On the Reading of Books

SUPERVISOR OF THE READING CLINIC

RUPERT HUGHES remarked, apropos to the common plaint "I have too little time for reading," that time seemed to be like an elastic band: capable of being stretched to include whatever one wanted most to do. Perhaps candor with one's self requires the recognition that the idea that one would give anything to be able to do more reading is in a class with other laudable aspirations where the follow-through is faltering.

Yet too many college graduates of yesteryear are today writing for information or attending reading improvement classes to permit us to accept such facile explanations as completely accounting for the failure of adults to read more. While partly a matter of time and of more appealing interests, the fact is that many adults do not find reading comfortable. By this I mean that something in their approach or methods robs the reading experience of some of its pleasure or even makes it arduous. For example, while the only justifications for reading are comprehension and appreciation, the average person whose methods tie him to a pace slower than he can think or react is apt to find reading tedious and beset with concentration difficulties. What's to be done?

Suppose we go to the city library and find a book on the subject. Among the cards in the index, two titles catch the eye: Adler, M. J. How to Read a Book and Center, Stella S. The Art of Book Reading. You wonder which would be the better for you to read. This requires an examination of each.

A skilled reader might go about the job in this manner. Picking up the first he turns to the title page and beneath the title, How to Read a Book, he finds a subtitle, "The Art of Getting a Liberal Education." This suggests that the author aspires to something more than a set of rules for better reading.

A skilled reader knows that the Preface usually gives the author's purpose and clues as to the book's organization, so he quickly reads it first. The opening sentence states "I have tried to write a light book about heavy reading." Later the author says, "Education is still open to all of us - whether we have had a schooling or in spite of it. But only if we know how to read." Still later he says, "In the first part of this book, I have discussed the role of reading in relation to learning and thinking, both in school and out. In the second part, I have tried to outline the steps one must take in learning to read. . . . There is a third part. It is the most important. . . . I shall try to show you that the art of reading well is intimately related to the art of thinking well - clearly, critically, freely. Hence, the third part of this book is devoted to the rest of the reader's life." So one would expect this treatise to discuss reading as a process of digesting and assimilating ideas for personal growth and intellectual maturation.

Next the skilled reader turns to the Table of Contents to see what more he can learn about the plan and development of the book. He finds:

Part I. THE ACTIVITY OF READING

1. To the Average Reader

2. The Reading of "Reading"

3. Reading is Learning

4. Teachers, Dead or Alive

5. "The Defeat of the Schools"

6. On Self-Help

Part II. THE RULES

7. From Many Rules to One Habit

8. Catching on From the Title

9. Seeing the Skeleton

10. Coming to Terms

11. What's the Proposition and Why

12. The Etiquette of Talking Back

13. The Things the Reader Can Say

14. And Still More Rules

Part III. THE REST OF THE READER'S LIFE

15. The Other Half

16. The Great Books

17. Free Minds and Free Men

Appendix: A List of the Great Books

Finally, in judging the possible worth of the book to him, the skilled reader will sample some of the chapters by skimming. The title of the first chapter suggests it should be especially fertile in clues. One finds there that the author is a graduate of Columbia and now a teacher (at University of Chicago) of a course in the "great books" and that he is speaking of mastering a book - like a lover reads a letter from his true love - and not merely comprehending what is there. Further skimming reveals that most space is given to the reading of non-fiction books, that the author provides several outlines and resumes of his points (as on page 175), that he has a felicity of phrase and a thrust of idea which induce thinking in a reader. He writes clearly and uses many illustrations and references from a variety of books. Only Chapter 15 discusses especially the reading of fiction. One also discovers that the book is a unit with an integrated development which indicates that one best take the chapters in order rather than dip at random into a chapter here and there. Surely here is a book that commends itself to the man who has read his way through college, calling upon him to examine his reading, or more exactly, the state of his education and what it may enable him to learn further.

But hold on a moment. We have not looked at the other book, which might meet our particular needs better. So once more let's observe our hypothetical skilled reader in action, examining the second book. The title page contains only TheArt of Book Reading, the author's name, that of the publisher, Charles Scribner's Sons, and the date, 1952. In the Introduction, the author states that the book is designed for persons who can read but who wish to improve their "reading (of) a greater variety of books with better comprehension and fuller appreciation — in a word, reading books with intelligent delight." It is based upon procedures used with adult classes at the Reading Institute of New York University when the author was its director. The author says that most of these persons "attached too much value to speed," and wanted a "recipe to improve their memory." The balance of the Preface stresses the value of improving the art of reading and the reasons for the neglect of serious books. Although nothing was learned about the organization of the book, the reader now knows that the methods to be described have been tested in use and that the writer is an expert.

Now comes the examination of the Table of Contents. The chapter titles follow:

Chap. I The Hallmarks of Critical Reading

II A Program of Action

III How to Read Paragraphs

IV How to Read Sentences

V The Necessity of an Expanding Reading Vocabulary

VI How to Read the Literature of Knowledge

VII How to Read Literature: the Short Story

VIII How to Read Literature: the Novel

IX How to Read Essays; Letters; Biography

X How to Read Drama; Poetry

XI Rate of Reading

XII The Foundations of Critical Reading

Beneath each chapter heading are listed the topics taken up. These are read now to learn how the theme of the chapter is structured.

Among the fore pages are three listing selections and excerpts from the writings of sixty-seven authors quoted at greater or lesser length in the book. So the reader surmises that the book will introduce him, even if briefly, to a variety of interesting reading matter as well as tell him how to read it. But the skilled reader checks these and other impressions by skimming some of the chapters, being guided by the headings in the Table of Contents and looking especially for chapter organization and how ideas are treated. True enough, the first chapter describes the approach and some of the skills of the mature reader and suggests that he read differently in factual material and in "belles lettres," while the second reviews factors in improvement. The next three chapters use many illustrative exercises drawn from literature, in discussing how to read paragraphs and sentences and increase vocabulary.

Our skimmer finds that while the next five chapters deal with how to read the various types of writing, only a few pages of each are devoted to methods themselves, with the remainder of the space supplying substantial portions or excerpts of the type of writing being discussed. For example, the chapter on reading the short story contains four full-length short stories by Sinclair Lewis, Anton Chekhov, Ambrose Bierce and Jack London.

Also it is noted that the short chapter on rate of reading is written from the standpoint of the adult and what he needs to do. There is a final chapter dealing with the problems of the retarded reader and how they were met at the New York University Reading Clinic.

The survey reveals that chapters have some independence, particularly from VI on, so that a reader might dip and re-dip into one that seemed most pertinent to him at the time. Both books agree, however, that a dilettante attitude toward reading improvement is all too common and that success comes only to one who is willing to pay the price in persistent effort.

Now that each book has been examined the prospective reader can decide which to borrow from the library for his own reading, or better, for use as a spring board in improving his reading. Center will supply more information about basic reading habits and thought getting processes, while Adler places more emphasis upon penetrating interpretation and critical reading. Perhaps he may wish to read each book in turn. There will not be much overlapping, except in the point of view that reading is a way of living. As Center envisages it, "The competent reader is a citizen of all times and places; he has perspective on the past and a realistic vision of the future; he does not live a two-dimensional existence in the present moment."

Perhaps the prospective reader would like to browse a bit further on the topic. He might consult the following: Chapman, J. F. "Looking Around," Harvard Business Review 31 (May-June 1953), 131-145. (Describes problems of adult reading and the type of improvement programs business firms have tried.) Witty, Paul. How to Become a Better Reader, Science Research Associates, 57 West Grand Avenue, Chicago, 1953. (Contains chapters on a variety of reading skills with practice exercises suitable for senior high school, college or adults.)