{"id":9203,"date":"2016-09-08T23:47:02","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T06:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/?p=9203"},"modified":"2016-09-08T23:47:02","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T06:47:02","slug":"how-to-read-a-book-or-the-more-you-dont-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/how-to-read-a-book-or-the-more-you-dont-know\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Read A Book, or The More You (Don’t) Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have to admit I was less than thrilled about the prospect of reading How to Read a Book<\/em> by Adler and Van Doren for the first book of my doctoral studies. It just seemed odd. At this point in my academic career, reading a book about how to read seemed a little redundant. When I mentioned this to a few friends, many told me they read the book in undergraduate classes and found it to be \u201ca complete waste of time.\u201d Great. How would a book that undergraduate students found less than helpful move me to the next level in my own work? I am glad, however, that I trusted that this book was assigned for a reason and chose to engage the text with purpose. What I found is that reading How to Read a Book<\/em> affirmed for me the old adage, \u201cThe more you learn, the less you know.\u201d Things in this book that would have seemed pointless earlier in my educational journey now feel a bit like pure gold that I have needed all along but only appreciate in hindsight.<\/p>\n

It makes sense to me that undergrad students who consider themselves to be good readers might view this book as a waste of time. Much of the book provides simple, common sense suggestions and explanations for the various levels of reading that may feel elementary to people who are confident in their skills. Adler and Van Doren, however, not only give these refreshers, but systematically explain the four levels of reading (Elementary, Inspectional, Analytical, Synoptical), giving hints and suggested techniques for performing each level well. As I read through these hints and techniques, I found myself thinking how I wish I had read this book before doing research for my master\u2019s thesis. Suggestions that I might have found patronizing in writing at the undergraduate level, I now realize are keys that can unlock the texts we will be reading for our doctoral coursework and that I will be using for my research. Even seemingly simple tips such as paying close attention to what you can learn from the title of a book (61-64) or being able to say what the whole book is about in one sentence (75-76), I now see as useful for classifying and organizing research.<\/p>\n

The greatest jewel of this book is the section concerning the fourth level of reading, which is Synoptical Reading. Synoptical reading is the level used in pulling together academic research. Synoptical reading encompasses and builds on the other three levels, but involves bringing together multiple texts that support a project. At any other point in my academic journey I would have completely glossed over this section as something simple the authors are making too complex. I now understand that there is nothing simple about culling the vast amounts of reading available to find those important works that not only address a research topic, but to align with the specific questions being addressed in the project. Adler and Van Doren provide a method for Synoptical reading that is a powerful tool for research. Following their steps, research material can be discovered, organized, and addressed.<\/p>\n

As we move forward, I look forward to dusting off some of the skills that I had let lapse before reading Adler\u2019s and Van Doren\u2019s reminders. I also find that I am actually excited to try my hand at following their recommended steps to reading synoptically while researching my dissertation. All in all, I am grateful that with greater learning comes the humility to realize that I do not know nearly as much as I thought I knew early on in this journey.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading<\/em>, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have to admit I was less than thrilled about the prospect of reading How to Read a Book by Adler and Van Doren for the first book of my doctoral studies. It just seemed odd. At this point in my academic career, reading a book about how to read seemed a little redundant. When […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[660,405,886],"class_list":["post-9203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adler","tag-reading","tag-research","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}