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How to Read a Book, by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren

https://readingraphics.com/book-summary-how-to-read-a-book/

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How to Read a Book summary - what's intelligent reading

How to Read a Book summary - the 4 levels of reading

Randomly flip through the pages: read 1-2 paragraphs/pages here and there, as well as the last 2-3 pages of the book which often contains a concluding summary.

Pre-reading

title page → Table of Contents → index → publisher's blurb → chapter summaries → last 2-3 pages → random paragraphs

Superficial reading

Read through the book rapidly, without stopping to ponder or look up the parts you don’t understand yet.

Analytical reading

Stage 1: Outline the structure to answer the first of the 4 key questions: What is the book about overall? Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren present 4 rules to help you classify the book and identify its goal and structure. By the end of this stage, you can define the main theme and its sub-themes.

Stage 2: Interpret the content to answer the second of the 4 key questions: How does the author present the ideas? Again, there are 4 rules to ensure you’ve fully understood the author’s key terms, propositions, and arguments.

Stage 3: Critique the book. By now, you’re ready to answer the last 2 key questions: Is this book true (in whole or in part)? And, so what? There are 3 rules of intellectual etiquette you should use to critique the book fairly.

Syntopical reading

Initial research/inspection;

Syntopical reading in 5 steps.