How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading

Analytical reading is the third level of reading, following inspectional reading and preceding syntopical reading. Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren also refer to analytical reading as “thorough reading, complete reading, or good reading” (19). This level consists of three stages, each with a series of rules to follow: The first stage is knowing a book’s content, the second stage is interpreting the book’s content, and the third stage is criticizing a book as a communication of knowledge.

Elementary reading is the first level of reading. Adler and Van Doren also refer to elementary reading as “rudimentary reading, basic reading or initial reading” (17). With this level, “one learns the rudiments of the art of reading, receives basic training in reading, and acquires initial reading skills” (17).

An expository book is a work of nonfiction which conveys knowledge. Adler and Van Doren argue that an expository book is “any book that consists primarily of opinions, theories, hypotheses, or speculation, for which the claim is made more or less explicitly that they are true in some sense” (60). The two types of expository books are practical and theoretical.