# How to Read a Book ## Source Information - Author: [[Charles Van Doren, Mortimer J. Adler]] - Full Title: How to Read a Book - Category: #source/books ## Highlights synced on 2024-01-10 > As Pascal observed three hundred years ago, “When we read too fast or too slowly, we understand nothing.” ([Location 25](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=25)) > We do not have to know everything about something in order to understand it; too many facts are often as much of an obstacle to understanding as too few. ([Location 88](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=88)) > Thus we can roughly define what we mean by the art of reading as follows: the process whereby a mind, with nothing to operate on but the symbols of the readable matter, and with no help from outside,I elevates itself by the power of its own operations. The mind passes from understanding less to understanding more. The skilled operations that cause this to happen are the various acts that constitute the art of reading. ([Location 146](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=146)) > Knowing what the four questions are is not enough. You must remember to ask them as you read. The habit of doing that is the mark of a demanding reader. More than that, you must know how to answer them precisely and accurately. The trained ability to do that is the art of reading. ([Location 690](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=690)) > The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks. ([Location 707](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=707)) > But in order to forget them as separate acts, you have to learn them first as separate acts. ([Location 786](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=786)) > The first rule of analytical reading can be expressed as follows: RULE 1. YOU MUST KNOW WHAT KIND OF BOOK YOU ARE READING, AND YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS AS EARLY IN THE PROCESS AS POSSIBLE, PREFERABLY BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO READ. ([Location 824](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=824)) > The author made his in order to write a good book. You must make yours in order to read it well. ([Location 1257](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1257)) > That is, it is not necessary to read a book through in order to apply the first four rules, then to read it again and again in order to apply the other rules. The practiced reader accomplishes all of these stages at once. ([Location 1341](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1341)) > The activity of reading does not stop with the work of understanding what a book says. It must be completed by the work of criticism, the work of judging. ([Location 1964](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1964)) > The most teachable reader is, therefore, the most critical. ([Location 1985](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=1985)) > To regard anyone except yourself as responsible for your judgment is to be a slave, not a free man. ([Location 2002](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2002)) > disagreement is futile agitation unless it is undertaken with the hope that it may lead to the resolution of an issue. ([Location 2094](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=2094))