Hi,
If you are content and entirely happy with the life that you are currently living then please do not read this review any further.
Moreover, if you want to preserve the way you think about yourself, exactly, please stop reading this document right now!
Whether we are professionals or non-professionals, the chances are that many of us will not know how to read extremely well.
This does not automatically mean that we are bad readers. But it does mean that the odds are stack against us as to whether we can grasp an excellent understanding of the world and ourselves very early.
By continuing to read this review, it is likely that (in a small way at least) you will find it shocking!
You may discover something important that is seriously limiting your potential and probably causing you at least one major problem in life.
To overcome this situation, you can follow the recommendations and advice that this document contains.
However, if you are unable to do so then, strategically speaking, it may make sense for you to find someone who has.
Whether she is alive or only in some other form (such as a written text, video, or so on), she should be made a very important part of your future development.
Once found, in my view, you should stick very close to such a person.
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Introduction
If we study those who have achieved greatness, we will find that many of them had read more books than the average person.
The reason is that it is extremely difficult to achieve great success by learning everything from first-hand personal experience. In fact, there is yet to be a better alternative.
By reading books, we will be allowing ourselves to benefit from the work of different writers.
It could easily be equivalent to tens, if not hundreds and thousands, of years of life experience. Further to this point,
It is crucial that we learn how to read as well as possible.
This is because the way we read will drastically affect our reading ability. It will also influence the amount of time that it takes for us to learn.
For this reason, I strongly recommend that you read ‘How to Read a Book.’
After reading intensely for over 5 years, I was surprised to discover that this text explained almost everything that I have learnt about reading and much more.
To encourage you to develop your reading skill immediately, at this juncture, please go straight to the ‘Conclusion‘ of this review.
Only after completing the ‘Conclusion,’ should you return to read the main body of this document.
I recommend that you follow this procedure as it may encourage you to read this review with greater mental activity – the more active the reading, the better the reader. The reasons for my assertion are fully explained below.
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How To Read a Book
In 1940, Mortimer J. Adler wrote ‘How to Read a Book’ for readers or those who wished to become readers – and it became an immediate bestseller.
By ‘readers,’ Adler meant people who were used to gaining the majority of their information and understanding of the world from books.
These readers were often the most intelligent and curious people of that period.
Even though they would also obtain information and understanding by listening and observing the world around them, they knew that to do so would never be enough.
Adler believed that people should read as well as possible and in a way that they had probably never read before because:
- A good book can teach a person about him/herself and the world
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- A person can become wiser in the sense that he or she will be more deeply aware of the great and long-lasting truths of human life
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- Unlike the body, a person’s mind does not stop growing and if it is not used, it will waste away
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- If an individual stop growing intellectually, morally, or spiritually, he or she will begin to regress
However, Adler tells us that in the seventies, people felt that reading was becoming unnecessary.
Radio was providing a person with information while he or she was engaged in other things.
Meanwhile, visual images from television were communicating messages worth more than a thousand words in an instance.
But, Adler further informed his readers that these forms of modern media were not to be trusted completely. By design, they often made people think that thinking was not needed.
At times, they packaged intellectual positions and views in such a complex way that a person would be exposed to clever speech with purposefully chosen statistics.
The modern media made people think that they were making up their own minds when, if fact, they were just accepting someone else’ cleverly packaged opinion.
Adding to this problem, over 30 years after the first publication of ‘How to Read a Book’, the education system in America was still failing to teach people how to read beyond the elementary level.
As a result, Adler decided to republish his work. As well as being able to address these issues, he also wanted to write about the new things had been discovered about the art of reading.
It was during this time that there had been a discovery of the existence of higher reading levels.
Significantly, the updated version of ‘How to Read a Book,’ still assists readers with developing their reading skills.
But, first, it starts by informing them about the importance of
- Active reading
- Highly skilled reading
- The levels of reading
- A demanding reader
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Commentary
Today (2013), hardly anyone I know would fall strictly into Adler’s definition of what it is to be a reader.
It seems that, these days, not even many intelligent and curious people get the majority of their information and understanding of the world from reading books; or know that a high percentage of listening and observing the world around them will never be enough.
The result is that whether I am observing leadership in business, religion, politics, or sport, it always appears to be a classic case of the blind leading the blind.
Adler’s reasons for why people should read as well as possible, in my view, are still applicable and relevant today.
However, with the strongest sense of urgency, I would add another point: for the majority of people, knowing how to read well is vital if they want to thrive as opposed to just survive their current lives.
It is no coincidence that some of the most successful and effective people in the world are all serious readers.
Without reading well, many people will simply struggle to get the best out of themselves in modern day society whether that means developing their spirit, body, mind, or soul.
Interestingly, in 1970, Adler warned readers against the emergence of the modern media, which often brought ‘cleverly packaged opinions.’
Since this time, the modern media has grown to become a dominant force in shaping the opinions of people around the world.
As a result, the potential mistrust that Adler was referring to, today, has become a dangerous normality.
Due to satellite TV, the internet and other technologies, too many cleverly packaged opinions bombard the masses minute after minute.
It causes many to understand very little, and seek information and entertainment only.
On the other hand, it has resulted in many people thinking that by reading certain newspapers and magazines, or watching particular TV channels or programmes, they will receive an adequate understanding of the world around them.
Adler first wrote this book in 1940. It was at a time when schools in America were failing to teach people how to read beyond an elementary level.
Although more than 70 years (2013) has past since, shockingly, the problem has not changed.
In many schools across the globe, students are still not being taught how to read at higher reading levels, even though this knowledge has been readily available for decades.
In fact, within some developed countries, the standard of reading in school has dropped significantly since the 70s, as opposed to remaining the same.
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Active Reading
Adler informs us that all forms of reading must be active to some degree.
The reason is that any type of reading will involve readers using their eyes and mind to interpret words on a page (or screen); therefore, no form of reading can be completely inactive.
Reading can only be more or less active as passive reading is impossible.
Reading, like writing, is a complex exercise that consists of a large number of separate acts that must all be executed together by a good reader.
As a result, one reader is better than another only in terms of her ability to apply more effort, and carry out a greater range of activity, when reading.
To put it plainly, presented with the same thing to read, one person would read it better than another would, if she (1) reads it more actively, and (2) carries out the separate acts it involves more skilfully.
However, many people think, wrongly, that reading and listening are entirely passive activities. In contrast, they see writing and speaking as being completely active.
The reality is that a reader and listener are like a baseball catcher, who moves to receive a ball in a game.
Sticking with this analogy, the actual baseball would be the same as a piece of written work. The writer, who is similar to a batter, hits the written piece and then like a catcher, the reader receives it.
Receiving a baseball or reading a piece of work is as much an activity as hitting it or writing it.
Both activities are active even though they are different. It is only the ball, or the written piece of work, that is a completely passive object at any point in the game.
Taking the analogy a step further, the art of reading is like the art of catching.
The reader must be able to read as well as possible in order to catch or understand every type of written communication, just as the catcher is expected to catch every kind of pitch whether it is a fastball, curve, change up, or knuckler.
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Commentary
Although is has been over 40 years since ‘How to Read a Book’ was rewritten, disappointingly, many intelligent people still think that reading is an entirely passive activity.
In my personal life, I have found that the vast majority of people that I know do not understand why I choose to invest so much time reading books, as oppose to focusing solely on pursuing my legal career. I am sure that if asked, most of them would say that I read too much.
This is one of the reasons why I created a website that would uncover the hidden importance of reading. Many people do not know that learning to read as well as possible, initially, is very time consuming.
Moreover, for additional reasons that will be detailed later within this review, is an extremely active mental activity.
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Highly Skilled Reading
Adler informs you that to understand highly skilled reading, you must be aware (1) of the difference between reading for information and reading for understanding and (2) that only certain types of written material can challenge your current level of understanding.
In term of the first point, to read for information, simply, is to be informed about something that you did not know before.
Whereas, if you read for understanding, you must make sense of what that something is all about, how it connects with other facts, how it came about, and so on.
To put it another way, if you remember what a writer’s says you have only gained information.
But, if in addition to remembering, you know what she means, and why she says it, then you have acquired understanding.
Throughout history, there have always been people who have read too widely – but not well. In other words, they were good at accumulating lots of information from different books.
However, they failed to develop a good understanding of what they were reading. The ancient Greeks called such persons sophomores.
Even though reading to get information is a necessary first step for you to gain understanding, ‘the point, however, is not to stop at being informed (p. 11).’
Ultimately, reading for understanding is the first aspect of what Adler refers to as highly skilled reading.
To demonstrate the second part of highly skilled reading, Adler asks you to consider a possible reading experience: if you go through a book and do not understand it perfectly.
But, understand enough to know that you do not understand it all. Then it is likely that it contains something that potentially can increase your understanding. As a result, you can
- Take the book to someone else who is a better reader (whether that be a living person or a written commentary), and have them explain the things that troubled you.
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- Just forget about it, confident that you know enough.
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- Without external help of any kind, go to work on the book: With nothing but the power of your mind, you act on the words before you, in such a way, that little by little you ‘… lift yourself from a state of understanding less to one of understanding more (p. 8).’
The third option is what Adler defines as the second aspect of highly skilled reading. It requires you to read a book, making a large effort and being more active.
Books that are regarded as more difficult to read are, usually, the ones that demand this type of reading.
They increase the readers understanding by demanding that readers use nothing but the power of their minds to lift themselves from understanding less to understanding more.
By contrast, reading magazines and newspapers, typically, give readers the latest information about an issue.
However, they do little to improve the reader’s overall understanding about the in-depth cause(s) behind the state of an affair.
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Commentary
In my opinion, many intelligent people are turned off by the idea of becoming highly skilled readers.
This is partly because they do not know that there is a big difference between reading for information and reading for understanding; moreover, they still think that reading is a passive activity.
As part of a solution, I think that more people need to witness, firsthand, the superior performance of a highly skilled reader.
Someone, who reads for understanding and consequently has become more pragmatic and active than those who do not.
For a real life example of such a person, who by reading well became worth $1.7 billion, please click on blog post: ‘Why the Truly Intelligent Are Self-Educated & Multidisciplinary’.
Aware of the advantages of highly skilled reading, I have always looked for books to read that could greatly challenge my reading ability, knowledge of truth and, overall, improve my course of actions.
In turn, I have tried to ensure that the books that I encourage others to read are those that also do likewise.
The result has been that I have avoided reading any newspaper or magazines articles until, at the least, I have a firm understanding of the subject areas they discuss.
In addition, it has caused me to review a catalogue of books on my website that I recommend to other and need to refer back to repeatedly.
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The Levels of Reading
Adler informs us that there are four levels of reading and to improve our reading skills, we must understand the differences between them:
- Level 1 – Elementary Reading is another word for basic reading. It is where a person receives, usually as a child, simple training in reading. This individual gains the reading skills of a beginner such as learning to understand a sentence like ‘The cat sat on the hat (p. 17).’
- Level 2 – Inspectional Reading is the art of skimming a book in a certain way and as fast as you can. Placing special attention on time, the reader must discover several things as quickly as possible such as the surface of the book, what the book is about, what is it structure, what are its parts, et cetera. Adler states that ‘…most people, even many quite good readers, are unaware of the value of inspectional reading (p. 19).’
- Level 3 – Analytical Reading is about reading something as thoroughly as you can. It is the best type of reading possible and the most time consuming. Reading analytically requires readers to ask many organised questions whilst reading, and about what they are reading. Readers use analytical reading when reading for understanding. It will rarely be necessary if reading for information or entertainment.
- Level 4 – Syntopical Reading is the most complex and organised type of reading. It requires a reader to read many books in an inspectional and analytical way and then relate the books to each other using a subject that all the texts revolve around. Syntopical readers use the most effort and active kind of reading. Consequently, they are able to create a new analysis of a subject that has never have been discovered before.
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Commentary
Despite attending university, graduating as a law student, and qualifying to practice law as a barrister, my fellow students and I were never told that there were different levels of reading.
As in Adler’s time, today, many quite good readers are unaware of inspectional reading.
It was only after carrying out a self-study program in 2011, the Photoreading audio course, that I got a sense that there was much more to reading than I knew.
As part of the Photoreading course, I learnt methods and techniques that would fall under Adler’s category of Level 2 – Inspectional Reading.
Moreover, the course introduced me to the possibility of reading several books in one evening with the intention of constructing a unique analysis of a subject.
This aspect of the course is similar to Adler’s Syntopical Reading Level (for further information about Photoreading, please click on blog-post: Read 100’s of Books Easily!).
However, the Photoreading course placed relatively little emphasis on the reading skills that are needed to read books at Level 3 – Analytical Reading.
As a result, for those who want to become serious readers, I would advise you to read Adler’s book first and then move on to complete the Photoreading course later.
But, if you are pressed for time then starting with the Photoreading course, instead, may prove to be more worthwhile.
Although I did not learn most of what I know about reading well by using Adler’s book, it would definitely have made my learning process easier and much more efficient.
For instance, prior to reading this book, I did not realise that my website was a fine example of Level 4 – Syntopical Reading.
However, with Adler’s explanation, I was able to see that
- I read books at the inspectional and analytical reading levels.
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- Systematically try to relate them to each other generally around a subject. In my case, the subject I use is personal development.
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- Construct an analysis that is not present in any of the books that I had read. Currently, I carry out this part of syntopical reading in my mind or within my book reviews.
The result is that I have been unknowingly reading books syntopically. In the absence of this understanding, I was on the verge of scaling down my reading activities.
Now, I realise that it is important for me to teach others how to become syntopical readers and, personally, to continue developing my reading ability.
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A Demanding Reader
Adler informs us that, to be a demanding reader, we must set goals for ourselves, which form the main reason for our reading.
Typically, many demanding readers are able to read all through the night and deep into the early hours of the morning.
This is because the books they read make a great difference to them if completed.
Setting meaningful goals for reading increases the chance that readers will read with great effort. The readers know that when finished, the book they read may bring them closer to gaining what they really want.
However, setting goals alone will not be enough. To become a demanding reader, as well as setting goals, we must know how to be a highly active when reading.
Highly active readers are able to keep their minds on a book in such a way that they will benefit greatly from most of what the text has to offer.
We too can develop this skill by asking ourselves four basic questions whilst we read.
Furthermore, we must also answer our questions in the course of our reading. The four main questions are:
- What is the book about as a whole? With this question, we have to find out the leading point or problem that the writer is trying to tackle. We then have to discover how the book divides into sections, chapters, or headings and subheadings to deal with the problem in an orderly fashion.
. - What is being said in detail and how? Referring back to our answer for the first question, now we have to find out all of the writer’s arguments or main ideas that connect to his or her leading point or problem.
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- Is the book true in whole or part? Once we have the answers to the first two questions, we need to assess whether the writer’s arguments or main ideas are true or false. This question will require us to make up our own mind. Knowing the author’s mind will only provide us with information. But, drawing our own conclusion(s) about the author’s mind will enhance our understanding.
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- What of it? Once you have the answers to the previous three questions, you must now determine whether the book has any particular importance for you. You might ask yourself, for example, whether it is important for you to know the information that the book has provided, and if so, then why? Additionally, you might ask yourself whether the information will cause you to do anything different in the future, and if so, then why?
It will not be enough to know the four questions as we read; we have to develop a habit of asking and answering them.
And we must do this (1) precisely and accurately, (2) in the right order, and (3) whilst reading.
Reading on any level above Level 1 – Elementary Reading – requires demanding readers to ask the written material they read questions and to answer them to the best of their ability.
This is why, Adler turns to these four questions at length throughout the book, and states that
‘… there is all the difference in the world between the demanding and the undemanding reader. The latter asks no questions – and gets no answers (p. 47).’
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Commentary
Within my website, I detail my approach to reading, which is similar to the steps needed to become a demanding reader (for further details please click on blog post: The Best Way to Choose & Read Books!).
For example, like Adler, my approach stressed the importance for readers to, first, set a goal for reading:
‘To decide what you must read ask yourself this key question: What is the most important challenge that I face in my life right now, which if I do not overcome, it will prevent me from moving forward … then you must buy a book that will help you to overcome your specific challenge.’
However, in spite of many similarities, there was something crucial that my guidance completely did not address.
Unlike Adler, I failed to mention that it is extremely important for readers to ask the right questions whilst reading. The habit of asking the right questions is so important.
It is necessary for making effective notes, underlining the significant passages within the text, and increasing the reader’s overall understanding.
Prior to reading ‘How to Read a Book,’ I did not realise that I have always been using a variation of these four questions in my mind when reading books.
Not recognising this lead me to believe, wrongly, that any person with a strong desire to learn how to read well, could start immediately and pick up the necessary skill as he or she went along.
As shown by the importance of the four questions above, the actual reality is that for most people a strong desire, although essential, will not be enough.
To develop the right skills to read well, at the least, people will have to be taught how to ask and answer the four main questions.
Fortunately, Adler’s book provides readers with all necessary information needed to develop excellent reading skills.
In turn, I have used it to strengthen the approach I take when teaching others.
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Conclusion
I found it remarkable that ‘How to Read a Book,’ first published in 1940, and then re-written in 1970, contained more than about 90% of the things that I know about reading today.
When Adler referred to the idea that reading was becoming unnecessary in the 70s, he was unaware of the extent to which this belief would grow over time.
Since then, the increased popularity of television gave birth to a large and lucrative entertainment industry.
Now, from fashion shows to song contests, or cooking programs to sports events, the entertainment world allows a countless number of people to become rich and famous.
As a result, many people, these days, assume that reading is no longer important.
On the other hand, there are many people, who still understand the importance of reading, but do not know how to read effectively. As mentioned within this review, most individuals still:
- Are not taught in school how to read well or beyond the elementary reading level
- Do not know that there are at least four reading levels
- Think that reading is a passive activity
- Do not know that there is a huge difference between reading for information and reading for understanding
- Do not know how to become a demanding reader
- Do not know that if they do not read well, it is highly likely that they will struggle to get the best out of themselves in their relationships, marriage, career, business, finances, spiritual growth, personal development, physical health, social life, emotional well being, and so on.
Knowing how to read well, in my opinion, is more important in these current times than it has ever been. Highly influential news channels still cleverly package opinions that have a dominating affect on public opinion.
New technologies produce tons of information at such increasing rates that it has become more difficult to distinguish important information from the unimportant.
Moreover, globalisation is causing the world to become smaller and smaller, and more and more complex.
In spite of these complicated developments, if we know how to read well, we will be able to obtain a good understanding of the world with relative ease.
But, more importantly, we will be better equipped to obtain an excellent understanding of ourselves.*
*For a further discussion about the primary importance of understanding self, please click on blog post: tommyoffe.com ‘Why You Must Discover Your True Talents ASAP!’
I end this review, by mentioning that, usefully, Adler has divided ‘How to Read a Book’ into the four different reading levels.
Therefore, you can focus on mastering the level of your current reading ability and then, as you improve, move on to master the next stage.
If you are able to perform everything that is within this book, you will definitely be well prepared to take advantage of, or even create, unique opportunities in the future.*
*For further assistance as to mastering the skill of reading well, please click on blog post, ‘The Conscious and Unconscious Mind & The Four Stage Learning Process.’
Until the next review, create and live by a strong philosophy!
Let’s do this!
IVG (Involgize)