Book Review: How To Read A Book

So, this review has actually been a long time coming (we're talking years). I have been hearing of the benefits of reading this book to my own efforts in reading for well over a decade (thanks to Ken Samples of Reasons to Believe). Its been on my bookshelf for a while, but I have only recently taken the time to find out for myself. "How To Read A Book" by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren is a great resource to take your reading comprehension and interaction to the next level, truly make books your own, and expand your knowledge. The basic ideas that I have gleaned over the years have been helpful, but seeing the level of activity required in analytical reading (its not just passive) and the reasoning behind the need to be so active has been further enlightening. Today, I want to take you through same basic points, give you some quotes, and finally recommend the book (don't wait years, like I did). 

Key Points

• The reader who is not both interested and committed to taking their experience of reading and stretching their minds to the next level of understanding of reality should stop here and not waste further time. 
• Most readers (even college-level and adults) have never gone beyond the elementary type of reading comprehension and analysis. 
• For the reader who wishes to expand their understanding of the world, passive reading is unacceptable and reading simply for information or agreement is insufficient. 
• Speed and quantity of consumed material are not the goals; quality of consumed material and intellectual and practical (inter)action are. Readers must read material above their heads to gain understanding.
• Active reading where the reader's aim is to truly understand an author and interact with their ideas is necessary and takes time.
• Relatively few truly "good" books, that can expand a readers understanding, have been authored, and there exists a method of reading to identify these books.
• Inspectional reading involves several activities designed to give a quick but accurate glance of the content of the book. This step is a necessary to weed out not-so-great books or books that are not worthy of more of the reader's time.
• Inspectional reading allows the reader to prime his or her mind with the terms used by the author,  develop a basic outline of the content, and begin to identify the argument presented.
• Once inspectional reading is complete, if the reader deems the work to be a "good" book worthy of further analysis, analytical reading may begin, 
• Analytical reading is a much slower process than inspectional reading that involves digging into the details of what the author is presenting and their case for it.
• In this process the reader must set aside their presuppositions and take the time and effort to  accurately understand the full claim(s) of the author and all the evidence and logic used to come to the author's conclusion(s).
• Both proper understanding of the author and critical analysis are necessary before the reader can legitimately identify agreement or disagreement.
• Theoretical and practical books lend themselves to unique approaches and tools of analysis as well as books of differing content (philosophy vs. science vs. history vs. fiction).
• Such agreement or disagreement, though, must be held to the same standard of the author's and requires evidence and logic. 
• Such understanding and active interaction with a book allows the reader to expand their understanding of the world and take action based on that new or expanded understanding. 
• As more and more books are read on the same topic, the reader will need to expand their activities in analytical reading to include analysis of various perspectives on a single topic or issue.
• This "syntopical" reading has its own series of activities and tools involved in this next level of active analysis. 
• For those readers who invest their time and energy, reading beyond the elementary level of most adults is extremely rewarding and will make your life of the mind more efficient in your use of both your time and your analytical efforts. 

Quotes

"Reading for information does not stretch your mind any more than reading for amusement. it may seem as though it does, but that is merely because your mind is fuller of facts than it was before you read the book. However, your mind is essentially in the same condition that it was before. There has been a quantitative change, but no improvement in your skill."

"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."

"A piece of writing...is a complex object. It can be received more or less completely, all the way from very little of what the writer intended to the whole of it."

"The writer isn't trying not to be caught, although it sometimes seems so. Successful communication occurs in any case where what the writer wanted to have received finds its way into the reader's possession. The writer's skill and the reader's skill converge upon a common end."

"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 northing but information if you have exercised only your memory."

"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 and analysis yourself."

"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."

"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. He should always keep before him the possibility that he misunderstands or that he is ignorant on some point. No one who looks upon disagreement as an occasion for teaching another should forget that it is also an occasion for being taught."

"What we know, we know subject to correction; we know it because all, or at least the weight, of the evidence supports it, but we are not and cannot be certain that new evidence will not sometime invalidate what we now believe is true."

"It is a good mental exercise to pretend that you believe something you really do not believe. And the clearer you are about your own prejudgments, the more likely you will be not to misjudge those made by others."

"Lack of relevant knowledge makes it impossible to solve certain problems or support certain conclusions. Erroneous suppositions, however, lead to wrong conclusions and untenable solutions."

"The agreement of human beings about the nature of things in any field of inquiry establishes some presumption of the truth of the opinions they commonly hold. But their disagreement establishes the counter-presumption--that none of the opinions in conflict whether shared or not, may be wholly true."

"You will not improve as a reader if all you read are books that are well within your capacity. You must tackle books that are beyond you, or, as we have said, books that are over your head."

Recommendations

The first and most obvious recommendation is for anyone who loves to read. For everyone who loves to read, we all know there are more books in the world that we want to read than the time we have. This often also describes the state of our own libraries. This is where "inspectional reading" will particularly come in handy. It will help you identify which of all those books to spend your time reading in-depth. 

This book is for anyone who fancies themselves critics of anything and supporters of something else (if you've made it this far in this review, that's likely you). If we wish to convince someone of a claim about reality that mutually excludes a claim they already believe, we need to make sure that we properly understand the competing claim. "How To Read A Book" will help you in being more measured, thorough, and articulate in the presentations of your own analyses of competing views. But, be ready, if your audience also has read this book, they will be prepared to analyze, challenge, and maybe even disagree with their own well-thought and presented reasons. Just don't forget what the authors said above about remaining teachable. 

If you like to write, "How To Read A Book" is for you. As much as it is guiding readers on how to get the most out of the books they read, it will guide authors on how to communicate the most in the books they write to their readers. Of course, this is not limited to just writing books, but writing articles, blogs, or just having conversations on social media or in person. Of course, if you're going to write, you will be subject to readers who, hopefully, have also read this book. So, be prepared as I described in the recommendation above. 

Parents, as your teens learn to read at the high school level, have them continue their growth and passion by reading "How To Read A Book." It will give them the tools to better understand and judge the accuracy and applicability of the materials that they will encounter in high school, college, on the internet, and the world around them. In fact, you should read this along with them so that you all can take your love of and time spent reading to the next level. 

For Christian apologists, if "How To Read A Book" is not in your library, your library is incomplete. As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, I wish that I had read this book years ago as one of the first when I became interested in defending the truth of Christianity as part of my evangelical witness. 

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