How to Read a Book

Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren

• Publisher: Touchstone
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9781439144831
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Literacy
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

With half a million copies in print, How to Read a Book is the best and most successful guide to reading comprehension for the general reader, completely rewritten and updated with new material.

A CNN Book of the Week: “Explains not just why we should read books, but how we should read them. It's masterfully done.” –Farheed Zakaria

Originally published in 1940, this book is a rare phenomenon, a living classic that introduces and elucidates the various levels of reading and how to achieve them—from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading. Readers will learn when and how to “judge a book by its cover,” and also how to X-ray it, read critically, and extract the author’s message from the text.

Also included is instruction in the different techniques that work best for reading particular genres, such as practical books, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy and social science works.

Finally, the authors offer a recommended reading list and supply reading tests you can use measure your own progress in reading skills, comprehension, and speed.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Preface
• Part One: The Dimensions of Reading
• Part Two: The Third Level of Reading: Analytical Reading
• Part Three: Approaches to Different Kinds of Reading Matter
• Part Four: The Ultimate Goals of Reading
• Appendix A. A Recommended Reading List
• Appendix B. Exercises and Tests at the Four Levels of Reading
• About Dr. Mortimer J. Adler and Dr. Charles Van Doren
• Index
• Copyright