How to Read
a Hard Book
by Mortimer J. Adler
I
find that more and more people have an urge to pry
into such difficult subjects as science, philosophy,
religion, economics and political theory. One clear
sign of this is the widespread circulation of the
serious books that are now found everywhere in paper-back
editions. Decidedly, people want to go further and
deeper in their thinking about many things which we
used to feel were the monopoly of specialists and
scholars.
More
often than not, however, this urge soon dries up.
People find that the book which they open with high
hopes of enlightenment turns out to be beyond their
grasp. They think that the subject must require more
background than they have, and they quit.
Actually,
any book intended for the general reader can be understood
if you approach it in the right way. What is the right
approach? The answer lies in one important-and paradoxical-rule
of reading. You should read a book through superficially
before you try to master it.
Most
of us were taught in school to go to a dictionary
when we met an unfamiliar word. We were told to consult
an encyclopedia, scholarly commentaries or other secondary
sources to get help with statements we couldn't understand.
The rule to follow on tackling a difficult book calls
for exactly the opposite procedure.
Look
first for the things you can understand, and refuse
to get bogged down in the difficult passages. Read
right on past paragraphs, footnotes, arguments and
references that escape you. There will be enough material
which you can immediately grasp, and soon it will
add up to a substantial foothold from which to climb
further. The amount you understand by a quick reading-even
if it is only 50 percent or less-will help you to
carry some light back to the places which left you
in the dark.
The
tremendous pleasure that comes from reading Shakespeare
was spoiled for generations of high school students
who were forced to go through Julius Caesar, Hamlet
or Macbeth scene by scene, to look up all the new
words and to study all the scholarly footnotes. As
a result, they never really read the play. By the
time they got to the end they had forgotten the beginning
and lost sight of the whole. Instead of being forced
to take this pedantic approach, they should have been
encouraged to read the play in one sitting and discuss
what they got out of that first quick reading. Then
they would have been ready to study the play carefully,
for they would have understood enough of it to be
able to learn more.
The
best proof of the soundness of this rule-give a book
a first superficial reading-is what happens when you
don't follow it. Take a basic work in economics such
as Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations. If you insist
on understanding everything on one page before you
go on to the next you won't get very far. In your
effort to master the fine points, you will miss the
big points that Smith so clearly makes-about the role
of the market in determining prices, the evils of
monopoly, the reasons for free trade.
What
is true of The Wealth of Nations in the field of economics
is equally true of J. S. Mill's Representative Government
in the field of political theory. These books are
open to the layman if he approaches them in the right
way; so also are a host of other books. In religion,
the writings of Martin Buber, Reinhold Niebuhr and
Paul Tillich; in philosophy and psychology, the writings
of William James, Segundo Freud, John Dewey, Bert
rand Russell; in science, the works of Galileo, Newton,
Darwin, Einstein. The writings of such specialists
are probably not completely understandable by the
layman, nor need they be. It is a considerable achievement
if we can grasp. The essential part of what these
great men are saying, about their principles, their
methods and their aims.
In
addition, it is well to remember that books can be
not only good friends, but also passing acquaintances.
Some of them can tell us what we want to know-or all
they have to tell-from a brief chat, if we use them
properly.
A
variation on the method of giving a book a first superficial
reading is the technique of skimming. You will never
get from skimming what reading and study can give
you, but it is a very practical way of dealing with
the mass of books available to you. By skimming you
can get, often with surprising accuracy, a general
sense of the contents of a book. This enables you
to file the book away in your mental index so that,
should occasion arise in the future, you can go back
to it, dig it up and dig deeper.
Giving
a book a quick once-over is also a threshing process
that allows you to separate the chaff from the real
kernels of nourishment. You may discover that what
you get from the skimming is all the book is worth
to you for the time being. It may never be worth more.
But you will then at least know what the author's
leading contention is, so the time you spent with
the book will not have been wasted.
For
skimming or reading, the following steps are a good
way to begin giving a book the once-over:
Now
you are ready to read the book or skim through it,
as you choose. If you vote to skim it, look at the
chapters which contain pivotal passages or summary
statements in their opening or closing pages. Then
dip into a page here and there, reading a paragraph
or two, sometimes several pages in sequence. Thumb
through the book in this way, always looking for the
basic pulse beat of the matter.
All
this will add to your alertness while you read. How
many times have you daydreamed through pages only
to wake up to find that you have no idea of the ground
you've been over? That cannot happen if you have a
system for following a general thread.
One
word of warning: if you use this approach and start
to skim through a book, you may end up discovering
that you aren't skimming it at all. You are reading
it, understanding it and enjoying it. When you put
the book down it will be with the realization that
the subject wasn't such a tough one after all!
