The authors give us a few rules or practices to learn that will help the reader move from inspectional reading into analytical reading. The tools that he gives are ones that have not been taught early on in school so they may seem a bit odd or out of place at first. The authors assure us that with practice it becomes much more comfortable. First, it is important to ask what the authors would call the four basic questions. These questions are as follows: What is the book about as a whole? What is being said in detail and how? Is the book true, in whole or part? and lastly, what of it? These are explained further in section two. Adler and Doren also give us some ways to “make the book your own.” Here they talk about how to mark up the book to be able to reference certain points or topics for later analysis. They also mention how this will keep the reader awake because the reader must be actively reading in order to do this correctly. Some examples of marking up the book would be underlining, stars or asterisk, numbers in the margin, and circling words or phrases. This chapter concludes by explaining that this will become a habit when you make it your own. They tell the reader that reading is like skiing, and that with more practice, the better one becomes.
Most of the remaining book deals with how to take the appropriate steps in moving from reading at the second step to reading more analytically. The questions previously proposed are further answered. The first step in analytical reading is to know what kind of book is being read. Is it a novel? Is it historical? Is it science? Sometimes it’s obvious and sometimes it isn’t. Before starting it is a good idea to at least have some idea of the content, by reading the title, the back cover or maybe reading through it a little.
The next step is to figure out what the book is saying and how it is saying it. This can be done by using one of the rules already discussed, by taking notes on the chapters. Once the notes are assembled, it is easer to see the basic structure of what is being said. Consider the main idea of every piece of the book and the reader will eventually get to what the book is all about.
Understanding where the author is coming from is the next point Adler and Doren stress. It is important to figure out the mindset or the passion the book was written out of to fully grasp the viewpoint of the author. Once this is done it easer to understand the tone of the writing better.
This leads to the next step, the message. It is important to understand the authors take on the subject he is writing. Adler and Doren give some questions to ask when looking at what the message is. These questions are as follows: is there any sarcasm concerning any of the points being made? How does the author feel towards the writing positive or negative? The answer to these questions can influence the reader to one side or the other. It is important to understand this in order to get a clear and neutral idea of what the message is.
Criticizing a book fairly is the next area the authors talk about to help readers learn to read more analytically. Adler and Doren stress the importance of understanding a book well before criticizing it, and having a reason for it. This is so there can be resolution for the reader. This ties in well with the next chapter about agreeing or disagreeing. It is important to explain why one agrees or not and all of the ammunition used to support this must come from within the book being read. Their point here is that for there to be any validity in the disagreement outside sources should not be used.
When reading, one will probably come across words and ideas that he dose not know or understand, but encouragement is giver to stop and research it. In the last chapter of this section, tools are given to use in research and details on how to use them. Adler and Doren show how to use commentaries, abstracts, reference books, dictionary, and encyclopedias to help understand the author’s intended use of a word or idea. They instruct that one doesn’t need to have a full understanding of a topic in order to continue with the book. However, it is important to have enough of an understanding so that the meaning of the word or the idea is relevant.
Next, Adler and Doren take the principles of analytical reading just covered, and applied them to several different types of reading material. They cover in many short chapters how to read practical books, imaginative literature, poems, plays, history, science and mathematical books, philosophy, and books on social sciences.
Throughout the book, the authors have been preparing the reader for synoptical reading. Synoptical reading is analyzing several books concerning one topic. The authors talk about using inspection reading, again skimming and pre reading, in order to make sure that the books chosen are focused well on the topic. Once the books are together they suggest reading them to get any different ideas on the topic. After reading them, the goal is to come up with a personal idea of the topic that is not specifically stated in any one work. Doing this well is the ultimate goal in the quest for becoming a better reader. This is the pinnacle of reading to educate one self. The authors say over and over in the book that reading is learned and that the levels mentioned build upon each other and are inclusive not exclusive in nature. The end result is Synoptical reading.
I have found this book to be helpful, educational and very complete in its content. I had never thought of myself as a good reader, so it was refreshing to read a book that challenges and teaches its readers to read well. I also found it interesting that some of the tools that they go over when they discuss reading analytically I do. I like to underline or write in the margins, but never really new how to use that practice for its full potential. I like to think after reading this book I do. I also look forward to using the skills taught within this book in my word study. To understand this book well one might have to read it twice. Once to get the information, and twice to apply it to the book itself in order to really get a good working knowledge of the content. What at first seemed like a long dry book, turned out to be well worth the read.
