“How to Read a Book” first appeared in 1940; a heavily revised edition followed in 1972.
My verdict: a masterpiece. Like the translator, I felt: “Had I met this earlier, my life would be different.” (The only other book that gave me that jolt was George Gamow’s “One, Two, Three… Infinity.”)
On Douban the reviews are mixed. If you think the book long-winded, just read Chapter 1—that’s the distilled essence. Its core message? How to learn.
The prime directive of reading is active reading. Because reading is a subset of learning, the prime directive of learning is active learning.
Active vs. passive reading puts you in completely different positions. The more active you are, the richer the payoff. In the ideal state, reader and author resonate across time and space.
Any reading that does not lean mainly on yourself is not true reading. “There is only one genuine way to read: unaided, you pick up the book. Armed with nothing but inner force, you savour each line, inching upward from hazy notions to sharp understanding. That ascent is pure mental work, a higher order of reading. The book must stretch your present powers.”
Thus reading is an upgrade of thinking skills. Solo reading is a self-challenge, a self-evolution. I had never framed it that way, yet looking back, whatever agility I possess likely sprang from this practice.
Reading “with no outside help, on inner strength alone” is cracking a cocoon from within—a rite of passage. This straight line is the reader’s shortcut. At page one you’re still inside; to break free you must draw energy from the cocoon itself, burst it with sheer will, borrow nothing external. Close the back cover, and you’re airborne. It feels like “while monkeys cry on both banks, my light skiff has sailed past ten thousand peaks.” Repeat that a thousand times and you turn into a grand master. “One who wrestles dragons becomes a dragon”; here, becoming the dragon is wholly positive.
Yet picking the right cocoon to burst matters immensely. That is Step One in reading. “Classify your books,” the author insists—it runs through the entire treatise. Different breeds demand different tactics.
Broadly, books split in two: • Information books—aim: integration, adding knowledge and insight. • Non-information books—aim: enlarging understanding.
Here comes a cardinal rule, both for choosing books and for reading itself:
“Read authors who outclass you—ideally, who outclass you by far.”
Because “we learn only from those higher up the ladder.” Which leads to a loftier conclusion:
“Reading is learning; true reading is learning at its summit.”
That line hit me like revelation. True reading is “self-discovery learning,” superior to “instructor-led learning.” Reading, as autonomous study, is the shortcut. This is what sets active reading apart from passive video-watching or lecture-listening.
Montaigne observed: “The novice’s ignorance lies in not yet having learned; the scholar’s ignorance lies in having learned.” Education must always contrast guided learning with self-discovery learning. I’d never heard it spelled out, yet I resonate completely. China’s education circles should broadcast this early; students who “get” it early will reap deep, enduring, positive effects.
When I read alone, my mind roams unbridled: imagination, observation, reasoning, memory all spark. We gain keen sight, sturdy memory, room to imagine, disciplined analysis, and reflective capacity. It is, in truth, a Self-Knowing expedition.
Reading equals learning; authentic reading is self-directed learning, the pinnacle of technique, the speed route. Galileo said: “You cannot truly teach anyone knowledge; you can only stir them to find what already lies, unclarified, within.” Hence we must read prodigiously, so our inner trails take shape. Let me close with a line I love from the Ideal State series preface:
“We desperately need others’ experience to tackle hard problems. Keeping an open mind is the sole strategy for a complex, fast-moving age. More important still is a non-utilitarian curiosity: relish the world’s richness and complexity, and sincerely yearn to understand others’ experience.”
*translate by OpenAI o3