How to Read a Book: Dewey Decimal Number and Edition Guide
Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren
How to Read a Book has 028 in the selected Library of Congress record for the revised and updated edition by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren. The entry gives publication information as 1972 and includes paperback ISBN 9780671212094. Keep the initial zero: 028 is the classification reported here. The recorded subject is reading. This is a useful starting point for someone who wants to improve how they approach a book, rather than locate a work of literature simply because the title contains the word book.
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The edition behind this number
What problem should you bring to this reading guide?
The publisher describes a guide to different levels of reading and to approaches suited to different kinds of books. It includes critical reading, inspection, and ways of identifying an author’s message. A useful first question is therefore what you want from the next book you open. Are you trying to determine whether it answers a research question, understand its argument, or compare it with another account? Those goals call for different attention, even when the physical act of reading the words looks much the same.
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Before a session, write a question that the chosen book might answer and a brief statement of what you already think. After reading, separate information you learned from an explanation you now understand better. This is an original planning exercise, not a reproduction of the authors’ formal method. It makes progress visible without reducing reading to pages completed. If the question remains unanswered, that result can still be useful: it may reveal a mismatch between the book’s purpose and the task you assigned it.
Sources: [2]
Which edition and authors does the record identify?
The edition statement says revised and updated, and the responsibility statement names both Adler and Van Doren. The selected entry is therefore more specific than a reference to Adler’s book in general. The publisher notes that the work originally appeared in 1940, whereas this record describes the later revised publication. For a seminar or reading group, the combined author credit and edition wording help identify the version under discussion. They are particularly useful when an older title appears in several formats and publication histories.
The catalogue names Simon and Schuster and records 1972 in brackets; the matching publisher page identifies a Touchstone trade paperback with an August 1972 date. Preserve the catalogue’s own wording when documenting the classification source. The record lists the paperback ISBN alongside another identifier, so check the qualifier rather than assuming that every number in the entry represents the same format. An accurate reading-list entry can retain both authors, the revised edition, and the paperback ISBN without forcing historical and current publisher descriptions into identical wording.
What does this particular 028 result tell you?
The source supplies 028 and the subject reading. It does not include a Dewey-edition marker in the original 082 field. Report that information as observed rather than filling the missing marker from the publication date. The absence of a scheme edition does not make the number disappear, nor does it license a guess about which edition was used. For a catalogue worksheet, the useful distinction is between a recorded value, a missing value, and an interpretation supplied by the person making the worksheet.
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The number also illustrates why a book about reading need not be classified as literature simply because it discusses literary works. Here the object of instruction is the activity of reading itself. That interpretation follows the explicit subject and title in this record. If your project is about a particular novel, a history of literature, or teaching one language, this guide may contribute a method without being the main source for the subject matter. Identifying that role helps prevent a general reading guide from doing a job it was not selected to do.
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How does a reading guide relate to a writing reference?
The Elements of Style offers a useful contrast. Its selected record gives 808.042 and subjects for English rhetoric, style, and report writing. That description points toward producing and revising prose, while How to Read a Book’s subject concerns reading. A student working on an essay might use both, but at different stages: one resource can help frame the encounter with an argument, and the other can help inspect the resulting written explanation. The catalogue distinction makes the complementary roles clearer than simply labelling both as books about books.
A practical paired exercise is to write a short account of an argument you have read, then inspect the account for two separate problems. First, does it accurately represent what the source argues? Second, can another reader follow your own explanation? A clear sentence can still misrepresent a source, and an accurate interpretation can still be difficult to follow. These are suggested evaluation questions rather than quotations from either book. They show why reading comprehension and prose revision are connected skills without treating them as the same task.
How can a group use the revised edition productively?
Choose one common text and agree on a question before comparing answers. Have each reader distinguish the author’s central claim from an example used to support it, then identify the passage that led to that interpretation. When interpretations differ, return to the passage before voting for the most persuasive speaker. This is a proposed group workflow appropriate to a guide about critical reading. It makes disagreement a source of questions and gives participants something more concrete to discuss than whether they generally liked the book.
The publisher describes coverage across several genres, so a group should also identify the kind of work being read. A practical manual, a poem, and a historical argument may reward different questions. Do not assume that a method used for one text automatically settles another. When consulting this edition, note the relevant section and edition details with your discussion record. The result is a usable reading trail: the text examined, the interpretive question, the evidence discussed, and the revised reading guide used to organise the session.
Sources for this edition guide
The record lists a valid ISBN associated with this edition. That does not independently verify every metadata field, establish a universal number for every version, or give the complete local shelf location. Compare the source with your copy.
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Keep exploring
Learn how to read the number, view the ten-class chart, or read how sources and editions are handled.