How to Read a Book

Not sure how I feel about this book. A bit pretentious... like reading a grandiose description of how to tie a shoe.

What I got out of it:
- Skim books before reading.
- Ask questions as you read.

Appendices:
- List of recommended reading.
- Exercises to test reading levels.

Time will tell if the 15 rules for analytical reading actually improve comprehension of the content I shovel into my eyeballs.

This book is very long and very dense, but I'm inclined to say that it should become a text book for middle schoolers who are learning how to do research and write papers on what they learn.

I discovered that there's a lot here that I learned to do haphazardly and instinctively, but it would have been helpful in school to have more of a method to the approach.

There are useful insights in this book but it's far too stodgy to recommend. The misogyny of the 1940s really shows, as the only pronouns used in the book are he/him, and the recommended reading list of 137 authors contains only two (!) women – one of whom was George Eliot.

I could see this being more useful, widely read, and appreciated if it were updated for modern audiences. Alder and Van Doren and both dead now, so I'm sure they wouldn't mind shaving off 100+ pages of repetitiveness and overwrought explanations. In the spirit of syntopical reading, I look forward to reading an alternative.