How to Read a Book

Susan Sontag wrote a famous essay in 1966 about this: "Against Interpretation" [1], arguing exactly the same thing as OP's link does:

>Sontag is strongly averse to what she considers to be contemporary interpretation, that is, an overabundance of importance placed upon the content or meaning of an artwork rather than being keenly alert to the sensuous aspects of a given work and developing a descriptive vocabulary for how it appears and how it does whatever it does.

and

>Sontag asserts that the modern style is quite harmful; to art and to audiences alike, enforcing hermeneutics- fallacious, complicated “readings” that seem to engulf an artwork, to the extent that analysis of content begins to degrade, to destroy. Reverting back to a more primitive and sensual, almost magical experience of art is what Sontag desires

Edit: You can read the whole thing here: http://www.coldbacon.com/writing/sontag-againstinterpretatio...

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Against_Interpretation

> There was an actual book called How to Read a Book published in the 1940s. It focused almost entirely on non-fiction and encouraged the reader to analyze everything ad nauseam. In case you hadn't guessed, this essay is exclusively about fiction (never let mere accuracy get in the way of a good title) and advocates entirely the opposite approach.

No it advocates the entirely SAME approach.

I think if the OP had actually read "How to Read a Book", the OP might have found that there are some excellent techniques presented, and the authors make a very clear definition between reading for enjoyment and reading for education.

It is one thing to read a single novel for pleasure, quite another to survey all available literature on a subject and to figure out what has not yet been written.

Perhaps if the OP had actually read the book ...