Several years ago, I read Mortimer Adler’s How to Read a Book after seeing it discussed on Farnam Street. A book about reading a book sounds like a joke, I know, but it’s surprisingly not.
From an early age we’re taught to read, but not how to learn and fully understand something from reading. The book is an instruction manual on that process.
I won’t rehash it all here (read the book if you’re interested), but I was already doing part of that process like marginalia — highlighting, underlying, circling keywords, notes in the margins, etc.
I highlighted and underlined the hell out of that book but never bothered to summarize or go back through it to take notes. But I quickly recovered on the next book — marginalia, summary, notes, the works — and maintained some consistency after that. Continue Reading…