Mortimer Adler on Understanding What You Read
One of our goals when reading is to find and elucidate the key sentences in a book. Independent of whether we agree with these key sentences, we first need to digest them — to capture the …
Mortimer Adler
Reading a Book is a Conversation Between You and the Author
Marginalia—those tiny notes in the side margins of a book—is a contentious subject. Some people view this as a necessary part of the reading process. Others view it as sacrilege. This beautiful …
The Necessity of Marginalia
Francis Bacon once remarked, “some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” Reading and writing often go hand in hand. Reading is not a passive skill …
The Top 3 Most Effective Ways to Take Notes While Reading
There are three steps to effectively taking notes while reading: At the end of each chapter write a few bullet points that summarize what you’ve read and make it personal if you can — …
The Art of Reading: Analytical Reading
Analytical reading is the fourth part in my series on ways to improve our reading skills. The first rule of analytical reading is that you must know what kind of book you are reading. Are you reading …
The Art of Reading: How to be a Demanding Reader
In order to improve our reading, we need to learn to ask the right questions in the right order. Don’t forget, reading a book, for any reason other than entertainment, is essentially an effort …
“Speed Reading” That Works: How to Intelligently Skim a Book
This article is part of our series on how to read a book. The second level of reading concerns inspectional reading, a concept from The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer Adler. …
The Four Levels of Reading: Improve Skills One Level At A Time
One of the secrets to acquiring knowledge is to read. A lot. My Hero, Charlie Munger, said it best “In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t …
The Buffett Formula: Going to Bed Smarter Than When You Woke Up
Most people go through life not really getting any smarter. Why? They simply won’t do the work required. It’s easy to come home, sit on the couch, watch TV, and zone out until bedtime …