Much like having a conversation with an author, Adler and Van Doren contend that you need to give the author the chance to express herself fully before passing judgment.
Therefore, you must finish the other tasks above outlining the book, defining main terms, understanding the main arguments before criticizing. This is the essence of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Remember that disagreement is an opportunity to learn something new. Here are some tips for keeping an open mind:. In that situation, it may help to think of yourself as entering into a difficult conversation with the author. Remember that our individual experiences shape how we see the world.
The first three levels of reading all focus on reading a singular text. Comparative reading aims to compare books and authors to one another, to model dialogues between authors that may not be in any one of the books. Reading literature with an intertextual lens is similar to reading expository books comparatively. The ultimate aim is to understand all the conflicting viewpoints relating to a subject.
Here are the major steps of comparative reading according to the authors. Shortform note: Adler and Van Doren list these as a set of five steps, each containing many sub-steps. See our full guide for specific tips on reading books in various genres, like fiction, science, and philosophy. Inspect all of the books on your bibliography to decide which are relevant to your subject, and to better define the subject. Shortform note: Including fiction in a comparative project is complicated indeed, but may still be valuable.
In academic settings, literature reviews are a common undertaking. Literature reviews are similar to comparative reading projects in that the goal is to gain a wide understanding of what other thinkers have to say about a certain subject. For example:. Define your inclusion criteria.
Literature reviews have strict inclusion criteria to help determine which sources to use. For example, many literature reviews only pull sources from academic journals, not popular press books or even textbooks.
If you need to narrow down your comparative reading bibliography, you might set similar parameters on the types of sources you want to use. This will help you keep all your information in one place as you work through your bibliography.
You can even color code authors who are in favor of a certain issue or against it. Analyze the quality of your source. For scientific topics, researchers can do this mathematically by analyzing effect size and statistical significance. For qualitative topics, you might do this by researching the author.
What is their experience in this subject? For translated texts, you might also research the translator and the history of translation for that specific text. Are there any passages that different translators have approached differently? Unlock the full book summary of How to Read a Book by signing up for Shortform.
Adler was the sole author of the first edition. In the preface to this edition of How to Read a Book , Adler described the changes he observed One way that adults revisit the basics of reading is through speed reading courses, which purport to teach them how to increase their reading speeds without sacrificing comprehension.
To practice this, the authors recommend this exercise: Use your hand to cover the text, and move your hand downward faster than you can currently read. Your brain will be forced to catch up. However, after a point, reading faster necessarily trades off with comprehension. More critical than speed reading, according to the authors, is being able to modulate your reading speed dynamically.
Read certain types of texts like fiction faster than others that contain denser content, like science textbooks. Within a text, read key points more slowly than fluff to give yourself This is the best summary of How to Read a Book I've ever read.
I learned all the main points in just 20 minutes. This requires finding out what problems the author is trying to solve and what questions the book tries to answer. According to the authors, different categories of books have different typical questions they try to answer. This gives rise to another question to ask as you read: How is the author trying to impact your emotions through her language? This may be helpful to note because [authors who use more emotive language may be trying to subtly Inspect all of the books on your bibliography to decide which are relevant to your subject and to better define the subject.
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