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Ask HN: How Do You Read?

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Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#201

Post by eddyerburgh »

It depends on the type of book.

For technical books, I take notes as I read. Once I reach the end of a chapter, I reword the rough notes and research anything I didn't fully understand. You can read my notes if you're interested: https://notes.eddyerburgh.me/

For fiction books, I highlight paragraphs I find interesting as I read on my kindle . When I finish, I use my highlights to write a short review of the book.

I've stopped reading most self-help/ business books now. I just read other people's notes on them instead.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#202

Post by alg_fun »

If there are no graphs or formulas in the book, I prefer to use a text-to-speech engine. Over the years I've become able to listen to it on great speeds. It feels easier to comprehend spoken language.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#203

Post by s9w »

harubi wrote: post #145
cgag wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've gained a ton though random wanderings on the internet and wikipedia and so on but it's really not the same as reading one in depth work a person put 500+ hours of their life into.

Yeah, a book is researched, thoughtful and laying a long, and complicated argument. Just the act of reading the long forms of ideas will make you better at thinking. Reading a Wikipedia page or watching a video, almost always dismisses the ideas that lead to a conclusion, which is what you need if you want to THINK, not walk around with containerized ideas that other people came up with.

But most books could be a 100th of the size they are

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#204

Post by michalu »

I have also found that I often forget entire books, and that quality of reading beats quantity.

I use kindle and take a lot of notes. Then whenever I am in a situation where I don't have a kindle and not much to do, such in public transport, instead of going on social media I use kindle app on my phone a flick though the notes, or turn them into flashcards and basically go over all the main points.

Because you're taking notes throughout the book, you've created a kind of a map so it's very easy to refresh what you've read.

I also like the idea of re-reading the best books again and again. I've got this from Naval's podcast.

Some books are the condensed life knowledge, to read it once you won't get all the points. With great books, every re-reading you learn something new. It's better to acquire somebody's "life knowledge" in full depth and completely than accumulate a high number of shallowly read books.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#205

Post by atmosx »

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…

Skimming and evaluating a book, chapter or paragraph quickly is a skill that can be acquired with practice.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#206

Post by weiweiwei »

If I reeeeally like a book (examples include: war and peace, accelerando, 100 years of solitude, neuromancer) I usually read it halfway through, put it down for a while, sometimes a week, sometimes a month, sometimes a year or more, go read lighter or non-fix stuff, write and contemplate on the book I'm ruminating over, then go back and read it from the beginning, all the way through. I love doing it like this. During the rumination period I often go back and look up specific passages in the book to accompany my thoughts.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#207

Post by fapjacks »

s9w wrote: post #203
harubi wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, a book is researched, thoughtful and laying a long, and complicated argument. Just the act of reading the long forms of ideas will make you better at thinking. Reading a Wikipedia page or watching a video, almost always dismisses the ideas that lead to a conclusion, which is what you need if you want to THINK, not walk around with containerized ideas that other people came up with.

But most books could be a 100th of the size they are

I think you're reading the wrong books, then. I wish the books I read were 100 times longer.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#208

Post by gbachik »

Audiobooks. My father used to read to me growing up and while I’ve tried to get into reading a few times I’m just a terribly slow reader. I have to read the same page 4/5 times to grasp any situation and honestly I just feel like I don’t have the time to read.

Audiobooks have single handedly fixed all of this for me. I’ve been able to listen to and grasp things like the dune series and how to win friends and influence people (unabridged).

Simply listen to an audiobook in your car or headphones on your way to work or at the gym or before you sleep <3

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#209

Post by Broken_Hippo »

mkagenius wrote: post #55
Elof wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you every tried listening to content. I’m adhd and dyslexic and have found that I retain content I listen to far far better than sight reading.

Listening is definitely better, but your mind will start to wander if you get bored. You have to forcefully do something to get back your attention.

I doodle. At home, I work on artwork, preferably putting in details or something else somewhat "mindless" - anything where the artwork is mostly autopilot.

The same thing works for many repetitive activities. Wear headphones while doing dishes. Listen while driving, walking, anything of the sort. The important thing is to have something that takes up a bit of brain, but not too much.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#210

Post by sebst »

I experienced the same: reading one book after another felt like information overload, taking notes helped a bit.

In addition to taking notes, I started to summarise chapters or the whole book.

This takes significantly more time, but the effect is huge.

Given the amount of great books and my limited human life style, I also sometimes have the feeling of missing something. The FOMO is a concept fundamentally tied to the human psychology. I try to reduce it by categorising my reading list into A, B and C books (where A books get my biggest attention). My policy is to read and summarise A books, speed read B books and rely on someone else's summaries for C books.

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