38 pages • 1-hour read
How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading
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Essay Topics
List Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren’s reasons for revising the first edition of How to Read a Book (published in 1940) in 1972. Do you agree or disagree with these changes?
Explain Adler and Van Doren’s use of analogies in Chapter 1 and Chapter 7. Aside from practical expository books, which types of books make effective use of analogies, and why?
What purpose does systematic skimming serve in the second level of reading, inspectional reading?
Explain what Adler and Van Doren mean by “making a book your own” (48).
Explain the difference between practical and theoretical expository books.
Explain what “coming to terms with an author” means in the second stage of analytical reading (first mentioned in Chapter 8).
Why is it necessary for a reader to understand an author and their book’s subject matter before agreeing, disagreeing, or suspending judgement?
Compare and contrast intrinsic reading and extrinsic reading.
Explain why the fourth level of reading, syntopical reading, might also be termed “comparative reading.”
Adler and Van Doren argue that “in syntopical reading, it is you and your concerns that are primarily to be served, not the books that you read” (308). Explain how this mindset differs from analytical reading.
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