Notes for How to Read a Book

Notes for How to Read a Book

Gabriel Shiu

Most people don’t know how to read well—and only scratch the surface of what books have to offer.

How to Read a Book by Adler and Van Doren teaches you how to read successfully and get the most out of books.

Key takeaways

  • There are 4 cumulative levels of reading

    • Elementary (mechanical reading)

    • Inspectional (skimming)

    • Analytical (deep reading)

    • Syntopical (reading many books on a certain topic)

  • Analytical reading has 3 stages: structural, interpretive, and critical

  • Different types of reading matter should be read with different approaches

  • Put together the big picture, read actively, identify important sections, and respectfully critique

Table of contents

Part 1: The Dimensions of Reading

Book is on how to read for understanding.

The Levels of Reading (Chp. 2)

  1. Elementary reading—technical/mechanical reading

  2. Inspectional reading—systematic skimming, get the most out of the book in a short limited time

  3. Analytical reading—thorough reading, get the most out of the book in an unlimited time

  4. Syntopical reading—read many books of related topics and form a fuller understanding

The Second Level of Reading: Inspectional Reading (Chp. 4)

  1. Systematic Skimming/Preskimming <— You should do this 90% of the time

    1. Skim title, cover, preface, table of contents, index, blurb

    2. Choose to read or not, or get more info…

      • Skim seemingly important chapters

      • read a paragraph/page or two here and there to grasp bigger picture

      • Read last 2-3 pages (not including epilogue)

      • Find if & where summaries exist and read some + remember their location for future

  2. Superficial Reading

    1. Read entire book without stopping at words/parts you don’t understand

    2. Better to get 50% of the whole book than 10% because you stopped when it got hard

    3. Can read a second time to get fuller picture

Reading speeds (Chp. 4)

  • Some books deserve slower reading, some only fast reading

  • Each book has chapters, pages, paragraphs, or even sentences that should be read fast and parts that should be read slower

  • When speed reading is appropriate…

    • Use finger as a pointer moving along the lines and make the eye keep up—you’ll be surprised at your ability!

How to be a Demanding Reader (Chp. 5)

Ask and answer these questions while reading (try to lay down your bias)

  • What is the big picture?

  • What is being said in detail and how?

  • What parts of the book are true?

  • So what?

Write in your books (for alertness, clarity of thought, and remembering)

  • Underline/circle

  • Vertical lines, Numbers, Page #’s in margin

  • Stars + corner fold—major major points, only a dozen or so times in the whole book

  • Write in margins

  • Outline in front/end blank pages

Types of notes

  • Structural (inspectional reading)

  • Conceptual (analytical reading)

  • Dialectical (syntopical reading)

Part 2: Analytical Reading

Stages & Rules (applies to books, parts of books, articles, etc.)

Structural Stage: get a grasp of the book

  • 1. Classify book type ASAP via inspectional reading

    • fiction/expository, subject, theoretical/practical

  • 2. Summarize the book shortly (sometimes detailed in preface)

  • 3. Outline the major parts, their order, and their parts as you see fit (don’t need to follow chapter divisions)

  • 4. State the (main) author’s questions/problems he is trying to solve

Interpretive Stage

  • 5. Mark important words/phrases and come to terms (find author’s intended meaning)

    • Terms are unambiguous words/a single meaning; Author defines terms and words used for terms and you must figure this out for each book, so coming to terms with the author

  • 6. Mark important sentences and detect the claim(s) within

  • 7. Mark important bunches of sentences and discern the arguments

  • 8. Find the author’s answers to his questions (see Rule 4) and see which he has not answered

    • For practical books: find what the author wants you to do and how

  • Identifying important parts

    • They must be read slower to understand & are part of main argument/topic

  • Check understanding by

    • re-stating with completely different words or even language (你好)

    • Giving/making an example (in some cases)

Critical Stage

Etiquette

  • 9. Don’t judge until you reasonably understand the author’s case (after completing outline)

  • 10. Don’t be quick to disagree because proving someone wrong pleasures you

  • 11. Give reasons for your disagreement so it is not mere opinion

Requirements for disagreement

  • 12. Say where the author uninformed

  • 13. Say where the author misinformed

  • 14. Say where the author is illogical

Requirement for suspending judgement

  • 15. Say where the author’s reasoning or knowledge is incomplete

  • Keep in mind one can suspend judgement due to a bad book or incompleteness

Aids to Reading (Chp. 12)

Use outside help only if important and after giving it your all by yourself, lest you fall into

  • Unnecessary slavery to outside help

  • Limited understanding

  • Missing the author’s key points

  • Wrong conclusions

  • Miss your own interpretation of the author

Forms of outside help:

  • Experiences

    • Common (helps with philosophy, fiction, poetry, history)

    • Special, e.g., science experiments (helps with science, history)

  • Other books

    • Related books, books the author read (respect chronology past-present or reverse)

  • Commentaries (read after finishing book to not get screwed)

  • Abstracts (jog memory or find out if you want to read the book)

  • Reference books

      • You must know: question, which reference to use, how to find the answer, & if an answer exists

Part 3: Approaches to Different Kinds of Reading Matter

Reading Practical Books (Chp 13.)

  • Read practically with intention for future application

  • Discern the author’s ends and suggested means

  • Be aware of dangerous appeal to your emotional side

  • Keep in mind the author’s background & context

Reading Fiction (Chp 14.)

  • These rule adaptations enhance your appreciation of the work by better immersing yourself in the world and by pinpointing why you liked/didn’t like the book, and these improve your overall appreciation and interactions with literary art

  • Don’t read fiction like expository works (duh)—expect emotion and don’t expect terms, claims, arguments, reality

Structural

  • 1. Classify what type of fiction it is

  • 2. Grasp the overarching plot/idea

  • 3. Outline the main events and character developments

Interpretive

  • 4. Get acquainted with characters and events (these are the terms of fiction)

  • 5. Get acquainted with the setting (environment, society, friend group)

  • 6. Get acquainted with the plot (the arguments of fiction)

Critical

  • 7. Don’t critique until you make reasonable effort to get acquainted with the work

  • 8. Give reasons for your dislikes so it is not mere opinion

Reading Stories, Plays, and Poems (Chp 15.)

Reading stories

  • Read quickly with total immersion to grasp the unity as best as possible (answers Q1)

    • Don’t stop over parts where you are clueless or where you forget characters

      • When you grasp the unity, you will know which parts were important and which weren’t

      • One can’t expect normal stories to make complete sense until the end—stories are like life; you don’t know until you live it

Reading plays

  • Imagine it like you are the director of the play so you get the full experience

  • Read aloud as if you were actors performing so you may understand and get a fuller experience

Reading tragedies

  • Keep time in mind—it is the foundation of tragedies (there is never enough time)

  • Imagine lines spoken by the chorus are spoken by people of your size, while those of the actors are spoken by people bigger and taller to mimic how Greek plays were acted—Greek actors wore high sandals and masks

Reading poetry

  • Doesn’t demand as much work as you think it does and they are often worth the effort to read well

  • Read without stopping to grasp the whole and thus understand the parts better

  • Read again, aloud to understand better (this way you are not limited to the single sense of the eye)

  • Name the explicit/implicit conflict—poems usually have conflict: love vs. time, life vs. death, etc.

  • Knowing the context of the author and time period is not necessary usually

Why people love fiction

  • It paints a world which us and our own world fail to live up to—it has justice, completeness, etc. (usually)

Reading History (Chp. 16)

“History” as in written records of historical facts

Rules:

  • Read multiple histories if possible

  • Read history to understand people/events in all times, not just in the period of the historical account

Ask:

  • What events are being recounted?

  • What does is discussed and in what structure?

Forms of criticism: lack of verisimilitude, misused sources

Reading biography and autobiography

  • Definitive biographies (exhaustive bio’s made using previous bio’s and knowledge) can be trusted more

  • Authorized biographies (commissioned by someone known to the subject) are likely biased

  • Read these to understand other books, people in history, etc. because people were influenced by reading certain biographies

Reading about current events

  • Ask questions to search the mind of the reporter:

    • What do they want to prove?

    • Who do they want to convince?

    • What important things do they assume?

    • What important/provoking terms do they use?

    • Do they know what they are talking about?

  • Always beware when reading recent works—authors write things to influence those in their time

Reading digests

  • Beware that digests are extremely condensed information so much is left out

Reading Philosophy (specifically, classical philosophy which is written for the layman) (Chp. 17)

Philosophical styles (to aid your structural understanding of philosophical works)

  • Dialogue (Plato)

    • Heuristic (reader comes to conclusion himself over the course of the conversation)

  • Treatise/essay

  • Meeting of objections (e.g., Aquinas)

    • Author rebuts objections and gives his own claim

  • Systemized philosophy (e.g., Descartes, Spinoza)

    • Attempt to express philosophy in a math-like form

    • Can jump to any part of the book without trouble because the book is not continuous

  • Aphoristic philosophy (Nietzsche)

    • A bunch of statements, not continuous, really

Take note of the author’s controlling principles (e.g., discussing philosophy is the most important activity for man (Plato))

  • See whether the author keeps to his controlling principles in his works

Look for self evident and assumed propositions (take them to be true to understand the book)

Part 4: The Ultimate Goals of Reading

Syntopical Reading (Chp. 20)

Stage 1: Survey

  • 1. Make a rough bibliography of the topic using catalogues, recommendations, book’s bibliographies, syntopicons

  • 2. Inspect each book to find which are relevant and specify topic, modify bibliography accordingly

Stage 2: Syntopical Reading

  • 3. Inspect each book to find relevant passages, use syntopicons

  • 4. Bring authors to terms—define a neutral terminology

  • 5. Define neutral propositions for all the authors by defining some questions on your topic which they answer

  • 6. Define the issues/conflicts between the authors’ answers

  • 7. Analyze the overarching discussion

    • order questions and issues from more general to specific

    • mark relations between questions and issues

    • Maintain objectivity by quoting authors directly

    • See if truth can be ascertained in the mix

Reading and Growth of the Mind (Chp. 21)

  • Reading important books improves reading skill, understanding, and keeps the mind and thus body literally alive and functioning well

  • Seek books beyond your comfort zone, and seek books which you will never cease to gain more out of on recurrent readings

  • Adler and Doren’s Reading List

    • Not a challenge to read each book—an invitation to read some whenever you can

    • Read the ones you are most interested in—interest => reading quality^, quality > quantity

    • Doesn’t include non-Western works

      • Adler and Doren don’t have much knowledge in that area + understand your own sphere before venturing into others

Six Lessons from Scratching

Six Lessons from Scratching