Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ How to Read a Book: The Ultimate Guide by Mortimer Adler

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This is one of several items picked up today from Mike Taylor's excellent weekly newsletter. It summarizes Mortimer Adler's seminal How to Read a Book. The irony is that the people who need this advice won't be able to extract it from the book in which it is contained. This article is a case in point; the description of 'inspectional reading' only lists the four questions a reader should ask, and completely elides the actual process, which includes (for Adler) things like underlining or writing in the margins, as well as three types of note-taking: structural, conceptual and dialectical.  Here's an example of how I take notes, at least at the structural level. Here is an example of my notes at the conceptual level, merging many sources.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Oct 09, 2024 5:44 p.m.

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