--- status: To Read title: How to Read a Book subtitle: "" description: "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." categories: - Non-fiction - Reading authors: - [[Mortimer J. Adler]] - [[Charles Van Doren]] published_on: 2011-05-10 publisher: Simon and Schuster pages: 452 isbn: 1439144834 cover: http://books.google.com/books/content?id=Z5PpkQadm5EC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&edge=curl&source=gbs_api local_cover: 50 Resources/51 Attachments/51.03 Public/How to Read a Book (book).jpg link: https://amzn.to/3VzqTwA tags: - type/book - books - summaries - reading - pkm - knowledge_management - note_taking - learning - zone/areas - zone/areas/literature_notes created: 2024-07-05T14:45 updated: 2026-04-01T14:44 public_note: true --- # How to Read a Book (book) - Author(s): [[Mortimer J. Adler]], [[Charles Van Doren]] - Link: https://amzn.to/3VzqTwA ![[How to Read a Book (book).jpg|200]] # Brief description Explains that some books should be read many times over. Gives instructions for how to read the contents of the book, read the blurb and the preface, the opening and enclosing paragraphs. Helps learn to be a DEMANDING reader. Sometimes, you need to read a book from front to cover to really grok what the author is teaching you. Sometimes, taking it slowly is detrimental to your learning. He recommends that learners should take challenging books and take a walk through the contents. I like to think of it as watching a movie. Some books have a lesson that requires you to see the big picture before you scrutinise each. detail. You might get lost in the weeds, never seeing the forest for the trees. # Key quotes > ... # Key ideas ... # Chapter 1: ... ... #todo migrate notes