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How to Read a Book (A Touchstone Book) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren
Publisher: Touchstone
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy Used: $3.97
You Save: $12.03 (75%)
New (37) Used (83) Collectible (1) from $3.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  103 reviews
Sales Rank: 1174
Media: Paperback
Edition: Revised
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 426
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 0671212095
Dewey Decimal Number: 028
EAN: 9780671212094
ASIN: 0671212095
Publication Date: August 15, 1972
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Good softcover book; light wear to cover and book edges; pages show light reader wear.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 98 more reviews...
 Must Read! August 26, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book has greatly helped me. I think this should be required reading in any school, be it home or public. I will certainly have my new born read it (well, once she is old enough). Now I have so many more tools available to me while reading. You will not read the same after reading this book. If you apply this book your skill will greatly increase. It has help me love to read!
Daniel Fuller, John Piper's hermeneutics teacher uses this book for his class. He doesn't believe in special hermeneutics but general hermeneutics. You can learn more here: http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/ConferenceMessages/ByDate/1994/ and http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Articles/ByDate/2006/1625_Where_can_I_learn_more_about_the_Bible_study_method_called_arcing/
 How to Read a Book July 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A great book on a seemingly obvious subject. Very insightful and a must for any begining researcher.
 Useful, but much longer than necessary May 24, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a review of "How to read a book" by Adler (May 2008).
This book was recommended to me by several authors I liked so aftr reading the positive reviews I decided to buy it. I can see that some see this book as 'timeless' and I think that is true, but I have also some criticism.
Pros:
- I see the main value of the book in teaching you the ability to structure your reading process/effort so that you get maximum value out of reading any book. For experienced readers (age 35+) this may be already a kind of automatism, but for less experienced (either in terms of #years or in terms of type of topic) this is probably not the case.
- I liked in particular the fact that the author not only discusses how to read book with emphasis on analytic content (rational / scientific / factual type of books), but also other kinds of literature.
Cons:
- The book is way too long. The author takes many pages to make a point that can also be done in 30% of the space. Fortunately, the author provides summaries of his 'rules' and tips. Nevertheless, an author who writes about how to efficiently read a book, should be brief himself! Just as you may expect from a dedicated reader that he reads efficiently, you may expect from a good writer he thinks through how to make a point, and be brief in the end, not forcing a reader to read many superfluous pages. Adler failed here. This makes me downgrade my rating.
Bottom line: If possible get it from a library; I would not recommend buying this book if you are in the second half of your 'reading life'.
 rip-off May 20, 2008
5 out of 51 found this review helpful
i bought this book to learn how to read, but then i found out i couldn't read it. :(
Good, but fairly obvious. April 5, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
nothing in this book is revolutionary. these are things any reader already knows and does, things that one had to learn to get through college. If you have a thirteen or fourteen year old definitely make him or her read it. The last section is sort of a plug for a different work by the author, which doesn't make it bad, just approach it with the necessary skepticism. On the whole a good and interesting read. The list of books at the end is mostly crap. There is a difference between being educated and well rounded and a crusty old lit snob. one could waste an awful chunk of ones life reading dusty old greeks or Proust instead of Beard of Lewis or Vonnegut. Update it yourself and don't tread it as a holy document, (which is pretty much how it was represented to me) and remember that its probably just articulating better than you could things you already know.
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