In Short 💡
In this book, Mortimer J. Adler gives the reader an integral method to read efficiently and extract the maximum information from books written to educate us.
About the Author 👨⚖
Mortimer J. Adler (1902-2001) is an American philosopher and educator. Among others, he wrote many analyses of the works of Aristotle and Saint Tomas, and numerous books on liberal education, including this one.
In an interview, he said :
My definition of a good teacher is a person who is himself dedicated to continuous general learning.
General Considerations About Reading 💡
In this first part, Adler defines the scope of the book and gives general advice about the reading process.
Although the author gives advice for any type of book, the main focus of this book is to learn how to read books whose primary focus is to educate people; which means, not novels or poetry, but nonfiction books.
Consequently, the goal of this book is to enhance your reading skills, not only for information but for understanding. Reading, in that sense, is an active, not passive process.
Adler argues that learning from “the great books” is the best and most efficient way to gain knowledge from humans (as opposed to gaining knowledge through nature and exploration). Reason for that :
- teachers, lectures, or “secondary books” (i.e. books piled on the knowledge in the “essential” books) do not convey any more information than what you can get from the great books if you know how to read them.
- In order to learn efficiently, it is necessary to seek difficulty, rather than trying to make something as digestible as possible.
The Rules 📏
In the second part, Adler provides guidelines to read a book.
According to him, there are three ways to read a book. With experience, these 3 ways can be done simultaneously (especially the first two), but as a beginner, it is best advised to perform them separately.
I. The Structural Reading 🏛
Structural reading is the first layer of analysis. The goal here is to become familiar with the book in its structure and follow the arguments of the author as they are presented to the reader, following the same delimitation in chapters.
1. Classify the book according to its kind and subject matter.
You must know what kind of (expository) book you are reading, and you should know this as early in the process as possible, preferably before you begin to read.
Expository books can be classified into :
- practical books: politics or ethics
- theoretical books: philosophy, history, science
2. State what the whole book is about with the utmost brevity.
3. Enumerate its major parts in their order and relation, and analyze these parts as you have analyzed the whole.
4. Define the problem or problems the author is trying to solve.
It is useful to know the usual questions authors try to solve in non-fiction books :
Theoretical questions :
Does something exist?
What kind of thing is it?
What caused it to exist, or under what conditions can it exist, or why does it exist?
What purpose does it serve? What are the consequences of its existence?
What are its characteristic properties, its typical traits?
What are its relations to other things of a similar sort, or of a different sort? How does it behave?Practical questions :
What ends should be sought?
What means should be chosen to a given end?
What things must one do to gain a certain objective, and in what order?
Under these conditions, what is the right thing to do, or the better rather than the worse?
Under what conditions would it be better to do this rather than that?
II. The Interpretative Reading 👓
After analytical reading, comes the times when you have to make the author’s arguments your own.
1. Come to terms with the author by interpreting his basic words.
There is a difference between a word and a term.
A word can have multiple meanings, whereas a term has a specific meaning.
When you come to terms with the author, you uncover what is the exact meaning of a word he uses.
An obvious example is the word “reading” in this book. “Reading” has many meanings, but the author is not interested in all of them. In this book, the author is concerned about the type of “reading” that makes the reader understand more and learn.
How to know which words are important in a text? Here are a few clues :
- they might be highlighted or presented with extra care
- they give you trouble
- they are made up
- the author quarrels with other authors about their meaning
2. Grasp the author’s leading propositions by dealing with his most important sentences.
Propositions can be spotted the same way important words are spotted.
How to know if you have understood a proposition or an argument?
- reformulate them with your own words
- relate them to facts from your own experience
- find relations between this argument and other arguments from other books
3. Know the author’s arguments, by finding them in, or constructing them out of, sequences of sentences.
Tips for this step :
- a good book usually summarizes itself in the last chapters
- sometimes the author omits (purposefully or not) some steps to form a coherent demonstration. It is your job to highlight those hidden arguments and reconstruct the whole development.
4. Determine which of his problems the author solved, and which he did not; and of the latter, decide which the author knew he failed to solve.
III. The Criticism of a Book as a Communication of Knowledge 🧍
After structural and analytical reading, the reader is finally ready to debate with the author.
The reader has an obligation as well as an opportunity to talk back.
A. General Maxims
- Do not begin criticism until you have completed analysis and interpretation. (Do not say you agree, disagree, or suspend judgment until you can say, “I understand.”) Do not disagree disputatiously or contentiously.
- Respect the difference between knowledge and opinion, by having reasons for any critical judgment you make.
B. Specific Criteria for Points of Criticism
- Show wherein the author is uninformed.
- Show wherein the author is misinformed.
- Show wherein the author is illogical.
- Show wherein the author’s analysis or account is incomplete.
Note: Of these, the first three are criteria for disagreement. Failing in all of these, you
must agree, in part at least, though you may suspend judgment on the whole, in the light
of the fourth point.
And More Rules 📐
In this last part, the author gives more advice depending on the type of book.
Practical Books 💪
- if a book is deemed as practical but states principles rather than rules, try to find the application of these principles in reality to make your judgment
- focus on the following questions: What are the author’s objectives? What are the means he proposes?
History Books 🌍
- History books must be judged both as instructive and imaginative literature because the author writes as a narrator
- try to spot the interpretations and generalizations an author places on facts. Historians generally don’t try to “prove” their point but instead show countless instances of the manifestation of their point of view.
- beware and detect propaganda. It is more or less present in any history book, but you must consider it as it is.
Philosophy 🏛
- very often, an author will use terms of daily life as technical terms. Therefore, you must pay even more attention than usual to the definition of the terms.
- highlight and spot the propositions the author labels as self-evident. Any philosophical book is based on some, but they are sometimes omitted.
Extrinsic Reading 🔗
In this part, the author explores another type of reading called extrinsic, or syntopical reading, which means, reading several books on a particular topic or problem.
Conclusion
Mortimer J. Adler gives a simple and timeless method to read any book that is made to teach us something. I personally created a template out of this method, that I use for any new book I am reading. If you are unsure whether your reading skills are sharp, if you often regret not remembering anything from a book your read in the past, this book is a must-read.