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Ask HN: How Do You Read?

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Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#151

Post by itcrowd »

I realize I'm a bit late to this party but here's how I read a book I don't want to forget about:

1. Before starting, take a fresh sheet of paper and enumerate the chapter numbers of the book. Each on a separate line.

2. After finishing each chapter: stop reading, contemplate the main message and try to pen it down at the corresponding chapter numbers of step 1. Focus on writing it in your own words / rephrasing. Key question for chapters >1: what information did I forget to mention in my microsummary until now? Include that in the new summary, don't edit the old one.

3. Turn the page of your sheet after completing the book. Now write a (max) 1-page summary of the book without looking at your other notes.

4. Compare the summary with your notes. Satisfied? Ready! Not satisfied? Get another sheet and rewrite your 1-page summary, taking extra care to mention the missed points of the first summary.

My experience is that you don't really need the chapter notes while writing the summary, since it is now part of your long-term memory because of the writing.

Bonus: 1-page, personal summary of key points in the book you just read. If you forgot the points of a book, take it off the shelf and consult your 1-page summary.

YMMV but it works for me.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#152

Post by ffwacom »

mattlondon wrote: post #49

Interesting... Lots of people seem to read a lot of books - I get lots of recommendations from people at work and stuff. People talk about reading a book a week or whatever. I've never enjoyed reading books - right from childhood up to now. I try to avoid it. I have gifts from birthdays and christmases from years ago where the book sits entirely unread on the shelf for a year or two until I give it away once the guil…

The idea's in media and the news necessarily end up dumbed down to appeal to a wide variety of people. There's also a bunch of things you just can't say if you're broadcasting to millions. Even reddit, hackernews and niche forums end up being rehashes of the same thing. Almost all of it is tainted by some commercial or political agenda as well.

Once you get bored and start to see the patterns, books are there to expand your worldview.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#153

Post by starpilot »

guidoism wrote: post #16

Great question! In my fourth decade of life I’m finally figuring out the optimal way to do this myself. I’ve forgotten so so many books over the years that I supposedly read. Read How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer Adler. ( https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Classic-Intelligent/dp/... ) I’ve given this book to a bunch of people on my teams as it also helps with communicating id…

"How to Read a Book" prescribes reading a book 3-4 times. Just the sheer repetition will help you get more out of it.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#154

Post by craigbaker »

Try reading a good text multiple times, even to the point of memorizing it. Especially in the past, many cultures viewed memorization as essential to truly engaging with a text. Another way to engage more deeply with a good, classic text is to read commentary on it.

Obviously you can't treat everything you read this way, but for a few really good classics this has been a fruitful approach for me. For a novel, maybe you could just memorize a few passages. When you have the words rolling around in your head, you'll find that you recall them at just the right time.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#155

Post by ch3ckmat3 »

When I read a book, in the middle of a paragraph, I start getting new ideas related to the topic, and my mind shifts focus to the news ideas, while my eyes keep tracing the text on the book, and obviously I'm not "reading" now, I'm just wandering in my thoughts. And when I realize that I have drifted from the book, I just go back to the text from which my mind drifted.

Some times this happens a lot, and I take so much time finishing what I am reading.

Am I the only one, or you guys also have similar experience? Just curious.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#156

Post by zwkrt »

guidoism wrote: post #84
guidoism wrote: post #16

Great question! In my fourth decade of life I’m finally figuring out the optimal way to do this myself. I’ve forgotten so so many books over the years that I supposedly read. Read How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer Adler. ( https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Classic-Intelligent/dp/... ) I’ve given this book to a bunch of people on my teams as it also helps with communicating id…

Somebody wrote "Not to sound rude, but how can one judge what idea one needs to see as 'important' while skimming through the book if they have no clue of what the book is about?" and then deleted it. I'd still like to reply because it's a good question. Here goes... That's a perfectly good question. I used to think that skimming was worthless, only something that people who didn't actually care about information did…

I like this methodology, it’s like you’re dating a book before deciding to commit!

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#157

Post by SquishyPanda23 »

guidoism wrote: post #16

Great question! In my fourth decade of life I’m finally figuring out the optimal way to do this myself. I’ve forgotten so so many books over the years that I supposedly read. Read How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer Adler. ( https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Classic-Intelligent/dp/... ) I’ve given this book to a bunch of people on my teams as it also helps with communicating id…

How to Read a Book is great, and so is the sarcastic response How to Read Two Books: http://scriptoriumdaily.com/how-to-read-two-books-erasmus-ad...

:)

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#158

Post by betocmn »

ch3ckmat3 wrote: post #155

When I read a book, in the middle of a paragraph, I start getting new ideas related to the topic, and my mind shifts focus to the news ideas, while my eyes keep tracing the text on the book, and obviously I'm not "reading" now, I'm just wandering in my thoughts. And when I realize that I have drifted from the book, I just go back to the text from which my mind drifted. Some times this happens a lot, and I take so muc…

Same. For me, the only way to regain focus is to write the idea/worry down in a Trello board to be rechecked in a few days. It helps me not only getting back to the book but also giving time to let poor ideas die out organically.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#159

Post by zwkrt »

mattlondon wrote: post #49

Interesting... Lots of people seem to read a lot of books - I get lots of recommendations from people at work and stuff. People talk about reading a book a week or whatever. I've never enjoyed reading books - right from childhood up to now. I try to avoid it. I have gifts from birthdays and christmases from years ago where the book sits entirely unread on the shelf for a year or two until I give it away once the guil…

When you have thoughts, including your inner monologue and what you say aloud to other people, they are entirely made up of words and phrases and ideas. If you had never been inculcated by a culture of people, you would have no complex thoughts at all because you wouldn’t have any language to hang them on. Reading books is a really great way to develop empathy by understanding how others think, and also broadens your arsenal of useful thoughts for navigating the world.

“A dog can look forward to seeing his master. But can he look forward to seeing his master next Wednesday?”

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#160

Post by disabled »

This is slightly off topic but some people may find this setup interesting. I have a print-related disability, so I use screen readers to speak printed material to me. I actually prefer synthesized speech over human narrated audio. The screen readers I use:

* Voice Dream Reader (available on iOS and Android, but it is much better on iOS)

* Kurzweil 3000 (available on Windows and MacOS), plus Kurzweil3000.com (on any OS)

I have access to an amazing library, which is specifically designed for people with print-related disabilities, called Bookshare.org, which interfaces with both Voice Dream Reader and Kurzweil 3000.

I use Voice Dream Reader on an iPhone when driving or on the go (when I want to be discrete), to read books to me. I can usually understand 99%+ of what is being read while driving.

Also, when I am on the go, I will take my Surface Go with me and use Kurzweil 3000, which gives me a tablet-like experience. I also have a 17" laptop at home which I tremendously enjoy using for immersive reading with Kurzweil 3000. I can also take a bunch of really cool notes on it too. Another cool feature is that I can save super high quality mp3s of synthesized speech to my phone using Kurzweil 3000, if I want to.

The audio quality is stellar on both, but I have a USB sound card that I use on the Windows machines, known as a Sound BlasterX G6, to make it even better. I also have a comfortable gaming headset which I use on the Windows machines.

If there is a book that is not available on Bookshare.org, I will buy a physical copy, go to the local Fedex|Kinko's to get the book binding cut, then I will scan it with a Fujitsu Scansnap iX1500, which has a duplex automatic document feeder.

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