Review of Book: How to Read a Book, Revised and Updated, by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren

Publication Information:  Simon and Schuster, Copyright 1972

Subject:  Methods on How to Read a Book

Background Information:  Mortimer Adler, (1902 –2001) was an American philosopher, educator, and popular author.  Charles Van Doren (1926 –2019) was an American writer and editor.

How to Read a Book, Revised and Updated is a practical guide for a general audience on how to read a book.  Its aim is improving one’s efforts when reading a book.  In particular the book gives guidance on how to increase one’s understanding (i.e. comprehension) when reading a book.

There are two controlling elements in the book:  the four levels of reading and the four basic questions that should be asked when reading.

Four Levels of Reading

The four levels of reading are based upon one’s competency in reading.  They are cumulative: the first level is contained in the second level, the first and second in the third, and the first, second, and third in the fourth.  From the lowest level to the highest level, they are as follows:

• Elementary Reading, the first level of reading.  Elementary Reading is learning to read and reaching the point of comprehending written materials for their general meaning.  All this is accomplished in primary and secondary education.  Elementary Reading is the most important reading level in that it is necessary for the other higher levels of reading.  However, this level of reading does not produce mature readers able to handle complex reading.
• Inspectional Reading, the second level of reading.  Inspectional Reading is getting the most out of a book in a limited time.  There are two types of Inspectional Reading: systematic skimming and superficial reading.  Systematic skimming is sampling a book’s key features:  title page, preface, table of contents, index for key concepts, and pivotal pages such as the beginning and ending pages of chapters.  This sampling is done to extract the theme and the structure of a book in order to decide whether to read a book or to put a book aside.  Superficial reading of a book is quickly reading through a book.  This is recommended for taking on a difficult book.   Rather than plunging into a difficult book without any concept of what it is about, it may be best to do a quick reading of the book.  In this reading one is reading for what one understands and pushing aside what one does not understand for a second reading.
• Analytical Reading, the third level of reading.  Inspectional Reading is to get the most out of a book within a time limit.  Analytical Reading is to give a book the best reading possible in an unlimited time period.  It is a thorough reading of a book to understand a book’s theme, organization, and message. Once the theme, organization, and message are understood, it is then to criticize a book with decorum.  This is the level of reading that is covered in depth in the book.
• Syntopical Reading, the fourth and highest level of reading.  Syntopical Reading is reading many books, not one book as in Analytical Reading, on a subject set by the reader.  It involves finding the relevant passages in the books chosen to support the reader’s subject. The final results are the reader organizing and objectively presenting an analysis on the subject containing the variety of views found in the books used.  To quote from the book (emphasis by the authors):

“Another name for this level of reading might be comparative reading.  When reading syntopically, the reader reads many books, not just one, and places them in relation to one another and to a subject about which they all revolve.  But mere comparison is not enough.  Syntopical reading involves more.  With the help of the books read, the syntopical reader is able to construct an analysis of the subject that may not be in any of the books.  It is obvious, therefore, that synoptical reading is the most active and effortful kind of reading.”[i]

Four Basic Questions to Ask When Reading

The four basic questions are to be asked of anything that is read.  They are developed in the book for Analytical Reading, and are developed for the reading of expository books-books that convey knowledge. The four basic questions when reading expository books are to be asked in the order given and are as follows:

• What does the book say as a whole?  This question finds the theme and organization of a book.  Also the question determines what problems a book has set out to solve.
• What is being said in detail in the book, and how?  This question interprets a book’s contents.  This is to identify a book’s key words (or terms), important sentences (or propositions), and important arguments.  Also, it is to determine whether a book solved the problems it set out to solve.
• Is the book true, in whole, or in part?  This is the act of criticizing a book and where the reader makes up his own mind about a book.  Knowing the author’s mind is not sufficient.  In order to answer this question, the first two questions must be answered: one cannot determine the truthfulness of a book without understanding it, which the first two questions accomplish.  Then, in criticizing a book, one employs an intellectual etiquette and employs a framework in expressing one’s criticism.
• What of it?  This is the act of criticizing a book.  Where does a book lead one after reading it?  If a book has given one new information, why is this important?  If a book has gone beyond informing one to enlightening one, then what further must be done to sustain and/or to further pursue this?

The book will balance its emphasis on expository writing by having a section on how to read imaginative literature applying the four basic questions.  The book’s tenor in its balancing for imaginative literature can be gained from the following quotations (emphasis by the authors):

“Expository books try to convey knowledge-knowledge about experience that the reader has had or could have.  Imaginative ones try to communicate an experience itself-one that the reader can have or share only by reading-and if they succeed, they give the reader something to be enjoyed.  Because of their diverse intentions, the two sorts of work appeal differently to the intellect and the imagination.”[ii]

and

“Where, in the case of expository works the advice was not to criticize a book-not to say that you agree or disagree-until you can you can first say you understand, so here the maxim is:  don’t criticize imaginative writing until you fully appreciate what the author has tried to make you experience”.[iii]

Closing Matters

There are other features worth noting in the book.

First, the four basic questions were adjusted for the reading of imaginary literature.  They are also adjusted for how to read specific subjects, which includes practical books, history, science and mathematics, philosophy, and the social sciences.  For example, for how to read history there is consideration given on to how to read about past history such as an event or a period of time, but additionally there is consideration given on how to read a biography and an autobiography.  Further, there is an interesting analysis on how to read about current events.  Here the four basic questions are recast into five questions that should be asked when reading books, articles, etc. about current events.  The basis of the five questions is that a reader should be wary when reading about contemporary events.

Second, the matter of speed reading is addressed in the book.  The book contends that one rate of increased reading speed is not the answer, but that a variable rate of reading speed should apply with some books being read faster and other books being read slowly.  A variable rate of speed reading maximizes comprehension of what is read.

And, I used my personal copy of How to Read a Book, Revised and Updated for this review.  How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler was first published in 1940.  The revised and updated edition with Charles Van Doren as a coauthor was published in 1972.  The most current publication of the book is How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading, which is the revised and updated edition in a newer format.  A limited preview of the book can be found at Google Books, https://www.google.com/books/edition/How_to_Read_a_Book/Z5PpkQadm5EC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=How+to+read+a+book&printsec=frontcover.

FOOTNOTES

[i] How to Read a Book, Revised (Simon and Schuster, 1972), p 20

[ii] Ibid, p 205

[iii] Ibid, p 313