How to Read a Book by Charles Van Doren & Mortimer J. Adler [Actionable Summary]

The Book In Three Or More Sentences:

As strange as it might sound, the book How to Read a Book was an immediate best-seller when it was published in 1940. Charles Van Doren and Mortimer J. Adler noticed that the act of reading, while on the surface might seem apparent, was not executed properly by the majority of the population which led to the creation of this manuscript. This book is a practical guide. By listing the four levels of reading, and explaining how we should read different kinds of literature, the authors want to upgrade our reading skills plus show us how to gain the most out of any text.

The Core Idea:

Though flipping through pages and reading words printed on them might seem like a no-brainer, if you want to understand what’s the whole point of the text you’re holding, you need to do some work. To gain most of any book, to become a competent reader, you should ask questions and actively answer them while going through the text. Or in other words, reading is not a passive skill. It’s an active activity that when done properly will increase your understanding of the subject at hand.

5 Key Lessons from How to Read a Book:

Lesson #1: Mass Media is The Main Rival of Reading and Thinking

Why a book about reading should exist?

This question was immediately morphed in my brain when I first found out about this piece.

“Isn’t it obvious?” I thought. “After all, all you need to do is read the words printed on a page?”

Luckily, my questions were quickly answered when I immersed myself in the text.

Charles Van Doren and Mortimer J. Adler start the book by laying down the two main problems they believe are preventing people from reading and from thinking about what they read. Making the need for their work evident.

Here are the two major problems leading to the creation of this book:

First, the increasing trend that literature is no longer necessary. The popularity of radio and television and their ability to quickly transmit information across sadly convinced a lot of people that the act of reading is no longer required if they want to learn new things.

The second major problem that’s responsible for the decline of book lovers, and people who actually get the text they read, is again related to mass media. By consuming media and news, you are sold the idea that thinking about what you consume in unnecessary.

The sexy packaging and the selected scenes convince people that this information is true and that further considering the problem is unrequired. Therefore, people stopped thinking about what they intake and rather insert the prepackaged opinion by the mass media in their heads.

The outcome?

Brainwashed unengaged viewers who refrain from using their thinking skills.

The viewer of television, the listener to radio, the reader of magazines, is presented with a whole complex of elements—all the way from ingenious rhetoric to carefully selected data and statistics—to make it easy for him to “make up his own mind” with the minimum of difficulty and effort. But the packaging is often done so effectively that the viewer, listener, or reader does not make up his own mind at all. Instead, he inserts a packaged opinion into his mind, somewhat like inserting a cassette into a cassette player. He then pushes a button and “plays back” the opinion whenever it seems appropriate to do so. He has performed acceptably without having had to think.” Charles Van Doren & Mortimer J. Adler