/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.18652801]

>start reading pic related
>author is explicit that not every book is worth a full read
>you must decide if a book is worth your time or not
>stop reading
You played yourself Mortimer.

[Anonymous No.18652807]

reading a book about reading a book

sounds so boring

[Anonymous No.18652810]

>>18652801
>Pick up How to Read a Book, a book
>remember you can't read
>put down book
Had a similar experience.

[Anonymous No.18652850]

>>18652807
The author is so verbose, it makes me ill. GET TO THE POINT ADLER, I'VE GOT SHIT TO DO.

[Anonymous No.18653134]

>this book was assigned in AP Lit
>become an English major my sophomore year
>Dean's List all but one semester so far
>3.9/4 in the Eng Dept.
>Some books I spend time on
>Most I just skim/"intelligently read"
>Spend 5-10 minutes per night, at most, "studying"
>Cruising to a strong career in econ/business because I'm kicking ass in the major because of books that teach you how to actually fucking read, like this one

OP has a point

[Anonymous No.18653138]

Is there a book about reading this book? How do I know I'm doing it right? I dont think I understand it.

[Anonymous No.18653166]

>>18652807
That's a man

[Anonymous No.18654175]

>>18652810
>>18653138
Every fucking time this book gets posted, the same fucking jokes.
It's attack helicopter tier of humor, jesus christ.

[Anonymous No.18654190]

>how to read a book
Unironically tell me without jokes what this is about
Is it some meme with one sentence "just read words" repeated over and over on all pages?

[Anonymous No.18654241]

>>18654190
No.
The author argues that this "just read words", "left to right, top to bottom, from first to last page," approach that most people learn on school is not good enough if you want to truly understand a book and even worse if you're going to work on that book (as a teacher, critic, non-fiction writer, etc.).
To solve this he recommends reading a book 4 (really 3) times in 4 ways:
>Preliminar Reading
first by reading the table of contents, the introduction and skimming like anon said above to understand what the book is about and if it's worth reading/what you're looking for

>I forgot what the second way is called
Secondly by "just read words" without stopping even if you don't understand one of these words or one of the arguments made, just highlighting certain passages

>Analytical reading
Read the book start to finish, taking notes and stopping to think about the arguments, trying to understand them and so on.

>Syntopical Reading
Completely optional and just for those interested (as the intellectual workers mentioned before): read multiple books on the same subject and compare them, criticize them etc.

Of course, he always deals with specifics about reading a certain kind of book (Such as a history book, a fiction book, a scientific book and so on) and how to criticize a book.

I'd honestly not recommend it for most people. Just read "take smart notes" instead.

[Anonymous No.18654264]

>>18654241
So it's literally "just read words and think about them, if you like it go read more" lmao

[Anonymous No.18654274]

>>18654264
kek, that's a way of putting it.
I suppose that this sort of book about reading/taking notes is really only for the intellectual workers who truly care and uni students.

[Anonymous No.18654808]

>>18652850
I keep seeing this, but I never found Adler especially verbose. I really enjoy his style of writing.

[Anonymous No.18654816]

>>18654190
These books are usually called that, and some of them are really good.
The how to read a poem one is very insightful

[Anonymous No.18655593]

>>18654241
With this post I no longer need to read it?

[Anonymous No.18656051]

>>18655593
unless you're interested in the specifics of a certain kind of book, yes.

NPDTW