[uploads from faerybell] Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren-How to Read a Book-Touchstone (1972).epub

How to Read a Book, originally published in 1940, has become a rare phenomenon, a living classic. It is the best and most successful guide to reading comprehension for the general reader. And now it has been completely rewritten and updated.
You are told about the various levels of reading and how to achieve them – from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading, you learn how to pigeonhole a book, X-ray it, extract the author's message, criticize. You are taught the different reading techniques for reading practical books, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy and social science.

Finally, the authors offer a recommended reading list and supply reading tests whereby you can measure your own progress in reading skills, comprehension and speed.

Hmm, now this book has been one of my guides all these years. I'm been fortunate in case of books, not so fortunate in case of teachers. I have to teach myself from good books. Anyway, as an undergraduate student of literature and humanities I got a solid primer in the art of reading frtom this book. The academic environment in universities today has progressed far and now this book seems ancient advice to many. But I still reread it often.