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Lessons learned after 300 books in 4 years

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Re: Lessons learned after 300 books in 4 years

#61

Post by 300 »

ezequiel-garzon wrote: post #35
300 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love your thought, and I tend to agree. There's way too much redundant and unnecessary information in typical books. That's why I think is better to read the best books on the topic more times, than few other average books repeating the same stuff in different words.

If you feel like sharing, does the number 300 hundred hold a special meaning to you for any reason? Your handle, the title of the post, I see a patter, Watson :)

No special meaning at all. I recently realized I almost crossed this number, so I thought to share what I learned.

I'm not proud of the number of books I've read. Actually, I would prefer that I've read less books, but that I've read more times the best ones (in my opinion).

Re: Lessons learned after 300 books in 4 years

#62

Post by 300 »

Paul_S wrote: post #30
300 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your comment Paul! Kudos for a book a day, just in my honest opinion, that's an overkill. I think it's really important to have time to think and make notes about what you read. Even re-reading the same books can often give you different insights, depending on your inner state, life circumstances, etc. I respect your opinion on your points, and I'll not argue those. I shared my insights, based on my experi…

The problem complicating re-reading "the best" book is how do you know which one is the best? Reading a new one has a non-zero chance of reading a better one. A variation on the secretary problem where interviewing can have a negative cost. As for a book a day being overkill - you're right, I'm not going to keep this up next year. Normally I read ~80 books but last year I was unemployed for several months and ended u…

Good question. I put quite a lot of effort to explore available books on the topic, but that would take another (much longer) blog post.

Good luck with your quest! If you need some inspiration for books to read, check out this great list: https://sivers.org/book

Re: Lessons learned after 300 books in 4 years

#63

Post by juvoni »

I've read around 250 books in 4 years.

I agree with a lot of the author's takeaways. I'll try to add some of the lessons I've gotten out of it, that don't appear on his list.

In addition, I post my book reviews at http://juvoni.com/books

- Understand what a book is going to attempt to communicate before you read it, either by checking the table of contents, going through a summary, reading reviews or reading the back or inner cover of a book. http://juvoni.com/book/how-to-read-a-book

- You can read multiple books at a time and not get the narrative scrambled by doing context specific reading by time or location. For example only reading book A while in transit, reading book B before bedtime and only reading book C on weekends. The context specific memory will be attached to when and where you habitually read that specific book. http://juvoni.com/reading-multiple-books

- Not all book recommendations are made equal, even from friends. I use a concept called 'Book Purgatory', where book recommendations go to await judgment on whether they are worthy of your time and attention to read. I do not commit to reading any recommendation. It is only after I give it a review based on what I want or need from a book and the quality of it's reviews do I consider getting it. http://juvoni.com/book-purgatory

- Reading a lot of books when you have a full lifestyle is difficult, it's in you're best interest to stay organized and have a pre-defined list of books you want to read, and intend to read after you are finished and actively track the books you are currently reading. http://juvoni.com/trello-book-reading-management

- Identify your learning styles and device preferences and find books that are a good balance of right medium and comfortable preference. For example, I have a hard time reading history books but find them easier over audible, I also prefer to read books with diagrams as physical rather than e-books. http://juvoni.com/print-ebook-audiobook

- Understand why you read. http://juvoni.com/discovering-love-reading-read-read-smarter

Re: Lessons learned after 300 books in 4 years

#64

Post by dxhdr »

Paul_S wrote: post #2

I decided to read a book a day this year. So far I'm ahead at 336 and here are my counter opinions. "* It’s much better to read the best book on the topic 5 times, than to read 5 different books on the topic once." Flat out no. Unless you're a freaking machine. Reading different books covering the same topic keeps me interested more. I don't mind the repetition then because I get the warm "I know that" feeling. "* Ey…

Best 3 books out of the lot that you can recommend? Thanks!

Re: Lessons learned after 300 books in 4 years

#65

Post by Paul_S »

300 wrote: post #62
Paul_S wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem complicating re-reading "the best" book is how do you know which one is the best? Reading a new one has a non-zero chance of reading a better one. A variation on the secretary problem where interviewing can have a negative cost. As for a book a day being overkill - you're right, I'm not going to keep this up next year. Normally I read ~80 books but last year I was unemployed for several months and ended u…

Good question. I put quite a lot of effort to explore available books on the topic, but that would take another (much longer) blog post. Good luck with your quest! If you need some inspiration for books to read, check out this great list: https://sivers.org/book

Open the page, sort by "best" and see how far up you have to go before you get to a book that doesn't get a negative review. As far as I can tell no one has this figured out yet and it's a no way of proving a program will stop without running it sort of a thing - all we need now is a name for this law relating to books.

Re: Lessons learned after 300 books in 4 years

#66

Post by gwright »

amelius wrote: post #9

I'd like to see some research on how much redundant and unnecessary information is in typical books. I have the feeling that the essence of most books can be simplified to the size of, say, an average blog post. Can't we make reading a lot more efficient than it is right now?

Sure, if you want to trust someone else summary of the material.

Clearly the details have to spelled out somewhere otherwise there would be no way to create a TL;DR version.

I don't think anyone has invented a lossless summary algorithm for natural language so you are inevitably throwing away details, perhaps important details.

Re: Lessons learned after 300 books in 4 years

#67

Post by sanswork »

amelius wrote: post #9

I'd like to see some research on how much redundant and unnecessary information is in typical books. I have the feeling that the essence of most books can be simplified to the size of, say, an average blog post. Can't we make reading a lot more efficient than it is right now?

Self help/productivity/pop business books all seem to follow the same template these days(I had a 100 book reading challenge this year and read a at least a quarter of them fit in one of those groups.

Chapter 1: Tell a bit about the author

Chapter 2: Tell about the amazing thing someone has done because of "the technique"

Chapter 3: Tell about the authors path to discovery

Chapter 4: More stories about amazing things people have achieved(note by this point the author has never mentioned what their great one thing is

Chapter 5: Another bunch of stories about how great the author is

Chapter 6-12: More stories from people about how their life was changed by the author. Possibly a sales pitch for an online course.

Chapter 13: About 2 paragraphs describing something super simple "Start a mailing list"

Chapter 14-25: More stories

Re: Lessons learned after 300 books in 4 years

#68

Post by chillwaves »

B1FF_PSUVM wrote: post #55
dankohn1 wrote: post #48

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” - George R.R. Martin quotes

G.R.R.M. writes well, and I'm a long-time paying customer, but that phrase is advertising bullshit. The reader doesn't 'live' squat, he reads about someone else's life. Watching cooking shows doesn't feed anyone.

Does it have to be "advertising bullshit"? Maybe GRRM sees reading differently than you do? For someone who has devoted their life to writing, that is a sensible perspective.

Re: Lessons learned after 300 books in 4 years

#69

Post by ashark »

Paul_S wrote: post #39
TeMPOraL wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fortunately - and this is something I see many smart people around me not realizing - we live in the day and age where it's trivial to identify and get the very best books humanity has produced about any given topic. That is, as long as you can read English.

How, please tell me. I'll pay you for that list. Do I have to sacrifice my firstborn for this?

For most technical, scientific, and mathematic topics, it's usually very easy to find the next best book to read with a google search or two. Starting on or strengthening long-forgotten Calculus? Probably get Spivak. Et c. This might get tougher as you approach a field's state-of-the-art, but by then "what to read next" will often come from a journal, not a book.

Literature and verse? Harold Bloom's western canon list, whatever its faults, is pretty damn good and could keep one busy for a lifetime. If you want to mix in more works by e.g. women or more asian works or whatever, there are very good lists for that, too:

http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/whatbooks.html

(above includes Bloom's list)

Want to learn science and math from classics? The list from How to Read a Book should help, and St. John's College's reading list is public: https://www.sjc.edu

For a given topic, there's often a subreddit with a decent reading list in the FAQ.

Which topic(s) are you having trouble with?

Re: Lessons learned after 300 books in 4 years

#70

Post by Paul_S »

dxhdr wrote: post #64
Paul_S wrote: post #2

I decided to read a book a day this year. So far I'm ahead at 336 and here are my counter opinions. "* It’s much better to read the best book on the topic 5 times, than to read 5 different books on the topic once." Flat out no. Unless you're a freaking machine. Reading different books covering the same topic keeps me interested more. I don't mind the repetition then because I get the warm "I know that" feeling. "* Ey…

Best 3 books out of the lot that you can recommend? Thanks!

I'm happy to share.

- "The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, Books I-II"

- "The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, books III-IV"

- "The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, books V-VII"

Even though these are genuinely the best books I've read this year and genuinely world-view altering that might be not what you're after. Here are 3 good books I'm happy to recommend instead:

- "Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945" by Tony Judt

- "A History of Future Cities" by Daniel Brook

- "Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space" by Carl Sagan

(if you already read Pale Blue Dot which I appear to be late to the party on try "Wealth, Poverty and Politics: An International Perspective" by Thomas Sowell)

And if you're after fiction instead:

- "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera

- "The Cunning Man" by Robertson Davies

- "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

That's a nice round 10 recommendations so let me have a bonus one for year 2015:

- "The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics"

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