Let’s start with the title, because it’s always struck me as a little ironic. How to Read a Book. If you’re holding this book in your hands (or listening to it, or reading it on a screen), you obviously already know how to read a book. But that’s not really what Adler and Van Doren mean. What they’re actually offering is a guide to reading with the intention of understanding and mastering a subject, particularly nonfiction. Once I reframed the book that way, everything about it made a lot more sense.