Book Review - How to Read a Book

Reading is something many people find valuable, whether it be for recreation or education—most people in today's world know how to read. Loads of people are likely satisfied with their current reading abilities, and perhaps even more do not have any intention to increase the amount of reading nor the intensify the difficulty of the books that they choose to read. In fact, many people have the ability to read but simply choose to not exercise it. However, for those of us who enjoy reading and wish to improve our reading skills, I cannot recommend How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading highly enough.

The book was originally published in 1940, and the most recent edition was published (with updated and timely content) in 1972. It aims to provide a guide for comprehensive reading for the general reader—"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." (From the publisher's blurb.)

The authors, Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, introduce the concept of four levels of reading: elementary reading, inspectional reading, analytical reading, and syntopical reading. The levels are cumulative, which means that each gradation includes the techniques and skills of the lower levels.

Elementary reading is essentially the baseline ability to read that is taught at the pre-school/kindergarten, elementary and junior high school levels. These reading skills include reading readiness, word mastery, vocabulary growth and the utilization of context, and the ability to read almost anything (albeit in a relatively unsophisticated manner). This is the level of reading that perhaps the majority of the population has achieved. What is truly outstanding about reading is that once one has developed the elementary reading skills, she can teach herself to learn the skills involved with the higher levels of reading.

Inspectional reading involves two main concepts: systematic skimming or pre-reading, and superficial reading. Skimming or pre-reading involves looking at a book's title page, preface, table of contents, index, publisher's blurb, apparently-pivotal chapters, and true skimming of its content. Superficial reading is comprised of trudging through a book's content in its entirety for the first time, without ever stopping to look up or ponder the things that one does not understand right away. At this point in reading a book, one should start asking herself the four basic questions of reading:

1. What is the book about as a whole?

2. What is being said in detail, and how?

3. Is the book true, in whole or part?

4. What of it?

These questions are thoroughly fleshed out in the book, and I do not wish to focus too much on them in this review. It would be much better for you to check out this book for yourself, although I must warn you that to read it honestly is more like working through a workbook than an easy read. It takes a fair amount of effort on the part of the reader, but she is handsomely rewarded at the end of her journey.

Moving on, the book discusses note-taking techniques, which were very lacking in my own personal wheelhouse—it had been since my days at university that I regularly took notes in books, and even then, I didn't have an efficient education that demonstrated how to mark a book so that I would increase my level of understanding and retention. However, How to Read a Book certainly fills in where my formal education was lacking in this department. Even this brief section alone was worth reading the entire book, for me.

The next section of the book—the main bulk of it, in fact—covers the third level of reading: analytical reading. This part is incredibly valuable for readers wishing to improve their overall skill set, including full chapters on the following topics: pigeonholing a book, X-raying a book, coming to terms with an author, determining an author's message, criticizing a book fairly, agreeing or disagreeing with an author, and aids to reading. Again, I do not intend this review to fully explore the book's contents, and will leave it at that.

Following the section covering analytical reading, the authors explore another tangent: the various ways to approach different types of reading matter. From practical books to imaginative literature, history to science and mathematics, and a few more, this section adapts the four questions that must be asked when reading anything so that they are more applicable to specific types of reading. It was quite interesting for me to consider various types of books and reflect on my reading history and consider what I would truly like to spend my time reading in the future. The final chapter in this section discussed the reading of social science, which often requires reading multiple books about a topic. Because that is essentially the concept behind syntopical reading, it serves as a perfect segue into the next section of the book.

The final section of the book, "The Ultimate Goals of Reading", focuses on syntopical reading and the concept of reading and the growth of the mind. Syntopical reading is truly an interesting concept for me. It involves creating a tentative bibliography (generally including hundreds of books) of a central subject, quickly inspecting each book, re-inspecting all of the books that are specifically pertinent to the topic to identify the relevant passages within, creating a neutral terminology that can be used to discuss the opinions of multiple authors, establishing a set of neutral propositions by framing a set of questions to ask each author, defining the major and minor issues and assigning authors to the various sides of each issue, and providing an analysis of the discussion of the topic. This is a highly-advanced level of reading that one would embark on to do true work in a field, with the hope of providing an unheard analysis of a topic's discussion that many authors have participated in over time. It is possible that one's syntopical reading of a topic could culminate in a book that would push the discussion of a topic even further—in fact, this is indeed often the ultimate goal. The final chapter of the book offers a recap of the previous sections and discusses what good books can do for us, the various classes of books (with regard to what one can get out of reading and re-reading them), and the growth of the mind.

There are two appendices included, the first being an extremely valuable "Recommended Reading List". I must admit that this list makes my mouth salivate in anticipation of many more years of reading excellent books and the possibility of furthering my personal reading ability. The second appendix includes exercises and tests at the various four levels of reading. This is the one section of the book that I have yet to read—I may choose to explore these exercises in the future, although it will involve reading several other books from the aforementioned reading list, so it is likely to be a longterm project.

Overall, this is one of the best books I have read in the past several years. I am confident that the advice contained within it will help me improve my reading skills while simultaneously increasing the level of enjoyment that I get out of my reading practice. I must admit that when I first started reading the book, I was a bit disappointed that it is heavily biased toward non-fiction reading, when in the past I have reaped so much enjoyment from reading fiction. However, the skills that I have learned from How to Read a Book will only serve to improve my relation to non-fiction books, something that has been somewhat lacking for me previously. This is one book that I do plan on working with further in the future, whether it is simply picking it up from time to time to skim through the notes I took on its pages, choosing my next book from its impressive reading list, or working through the second appendix's reading exercises and tests. 

5/5 stars. 424 pages.

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Book Review - The Art of Communicating

Photograph taken by David Wilder.

Thich Nhat Hanh has written an excellent guide to understanding and practicing what he has dubbed The Art of Communicating. We all benefit from his effort, and I am grateful for the chance to give this a read.

The book begins by discussing the concept of absorbing thoughts, speech, and actions we produce ourselves in addition to karmic actions contained in the communications of those around us. Hanh moves on to address ways to effectively and honestly communicating with ourselves and others. His explanation of how the suffering of our parents and ancestors can be found within our own suffering helped me understand my own suffering as well as that of those who have come before me.

There is a concept discussed at length that essentially boils down to loving oneself in order to manifest compassion and happiness for others. It is nearly impossible to have true compassion for another when one does not truly love oneself. That is something that I have been working on for the past few decades and will continue to work on in the coming decades as well.

Hanh reminds us that when we greet another human being, it is helpful to remind ourselves that there is a Buddha inside them. As he says, "'The Buddha' is just a name for the most understanding and compassionate person it's possible to be. You may call it something else if you wish, like wisdom or God. We can breathe, smile, and walk in such a way that this person in us has a chance to manifest." I really enjoyed the wider passage that I plucked this quotation from—it reminds me that there are positive qualities inside of each and every one of us.

Deep listening and loving speech are also two concepts that I really enjoyed reading about, and hope to put into practice more and more as time goes on. Giving someone our full undivided attention while they are speaking is very powerful—when we listen with true compassion, we have the power to help the person suffer less. This book helped me see that I don't always practice this, and I would like to do it more often because my intention is to always help others and to never intentionally hurt others. Hanh lists and fully explains four elements of loving speech:

1. Tell the truth. Don't lie or turn the truth upside down.

2. Don't exaggerate.

3. Be consistent. This means no double-talk: speaking about something in one way to one person and in an opposite way to another for selfish or manipulative reasons.

4. Use peaceful language. Don't use insulting or violent words, cruel speech, verbal abuse, or condemnation.

In my opinion, those are very helpful reminders for us to continue to develop our practice of using loving speech when communicating with ourselves and others.

I think my favorite part of the book was the part that centered on the six mantras of loving speech. Without going into detail on what they are in this review, I will simply say that they seem extremely helpful in communicating with others about suffering that we all go experience from time to time. I have already started putting some of these mantras into practice, and have found them to be useful and helpful in my communication with others.

The book also covers the issues of communicating at work and in communities. One piece I took away from those sections was that it is beneficial to find time to be fully present and mindful with myself before getting into the car to drive to work, and certainly before walking into the door at my office!

I have greatly enjoyed reading Hanh's books over the past several years. He has so many that it is unlikely that I will read his entire body of work, but I have benefitted greatly from his contributions and have a few more picked out that I plan to read. If you have any suggestions of exceptional Thich Nhat Hanh books for me to read, please let me know!

4/5 stars. 166 pages.

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Disclaimer: Think Wilder is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website.

Book Review - The Stars My Destination

Photograph taken by David Wilder.

This classic science fiction novel was first introduced to me about ten years ago in a Sci-Fi Lit course that I took at my university. I barely remembered reading it as I was glancing at my bookshelves, and decided it would be worth picking up again for a re-read.

The Stars My Destination is a novel by Alfred Bester that was serialized in four parts in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine in 1956. The book was originally published in Britain with the title Tiger! Tiger!—after William Blake's poem The Tyger. In fact, the first verse of that poem is found on the first page of The Stars My Destination.

The novel is set in the 25th century, when a technology called "jaunting" is commonplace. Jaunting is essentially the ability to teleport from one place to another; there are various distances that one is able to jaunt, depending on his or her ability. The widespread adoption of jaunting has disrupted the social and economic balance of the universe, and the Inner Planets are at war with the Outer Satellites. The book's main character, Gulliver ("Gully") Foyle, starts out marooned in space after his ship was attacked and is the only crew member that survived. Another ship passes him by, ignoring his requests for help. From that point forward, Gully begins an obsessive revenge quest with the goal of finding and destroying the person aboard the ship that gave the order to abandon him in space.

Overall, the book is an enjoyable read, although certainly not one of my favorite pieces of science fiction literature. The writing, even though it's only about 60 years old, still seems like older science fiction, which I find simultaneously endearing and yet difficult to read. I realize that this is a classic science fiction novel and attempted to treat it as such, but I wouldn't rank it up there with the works of Philip K Dick, William Gibson, or Neal Stephenson. I do, however, plan to eventually read one of Bester's other highly-acclaimed works, The Demolished Man. If you're interested in classic science fiction, give this one a shot!

3/5 Stars. 258 pages.

Book Review - The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

This book had been on my bookshelves for several years prior to my picking it up a few days ago. I'm not quite sure how it arrived there, although I think I may have acquired it for free at a book giveaway at my alma mater's library. To be completely transparent, I was simply looking for a quick book to read and noticed that this one was short and appeared relatively interesting, so I grabbed it and flipped through it to find out it was actually a short play, and also found the text to be quite spaced out on the page—two things that encouraged my reading of it.

A bit of brief history: The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds had its world premier in the theatre in 1964 and was published in book form in 1970. It was later adapted for the screen in 1972. Its author is Paul Zindel, a playwright and science teacher from Staten Island, New York.

The plot centers around a dysfunctional family: a widow named Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her two daughters, Matilda ("Tillie") and Ruth. Throughout the play, the introverted-yet-highly-intelligent child Tillie prepares an experiment for her school's science fair involving marigolds raised from seeds exposed to varying degrees of radioactivity. However, her self-centered and abusive mother, Beatrice, continuously attempts to halt Tillie's progress due to her own self-loathing and overall abusive nature toward her children. The other daughter, Ruth, is more extroverted than Tillie but considerably mentally unstable. As the play develops, Tillie wins the science fair through perseverance, Ruth repeatedly attempts to stand up to her mother but experiences several nervous breakdowns, and Beatrice is eventually driven insane and commits several violent acts toward her family and local community. However, despite it all, Tillie continues to believe that everyone is truly valuable.

I greatly enjoyed this play—even though I don't have much experience reading plays. The story is much more character-driven than plot driven, as there isn't a whole lot going on plot-wise, but the characters are fascinating to observe. Watching Beatrice treat her daughters with such vitriol and warden-like control is difficult but it makes for an intriguing book that is difficult to put down. Zindel does an excellent job of keeping the reader in the dark about many of the plot points and character reveals, waiting until the right moment to present new information that will help to understand what is going on in the family's overall dynamic. Even though I don't typically go to the theatre, I would certainly consider seeing this play performed live, and I highly recommend giving it a read if you get a chance, as I was pleasantly surprised.

4/5 stars. 109 pages.

Book Review - The Genesis Generation

Photograph taken by David Wilder.

Lorenzo Hagerty, host of the inimitable Psychedelic Salon podcast for nearly the past ten years, first released The Genesis Generation: A Psychedelic Novel in audiobook format in 2010, and I remember listening to it and enjoying the story as well as the psychedelic ideas that are weaved throughout. He recently released the print version of the book and I sat down to read it over the course of the past couple of weeks.

The book follows the main protagonist, a character named "William", through a transitionary period in his life where he goes from being a corporate stooge working at a large technology company to becoming deeply ingrained in the underground worldwide psychedelic community. Along the way he meets many challenges and has a plethora of eye-opening experiences. I believe Will's story is loosely based on Lorenzo's own life, although Lorenzo appears as a separate character in the novel a few times.

There are several main characters involved in the story, some of whom have real-life counterparts in the actual psychedelic community. This book has the same feel as Alexander and Ann Shulgin's PiHKAL and TiHKAL books, which weave bits of fiction with a mainly-nonfiction story as both a narrative device and to protect those involved.

I enjoyed this book immensely, although I feel as if I cannot give it five stars because of the poor editing throughout the book. I would recommend it to anyone who already listens to Psychedelic Salon podcast or is interested in psychedelics, with the caveat that it isn't a perfect book. However, it is a fairly quick read and should definitely be considered on any psychonaut's bookshelf.

4/5 stars. 398 pages.