How to Read a Book

At this point, it’s probably cliché to say we live in the information age, but we’re saying it anyway. We consume a ton of information (each of us, meaning you too) on a daily basis. How to Read a Book is about enhancing our reading speed, comprehension, and retention — as well as our ability to determine quickly and accurately if a book is worth reading, and what level of effort to give it.

We believe this book to be incredibly valuable to the general effort of learning, and we recommend a deep and thorough study of it, because…

Most people outside the university level of education (and even many in it) maintain no better than an elementary-level reading ability. Make no mistake, this is fine for recreational reading, but for entrepreneurs it isn’t enough. So much of our success depends on our perpetual learning, so, it makes sense to develop the skill most fundamental to our ability to learn well. This book is the de facto authority on extracting knowledge from the books we encounter.

It should be noted that the author, Mortimer J. Adler, originally wrote this book in 1940 — and the latest edition got its major content update in 1974. This, of course, means the book uses dated language that may offend some.