How to Read a Book
How to Read a Book was originally authored by Mortimer Adler. He co-authored a heavily revised edition with Charles Van Doren.
The book gives guidelines for critically reading the texts that comprise what the authors consider to be the Western canon, which they refer to as the “Great Books.”
Tips are given for approaching various genres: poetry, history, science, fiction, etc.
The book was a commercial success upon its initial publication in 1940.
The major revision, copyrighted in 1972, added the tips for approaching various genres and a whole new section on syntopical reading.
His basic advice on how to read a book
- Skim it first.
- Don’t get discouraged, and don’t stop, if you encounter a difficulty. Otherwise you may never return to the book.
External links
- reading list from How to Read a Book
- 1940 edition online Sans-serif typeface, OCR of original pages
- 1965 edition online Serif typeface, html formatted, with Great Books listing in appendix