Description: Investigates the art of reading by examining each aspect of reading, problems encountered, and tells how to combat them.
Brief description: Dr. Charles Van Doren earned advanced degrees in both literature and mathematics from Columbia University, where he later taught English and was the Assistant Director of the Institute for Philosophical Research. He also worked for Encyclopedia Britannica in Chicago.
Review Quotes: "It shows concretely how the serious work of proper reading may be accomplished and how much it may yield in the way of instruction and delight." --The New Yorker
"These four hundred pages are packed full of high matters which no one solicitous of the future of American culture can afford to overlook." --Jacques Barzun "'There is the book; and here is your mind.' Adler and Van Doren's suggestions on how to connect the two will make you nostalgic for a slower, more earnest, less trivial time." --Anne Fadiman