How to Read a Book Book Summary (PDF) by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles van Doren

Note: This post contains affiliate links which means if you click on a link and purchase an item, we will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you.

Ready to learn the most important takeaways from How to Read a Book in less than two minutes? Keep reading!

Why This Book Matters:

How to Read a Book breaks down the methods one can use to read a book more efficiently.

The Big Takeaways:

  1. Learning a certain few tips and tricks for reading can help you absorb more knowledge from books.
    1. If When we aren’t reading for fun, we must admit that reading is not a passive task.
  2. To understand a book, we must understand the words in the book.
    1. If we can’t determine what words or sentences are trying to say to us, we can’t gain anything from reading the book.
  3. To gain information more efficiently, first look through the text to see if reading it would be beneficial to learn what you need to know.
    1. Figure out the general gist of a book before you commit to reading it.
  4. The first step to picking apart a text is figuring out the reason the book exists.
    1. In analyzation, you must first know what a text is trying to convey.
  5. Know the writer.
    1. The author had a purpose for writing the book, and the way they wrote the book was intentional.

Want To Keep Reading?

  1. Read A Longer Form Summary on Blinkist
  2. Buy The Book on Amazon
  3. Listen To The Audiobook

Watch A Video Summary:

Additional Video From The Author:

image_pdf
I started Two Minute Books to help people improve their lives and their businesses or careers. My work has been featured by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the U.S. & U.K. Governments. You can read my writing about digital nomading & life improvement at FreedomIsEverything.com.