Bringing a soul of the book to life with How to Mark a Book

Bocharova 2

Veronica Bocharova

Professor Higgins

English Composition 1101 CRN 12824

18 September 2009

Bringing a soul of the book to life with “How to Mark a Book”

Mortimer Adler in his “How to Mark a Book” creates an instruction manual on how to achieve the most out of effective book reading. He claims that the only way to have full ownership of a book is to process it through your mind, put it through your soul and record your thoughts. While describing seven different ways of how and several different reasons why to mark a book Adler gives a reader an encouragement “that marking up a book is not an act of mutilation but of love” (21). According to Adler marking up a book keeps the reader’s thoughts awake and ensures a dialogue between the reader and the author. At the end of an essay he raises up the point that marking books will slow down your reading, which is the exact purpose of marking up a book – so that the reader can process through his or her brain and make the book his or her own.

Mortimer Adler with his “How to Mark a Book” essay opened my eyes on active reading. It can be and should be taken up by any college student or any professional and put into day to day routine. He gives excellent tips on the effective ways of marking the book depending on a reader’s purpose.

Reading about different kinds of book owners clearly reminded me of my Mom who is “deluded individual that owns wood pulp and ink” and myself restrained “with by a false respect” (Adler 21). For the people that want to keep the book nice and clean the author offers using piece of scratch paper, that can later on be inserted in the book.

It is also interesting to mention that not every book has to be effectively read. There are some books that can be read just for fun and relaxation. Those done not ask for any marking or any active thinking process, while other’s