{"id":45099,"date":"2021-08-07T19:02:25","date_gmt":"2021-08-07T23:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=45099"},"modified":"2021-08-15T19:15:47","modified_gmt":"2021-08-15T23:15:47","slug":"evaluate-a-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/evaluate-a-book\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Evaluate a Book and Its Author"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do you want to know the best way to evaluate a book? How should you handle a disagreement with a book’s author? What are the different categories of disagreement?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their book How to Read a Book<\/em>, authors Adler and Van Doren discuss the steps you should take to evaluating a book. They say that you must first determine whether the author has answered your questions, evaluate the author’s answers, and then try to understand the author’s point of view before arguing with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue reading for more on how to evaluate a book and its author, according to Adler and Van Doren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

How to Evaluate a Book<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to the author of How to Read a Book, <\/em>Adler and Van Doren, when evaluating a book, your job is to determine which of her questions the author has answered and which she has not, and to decide if the author knew she had failed to answer them<\/strong>. (Shortform note: As you begin to evaluate a book, you may also want to think about the subject as a whole and ask yourself: Are there any important ideas the author didn\u2019t<\/em> mention? Did she leave anything out? If so, how would that missing information change your impression of her argument?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Complete Your Understanding First<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Much like having a conversation with an author, Adler and Van Doren contend that you need to give the author the chance to express herself fully before passing judgment. If you interrupted the author at each sentence to say she\u2019s wrong, you\u2019re not having a conversation that can lead to learning. <\/strong>Therefore, you must finish the other tasks above (outlining the book, defining main terms, understanding the main arguments) before criticizing. Otherwise, your criticism will be meaningless because you won\u2019t be criticizing the author\u2019s actual argument. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: You\u2019ll need to use your own best judgment to decide if you fully understand the author\u2019s arguments. However, if you\u2019re new to the book\u2019s subject, you should be especially cautious about deciding you understand because the less you know about a subject, the more likely you are to overestimate your understanding. This is the essence of the Dunning-Kruger effect<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The knowledge to understand the author may be present in other works by the author. (Shortform note: Adler and Van Doren cite the example of ancient authors like Aristotle and Plato, but this may also be true of modern authors of multiple books. For example, to fully understand Nassim Nicholas Taleb\u2019s Antifragile<\/em><\/a>, you need to understand the ideas in his earlier work, The Black Swan<\/em><\/a>.<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Criticize Well<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In Adler and Van Doren\u2019s view, criticizing a book means to comment, \u201cI agree,\u201d \u201cI disagree,\u201d or \u201cI suspend judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you\u2019re criticizing an author, Adler and Van Doren caution against being overly contentious or combative. Remember that disagreement is an opportunity to learn something new. Here are some tips for keeping an open mind<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n