men and women just because they are alive.
special experience: experience actively sought and available only to those who go to the trouble of acquiring it.
Related books
Commentaries
Abstracts
Reference books: dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.
Stage 1: Two steps to survey the field preparatory to syntopical reading
Step 1: Create a tentative bibliography of your subject by recourse to library catalogues, advisors, and bibliographies in books.
Step 2: 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.
Stage 2: Five steps in syntopical reading
Step 1: Finding the relevant passages. Inspect the books already identified as relevant to your subject in stage 1 in order to find the most relevant passages. Contrary to analytical reading, in syntopical reading, it is you and your concerns that are primarily to be served, not the books that you read.
Step 2: Bringing 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. This is you who must establish the terms, and bring your authors to them rather than the other way around.
Step 3: Getting the questions clear. 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.
Step 4: Defining 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 among authors, but that it sometimes has to be constructed by interpretation of the author’s views on matters that may not have been their primary concern.
Step 5: Analyze the discussion by ordering the questions and issues in such a way as to throw maximum light on the subject. More general issues should precede less general ones, and relations among issues should be clearly indicated.
Syntopicon
The paradox of syntopical reading is quoted as:
Unless you know what books to read, you cannot read syntopically, but unless you can read syntopically, you do not know what to read.
As a result, Mortimer Adler created a reference book that tell the reader where to find the relevant passages on a large number of subjects. That reference book is called the “Syntopicon” (Wikipedia), produced in the 1940s as a topical index to the set of books entitled Great Books of the Western World (Wikipedia).
Reading and the growth of the mind
If you are reading in order to become a better reader, you cannot just read any book or article. […] You must tackle books that are beyond you. […] Only books of that sort will stretch your mind.
We are not against amusement in its own right, but we do want to stress that improvement in reading skill does not accompany it.
The books that you will want to practice your reading on, particularly your analytical reading, must also make demand on you. They must seem to you to be beyond your capacity.
References
Mortimer Adler, Charles Van Doren, “How to read a book”, 1972, Touchstone Edition 2014
Mortimer Adler, Charles Van Doren, “How to read a book”, PDF version retrieved on mathscinotes.com, http://mathscinotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Adler-Mortimer-How-To-Read-A-Book.pdf
Wikipedia, “How to read a book”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book
Goodreads, “How to read a book”, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/567610.How_to_Read_a_Book
Wikipedia, Great Books of the Western World, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_World
Farnam Street, How to Read a Book: The Ultimate Guide by Mortimer Adler, https://fs.blog/how-to-read-a-book/
To do
You probably realize now that the skill of reading is deeper than you thought. Apply the right level(s) of reading whenerver you need to:
skim
read superficially at first
speed read
read actively
take notes
read analytically
read syntopically
Nicolas Pizzo