Ask HN: Best books under 200 pages for developers?

A Philosophy of Software Design.

Very well-written. At 190 pages, quite likely finish-able in a weekend. But if you get 70% of the way through it, that is still very valuable. It makes sense as an underlying set of principles that explain why you would use design patterns.

For those of you who claim to start and finish a book in a weekend, are you spending literally the entire weekend doing nothing by reading? Do you take breaks? Do you speed read? Do you take notes? What's your strategy?

I am single. I have no kids. I am not allowed to go outside because of the lockdown. I have 32 hours in a weekend. I can spend 8 hours for reading and I think it is enough to finish a 150-pages book. I am reading books with my kindle, underlining important parts, and putting them into Goodreads at the end.

For me, some books are much easier than others and that plays a big role in how fast I finish reading.

> are you spending literally the entire weekend doing nothing by reading?

For the most part, yes.

> Do you take breaks?

Yes.

> Do you speed read?

No.

> Do you take notes?

Usually I take notes on things that jump out at me while I read. I don't take a lot of notes. Maybe one note every ten pages or so.

> What's your strategy?

Stay off of reddit and hacker news. Instead of spending time on the internet in the mornings or if I feel board, I reach for the book I am trying to finish and I keep my phone somewhere it can't distract me. Very tempting to get distracted and start looking at your phone. Before you know it you're five pages deep on reddit and half an hour is gone.

Another thing I do pretty frequently is flip to the next chapter and tell my self, only x pages to until I get to that chapter. It helps me stay focused and motivated.

The Mythical Man Month