How to read a book: 10 rules from a reviewer
washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com
We used Mortimer Adler's "How to Read a Book" as our guide. It was only a 3-4 week class ($275, so not cheap), but it was one of the most useful classes I'd ever taken.
I'd always known about Adler's book and had attempted to apply the principles on my own, but having an instructor drill it into me week after week was what I needed to make the principles stick.
Turns out that executing the really basic principles, like paying attention to the Table of Contents, or reading the Introduction/Foreward, were really hard to do.
It's not because they're actually difficult per se, but most of us have a mental resistance to doing these things because they seem trivial and low payoff. But the instructor kept insisting and over time, convinced me on why seemingly trivial things like that were important.
I was also debating with the books too early. A basic principle -- that most people don't like -- is to withhold judgment on first reading, and to interpret based on the author's intention. After you've done that, then you can debate. This of course requires re-reading the book (who has time for that!) but good reading is re-reading.
Reading well is actually really simple but really difficult at the same time because we have so many mental barriers that prevent us from doing the basic things well.
[1] https://grahamcourses.uchicago.edu/search/publicCourseSearch...
> There are two ways in which one can own a book. The first is the property right you establish by paying for it, just as you pay for clothes and furniture. But this act of purchase is only the prelude to possession. Full ownership comes only when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it is by writing in it. An illustration may make the point clear. You buy a beefsteak and transfer it from the butcher's icebox to your own. But you do not own the beefsteak in the most important sense until you consume it and get it into your bloodstream. I am arguing that books, too, must be absorbed in your blood stream to do you any good
A trade I find hard to imagine. In books (as with films etc), I have little care for the craft of making my experience, only that I am immersed and kept within it unaware of the "Real World".
That's one myth debunked for me... I thought that people who review books professionally are speedreaders. Makes me feel better about myself for not learning speedreading when it was the "in" thing to do.
Many people complain that they have no time for books, yet somehow they manage to spend three or more hours a day watching television or scrolling through social media on their phones.