Adler How To Mark A Book Summary

For some, there is no greater joy than reading a new, gripping book for the first time. They believe that the best days are spent reading a new or old book for the whole day. They have been told over and over again that you should not destroy a book by writing in it in any way. Many believe that you are able to understand a book without writing in it. In the article, “How to Mark a Book”, the author Mortimer J. Adler said “I contend, quite bluntly, that marking up a book is not an act of mutilation but of love.” Some, like Adler, believe that to love a book is to write in the book. Even if you are a firm believer in not writing in a book, you should read the article by Adler and give it a try. Marking up a book could change a person’s whole opinion and routine on how to read and understand a new book. Adler deems that writing in a book is the best way to understand and be a book owner. In the article …show more content…
He thinks that marking a book up is the true way to have a conversation or understanding of what the author is trying to say. He believes that by marking up a book, you can pick up and start the book from any place and know what is happening and what you felt when you read it last time. By saying all this in his article, he's trying to get more book owners to respect the author and book enough to give them their full energy and attention while reading the words on the pages. Later in the article, Adler starts to talk about how to begin to mark up a book. He gives his insight as to what the steps he believes are necessary such as underlining, vertical lines, stars are just a few. The end of the book is saved for his “fancy thinking”, this is where he writes what he thinks about the book after he completed it. The beginning is where he likes to outline the book by main ideas so he can look back on it before starting the book