Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Just Read the Book Already

slate.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 200 posts

Re: Just Read the Book Already

#51

Post by tapanjk »

paulpauper wrote: post #11

A lot of non-fiction books have a lot of filler. No need to read 300 pages when a wiki articles or PDF gives you important points

I have to agree with "a lot of filler" part of your comment. This must be a result of the expectation that publishers set for authors regarding the minimum expected length of the book. I found that I would stop reading many books past the first few chapters because then the repetition sets in. The first few chapters deliver the core message and then the author is forced to extend the narrative to deliver the expected word count.

In any case, I find reading a physical book to be more enjoyable and effective (in terms of retention and recall) than reading on a digital screen.

Re: Just Read the Book Already

#52

Post by beat »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #48

Wow, do I feel this pain. As both an author[1] and a book-lover, I've been on both sides of this divide. People just don't consume books the same way they used to. As a reader, I find I have to slowly re-introduce deep reading -- even if I've just been away for a week or two. I usually do this by getting a physical book and a physical distraction device, usually my phone. I go to a place where there's nothing else in…

The Kindle Paperwhite helps a great deal with the e-book reader problem, and having distractions just a click away. It's useless as anything but a book.

Re: Just Read the Book Already

#53

Post by Udo_Schmitz »

zeveb wrote: post #39
nicklovescode wrote: post #26

I found it funny that immediately following the article (at least on mobile) were the worst clickbait ads “10 questions to figure out your mental wealth!”

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock This is an excellent ad-blocker, available for Firefox, Chrome, Edge & macOS Safari. It's well worth using; the only time I see clickbait is when I use someone else's computer.

Safari version looks to be abandonware :/

Re: Just Read the Book Already

#54

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #48

Wow, do I feel this pain. As both an author[1] and a book-lover, I've been on both sides of this divide. People just don't consume books the same way they used to. As a reader, I find I have to slowly re-introduce deep reading -- even if I've just been away for a week or two. I usually do this by getting a physical book and a physical distraction device, usually my phone. I go to a place where there's nothing else in…

> I don't think I could do it with an e-book reader. In those things, they put the distraction stuff just a click away. Hell, they'll sell you more distraction stuff you can play the millisecond you get bored with the text.

I have owned some model of Kindle for six years now. For each device I have owned, I put it in airplane mode as soon as I took it out of the box and I kept it that way. (I generally download what I want to read from pirated ebook communities, so no need to deal with an online bookshop’s ecosystem.) It is not hard to avoid distractions of being sold more stuff.

Re: Just Read the Book Already

#55

Post by 0xffff2 »

zeveb wrote: post #39
nicklovescode wrote: post #26

I found it funny that immediately following the article (at least on mobile) were the worst clickbait ads “10 questions to figure out your mental wealth!”

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock This is an excellent ad-blocker, available for Firefox, Chrome, Edge & macOS Safari. It's well worth using; the only time I see clickbait is when I use someone else's computer.

Not available on iOS AFAIK.

Re: Just Read the Book Already

#56

Post by ramblerman »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #48

Wow, do I feel this pain. As both an author[1] and a book-lover, I've been on both sides of this divide. People just don't consume books the same way they used to. As a reader, I find I have to slowly re-introduce deep reading -- even if I've just been away for a week or two. I usually do this by getting a physical book and a physical distraction device, usually my phone. I go to a place where there's nothing else in…

> Then I read as much as I can until I feel "bothered" (beats me what the correct adjective is here. "Bored"?) At that point I pick up the distraction device and poke around: Twitter, Facebook, HN, and so on. I make an effort to put it down. Eventually I succeed, then back to reading.

This sounds reinforcing. I understand you have to fight through the boredom a bit, but not sure giving yourself a quick fiddle on your phone is optimal.

Re: Just Read the Book Already

#57

Post by wenc »

paulpauper wrote: post #11

A lot of non-fiction books have a lot of filler. No need to read 300 pages when a wiki articles or PDF gives you important points

Agree. There are usually one 2-3 good ideas in most non-fiction books these days. I don't feel any guilt about skimming and not finishing such books.

Another effective way to absorb the main points quickly is to Youtube the author giving a longish talk about his/her book, typically Talks at Google or some such. Or a podcast in which the author discusses the book.

Re: Just Read the Book Already

#59

Post by commandlinefan »

Bucephalus355 wrote: post #3

For fiction I read e-books. However for all technical books, things like O’Reilly, No Starch, etc, I always buy physical. The decision to do that has very much 10x my learning. Even when it comes to long documentation (MySQL is an astounding 5,000+ pages) I’ll usually print out portions to cover if it’s reasonable. I don’t know why this has increased my learning so much. The best I can come up with is that memory is…

> for all technical books, things like O’Reilly, No Starch, etc, I always buy physical

Same here. I always feel odd when I'm reading a physical book at my desk, though, since I've never, ever, not even once in 25 years, seen anybody else actually reading a book - not even the ones who have a shelf full of them at their desks.

Re: Just Read the Book Already

#60

Post by bradhoffman »

So what I am hearing here is that practicing reading will help develop that skill of deep reading? I remember in High School when I used to run through my History textbooks and loving the process, remembering most everything I encountered. Now (5 years later), I feel this block in my mind that prevents me from going deep on those topics. It's hard to describe, but it feels like the material isn't being absorbed... Somehow it's getting stuck in my short-term memory and not making it much further unless I really study the material.
Post reply on HN