I just finished How to Read a Book. This is a classic and I don't feel like really getting into my thoughts about it but I will say that either Adler and Van Doren think everyone reading this book is very dim or they just are that verbose. Here are some of my favorite sections though:
A house is more or less livable, so books are more or less readable. The most readable book is an architectural achievement on the part of the author.
Strangely enough, in recent years,...there is a dwindling concern with this criterion of excellence. Books win the plaudits of the critics and gain widespread popular attention almost to the extent that they flout the truth- the more they do so, the better. Many readers, and most particularly those who review current publications, employ other standards for judging, and praising or condemning, the books they read- their novelty, their sensationalism, their seductiveness, their force, and even their power to bemuse or befuddle the mind, but not their truth, their clarity, or their power to enlighten.
Not only are many of the great books related, but also they were written in a certain order that should not be ignored. A later writer has been influenced by an earlier one. If you read the earlier writer first, he may help you to understand the later. Reading related books in relation to one another and in an order that renders the later ones more intelligible is a basic common-sense maxim of extrinsic reading.
It has often been observed that the great books are involved in a prolonged conversation. The great authors were great readers, and one way to understand them is to read the books they read. As readers, they carried on a conversation with other authors, just as each of us carries on a conversation with the books we read, though we may not write other books.
...novels and plays can be read in isolation... although of course the literary critic will not want to confine himself to doing so. (which I note most book bloggers are doing.)
...Activity is the essence of good reading, and that the more active reading is, the better it is.
We have made this point before, but we want to make it now again because of its relevance to the task that lies before you. If you are reading in order to become a better reader, you cannot read just any book or article. You will not improve as a reader if all you read are books that are well within your capacity. You must tackle books that are beyond you, or, as we have said, books that are over your head. Only books of that sort will make you stretch your mind. And unless you stretch, you will not learn.
A house is more or less livable, so books are more or less readable. The most readable book is an architectural achievement on the part of the author.
Strangely enough, in recent years,...there is a dwindling concern with this criterion of excellence. Books win the plaudits of the critics and gain widespread popular attention almost to the extent that they flout the truth- the more they do so, the better. Many readers, and most particularly those who review current publications, employ other standards for judging, and praising or condemning, the books they read- their novelty, their sensationalism, their seductiveness, their force, and even their power to bemuse or befuddle the mind, but not their truth, their clarity, or their power to enlighten.
Not only are many of the great books related, but also they were written in a certain order that should not be ignored. A later writer has been influenced by an earlier one. If you read the earlier writer first, he may help you to understand the later. Reading related books in relation to one another and in an order that renders the later ones more intelligible is a basic common-sense maxim of extrinsic reading.
It has often been observed that the great books are involved in a prolonged conversation. The great authors were great readers, and one way to understand them is to read the books they read. As readers, they carried on a conversation with other authors, just as each of us carries on a conversation with the books we read, though we may not write other books.
...novels and plays can be read in isolation... although of course the literary critic will not want to confine himself to doing so. (which I note most book bloggers are doing.)
...Activity is the essence of good reading, and that the more active reading is, the better it is.
We have made this point before, but we want to make it now again because of its relevance to the task that lies before you. If you are reading in order to become a better reader, you cannot read just any book or article. You will not improve as a reader if all you read are books that are well within your capacity. You must tackle books that are beyond you, or, as we have said, books that are over your head. Only books of that sort will make you stretch your mind. And unless you stretch, you will not learn.
It's a good book. I read it earlier this year. It encouraged me to mark-up my books a lot more, and introduced me to the concept of 'synoptical' reading. I also was impressed by Adler's "Recommended Reading List" in the appendix of the book. A kind of "best of" the Great Books of the West.
Yes, there certainly are some wonderful suggestions and its worth the read. I just felt that it could be more concise.