“To regard anyone except yourself as responsible of your judgment is to be a slave, not a free man. It is from this fact that the liberal arts acquire their name.”
What is the book about as a whole?
Described simply is a practical book about needed skills to read books more efficiently. On the other hand a more complex definition would be (in Douglas Hofstadter terms): A self-referential meta-book. In other words is a book that talks about how to read books (meta-level) and also makes direct reference to its own reading (self-reference). But being faithful to the author’s intention we can say: “It is about the art of reading for the sake of understanding.”
In brief the book is about what he calls “the art of reading” meaning a “the process whereby a mind, with nothing to operate but the symbols of the readable matter, and with no help from outside, elevates itself by the power of its own operations.” The book makes a case for the importance of reading for understanding, describes on detail the action and levels of reading and finally gives advice to improve the reader’s proficiency. In a higher level it is an indirect introduction to the Trivium since presents to the student the arts of logic, grammar and rhetoric as the tools whose mastery is needed in order to read as an act of communication. Finally, it can also be said to be an introduction to the intellectual etiquette needed in dialogue.
What is being said in detail, and how?
The book is divided in four major parts. The first one is THE DIMENSIONS OF READING where Adler introduces us to the act of reading, its levels, the importance and the problems that we face while trying to put it into practice. In special he tries to encourage the reader of the book to try a deeper level of reading as a way to have a bigger gain. He also gives advices about doing a better reading.
On chapter one he talks about reading as an active process that requires a certain in all levels some engagement in part of the reader. He also makes a distinction between reading for information (knowing the matters of fact) and reading for understanding (knowing why an author says something).
On chapter two he introduces us to levels of reading. Elementary or being able to know what the sentence says. Inspectional that could be described as get to know the book, its parts, structure and specially know what the book is about. This level is also called “skimming or pre-reading”. It is a level needed to set the context for our mind start working in the understanding of the book. Then we have Analytical reading, the main topic of the book that is process of understanding the ideas and arguments presented in the book. For this is needed to ask as many and organized questions as required to comprehend the author.
In the next chapter he talks about the elementary level more detailed, particularly talks about methods of learning to read and the problems that many colleges faces with the challenge to learn its students to read. In chapter four he talks about the art of skimming a book and the superficial reading you might need to do before you start reading the book for the sake of understanding. It also talks about speed reading.
In chapter five Adler present us with the task of being demanding readers. First he set a structure of questions we should try to answer and know if we understand the book we are reading. The questions are, “What is the book as a whole?”, “What is being said in detail, and how?”, “Is the book true, in whole or part?” and finally “What of it?” In this chapter he also talks about making a book our own and some techniques we can apply in order to make a book our own (such as underlying or making notes).
In part two: THE THIRD LEVEL OF READING: ANALYTICAL READING, he explores in detail the requirements to do a process of understanding a book and state fifteen rules to achieve this level successfully. In Chapter 6 we learn Rule 1:“You must know what kind of book you are reading”. Adler tell us that we can gain a lot from pigeonholing a book since we set a context for us to understand the book. We also should be able to identify what kind of book we are reading (expository? practical?) also what category is about (History? Science? Philosophy?).
Chapter 7 talks about the need to state the unity of the book’s parts. In fact Rule 2 is “State the unity of the whole book in a single sentence or at most a few sentences”. The he continues with Rule 3: “Set forth the major parts of the book, and show how these are organized as a whole.” In this stage you should describe the parts and how they relate to each other. Finally in this process of X-raying a book you should be able to “Find out what the author’s problems were”. That, Rule 4, is about finding out the questions that the authors is trying to solve in the book he wrote and you have now in your hands. If you can do this you would be able to state the unity of the book. These rules for finding what a book is about can be said to be the first stage of analytical reading.
The second category of rules is those to find out What a Book Says. This stage is comprised in Chapter 8 “Coming to Terms Whit an Author” and Chapter 9 “Determining an Author’s message”. In the first one he advices us that: “Unless the reader comes to terms with the author, the communication of knowledge from one to the other does not take place.” In other words if we are reading as an act of communication and if we want to be successful we have to use the “same words with the same meaning” this is the process called ‘coming to terms’. A term for Adler is word used unambiguously. This is stated by Rule 5: “Find the important words and through them come to terms with the author”. Next in level is to find out what are the key propositions of the author: “Mark the most important sentences in a book and discover the propositions they contain”. In other works when reading find out what are the set of ideas that composed make a proposition in the book. Then if they are supported you might have found an argument and that is the next level. Rule 7: “Locate of construct the basic arguments in the book by finding them in the connection of sentences”. Now getting back to the questions you discovered in the work try to “Find out what the author’s solutions are”. This last rule let you know whether the author has solved the problems he set in the beginning of the book or not.
The final stage of analytical reading is comprised in Chapters 10 “Criticizing a Book fairly” and 11 “Agreeing or disagreeing with an author”. In both he will talk about the intellectual etiquette required to make a judgment about a book. One of the key points in his explaining is the treatment of dialogue that he assigns for reading. As stated before in the book he talks of active reading as engaging in a dialogue with absent teachers from whom we can learn. Ergo, is needed an ethic in order to effectively communicate with the author. The dialogue we are reading while reading is a very special one, since in it we will first let the author tell us what he think and then we will be able to talk back. But we cannot do this until we have understood his arguments following the rules set before. Adler considers this as a kind of mastery of Rhetoric.
The rules governing a good etiquette in reading are described in the following way: Rule 9 “You must be able to say, with reasonable certainity, ‘I understand’ before you can say ‘I agree’, ‘I disagree’ or ‘I suspend judgment’”. Rule 10: “Don’t disagree disputatiously of contentiously”. In other words it is not a debate, you don’t have to win an argument, and instead you will win if you know how to recognize a valid argument even if you don’t like it. Finally Rule 11: “Respect the difference between knowledge and mere personal opinion, by giving reasons for any critical judgment you make”. These three rules might be considered a good point of reflection if you aim to judge the true or falsity of the author’s arguments. But if you feel satisfied then you should look for a set of criteria to do a good criticism: Rule 12: “Show wherein the author is uninformed”: Rule 13: “Show wherein the author is misinformed”: Rule 14: “Show wherein the author is illogical” and finally Rule 15: “Show whether the author’s analysis or account is incomplete”. Finally in this second part Adler also explores the use of aids to reading such as dictionaries or an encyclopedia.
As a support in tackling different kind of books Adler includes in Part Three, APPROACHES TO DIFFERENT KINDS OF READING MATTER, helpful advices about how to read practical, literature, history, science, philosophy and social sciences books. About practical books he talks in chapter 13 and he says that “it can never solve the practical problems with which it is concerned” by this he means that the book actually require action on the part of the reader for the advices to cause an effect. He suggests two key questions to understand it better: What are the author’s objectives? What means for achieving them is he proposing?
In chapter 14 he talks about Imaginative Literature works, and those are the ones that try to communicate an experience itself. On reading this kind of books a different approach to the one reading expository works is needed to actually understand what the author is trying to express. The on the next chapter he talks about stories, plays and poems. One of the key advices reading this works is to read quickly and try to achieve total immersion. We should look to find the unity of the work.
On chapter 16 he talks about history. He advise us to read more than one work if our aim is to understand a particular period in history. But he also advices us not to see only the accounts of the past but also what we can learn about the way men act in all time and place and how that can be applied to our days.
Afterwards he talks about how to read Science and Mathematics (Chpt. 17). The “most helpful advice” Adler offer us in tackling this books is to follow the structure for expository works, in special the part about finding out what the problems of the author are. About mathematics he remind us vehemently that math is just like any other language and its learning should resemble the learning of a language. We should learn its vocabulary, grammar, syntax, logic and even rhetoric.
In its chapter 18 the book talks about philosophy. It starts with the importance of an inquisitive mind and how questions are the key to understand the philosophical endeavor. On one hand we have theoretical or speculative questions about the nature and what happens in the world, on the other, you have questions about what it ought to be, those are called normative. He also talks about the different styles a philosopher might write in (Dialogues, treatises, meeting of objections, systematization, aphoristic).
The final kind of reading that he works on is Social Science, and he explains that he left this one for the final since it has to be a kind of syntopical reading since the subject boasts with connections to other fields.
In the final fourth part THE ULTIMATE GOALS OF READING, Adler talks about what constitutes syntopical reading. When reading at this level you no longer limit yourself to read a single book, instead you start with a theme or a question and later you will find the books adequate to answer it meaningfully. Inspectional reading arise as a very important tool to achieve a good syntopical reading since it will help you to find the worthy sources to answer your inquiry.
More systematically we can say that the syntopical reading process starts by surveying the field: 1) creating a tentative bibliography of your subject and 2) inspecting all the books on it. After you have done this you can do a syntopical reading over it. Syntopical reading requires 5 steeps, the first one “find the relevant passages”, then “bringing the authors to terms” this means to seek for the common terms even if they are not expressed by the same words. In steep 3 we shall get the questions clear, so we can see how different authors respond do them. In steep 4 we have to define the issues, or to look for different perspectives on the same question. Finally we can analyses the discussion, order it and judge the key propositions we have found on the topic.
The final chapter 21 is not a category but I shall treat it like one since is the closing of the book: READING FOR THE GROWTH OF THE MIND. In this section he recaps the cumulative characteristic of the four levels of reading and how it is ourselves upon whom the task of reading lies on. And although active reading is a demanding tasks it is also a worthy one to do, since allow our mind to grow. Otherwise if it is not used it might atrophy and we might lose the opportunity that as homo sapiens we have to grasp meaning from the universe. He also talks about the three different kinds of books we might find those that you can grasp entirely after an analytical reading, then others that one is not enough and finally those that are inexhaustible and seems to have grown with you.
In brief he ends telling us that reading actively more than being helpful in the advancement of our careers or work it also serve to keep our minds alive and growing.
What are the author’s questions and problems?
The main question on this book is very straightforward and quite obvious when reading the title of the book it is: How to read a book? Around this question he works other questions Why is important to read? What is the difference between reading for information and reading for understanding? How to approach different reading materials? In a higher level the question might also be how can we communicate by means or books? On respect to his problems in my perspective he worked around how to articulate a coherent and meaningful structure for reading. He seems have worked a lot in making it very clear and easy to follow. It is notorious that he used his experience as a mean to work the problem. He is also working to implicitly in introducing the importance of liberal arts in reading as the tools needed to quit nonage and use our own understanding in reading books. Finally, he is concern about the situation of the students in his time and it seems to me the work is both a call and an offer to regain the almost art of reading.
What of it?
Sincerely it is one of the most influential books I’ve read in my life. I think his message is true and that in fact is needed nowadays (as in his time) to share this tools to read more efficiently. I also share his concern about the quality of reading today is done in educational institutions and that we are (sadly) not getting better as we increase our reliability in mass media. For me it tackles the (for me) old debate between books and internet. Even if at this time Internet was not a reality he addresses some of the possible consequences of not knowing how to read, depending on other to make our judgment. And as he calls is that is not to be a free person. Since I’m really engaged with the idea of individual liberty this books calls my attention as an often not seen side of libertarianism: the liberty of the mind! In brief I think this book is worthy reading and sharing.
What quotes did you like the most?
“Here by ‘Learning’ is meant understanding more, not remembering more information…”
“Enlightenment is achieved only when, in addition to knowing what an author says, you know what he means and why he says it.”
“doctoral ignorance… The Greeks had a name for such a mixture of learning and folly which might be applied to the bookish but poorly read of all ages. They are all sophomores”
“…listening is learning from a teacher who is present –a living teacher– while reading is learning from one who is absent.”
“A good liberal arts high school, if it does nothing else, ought to produce graduates who are competent analytical readers. A good college, if it does nothing else, ought to produce competent syntopical readers. A college degree ought to represent general competence in reading such that a graduate could read any kind of material for general readers and be able to undertake independent research on almost any subject.”
“One should not have to spend four years in graduate school in order to learn how to read. Four years of graduate school, in addition to twelve years of preparatory education and four years of college –that adds up to twenty full years of schooling. It should not take that long to learn to read. Something is very wrong if it does.”
“In tackling a difficult book for the first time, read it through without ever stopping to look up or ponder the things you do not understand right away.”
“Every book should be read no more slowly than it deserves, and no more quickly than you can read it with satisfaction and comprehension.”
“They fail even if they know which books give which. [Profit and/or pleasure] The reason is that they do not know how to be demanding readers, how to keep their mind on what they are doing by making it do the work without which no profit can be earned.”
“People go to sleep over good books not because they are unwilling to make the effort, but because they do not know how to make it.”
“If you have the habit of asking a book questions as you read, you are a better reader than if you do not.”
“Reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author. Presumably he knows more about the subject than you do; if not, you probably should not be bothering with his book.”
“Knowing the rules of an art is not the same as having the habit”
“…there is no other way of forming an habit of operation than by operation. That is what it means to say one learns to do by doing.”
“Even the best instructor seems at first to be no help. The ease with which the instructor performs actions that he says are simple but that the student secretly believe are impossible is almost insulting.”
“To make knowledge practical we must convert it into rules of operation. We must pass from knowing what is the case to knowing what to do about it if we wish to get somewhere. This can be summarized in the distinction between knowing that and knowing how.”
“…that a piece of writing should have unity, clarity and coherence. That is, indeed, a basic maxim of good writing.”
“To regard anyone except yourself as responsible for your judgment is to be a slave, not a free man. It is from this fact that the liberal arts acquire their name.”
“Thus you see how the three arts of grammar, logic, and rhetoric cooperate in regulating the elaborate processes of writing and reading. Skill in the first two stages of analytical reading comes from a mastery of grammar and logic. Skill in the third stage depends on the remaining art.”
“We will consider (the rules for reading) as a code of etiquette to make the reader not only polite, but also effective, in talking back.”
“Do not begin to talk back until you have listened carefully and are sure you understand.”
“the historical study of science… is an activity of the mind that is essential to education, the central aim of which has always been recognized, from Socrates’ day down to our own, as the freeing of the mind through the discipline of wonder.”
"A MIND NOT AGITATED BY GOOD QUESTIONS CANNOT APPRECIATE THE SIGNIFICANCE OF EVEN THE BEST ANSWERS"
"We are not told, or not told early enough so that it sinks in, that mathematics is a language, and that we can learn it like any other, including our own."
“The civilization of the Middle Ages was essentially oral, partly because books were few and hard to come by. A proposition was not accepted as true unless it could meet the test of open discussion; the philosopher was not a solitary thinker, but instead faced his opponents in the intellectual market place (as Socrates might have said).”
"...it is possible that no kind of literature has a greater effect on the actions of men than history."
“Children ask magnificent questions. ‘Why are people?’ ‘What makes the cat tick?’ ‘What’s the world’s first name?’ ‘Did God have reasons for creating the earth?’ Out of the mouths of babes comes, if not wisdom, at least the search for it. Philosophy according to Aristotle begins in wonder. It certainly begins in childhood, even if for most of us it stops there, too.”
“The child is a natural questioner. It is not the number of questions he asks but their character that distinguishes him from the adult. Adults do not lose the curiosity that seems to be a native human trait, but their curiosity deteriorates in quality. They want to know whether something is so, not why. But children’s questions are not limited to the sort that can be answered by an encyclopedia.”
What books are connected with it?
The Trivium – Nature of Liberal Arts
On Dialogue – Intellectual etiquette for communicating with others
Words and Rules – Nature of language and concepts
Taming the Infinite – Novel approach to see mathematics as a language (Chpt. 17)
What is enlightenment?
