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Ways to Read More Books

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Re: Ways to Read More Books

#31

Post by jmartrican »

british_india wrote: post #27
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 i…

I agree wholeheartedly for fiction, where reading for enjoyment is concerned. But even good fiction deserves multiple reads. Where rereading is more of an essential is with non-fiction. Especially non-fiction that is read for the purpose of obtaining and using the information. A few examples would be The Selfish Gene, How To Win Friends And Influence People, Better Angels of Our Nature, and of course The Art of the Deal. Ok maybe not that last one.

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#32

Post by swah »

jonaf wrote: post #14
drc0 wrote: post #13

the deal breaker for me is actually picking up a new book to read, often I stop at the "searching a good book to read". when you start often is inertia.

It sounds like maybe you need a better network of strong recommendations that you would personally find interesting. For me, my interests lie in non-fiction literature, and I have many colleagues who share those interests, and so I often find myself with more interesting literature on my list than I have the free time to read and digest. However, I think that I have a much better problem than you do. I'm certain that…

Also, the classics, lists of great books, influences of the authors of your favorite books...

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#33

Post by tristanho »

jonnybgood wrote: post #22

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-Touc…

Yes! How to Read a Book is amazing. We spend so much of our lives reading, yet very rarely view it as a skill which we can develop, nor do we have goals for our reading other than to absorb as much information as possible.

One of my favorite ideas from the book is the idea of reading for "enlightenment":

"It is true, of course, that you should be able to remember what the author said as well as know what he meant. Being informed is prerequisite to being enlightened. The point, however, is not to stop at being informed."

You don't just want to memorize what an author said, you want to elevate your level of "understanding" to a point where you understand the topic nearly as well as the author does! With that as a goal, your focus quickly shifts from reading 100 books in a year to properly educating yourself.

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#34

Post by tristanho »

hairofadog wrote: post #8
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.

I also found the survivorship-biasy part of the article to be a bit goofy, but I found other parts to be pretty spot on. I have fallen out of the habit of reading this past year (I think in part due to stress over political news) and I've been looking for ways to bring it back into my life. These things hit home: * While I don't think reading will make me successful, I do find the habitual focus/relaxation aspects of…

I think the "survivorship bias" argument for reading is a bit overplayed.

There's practically _zero_ of these mega-successful people (Gates, Buffett, Zuckerburg, Musk, etc.) who don't read. Astonishingly, I can't think of a single one. While that doesn't prove causation, it definitely points at it! Do you want to try to be the first successful person who didn't read?

It's not that reading was this one magical trick that caused them to be successful, but rather that reading was a prerequisite. At least, that's my take.

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#35

Post by cadlin »

tristanho wrote: post #34
hairofadog wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also found the survivorship-biasy part of the article to be a bit goofy, but I found other parts to be pretty spot on. I have fallen out of the habit of reading this past year (I think in part due to stress over political news) and I've been looking for ways to bring it back into my life. These things hit home: * While I don't think reading will make me successful, I do find the habitual focus/relaxation aspects of…

I think the "survivorship bias" argument for reading is a bit overplayed. There's practically _zero_ of these mega-successful people (Gates, Buffett, Zuckerburg, Musk, etc.) who don't read. Astonishingly, I can't think of a single one. While that doesn't prove causation, it definitely points at it! Do you want to try to be the first successful person who didn't read? It's not that reading was this one magical trick t…

Donald Trump?

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#36

Post by nextos »

omilu wrote: post #21
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.

Yes, I am referring to Onyx and others. Onyx is probably the best one, and they will be shortly upgrading to Android 4.4, providing a lower consumption CPU and more importantly HDMI input.

This last feature is a game changer.

I have tried Onyx 13 inch readers, and its a very good experience on technical ebooks, which I get on djvu and pdf formats.

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#37

Post by gbersac »

cadlin wrote: post #35
tristanho wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the "survivorship bias" argument for reading is a bit overplayed. There's practically _zero_ of these mega-successful people (Gates, Buffett, Zuckerburg, Musk, etc.) who don't read. Astonishingly, I can't think of a single one. While that doesn't prove causation, it definitely points at it! Do you want to try to be the first successful person who didn't read? It's not that reading was this one magical trick t…

Donald Trump?

Not much...except Hitler speechs : https://www.quora.com/Does-Donald-Trump-read-books

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#38

Post by tristanho »

This article touches on, in my opinion, the 2 great problems with non-fiction reading nowadays:

* Deciding which book to read next out of the seemingly infinite decision space (which book is optimal?)

* Reading books "well", such that you truly elevate your level of understanding of a topic to that of the author, and then remember what you've learned.

Notably, I think "Read More Books", the title of the article, is more of a symptom. If people could choose the _right_ books and then read them satisfyingly enough to truly become smarter and wiser, reading would be such a great deal that no one would have the problem of needing to read "more".

What's craziest is that these problems are the same ones readers faced centuries ago. Reading hasn't evolved at all! People still prefer reading physical books in the world of the internet and data science. And how do readers choose books? One-off recommendations from people that they may or may not trust.

I think with technology we can do a lot better. Specifically, I've been hacking on solving the two aforementioned problems with books such that we can read and learn like it's really 2017. Would love advice/conversation with any reading-inclined HNers! I'm tristan@rekindled.io

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#39

Post by mbrd »

I've been trying to read more books in 2017, and it's been going well so far and I've read 24 books since January.

The two things that have made the difference for me are:

* use the library! I only paid for 1 of those 24 books. Of the others 1 was a physical book from the library and the other 22 were library ebooks. I rarely find things I want to read that they don't have in ebook format (although often you need to 'request a hold' and wait as they can only loan out each copy to so many people at once). For context, I'm in Austin, TX

* make reading a deliberate evening activity. I used to only read when I was in bed and then be frustrated with my progress. I've started reading on my lunch break at work, and also in place of other evening activities (TV, internet, guitar etc). If I do 30 mins at lunch, an hour in the evening and then some in bed I can finish a reasonable length book per week.

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#40

Post by Jugurtha »

I think it also comes down to attitude. I remember when we didn't have internet at home and I was in middle school through high-school, I'd always have about 20 floppy disks with me so that I could go to an internet café, download pages so I could read them home.

During sophomore year (college, Engineering), I spent a lot of time commuting (could stack up to 6 hours in a day) so I was reading philosophy, economics, neuro linguistic programming, psychology, etc. during this time. I live in a country where I can't just buy any book (low availability) and electronic payment wasn't introduced until recently and I didn't have a laptop 10 years ago, so I'd print 4 book pages per A4 sheet, then they'd get folded an make a small book I'd pierce in the center and sort of bind. 500 sheets were about $5 that time.

I also read everywhere, especially in the toilet, which I think is a habit I picked up from home (I grew up with a book shelf in the toilet and we used to call the bathroom the "National Library"). As a matter of fact, I'm writing these very lines sitting on the throne.

I've never read as much as during my unemployment (I could read like 20 hours per day, but it's not for everyone).

On my way to work and after work, I reach for my laptop and get stuff done if I'm fortunate to have a seat. I work on features, do refactoring, etc. If I'm standing, I get my phone and read an ebook.

By the way, I recently found Aaron Swartz' blog posts in epub format. https://github.com/joshleitzel/rawthought

The takeaway from this is the following:

- Making the most out of time that would otherwise be wasted: amortizing commute time, waiting time, etc.

- Exposing myself to a variety of topics opened up a graph of interest that sent me to different directions and topics. I've learned a lot of things.

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