How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading

“Successful communication occurs in any case where what the writer wanted to have received finds its way into the reader’s possession. The writer’s skill and the reader’s skill converge upon a common end.”

Adler and Van Doren use a baseball analogy to explain how a writer and their reader both work toward successful communication. In the analogy, the writer is the pitcher, the writer’s message is the ball, and the reader is the catcher. In order for a pitcher to be successful, the catcher must do their part as well. It is incorrect to think that the catcher’s job is inactive, just as it is incorrect to think that the reader’s job is passive.

“The goal a reader seeks—be it entertainment, information or understanding—determines the way he reads. The effectiveness with which he reads is determined by the amount of effort and skill he puts into his reading.”

Adler and Van Doren introduce their four levels of reading, which begin with the most basic—elementary reading—and progress to the most advanced and sophisticated—syntopical reading. The more advanced levels require the most effort and skill, and in these cases, the reader is reading for understanding. Reading for information requires effort and skill as well, but the reader typically does not achieve full understanding. Reading for entertainment requires the least amount of effort and skill.

“We must be more than a nation of functional literates. We must become a nation of truly competent readers, recognizing all that the word competent implies. Nothing less will satisfy the needs of the world that is coming.”

Adler and Van Doren introduce the first level of reading, elementary reading. Their discussion heavily focuses on how reading instruction has been taught over the years in American schools. They point out that reading instruction for students basically ends in elementary school—except in more recent years, when high schools and colleges began to offer remedial reading courses because so few students were reading at the required level.

“Every book should be read no more slowly than it deserves, and no more quickly than you can read it with satisfaction and comprehension.”

Chapter 4 covers the second level of reading, inspectional reading. This level emphasizes time, as it encourages readers to inspect a book quickly before reading it analytically for comprehension. Reading speeds should vary depending on the difficulty of a book. Gaining full understanding is more important than reading a book quickly.

“Full ownership of a book only comes when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it—which comes to the same thing—is by writing in it.”

One of Adler and Van Doren’s suggestions for becoming a demanding reader is to “make a book your own” by writing in it. In other words, taking notes can help a reader fully comprehend a book. Writing in a book not only entails taking notes in the margins of pages, but highlighting important passages by underlining, marking, and numbering key points.

“Reading is like skiing. When done well, when done by an expert, both reading and skiing are graceful, harmonious activities. When done by a beginner, both are awkward, frustrating, and slow.”

In order to become a demanding reader (and get the most out of one’s experience), Adler and Van Doren suggest forming a habit of reading. They argue that “after practice, you can do the same thing much better than when you started” (52). The authors use another sports analogy to reinforce the notion that one can only improve after practicing.

“As houses are more or less livable, so books are more or less readable. The most readable book is an architectural achievement on the part of the author. The best books are those that have the most intelligible structure.”

In Chapter 7, readers are instructed how to x-ray a book as part of analytical reading, the third level of reading. The authors’ definition of x-raying is examining a book’s structure—as individual parts and as a whole. They use the analogy of a house with many different rooms of different shapes and sizes and on different levels: Even though the different parts of the house are independent, they are still connected to the house.

“Communication is an effort on the part of one person to share something with another person (or with an animal or a machine): his knowledge, his decisions, his sentiments. It succeeds only when it results in a common something, such as an item of information or knowledge that two parties share.”

Adler and Van Doren explain how to come to terms with an author (i.e., finding an author’s key words and learning how they are being used). In doing so, author and reader will be able to communicate with each other without ambiguity. In other words, the information or knowledge being shared will be understood by both parties.

“Most of us are addicted to non-active reading. The outstanding fault of the non-active or undemanding reader is his inattention to words, and his consequent failure to come to terms with the author.”

When coming to terms with an author, a reader must not only find their key words, but mark them and learn their meanings. This is an example of active reading—one that many fail to do as they are accustomed to reading inactively.

“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom in learning from books as well as from nature. If you never ask yourself any questions about the meaning of a passage, you cannot expect the book to give you any insight you do not already possess.”

In Chapter 9, readers are instructed how to determine an author’s message. Doing so requires the reader to not only come to terms with the author by finding key words—but key sentences. The reader needs to distinguish sentences that they fully understand from those they do not.

“The activity of reading does not stop with the work of understanding what a book says. It must be completed by the work of criticism, the work of judging.”

Adler and Van Doren establish the rules, or maxims, for fairly criticizing a book. According to them, a book is a conversation between author and reader. Until the book is completely read and understood, only the author speaks. Once the reader understands the book, they then have an obligation to answer the author in the form of a judgement.

“The relatively ignorant often wrongly disagree with the relatively learned about matters exceeding their knowledge. The more learned, however, have a right to be critical of errors made by those who lack relevant knowledge.”

One of Adler and Van Doren’s rules concerning criticism is to “regard disagreements as capable of being resolved” (146). While no disagreements should be hopeless (impossible), some are more difficult than others due to inequality of knowledge. This, too, can be overcome—but only when the ignorant become learned.

“No higher commendation can be given any work of the human mind than to praise it for the measure of truth it has achieved; by the same token, to criticize it adversely for its failure in this respect is to treat it with the seriousness that a serious work deserves.”

One of the rules of analytical reading is to ask certain questions about a current read. Two of these questions are “Is it true?” (in regards to the author’s intent) and “What of it?” (the book’s significance). If the answer to either question is “yes,” the book should be praised. However, if the answer to either question is “no,” the book should be adversely criticized. Failing to do so means that the reader has not treated the book seriously.

“To become well read, in every sense of the word, one must know how to use whatever skill one possesses with discrimination—by reading every book according to its merits.”

According to Adler and Van Doren, readers should not be concerned with reading a great number of books. Rather, they should concern themselves with reading books that are worthy of being read with skill. In other words, being “widely read” is not the same thing as being “well read.” Some books deserve inspection while others deserve to be read well.

“The great authors were great readers, and one way to understand them is to read the books they read. As readers, they carried on a conversation with other authors, just as each of us carries on a conversation with the books we read, though we may not write other books.”

Adler and Van Doren discuss reading aids. Reading aids outside of one’s current read are extrinsic reading aids—a common method being the use of other books. Books on common subjects can work together to provide context for a current read.

“There is no more irritating fellow than the one who tries to settle an argument about communism, or justice, or freedom, by quoting from the dictionary. Lexicographers may be respected as authorities on word usage, but they are not the ultimate founts of wisdom.”

A common extrinsic reading aid is the dictionary. However, readers should remember that “the dictionary is a book about words, not about things” (177). Readers should use the book to comprehend the author’s use of words (i.e., clarifying archaic and technical jargon)—not to learn new concepts.

“The best protection against propaganda of any sort is the recognition of it for what it is. Only hidden and undetected oratory is really insidious. What reaches the heart without going through the mind is likely to bounce back and put the mind out of business. Propaganda taken in that way is like a drug you do not know you are swallowing. The effect is mysterious: you do not know afterwards why you feel or think the way you do.”

Adler and Van Doren instruct readers how to read practical books, ones that invite action. Persuasion is a key element of these books, the author of such being “something of an orator or propagandist” (193). The reader must read the practical book intelligently and understand the author’s terms and arguments.

“Imaginative literature primarily pleases rather than teaches. It is much easier to be pleased than to be taught, but much harder to know why one is pleased. Beauty is harder to analyze than truth.”

Imaginative literature comprises fictional works like novels, plays, and poems. The type of reading required for imaginative literature is the least challenging and active, but such works can very much be appreciated for their beauty and entertainment (if not objective truth).

“A work of fine art is ‘fine’ not because it is ‘refined’ or ‘finished,’ but because it is an end (finis, Latin, means end) in itself. It does not move toward some result beyond itself. It is, as Emerson said of beauty, its own excuse for being.”

Adler and Van Doren make suggestions for reading stories, plays, and poems. The great works in these genres are often cited as works of fine art, but they seldom lead to action on the reader’s behalf. Instead, they are simply enjoyed for their beauty. The “Emerson” mentioned in this quote is the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“History is the story of what led up to now. It is the present that interests us—that and the future. The future will be partly determined by the present. Thus, you can learn something about the future, too, from a historian, even from one who like Thucydides lived more than two thousand years ago.”

Adler and Van Doren instruct readers how to read history. They reference the work of historian and general Thucydides, who wrote “the only major contemporary history of the Peloponnesian War” (234). Even though his account might not have been entirely accurate, it was immensely important because later leaders read it and followed its lessons. In this regard, the present determined the future.

“Any language is a medium of communication among men on subjects that the communicants can mutually comprehend. The subjects of ordinary discourse are mainly emotional facts and relations. Such subjects are not entirely comprehensible by any two different persons.”

Adler and Van Doren instruct readers how to read science and mathematics. They argue that mathematics is a language and “we can learn it like any other, including our own” (254). In order to read mathematics properly, one must first learn its language so they can communicate with the author.

“Philosophy, when it is good, is not ‘pure’ speculation—thinking divorced from experience. Ideas cannot be put together just any way. There are stringent tests of the validity of answers to philosophical questions. But such tests are based on common experience alone—on the experience that you already have because you are a human being, not a philosopher.”

Chapter 18 instructs readers how to read philosophy. Although philosophy is a discipline dependent on thinking, questions and speculation do not—and should not—exist in a vacuum. They should come from universal experiences, not just those of philosophers.

“If you are reading in order to become a better reader, you cannot read just any book or article. You will not improve as a reader if all you read are books that are well within your capacity. You must tackle books that are beyond you, or, as we have said, books that are over your head. Only books of that sort will make you stretch your mind. And unless you stretch, you will not learn.”

In the final chapter of the book, Adler and Van Doren discuss what good books can do for readers seeking improvement. The advanced levels of reading, analytical and syntopical, can be applied to any book, regardless of genre—but some simply do not require either level.