BOOKS
The Art of Reading: How To Get The Most Out of a Book
Tips from Mortimer J. Adler’s classic guide to intelligent reading
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”
— Francis Bacon
We’ve all (hopefully) read a book at some point in our lives. But do we know how to actually read a book properly?
According to Adler, a reader’s goal — be it for entertainment, information, or understanding — determines the way we read a book.
If your goal is to get the most out of your non-fiction books, then this article is for you.
Adler proposes that there are 4 levels of reading:
- Elementary reading
- Inspectional reading
- Analytical reading
- Syntopical reading
Level 1: Elementary Reading
Goal: To understand the book at a basic level.
A child’s first encounter with reading is at this level.
This level is concerned with merely processing the words on the page and gaining basic information or facts. Casual reading or reading for entertainment might also come under this level.
Level 2: Inspectional Reading
Goal: To decide whether the book deserves a deeper reading.
Also called “pre-reading”, this level is concerned with skimming a book systematically in a fixed amount of time.
Rarely will you need to read a book cover-to-cover; some books are to be read slowly and others quickly. Performing an inspectional read saves you time and allows you to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.
When performing an inspectional read, you might:
- Set a timer for 10–15 minutes
- Skim the summary/abstract/blurb
- Skim the contents page
- Skim chapter titles and sub-titles within the book
- Skim any interesting chapters
- Skim the end pages i.e. glossary or the index for keywords or topics
- Skim the footnotes and bibliography
This will provide you with a surface-level understanding of the book and help you decide which chapters or passages to read in depth.
Level 3: Analytical Reading
Goal: To gain a comprehensive understanding of the book.
This level is concerned with grasping, understanding, and critiquing the deeper issues the book is grappling with. Most often, a book might require 2–3 reads before a reader properly grasps its subject matter.
When performing an analytical read, you might:
- Ask critical questions about the book e.g. what are the central ideas being discussed? What solutions does the author propose?
- Explore the book’s central themes and ideas
- Critique the author’s arguments e.g. do I agree with this or can I offer a better argument? Is the author’s evidence sufficient enough? Has the author persuaded me?
- Underline or highlight statements or sections that intrigue you and add any thoughts in the margins
- Reflect upon the key takeaways you’ve gotten from the book
- Summarise and explain the book in a few sentences to someone who knows nothing about the book’s contents
Reading a book properly should ultimately be a conversation between you and the author.
Level 4: Syntopical Reading
Goal: To gain a comprehensive understanding of a particular topic.
Also called “comparative reading”, this level is concerned with reading several books on a topic with depth and breadth. University essays and dissertations, for example, will often entail this level of reading.
When performing a syntopical read, you might:
- Ask a key research question
- Survey your subject’s field (e.g. Philosophy) and collect a bibliography of relevant literature on the topic. This might be 5 books or it might well be 20.
- Conduct a systematic skim read of the books you’ve collected to narrow the bibliography down to the key books
- With the final set of books, perform an analytical read of each one, focusing on chapters or passages that answer your key research questions, then write up an analysis with your findings
Remember to approach all your books with a level of critical awareness and be selective in the chapters and passages you give your attention to.
Overall, don’t run before you can walk. Reading is a skill and mastering its art takes practice, patience, and much trial and error.
Feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments!