How to Study

A printed page can make a parrot of you. George Fillmore Swain opens with a challenge: don’t let the book master you—master it.

In this practical guide to learning, Swain asks students to bring courage, judgment, and attention to every page. Reading is not understanding, he insists; a fact may be accepted on good authority, but a conclusion must be examined and an opinion tested. From the weight of water to the angles of a triangle, each claim invites a different kind of thought. The stakes are more than remembering a lesson: study can train a mind to question and reason—or leave it repeating words without grasping them. As you read, what should you accept, what should you prove, and what must you keep asking?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.