X-raying a Book



Rule 2.

State the unity of the whole book in a single sentence, or at most a few sentences (a short paragraph).


The author describes this rule as discover the theme or the central point of the reading.


Rule 3.

Set forth the major parts of the book, and show how these are organized into a whole, by being ordered to one another and to the unity of the whole.
For the third rule the author explain it by giving us a example of an analogy. It was about a house and all that a house is composed by to be useful to us as humans, all part of the house are separate but also are unified in a house. The same is with a book all chapters are separate but is necessary of one another to compose a book that in this analogy is like the house.


“As houses are more or less livable, so books are more or less readable”
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For this rule the author recommend to obey the proceeding as follows:


(1) The author accomplished this plan in five major parts:


- First part is about so and so
- The second part is about such and such
- The third part is about this.
- The fourth part about that.
- The fifth part about still another thing.



(2) The first of these major parts is divided into three sections:


-The first considers X.
-The second considers Y
-The third considers Z.

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The First Stage of Analytical Reading, or Rules for Finding What a Book Is About


1. Classify the book according to kind and subject matter.
2. State what the whole book is about with the utmost brevity.
3. Enumerate its major parts in their order and relation, and outline these parts as you have outlined the whole.
4. Define the problem or problems the author is trying to solve.


 In the first section of the first part, the author makes four points.
-The first is A
-The second B,
-The third C
- The fourth D and so on and so forth.

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Discovering the Author’s Intentions





Rule 4.

Find out what the au- thor’s problems were.

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The author gives us some questions that are frequently asked in the theoretical and practical knowledge. He mention that them can help us to discover the problems a book has tried to solve.

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Theoretical Questions:


-Does something exist?
-What kind of thing is it?
-What caused it to exist, or under what conditions can it exist, or why does it    exist?
-What purpose does it serve?
-What are the consequences of its existence?
-What are its characteristic properties, its typical traits?
-What are its relations to other things of a similar sort, or of a different sort?
-How does it behave?



Practical Questions:


-What ends should be sought?
-What means should be chosen to a given end?
-What things must one do to gain a certain objective, and in what order?
-Under these conditions, what is the right thing to do, or the better rather than the worse?
- Under what conditions would it is better to do this rather than that?

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The First Stage of Analytical Reading


The First Stage of Analytical Reading, or Rules for Finding What a Book Is About


1.Classify the book according to kind and subject matter.
2.State what the whole book is about with the utmost brevity.
3. Enumerate its major parts in their order and relation, and outline these parts as you have outlined the whole.
4. Define the problem or problems the author is trying to solve.