How to Read a Book (A Touchstone Book) (Paperback)
by
Mortimer J. Adler (Author),
Charles Van Doren (Author)
Description
How to Read a Book, originally published in 1940, has become a rare phenomenon, a
living classic. It is the best and most successful guide to reading comprehension for the general reader. And now it has been completely rewritten and updated. You are told about the various levels of reading and how to achieve them -- from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading, you learn how to pigeonhole a book, X-ray it, extract the author's message, criticize. You are taught the different reading techniques for reading practical books, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy and social science. Finally, the authors offer a recommended reading list and supply reading tests whereby you can measure your own progress in reading skills, comprehension and speed.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Jacques Barzun These four hundred pages are packed full of high matters which no one solicitous of the future of American culture can afford to over-look.
The New Yorker It shows concretely how the serious work of proper reading may be accomplished and how much it may yield in the way of instruction and delight.
Review
The New Yorker It shows concretely how the serious work of proper reading may be accomplished and how much it may yield in the way of instruction and delight.
See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
- Paperback: 426 pages
- Publisher: Touchstone; Revised edition (August 15, 1972)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0671212095
- ISBN-13: 978-0671212094
- Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 1.1 inches
Table of Contents
Preface
PART I . THE ACTIVITY OF READING
CHAPTER ONE To the Average Reader
CHAPTER TWO The Reading of "Reading"
CHAPTER THREE Reading is Learning
CHAPTER FOUR Teachers, Dead or Alive
CHAPTER FIVE The Defeat of the Schools
CHAPTER SIX On Selfhelp
PART II . THE RULES
CHAPTER SEVEN From Many Rules to One Habit
CHAPTER EIGHT Catching on From the Title
CHAPTER NINE Seeing the Skeleton
CHAPTER TEN Coming to Terms
CHAPTER ELEVEN What's the Proposition and Why
CHAPTER TWELVE The Etiquette of Talking Back
CHAPTER THIRTEEN The Things the Reader Can Say
CHAPTER FOURTEEN And Still More Rules
PART III . THE REST OF THE READER'S LIFE
CHAPTER FIFTEEN The Other half
CHAPTER SIXTEEN The Great Books
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Free Minds and Free Men
APPENDIX:
