How to read a book: the art of educating yourself

My sophomore year in college I took a required literature course.  I had a great teacher.  He was a new young professor that was passionate about conveying the meaning and importance of books like the Odessey, The Canterbury Tales, The Inferno...  Looking back it was one of my favorite classes, but it wasn't as good as it could have been.  What was missing?  The professor passed along his passion but didn't pass along his skills.  Every week I would struggle through the assigned reading, picking up plot but not much else.  Then the professor would unveil all the meaning that I had missed.  By the end of the class I was convinced that time spent trying to mine the wisdom from the classics was well worth the effort required.  My problem was that effort was getting me no where becuase I lacked the tools to fully appreciate these works on my own.


A few years after school I stumbled upon Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book.  At first I was put off by the title but then I scanned the table of contents, thumbed through the book and my interest was piqued.  After reading the first two chapters it was apparent to me that I had found the tool box I had been looking for.   I felt like Mortimer had me in mind when he wrote this book.  He was actualy thinking of most of us.   As an educator he knew how sorely this information was needed.  Mortimer was a life long advocate of great literature and his observations will improve your reading skills no matter how experienced you may be.  Everything you need to tackle the greatest, most challenging books in the world can be found within the pages of this book.  


Reading this book is likely to bring up feelings of "why don't they teach this in school?"  The first time I read it that's exactly what I thought.   Legitimate as these questions may be, it's not useful to ponder what should have been.  I think it is best to be thankful that we have good books like How to Read a Book that can help us fill the gaps we feel our education missed.