How to Read a Book

• Memorizing facts is not the same as understanding.
• Reading must be active, the more active the reading, the better.
• The reader is a catcher in a game of baseball (the writer is the pitcher). Catching is still active.
• Learning is understanding more. Reading something that you don't understand is how to learn. You learn from your betters.
• Being informed is a prerequisite to being enlightened. You have to be able to explain it.
• Beware the literate ignoramuses, who have read too widely and not well.
• The student himself must do the learning. Instruction is aided discovery; reading is unaided.
• Our continuing education depends mainly on books alone.

There are four levels of reading. They build on each other:

1. Elementary - can I understand this sentence?
2. Inspectional - what is this book about? What are its parts?
3. Analytical - thorough, complete, the best reading you can do. Intensely active, ask many organized questions. Understanding happens here.
4. Syntopical - read many books, joined by a subject. Analyze a subject that may not be in any of the books. Most active and effortful.

Skim the book first. See if it's worth your time.

1. Look at the title and preface (if present). Read them quickly.
2. Study the table of contents.
3. Check the index.
4. Read the publisher's blurb on the jacket.
5. Read the pivotal chapters' opening or closing statements.
6. Read the last two or three pages, the epilogue, or the last few pages of the main part.

Read through a difficult book without stopping or looking up what you don't understand right away. You will have a better chance of understanding it on second reading if you read through at least once.

Stopping impedes the reading and understanding. Half understanding is better than no understanding.

Read at different speeds. Inspectional is fast, analytical is slow. Even within analytical, vary the speed based on difficulty (slow down for hard passages, skim through easy ones).

Follow your hand or a pen while reading. Don't let the mind wander or fall asleep.

Make an effort. Stay awake. Read actively.

Ask the right questions in the right order.

1. What is this book about as a whole?
2. What is being said, in detail, and how?
3. Is the book true, in whole or part?
4. What of it?

Remember to ask them while you read!

Full ownership of a book only comes when you make it part of yourself. The best way to do that is by writing in it!

Reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author.

Record questions/answers in the margins, tops/bottoms of pages. Writing is thinking.

Outline the book (basic, not page-by-page). Make your own outline.

1. Know what kind of book you are reading before you start.

   • Expository or fiction?

   • Practical

     • Rules of operation, persuasive

   • Theoretical

     • History, science, philosophy
2. State what the whole book is about with brevity.
3. Enumerate major parts in order and relation, outline these parts as you have outlined the whole.
4. Define the problem or problems the author is trying to solve.

Learn the important words (technical vocabulary, jargon) the author uses. Ponder words you don't understand. These are the most important.

The same can be said for important sentences and the propositions they contain. Then, construct the basic arguments through connection of sentences.

Interest in the author himself is not the same as understanding his ideas.

Further rules for coming to terms:

• Don't criticize until you understand. Beware your own prejudices and emotions. Knowledge is opinion you can back with evidence. Show good reasons for any critical judgments.

• For crticism, the author must be either:

  • uniformed;
  • misinformed;
  • illogical; or
  • lacking in analysis or complete account.

There is no higher commendation than the measure of truth the work has achieved.

Read sequentially, earlier writers can help you understand the later ones.

Only read commentaries or abstracts after you have read the original.

Don't use a dictionary on the first reading.

Don't memorize the encyclopedia (idiot savant). Know the significance of facts, how they affect the truth.

Beauty is harder to analyze than truth. You must be able to say what you like about a novel.

The structure / unity of the story is its plot.

1. Become acquainted with the characters and live through the events;
2. Become at home in the imaginary world;
3. Follow the characters through their adventures (the scene is the static element, the plot the dynamic connection).

The author saved this section for the end because it depends on previous sections.

Knowing which books to read is hard.

Identifying the subject matter must follow the reading, not precede it.

You are the medium that the other books talk through.

Unless you stretch, you will not learn. Read books that are beyond you.

Homer is harder than Newton.

The mind can atrophy if not used.

We must have the resources within ourselves to grow intellectually, morally, and spiritually. Otherwise, we start to die.

Keep the mind alive and growing.