How to Read a Book

Types of Reading

1st Level - Elementary Reading: Recognizing individual words on the page. “What does this sentence say?” (Speed reading and mechanical improvements in reading often focus on this level)
2nd Level - Inspectional Reading: The goal of this level is to get the most out of a book within a given time. “Inspectional reading is the art of skimming systematically.” Aim to examine the surface of the book. “What is this book about?” And “What is the structure of this book?” Are 2nd level matters.
3rd Level - Analytical Reading: Analytical reading is the best, most complete reading possible given unlimited time. This is highly active reading. Analytical reading is not necessary for informational or entertainment reading. “Analytical reading is preeminently for the sake of understanding.”
4th Level - Syntopical Reading: The most complex and systematic of the four levels. This is “comparative reading” in which many books are read in a given topic. Through synoptical reading the reader will be able to develop and synthesize new analyses of the subject that are not available in any of the individual books.
Inspectional Reading
Skim the following: Title Page, Preface, Table of Contents, Index. This should give you a good sense about the author’s main contention and what kind of book has been written.
Select a few pivotal chapters and read a few paragraphs here and there. In particular, pay attention to the ends of chapters and the final chapter. Read the last 2-3 pages as the author is more likely to provide summaries or highlights of the ideas he or she consider most important.
Author emphasizes that superficial ordinarily has negative connotations but in the context of effective reading, it is an essential role: Understanding a book at the superficial level sets the reader’s expectations and helps them determine whether or not to invest in the book in the first place.

“In tackling a difficult book for the first time, read it through without ever stopping to look up or ponder the things you do not understand right away.”

The author emphasizes that multiple readings may be necessary for better understanding.

“If you insist on understanding everything on every page before you go on to the next, you will not get very far. In your effort to master the fine points, you will miss the big points…”

Speed of reading is dependent on the goal of the reading activity. Inspectional reading is done quickly because the goal is to get the gist of the book and the overarching idea (similarly “analytical reading” will be performed more slowly).

Analytical Reading

I. The First Stage of Analytical Reading: Rules for Finding What a Book Is About

Classify the book according to kind and subject matter.
State what the whole book is about with the utmost brevity.
Enumerate its major parts in their order and relation, and outline these parts as you have outlined the whole.
Define the problem or problems the author has tried to solve.

II. The Second Stage of Analytical Reading: Rules for Interpreting a Book’s Contents

Come to terms with the author by interpreting his key words.
Grasp the author’s leading propositions by dealing with his most important sentences.
Know the author’s arguments, by finding them in, or constructing them out of, sequences of sentences.
Determine which of his problems the author has solved, and which he has not; and of the latter, decide which the author knew he had failed to solve.

III. The Third Stage of Analytical Reading: Rules for Criticizing a Book as a Communication of Knowledge

A. General Maxims of Intellectual Etiquette

Do not begin criticism until you have completed your outline and your interpretation of the book. (Do not say you agree, disagree, or suspend judgment, until you can say “I understand.”)
Do not disagree disputatiously or contentiously.
Demonstrate that you recognize the difference between knowledge and mere personal opinion by presenting good reasons for any critical judgment you make.

B. Special Criteria for Points of Criticism

Show wherein the author is uninformed.
Show wherein the author is misinformed.
Show wherein the author is illogical.
Show wherein the author’s analysis or account is incomplete.

Note: Of these last four, the first three are criteria for disagreement. Failing in all of these, you must agree, at least in part, although you may suspend judgment on the whole, in the light of the last point.

Syntopical Reading

I. Surveying the Field Preparatory to Syntopical Reading

Create a tentative bibliography of your subject by recourse to library catalogues, advisors, and bibliographies in books.
Inspect all of the books on the tentative bibliography to ascertain which are germane to your subject, and also to acquire a clearer idea of the subject.

Note: These two steps are not, strictly speaking, chronologically distinct; that is, the two steps have an effect on each other, with the second, in particular, serving to modify the first.

II. Syntopical Reading of the Bibliography Amassed in Stage I

Inspect the books already identified as relevant to your subject in Stage I in order to find the most relevant passages.
Bring the authors to terms by constructing a neutral terminology of the subject that all, or the great majority, of the authors can be interpreted as employing, whether they actually employ the words or not.
Establish a set of neutral propositions for all of the authors by framing a set of questions to which all or most of the authors can be interpreted as giving answers, whether they actually treat the questions explicitly or not.
Define the issues, both major and minor ones, by ranging the opposing answers of authors to the various questions on one side of an issue or another. You should remember that an issue does not always exist explicitly between or among authors, but that it sometimes has to be constructed by interpretation of the authors’ views on matters that may not have been their primary concern.
Analyze the discussion by ordering the questions and issues in such a way as to throw maximum light on the subject. More general issues should precede less general ones, and relations among issues should be clearly indicated.

Note: Dialectical detachment or objectivity should, ideally, be maintained throughout. One way to insure this is always to accompany an interpretation of an author’s views on an issue with an actual quotation from his text.

A good book does reward you for trying to read it. The best books reward you most of all. The reward, of course, is of two kinds. First, there is the improvement in your reading skill that occurs when you successfully tackle a good, difficult work. Second—and this in the long run is much more important —a good book can teach you about the world and about yourself. You learn more than how to read better; you also learn more about life. You become wiser. Not just more knowledgeable—books that provide nothing but information can produce that result. But wiser, in the sense that you are more deeply aware of the great and enduring truths of human life.