Notes on The Well Educated Mind Chapter Four
“Understanding half of a really tough book,” writes Mortimer Adler in his classic How to Read a Book, “is much better than not understanding it at all, which will be the case if you allow yourself to be stopped by the first difficult passage you come to”
- Can't help but note while reading that I'm dismayed by the idea of reading the same book multiple times to get a full understanding. I'm still struggling with the idea of wanting MORE input. I've never been very good at depth. I'm a breadth kind of person.
“The good reader bases his opinion on intelligent analysis, not mere reaction”
Ugh. Finding a "reading partner" for the rhetoric stage will be a problem. Nobody I know is spending time reading the "Great Works". Maybe I can find a random internet stranger? (If you're reading this and think you would LOVE to do some serious self learning and want a partner, hit me up on my social Mastodon account or my software dev Mastodon account)
Love this quote in a letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams:
“But why am I dosing you with these antediluvian topics? Because I am glad to have some one to whom they are familiar, and who will not receive them as if dropped from the moon.”
I was never much for history when I was in school. I'm not a good memorizer of facts. I watch QI, and the panelists know stuff like what year some obscure person died, and I am humbled. I am clever, but I fear I lack substance.
So, right now, I think I yearn for historical context. We'll see if that feeling lasts.
“Writers build on the work of those who have gone before them, and chronological reading provides you with a continuous story.”
“Some books speak to us at one time of life and are silent at another. If a book remains voiceless to you, put it down and read the next book on the list.”
The author often notes that you should annotate your books and make them your own. My own quirks make marking up a physical book distasteful - but I can certainly annotate e-books.
Summary
This chapter outlines the process for serious reading. As you read, make notes about your questions and thoughts. Summarize each chapter, and after you finish the first pass of the book further distill your summaries and give the book a meaningful title and descriptive subtitle that describes the contents. Subsequent readings are to analyze the work and examine the truth of it. It helps to read chronologically, which helps put the work in the context of its time.