How to make multiple books answer your questions. Below are the five steps of syntopical reading.
Syntopical reading sounds complicated. It's not. Mortimer Adler broke it into five clear steps in How to Read a Book. Each step shifts control from the author to you.
In my previous article, I explained what syntopical reading is and when to use it. Now let's get practical. Here's how the method works.
Have you read:
Syntopical Reading: A Hidden Gem in Adler’s Classic
The Five Steps of Syntopical Reading Explained: First, Choose Your Books
Before starting the five steps, gather your sources. You want books that address the same problem from different angles.
Decision-making works well as an example. Smart people have studied it for decades. They don't all agree.
You might gather books like:
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- Sources of Power by Gary Klein
- Decisive by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
- Superforecasting by Philip Tetlock
- Think Again by Adam Grant
These authors come from different disciplines. They emphasize different things. Some focus on errors. Others focus on expert judgment. Some offer frameworks. Others stress mindset.
That variety is exactly what you need.
Step 1: Find the Relevant Passages
Your problem comes first. Not the book.
You don't read cover to cover. You hunt. Preview the table of contents. Read the introduction, preface, and foreword. Check the index. Flip through chapters. Look for passages that speak to your specific question.
Let's say your question is: How should I make important decisions under uncertainty?
In each book, find the sections that address this. Skip everything else. Most of any book won't be relevant. That's okay. You're solving a problem, not completing an assignment.
Keep a document with the passages you find. Note the page numbers. You'll return to these later.
Step 2: Create a Common Vocabulary
Each author uses different terms. This makes comparison difficult.
One author talks about “System 1 thinking.” Another calls it “pattern recognition.” A third says “gut instinct.” Are they describing the same thing? Hard to tell.
You solve this by creating neutral terms. Become the translator.
For decision-making, you might define:
- Intuitive judgment: fast decisions based on patterns
- Analytical judgment: slow decisions based on deliberate reasoning
- Decision process: steps or frameworks for structuring choices
- Calibration: how well confidence matches accuracy
- Revision: willingness to change your mind
Now translate each author into your vocabulary. This makes real comparison possible.
Step 3: Define Your Questions
You need a structure for your investigation. Questions provide that structure.
You decide what questions matter. Then interpret each author as responding to them.
For decision-making, your questions might be:
- When should we trust intuitive judgment?
- When should we use analytical judgment?
- What processes improve decision outcomes?
- How do we know if our confidence is accurate?
- What helps people revise their views?
The authors didn't write their books to answer your questions. But their work contains relevant material. Your job is finding it.
Some authors will address your questions directly. Others indirectly. Some may be silent on certain questions. That's fine.
Step 4: Identify Where Authors Disagree
This is the heart of syntopical reading.
Look at how each author answers your questions. Where they agree, note the consensus. Where they disagree, you've found an issue.
Not all disagreements are real. Sometimes authors seem to conflict but are actually discussing different contexts.
One author might say intuition is unreliable. Another might say expert intuition is powerful. Contradiction? Maybe not.
Look closer. The first author studied domains with poor feedback. The second studied experts in fields with clear, immediate feedback.
The real issue becomes: What conditions make intuition reliable?
This refinement is what syntopical reading produces. You don't just spot disagreements. You understand their source.
Step 5: Analyze the Debate
Now step back from individual books. Focus on the conversation you've constructed.
Arrange your questions in logical order. Show how authors differ and why. Ground every claim in the texts.
Your synthesis might sound like this:
“These authors occupy a spectrum on intuitive versus analytical judgment. Some emphasize intuition's dangers. Others highlight its power. The central issue isn't whether intuition is good or bad. It's under what conditions intuition becomes reliable.”
Notice what this accomplishes. You haven't picked a winner. You've mapped the terrain. And you understand the debate well enough to think for yourself.
What You've Built
After these five steps, you have something no single book provides.
You have a map. It shows where thinkers agree. It shows where they clash and why. It reveals the assumptions behind each position.
This map is yours.
- You built it through active investigation.
- You translated authors into shared language.
- You asked your own questions.
- You staged a debate between people who have never met.
Adler said syntopical reading helps you understand the subject, not just the books. That distinction matters. When you finish one book, you understand one author. When you finish syntopical reading, you understand the problem itself.
Try It Yourself
Start small. Pick a problem you care about. Find three books that approach it differently. Work through the five steps, even roughly.
You won't do it perfectly. That's fine. Even partial syntopical reading sharpens your thinking.
If you want structured practice, I teach this method in my Applied Knowledge is Power workshop. Participants apply the method to their own challenges.
But Adler published this in 1972. The steps haven't changed. What's changed is how few readers use them.
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