How to Read a Book

The answer is that you have to discover the meaning of a word you do not understand by using the meanings of all the other words in the context that you do understand.

In the light of these alternatives, your procedure should be as follows. First, try to determine whether the word has one or many meanings. If it has many, try to see how they are related.

There are two main possibilities. Either the author is using these words in a single sense throughout or he is using them in two or more senses, shifting his meaning from place to place.

The main point is that one word can be the vehicle for many terms, and one term can be expressed by many words.

Spotting the important words is only the beginning of the task. It merely locates the places in the text where you have to go to work.

The other rules for this stage, to be discussed in the next chapter, are like this one in an important respect. They also require you to take two steps: a step dealing with the language as such, and a step beyond the language to the thought that lies behind it.

This is the first rule for the second stage of analytical reading, the aim of which is not the outlining of a book’s structure but the interpretation of its contents or message.

The second part is to determine the meaning of these words, as used, with precision.

Note that the rule has two parts. The first part is to locate the important words, the words that make a difference.