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Ways to Read More Books

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Re: Ways to Read More Books

#21

Post by omilu »

nextos wrote: post #19

I love reading technical books slowly, and digesting all content. Relocating around Europe made it quite tough to carry all my book hardcopies with me: SICP, CTM, TAOP... Finally, it seems 13 inch eink readers with support for arbitrary formats (thanks to them running Android, or even capable to process input HDMI video) will become mainstream. To me that's the way to read more books. Thousands of technical books in…

Are you referring to this? https://www.amazon.com/Onyx-Max-13-3-Flexible-Handwriting/dp...

Have you tried it? I personally can't stand reading technicle books on my 6"kindle. If the 13" is a better experience I'm upgrading.

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#22

Post by jonnybgood »

The game changer for me was actually learning how to read a book. I no longer approach books the same way after having read How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler [1]. Once you have a method down, you can go through books rather quickly and retain knowledge. My biggest epiphany is that you don't need to read a book in its entirety to know all that it has to say.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Intelligent-Touchstone/...

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#23

Post by rdl »

My biggest aids to reading more books have been technical:

1) Goodreads to track books, maintain a to-read queue, share reviews, etc. Plus the "reading challenge" feature, which shows if you're on-track or not (2016: 52 originally, then 68. 2017 goal: 78, but possibly 104.)

2) Kindle -- not having to physically deal with books while traveling, and having access to my entire collection.

3) Audible -- when driving, flying, trying to fall asleep, etc., audiobooks are preferable to text (at least for me). Certain books work very well as audiobooks (better than text, even), and some are worse.

4) Synced audio/kindle -- being able to switch back and forth on a single book between the two formats on demand

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#25

Post by jmartrican »

This article is geared towards reading more books like its a race. It would seem better to reread a few books to really grasp them. I think there is something to be said for rereading versus reading more new books.

How many times were we discussing something we read and all we can really say is "I read a book on it. something to do about blah blah. I forget the details." No real insight or grasping of the material in one read.

Maybe a book club that focuses more on grasping fewer books very intimately over constantly reading new ones. Just a thought.

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#26

Post by dharmon »

GabrielF00 wrote: post #20
dharmon wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One downside of tracking the books I read is that I have a subtle resistance to starting super long books, because I know for that month I'll only end up reading 2 books instead of 5. It's really stupid but a side effect of tracking / counting. It means I unnecessarily postponed reading excellent books such as "Titan" by Chernow.

I've gotten around this (at least a little) by tracking pages read instead of books read.

That's actually a really good idea. Might also make me prioritize articles more if they contribute to a "page count".

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#27

Post by british_india »

jmartrican wrote: post #25

This article is geared towards reading more books like its a race. It would seem better to reread a few books to really grasp them. I think there is something to be said for rereading versus reading more new books. How many times were we discussing something we read and all we can really say is "I read a book on it. something to do about blah blah. I forget the details." No real insight or grasping of the material in…

When you get comfortable reading a lot, you don't need to re-read books. Certainly, a rare few books benefit from multiple readings but not all. I retain a surprising amount of details and can describe passages from Dickens and the main argument of David Cay Johnson's "Perfectly Legal" or the amazing survival story of "Mawson's Will" or an amusing passage in Ernest Hemingway's journalism story "A Free Shave" or the images of the amputation tent in Tolstoy's "The Sebaastopol Sketches--to name a tiny few.

Once your reading is not going "put-put-put" and your unbroken attention span reaches an hour, you may feel like you need to re-read. Certainly, it's a nice experience but it's really a waste of time re-reading everything.

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#28

Post by jmartrican »

intrasight wrote: post #24

I've started "reading" lots of books now that I have Audible. I listen while mowing the lawn, while doing chores, etc. Can easily to a book a week this way.

I love audio books. They have changed my life. Though I find it hard to proselytize friends and family over to the audio side. They all give the same reason, "i tried it and it didn't work" or "i have not tried it and i know it wont work". IMHO, I think more people should give it a shot, a real honest attempt. My first audio book was Ender's Game, so maybe starting off with a bang is the way to go.

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#29

Post by british_india »

peruvian wrote: post #12
inops wrote: post #3

There seems to something of a cargo-cult mentality underlined in this article. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Stephen King and Mark Zuckerberg all read loads of books (that's how they made their money!) Unless you have some set goal to know a certain body of knowledge (as I presume the four above have), reading should be done leisurely -- not a race to read, and half-understand, as many books as possible.

Agreed. I'd rather read books in my couch at my own pace than feel stressed about finishing the latest non fiction self help book. The best way to read more books is to make time for it and read books you enjoy.

Read hardbacks in the bath tub. That's the secret.
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