How To Read A Book- A Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading - Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren [23]
Unfortunately, the rules for keeping awake do not consist in doing just the opposite. It is possible to keep awake while reading in a comfortable chair or even in bed, and people have been known to strain their eyes by reading late in light too dim. What kept the famous candlelight readers awake? One thing certainly-it made a difference to them, a great difference, whether or not they read the book they had in hand.
Whether you manage to keep awake or not depends in large part on your goal in reading. If your aim in reading is to profit from it-to grow somehow in mind or spirit-you have to keep awake. That means reading as actively as possible. It means making an effort-an effort for which you expect to be repaid.
Good books, fiction or nonfiction, deserve such reading.
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46 HOW TO READ A BOOK
To use a good book as a sedative is conspicuous waste. To fall asleep or, what is the same, to let your mind wander during the hours you planned to devote to reading for profit-that is, primarily for understanding-is clearly to defeat your own ends.
But the sad fact is that many people who can distinguish between profit and pleasure-between understanding, on the one hand, and entertainment or the mere satisfaction of curiosity, on the other hand-nevertheless fail to carry out their reading plans. They fail even if they know which books give which. The reason is that they do not know how to be demanding readers, how to keep their mind on what they are doing by making it do the work without which no profit can be earned.
The Essence of Active Reading:
The Fou r Basic Questions a Reader Asks
We have already discussed active reading extensively in this book. We have said that active reading is better reading, and we have noted that inspectional reading is always active.
It is an effortful, not an effortless, undertaking. But we have not yet gone to the heart of the matter by stating the one simple prescription for active reading. It is: Ask questions while you read-questions that you yourself must try to answer in the course of reading.
Any questions? No. The art of reading on any level above the elementary consists in the habit of asking the right questions in the right order. There are four main questions you must ask about any book. 0
1. WHAT IS THE BOOK ABOUT AS A WHOLE? You must try to discover the leading theme of the book, and how the author 0 These four questions, as stated, together with the discussion of them that follows, apply mainly to expository or nonfiction works. However, the questions, when adapted, apply to fiction and poetry as well. The adaptations required are discussed in Chapters 14 and 15.
How to Be a Demanding Reader 47
develops this theme in an orderly way by subdividing it into its essential subordinate themes or topics.
2. WHAT IS BEING SAID IN DETAIL, AND HOW? You must try to discover the main ideas, assertions, and arguments that constitute the author's particular message.
3. Is THE BOOK TRUE, IN WHOLE OR PART? You cannot answer this question until you have answered the first two. You have to know what is being said before you can decide whether it is true or not. When you understand a book, however, you are obligated, if you are reading seriously, to make up your own mind. Knowing the author's mind is not enough.
4. WHAT OF IT? If the book has given you information, you must ask about its significance. Why does the author think it is important to know these things? Is it important to you to know them? And if the book has not only informed you, but also enlightened you, it is necessary to seek further enlightenment by asking what else follows, what is further implied or suggested.
We will return to these four questions at length in the rest of this book. Stated another way, they become the basic rules of reading with which Part Two is mainly