How To Actually Read A Book (Save 1000 Hours)
I wasted 1000 hours so you don't have to
Reading books is hard.
I must admit, I don't really know how to do it.
I got my new Kindle about a year ago after my old one, which belonged to my late mother for many years, had stopped working suddenly.
But I didn't want to just read books on it.
I wanted to become a reader - by identity and behaviour change.
I immediately bought Mortimer J. Adler's How To Read A Book. It took me 2 weeks to read it, and my confidence was sky high going into The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell.
It was short in length, so it was an easy test for me in adopting Adler's reading philosophy practically.
There was just one small problem.
I didn't remember anything from How To Read A Book (and The Problems of Philosophy that soon followed).
I wrote 30,000 words of notes for Russell's book, the version of which I read only had only 128 pages.
I was driving myself up the wall.
I couldn't resist writing down every single word that Russell said, barely in my own words, in hopes of making the book stick in my brain.
The reason why I did this, why my readings of both books failed, is because I didn't understand what I had read.
I had no idea how to read a book and I was wasting my time.
I didn't know what to do. I wanted to read through Adler's reading list with my whole heart, but I knew I couldn't. The pain of wandering around in circles, not knowing where I was going even though I had a destination in mind. It was hell.
Now, almost 3 years later, I've decided to reopen Adler's famous title once more.
Having learnt from my mistakes, and now with a lot more self-understanding after adopting the ideas from my first eBook, I'm more aware of my faults and personal limits.
Know thyself, as the Greeks would say.
The reason for writing this newsletter is a selfish one, but not entirely. The answers I've found have taught me to understand books rather than memorise them. The relief I have gained from writing this newsletter is immense. I can actually enjoy reading books now that I know I'm doing it better than before.
Not enough people read.
Even fewer people know how to read.
But what if I gave you an AI prompt that guides you through the reading process based on Adler's teachings from How To Read A Book?
What if you could read a book with Adler himself sitting beside you as your own personal reading mentor?
Once you've finished this newsletter, you will be fully prepared to actively read a book the right way, with a distinct AI prompt that prevents you from pointless highlighting and wasteful note-taking.
Let's learn how to read and understand a book with Mortimer J. Adler and AI.
The Memorisation Trap
The most common query I've seen online, or from talking to avid readers in my life, in relation to reading and books is this:
"How can I memorise everything I read?"
There's multiple ways to achieve this goal. Some swear by highlighting and underlining. Others take detailed notes of key ideas and concepts as they read. Others write flashcards and store them away into a commonplace book.
I like some of these methods, but I think they miss the point when it comes to reading a book.
Most of the time, these methods are pseudo-work; work that feels like work, but actually isn't.
The desire to "remember everything you read" fosters an illusion of learning, completely going against the purpose of a book.
You don’t read books merely to collect information. This is what Google is for.
You read books to expose yourself to ideas that transform your thinking and to develop an understanding so deep that the author’s wisdom becomes your own. In my understanding of this, you become the author and the book becomes a part of how you solve and approach problems.
Information doesn’t need to be memorised if you truly understand it.
If you understand a topic or a chapter, memorisation, or active recall, will be encased within your understanding.
Consider the Feynman technique - explaining a topic of knowledge in layman terms as if you were explaining it to a child with no prior knowledge of the topic. By creating your own understanding of a topic, you're practicing recalling it (or memorising it). Understanding kills two birds with one stone.
When I finally learned how to read for understanding with Plato's The Republic, I no longer needed my 30,000 words of notes. I could explain his key concepts like the philosopher ruler and the Allegory of The Cave to my girlfriend at our favourite breakfast spot.
Disclaimer: she was forced to listen to me ramble so I could test my understanding of the book's ideas; I bored her to death in my search for knowledge and truth like a true philosopher, according to Plato's teachings, and I'm not sorry :)
That’s the difference between information collection and genuine understanding. So, how should you approach a book, if it's not to be memorised?
Books Should Be Understood, Not Memorised
The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks.
Mortimer J. Adler
Books are a conversation with the author.
You read, as Adler says, to increase your understanding of information and not necessarily for the information itself.
You read in order to gain the same level of understanding as the author on a specific topic of knowledge.
You do not read to memorise everything the author says.
Just because you've learnt off an entire book, the author's words, word-for-word, doesn't mean you know what he or she is saying. Memorisation does not equal understanding, but understanding does equate to memorisation.
There's no point memorising everything in a book because, in most cases, it's not specific to any one problem. Books often present more questions and problems than the ones they attempt to solve.
Books are broad. If I wanted a solution to a problem, like how to start a business or how to improve my social skills, a book is probably the least efficient way to go. Why spend 10-12 hours trying to answer a specific problem by reading a book about it when you can answer it with the internet and AI specifically?
But this does not mean you shouldn't read books.
You read to expose yourself to news ideas, profound ideas. If you don't read books you'll stay the way you currently are, forever. No exposure to new ideas, no flexing your mental muscles; it will keep you thinking and moving within a closed environment. Reading broadens the mind in every sense of the word.
If you want a specific answer to a problem, maybe don't try to memorise every piece of information in a book. The real purpose of a book is to understand what the author is trying to say, and to understand that in your own terms.
But what's a practical example of what this looks like?
What does understanding look like compared to memorisation?
Memorisation Vs Understanding
Consider Bloom's Revised Taxonomy, an educational framework to manage how we learn and think, below:
Active recall is the foundation. In order to know something you must be able to recall it. But take a look at the level above. Understanding uses active recall along with its own distinct purpose - to understand something you must be able to recall information anyways.
Here's an example of why understanding trumps memorisation.
Topic Example: Plato's Allegory of the Cave
Memorisation
Prisoners are chained in a cave facing a wall. There’s a fire behind them, and people carrying objects create shadows on the wall. The prisoners believe the shadows are reality. A prisoner is freed and sees the real world. When he returns to tell others, they don’t believe him.
Key terms:
shadows
chains
fire
real world
Write out flashcards to learn my notes and key terms exactly as they are. Memorise exactly what happens in the allegory, but struggle when asked what it all meant.
Understanding
Plato's Allegory of the Cave represents how most people live in ignorance, mistaking appearances (the shadows emerging from the fires above) for reality.
A real philosopher is someone who escapes the cave. They see reality as it truly is, and are no longer fooled by appearances within the cave. Truth is what they see, but it takes time to become accustomed to it. Gradual steps must be taken before the philosopher can stare directly at the sun (which represents truth).
The light first blinds and overwhelms the philosopher. Then, the philosopher can manage by looking solely at the ground, and then at their own reflection in the water, before looking directly at the sun. This represents enlightenment and complete exposure to the truth and real knowledge. Once enlightened by said truth, the philosopher can return to the cave and free the remaining prisoners, teaching them about real knowledge and truth that has been hidden away from them.
It shows that pursuing wisdom and truth is painful but necessary - it's the pathway towards enlightenment. Always be willing to question your assumptions and to test the validity of your beliefs. This connects to my own life experiences when I first started reading in order to understand my own personal suffering. It reminds me of how we should be careful when it comes to people around us. What we see are appearances, and we should always be aware that there's an underlying reality within us all - a Jungian shadow let's say.
(I wrote the above in 1-2 minutes, and I've left it completely unedited.)
Which do you think is more practical for learning?
A Practical Example Of True Understanding
I reread the first chapter of How To Read A Book, titled, The Activity and Art of Reading, in preparation for this newsletter. I didn't try to memorise anything, but instead I tried to understand it in my own terms to make it my own.
Here's a quick written, completely unedited example of my understanding of it. This is the first thing that came to my head when testing my understanding those first few pages of the book:
Chapter 1 - The Activity and Art of Reading
Reading is of paramount importance. There are many levels to reading and different purposes when it comes to approaching a book. Learning for information, or in my words, pure memorisation of facts and information through recall, is great. But understanding is deeper and better than this. Through understanding a book, the information you seek to remember is already there. It's a part of your understanding of it. (I'm going to branch out a little here) Recall is below understanding in Bloom's Taxonomy. In order to understand something, you must be able to recall it. So why test recall when that's already built in within or below your understanding of a book, chapter, or topic of knowledge?
This is my understanding of what I read. I wrote it in less than a minute - I had to stop myself. I could've gone on writing a few thousand words; that's the exact point I'm trying to show here.
I also managed to apply Bloom's Taxonomy into my understand of what I read. This is true knowledge synthesis, and it happened so naturally while helping to deepen my understanding of understanding itself.
This is a fraction of my understanding of that chapter. This is my understanding of what it means to understand a book in contrast to memorising a book.
How To Understand A Book With Adler And AI
Adler's approach to reading really opened up my eyes.
You have no idea.
I've gained a newfound understanding of what a book actually is in what the author is trying to accomplish.
The big differences that lie in Adler's reading process compared to most are that it's about understanding the author specifically. A book, if you're reading for understanding, like Adler proposes, should not be approached like it's a database of information.
Real reading is about understanding what the author is trying to say and why. If done successfully, the information you seek to know will already be there encased within your understanding of the book.
Here's the four levels of reading according to Adler:
Elementary: basic reading comprehension
Inspectional: quickly look at the table of contents to see if the book is worth reading. Consider the logical structure of the book to prepare you for analysing the argument, and what the author wants you to understand
Analytical: state what the book is about in a single sentence. Outline the book's argument in order and in relation to each and every part. Define the problem(s) the author wants to solve, and whether they did or did not do so. Don't memorise anything; understand the whole book in your own words.
Syntopical: link ideas to other ideas in trying to solve a problem or answer a specific question
The prompt below can be used for any sort of book; the AI will ask you what book you're reading. Here's how to read a book, for understanding, with this prompt:
Pick your book of choice
Copy and paste the prompt below into your AI chatbot of choice
Read the book using Adler's reading process with the AI chatbot by your side
Always remember: read for understanding the book, not memorising it
I'd also recommend writing down any notes, thoughts, or ideas in a separate document while you read.
This means you should have two documents or windows open while you read - the AI chat (or the blank template below this prompt that you can fill in on your own) and a notes document.
Then whenever you want to test your understanding of a book, feed either of your documents to an AI chatbot and ask it to test your understanding of the notes provided using the Feynman technique.
Mission accomplished.
This means you'll have achieved the following:
Read a book with Adler's principles in mind (understanding!)
Analyze a book with Adler's framework (prompt or blank template)
You now have documents that you can give to an AI chatbot to test your understanding of, with remembering and retention protocols (Feynman technique + spaced repetition)
The joy of using a prompt in this case is that it's deadly specific to you and the book you're reading. Any part of this process can be tailored to your needs or expanded upon. It's adaptable.
Copy and paste the prompt below:
Prompt: Adlerian Reading Guide
System
You are a reading coach specialising in Mortimer Adler’s systematic approach to reading as outlined in “How to Read a Book.” Your purpose is to guide readers through the four levels of reading: Elementary, Inspectional, Analytical, and Syntopical. For each book a reader brings to you, you’ll help them apply Adler’s methodology step-by-step, asking thoughtful questions and providing structure to deepen their comprehension and critical engagement with the text.
Context
The reader will come to you with a specific book they want to read deeply using Adler’s method. They may be at any stage of reading—just beginning, partway through, or having completed a first read. Your job is to systematically guide them through each appropriate level of reading, helping them extract maximum value from their chosen text through structured inquiry and analysis.
Instructions
Guide the reader through Adler’s four levels of reading sequentially, adapting your approach based on the specific book and the reader’s current progress:
Elementary Reading: Establish basic comprehension
Help determine if the reader needs to build fundamental comprehension
Ask: “What does the text say on a basic level?”
Assist with vocabulary and basic meaning when needed
Inspectional Reading: Survey the landscape of the book
Guide the reader to examine the book’s structure before deep reading
Ask them to study: title, subtitle, preface, table of contents, index, publisher’s blurb, chapter headings
Help them perform a quick “skimming” read to grasp the basic structure
Prompt them to identify major sections and their relationships
Ask: “What kind of book is this? What is it about as a whole?”
Analytical Reading: Deep, thorough examination
Guide classification of the book by type and subject matter
Help them articulate what the whole book is about in a few sentences
Assist in outlining the major parts and how they relate
Help identify and analyse key terms, propositions, and arguments
Guide them to pinpoint the problems the author is trying to solve
Ask: “What is being said specifically and how is it being said?”
Help them formulate critical judgments with justification
Syntopical Reading: Comparative reading across texts (if appropriate)
If the reader has related works to compare, help them:
Create a bibliography on the topic
Establish relevant passages across texts
Clarify questions and issues across the readings
Analyse different viewpoints on the same topics
Ask: “How does this work relate to others on similar subjects?”
For each level, ask thoughtful questions that prompt the reader to engage deeply with the text rather than simply telling them what to think. Adjust your approach based on the specific genre and complexity of the book they’re reading. Give recommended time limits to help the user to understand how long each level should take. Always remind the reader that everything written in the chat can be fully summarised and condensed into a completed template once the reading levels have been completed.
Constraints
Don’t simply summarise the book for them; guide their own discovery and analysis
Tailor your approach to the specific book they’re reading (fiction vs. non-fiction, scientific vs. philosophical, etc.)
Respect the reader’s own interpretations while still guiding them toward rigorous analysis
Be patient with the process; deep reading takes time
Don’t overwhelm with too many questions at once—sequence your guidance
Recognise when simplification of Adler’s method might be needed for certain texts
Always maintain a spirit of intellectual curiosity and respect for the text
Output Format
Begin by asking what book the reader wants to explore using Adler’s method and their current progress with it. Then proceed step-by-step through the appropriate levels of reading, providing scaffolding questions at each stage.
For each level:
Briefly explain the purpose of this reading level
Provide 3-5 specific questions or tasks to guide their reading at this level
Invite their responses and findings
Based on their responses, offer follow-up questions or guide them to the next appropriate step
Throughout the conversation, maintain a knowledgeable, encouraging tone that respects the reader’s intelligence while providing clear structure for their reading journey.
A Blank Template To Guide Your Reading
If you don't like the idea of using an AI chatbot while reading, here's a blank template you can copy and paste into a document, alongside your notes document.
Fill out the template in any way you'd like. After reading the book once, section by section, with or without a quick superficial read. Do what suits your brain best!
Then, when you wish to test your understanding, feed the document to an AI chatbot and ask it to test your understanding of it in your own words.
Bingo.
Deep reading, maximum understanding, and an easy remembering protocol with AI.
Book Information
Title:
Author(s):
Year Published:
Genre/Category:
Date Started:
Date Completed:
Level 1: Elementary Reading
Focus on basic comprehension and understanding what the book says on a surface level.
Main subject of the book:
Simple summary (1-2 sentences):
Unfamiliar words/terms to look up:
List them here
Level 2: Inspectional Reading
Systematic skimming and superficial reading to get the most out of a book in a limited time.
Structural Overview
Table of contents:
List chapters/sections here
Book structure/organisation and major parts:
Introduction/preface key points:
Conclusion/epilogue key points:
Level 3: Analytical Reading
Thorough, complete reading for understanding and interpretation. Take your time if you feel any resistance; remember that deep reading is hard
The Book As A Whole
What type of book is this? (practical, theoretical, historical, etc.):
What is the book about as a whole?:
What is the main argument or thesis?:
What problem(s) is the author trying to solve?:
Structural Analysis
(Enter Chapter Number/Name)
(Section if applicable)
Major arguments/propositions:
…
…
…
…
Supporting evidence provided:
…
...
…
…
Duplicate for each chapter/section
Interpretation and Evaluation
Author’s key terms and how they’re defined:
Author’s major assertions and assumptions:
Solutions or conclusions the author reaches:
Where do I agree with the author?
Where do I disagree with the author?
What questions remain unanswered?
Level 4: Syntopical Reading
Comparative reading to place this book in the context of other works on the subject.
Related books/articles on this topic:
How does this book compare to others on the same subject?
What unique perspective does this book offer?
How does this book fit into the broader conversation on this topic?
How has this book changed or enhanced my understanding of the subject?
Personal Reflections
Key quotes worth remembering:
My thoughts and ideas
Ideas I Want To Explore Further:
How I might apply what I’ve learned:
Who would benefit from reading this book?
Remember that Adler’s approach encourages active reading. Don’t just fill this out mechanically, but engage in a conversation with the text, questioning, and analysing as you go.
Don't Read 52 Books A Year - Read One
People who say they read 52 books a year do just that - they read them passively.
They don't understand a thing.
If you want to do that, fire away. But you can either lightly read 52 books a year, or read just one book in the same time and you become that book in every sense of the word.
You wouldn't pick up a textbook in school and expect to know everything after reading it once. Books should be digested and broken down repeatedly over time.
I've just started this process with Albert Camus's The Myth of Sisyphus.
With having read the first 5 pages, and 1000 words of notes written, I knew there was a problem I needed to solve; that's why I wrote this newsletter.
If I'm experiencing this problem, it's highly likely that someone else is experiencing it too. With this Adlerian reading framework, understanding will come easily and the information will come even easier.
Happy reading. I hope this helps you in some way.
I hope that with this letter, I’ve given you some practical wisdom to help you read books like how they should be read. Read not for memorisation, but for understanding. If you understand a topic, you won't have to memorise a thing; all the information you need will lie within your own grasp of it.
If you want to test this prompt out, you can download my free eBook and read it with Adler by your side. You can download the PDF and give it directly to the AI as context.
If you want to read it online, it's on my Substack here.
You can view the reading prompt in it’s own specific article here for ease of access.
Here's another free prompt: your own Aristotelian Habit Coach that helps you build habits with Aristotle as your life coach.
True understanding really is a profound idea.
Thank you for reading.
- Profound Ideas