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Genre/Form: | Electronic books |
---|---|
Material Type: | Document, Internet resource |
Document Type: | Internet Resource, Computer File |
All Authors / Contributors: |
Mortimer Jerome Adler; Charles Van Doren |
ISBN: | 9781439144831 1439144834 |
OCLC Number: | 893149040 |
Notes: | Title from resource description page (Recorded Books, viewed October 13, 2014). |
Description: | 1 online resource |
Contents: | Part one. The dimensions of reading. The activity and art of reading -- The levels of reading -- The first level of reading: elementary reading -- The second level of reading: inspectional reading -- How to be a demanding reader -- Part two. The third level of reading: analytical reading. Pigeonholing a book -- X-raying a book -- Coming to terms with an author -- Determining an author's message -- Criticizing a book fairly -- Agreeing or disagreeing with an author -- Aids to reading -- Part three. Approaches to different kinds of reading matter. How to read practical books -- How to read imaginative literature -- Suggestions for reading stories, plays, and poems -- How to read history -- How to read science and mathematics -- How to read philosophy -- How to read social science -- Part four. The ultimate goals of reading. The fourth level of reading: syntopical reading -- Reading and the growth of the mind. |
Responsibility: | Mortimer J. Adler and Charles van Doren. |
Abstract:
With half a million copies in print, How to Read a Book is the best and most successful guide to reading comprehension for the general reader, completely rewritten and updated with new material. Originally published in 1940, this book is a rare phenomenon, a living classic that introduces and elucidates the various levels of reading and how to achieve them'from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading. Readers will learn when and how to "judge a book by its cover," and also how to X-ray it, read critically, and extract the author's message from the text. Also included is instruction in the different techniques that work best for reading particular genres, such as practical books, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy and social science works. Finally, the authors offer a recommended reading list and supply reading tests you can use measure your own progress in reading skills, comprehension, and speed.
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Publisher Synopsis
"'There is the book; and here is your mind.' Adler and Van Doren's suggestions on how to connect the two will make you nostalgic for a slower, more earnest, less trivial time." -- Anne Fadiman "It shows concretely how the serious work of proper reading may be accomplished and how much it may yield in the way of instruction and delight." * The New Yorker * "These four hundred pages are packed full of high matters which no one solicitous of the future of American culture can afford to overlook." -- Jacques Barzun Read more...
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