This is the name of a classic book by philosopher Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren about the art of reading. Here I write the summary of it and then post an outline by Oxford Press, with some minor edit (I couldn’t find original link now, luckily, I already kept a copy of it on my drive, so here I share).
Summary:
This practical book is a rare one of its type which gives thorough instruction about how to read a book skillfully. Many sources tried to teach us to read faster using speed-reading techniques or to read more comprehensibly like those often seen on exam preparation courses and materials. All of them offer a less than systematical set of rules for a skillful reader, until Mortimer wrote this book in 1940 and revised it thirty years later with the flexible use of rules in different types of reading matters, a new level of reading and the pyramid model of books.
Apart from recognizing many positive signs in the improvement in literacy and higher education among citizens at that time, the author especially notice that people are confused that speed reading is the panacea to a good reading skill. Another point in view is that the education system failed to train its students higher levels of reading beyond the elementary level which is highly desired once higher education such as high school up to graduate school become ubiquitous. With these two special angles in mind, the author’s goal in this book is first, to teach us to learn from the good books or the author of it- an absent teacher for understanding instead of for information, second, to learn to make books teach us well.
According to Mortimer, there are four stages of reading: elementary, inspectional, analytical and synoptical. Elementary reading includes four sub-stages and in fact very well trained in the first grades of schooling, actually is necessary for students until their tenth grade. After this, analytical reading is needed for high school and synoptical reading is highly desired for college and graduate students, yet remained abandoned. Unlike many people may think, reading is active and require much of our brain work and skills just as writing is. Many demanding readers gave up on great books not because they are lazy, but because they did not know the right way to approach.
Inspectional reading has two intertwined steps, those are, systematic skimming and superficial reading which should be practiced separately until you become skilled. The key rule is to limit your time, read through the book once, do not stop at where you do not understand, instead focus on where you do and make it your best clues to move on until you finish the book. This type of reading helps you to decide if you are going to spend more time and effort with it in analytical or synoptical reading or not.
Analytical reading involves rules that you must strictly follow to come up with answers to the four basic questions that you should be able to know if you want to learn from a book: What is the book about?, What is being said, in details?, Is it true?, And what of it? This means that you need to read the book structurally, interpretatively and critically. Marking and note-making can help a lot here and you must know how to do it effectively. Some key rules are about coming to terms with the author to find out and understand his set of arguments before expressing yours about the author’s soundness or completeness. Here, rhetoric skill is not only a skill for speaker or writer but for a critical reader who know how to explain his propositions by cogent arguments rather than mere opinions.Several extrinsic aids that can help you in reading a book are dictionaries, encyclopedias, abstracts and commentaries or other books. However, keep in mind that those books should only be used wisely and prudently, preferably after you try your best to understand the book by the book itself.
Synoptical reading, unlike analytical reading, is applied when you want to focus on your own research subject other than to learn something from a book like in the case of analytical reading. In order words, while analytical reading make the author’s problems the center of the discussion, synoptical reading make the reader’s problems the center of the discussion. The key rules lie on that you know where to find your desired information, how to make your authors come to term with you, ask the right questions, define the issues and find the truths which may very well hide itself in between the conflicts of the opposing answers.
Finally, there are some chapters about how to adapt these rules into different kinds of books and one final chapter that tell the difference between good books and great books. It is important that everyone should look for the books that have values for him.
