How to Read a Book is a guide about exactly that- "how to make books teach us well." First written in 1940 and updated in 1972, it argues that though nearly everyone can read, few can read well- meaning actively, with comprehension, interaction, retention, and application appropriate to the subject matter. Yet reading well is tremendously important, as it "serves to keep our minds alive and growing," and "a good book can teach you about the world and about yourself . . . You become wiser. Not just more knowledgeable . . . but wiser, in the sense that you are more deeply aware of the great and enduring truths of human life." The book proceeds to explain the levels of reading and provides rules, principles, and suggestions for each. It concludes with appendices providing reading lists and tests.
Summary
We read for entertainment, information, and understanding. The book focuses on reading for understanding ('expository' reading), as doing so will take care of the other categories.
There are four levels of reading: elementary, inspectional, analytical, and syntopical. Elementary reading is learning and refining basic readiness, word mastery, vocabulary growth and utilizing context. This level is typically attained by the end of eighth to tenth grade, and is where most readers stop. At this point, one can read, but one cannot necessarily read well. Inspectional reading emphasizes time- understanding the gist of a work without diving in wholeheartedly. It includes skimming systematically (looking through the table of contents, paging through the book for major themes, etc.) and superficial reading. Analytical reading is thorough/complete reading; it is "preeminently for the sake of understanding." Finally, syntopical reading is thoroughly analyzing a given subject through the inspectional and/or analytical reading of many related books. It is comparative reading.
The essence of active reading is asking four questions:
1. What is the book about as a whole?
2. What is being said in detail, and how?
3. Is the book true, in whole or part?
4. What of it?
Getting at these questions is the point of the third level of reading (the analytical). The book presents 15 rules for analytical reading, broken into stages:
Stage 1 of analytical reading, speaking to question one above:
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 has tried to solve.
Stage 2 of analytical reading, speaking to question two above:
5. Come to terms with the author by interpreting his key words.
6. Grasp the author's leading propositions by dealing with his most important sentences.
7. Know the author's argument, by finding them in, or constructing them out of, sequences of sentences.
8. Determine which of his problems the author has solved, and which he has not; and of the latter, decide which the author knew he failed to solve.
Stage 3A and 3B of analytical reading, speaking to questions three and four above:
9. Do not begin criticism until you have completed your outline and your interpretation of the book. [Make sure you understand before you say I (dis)agree.]
10. Do not disagree disputatiously or contentiously.
11. Demonstrate that you recognize the difference between knowledge and mere personal opinion by presenting good reasons for any critical judgment you make.
12. Show wherein the author is uninformed.
13. Show wherein the author is misinformed.
14. Show wherein the author is illogical.
15. Show wherein the author's analysis or account is incomplete.
The next section of the book covers how to read different kinds of books- in other words, how the above rules apply (or are emphasized) depending on the nature of the work. The authors look at how to read practical books, imaginative literature, stories, plays, and poems, history, science, mathematics, philosophy, and social science.
The final section of the book discusses syntopical reading ("how to read two or more books on the same subject")- its value, its challenge/paradox*, the role of inspectional reading as a major tool in it, and how it involves (and yet differs from) analytical reading (example: "in synoptical reading, it is you and your concerns that are primarily to be served, not the books that you read"). He concludes with seven steps (across two stages) that have to do with creating the list of books, inspecting them for relevance, 'translating' them as needed to compare them appropriately, defining the issues, and analyzing the overall discussion.
Ultimately, "you will not improve as a reader if all you read are books that are well within your capactiy. 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."
Review
This is a foundational work, full of profound insight and valuable tips to improve your reading ability. Though I think myself accomplished in this area, I came away with either 1) new insights and things I should be doing, or 2) ways to articulate things I've known and done for years but haven't been able to adequately explain. Some personal takeaways:
- The importance of reading different books (or different parts within the same book) differently, at varying speeds. It's okay- and necessary- to speed up or slow down as required by the text you're tackling.
- You do not understand what you cannot explain concisely.
- The importance of inspectional reading- reviewing a book's table of contents (for example) and paging through it to get the gist before you dive in. I almost never do this.
- The need to write in books (which I do) and 'spar' with the author to show both comprehension and active engagement. Reading is not a passive affair.
- I appreciated their discussion on the importance of 'coming to terms' with an author- we need interpretation because language is an opaque medium.
I wonder how the authors would have handled the Internet age. The last portion, on syntopical reading, was especially 'archaic' in that it discusses how to find reading matter on a subject in an age before computer-aided searches of globally-accessible resources. But even that was highly valuable, and the rest of the book remains extremely relevant today.
Ultimately, this book confirmed why I blog. I need to do this sort of thing to comprehend and retain- to process a work and ultimately grow.
Rating: A
*That you first choose a subject and develop a list of books, but then must inspectionally read said books to see whether a given "book says something important about [the] subject or not."
