Ask HN: How Do You Read? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#41

Post by 3pt14159 » Sat, Aug 31, 2019, 6:48 PM UTC

guidoism wrote: post #16

Great question! In my fourth decade of life I’m finally figuring out the optimal way to do this myself. I’ve forgotten so so many books over the years that I supposedly read. Read How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer Adler. ( https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Classic-Intelligent/dp/... ) I’ve given this book to a bunch of people on my teams as it also helps with communicating id…

I lost my Commonplace Book with all my notes from my previous readings in a trip to a hospital. I'm still devastated even though I have a partial backup from photos I took before hand with my phone.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#42

Post by good-idea » Sat, Aug 31, 2019, 6:48 PM UTC

In school, I would, chapter-by-chapter: - Underline & make notes in the margins - After finishing, write a "précis" of that chapter on an index card - Below the précis, go through the chapter again and copy over underlined passages, notes I had made and questions I had come up with while reading

Then, I'd end up with a stack of index cards for each book, which I'd keep for reference. I rarely looked back at these notes, but the 'chore' of doing this for every chapter really helped the complicated stuff sink in.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#43

Post by smaslennikov » Sat, Aug 31, 2019, 6:49 PM UTC

My recent innovation was using a notecard as a bookmark, and writing on it page numbers and begginning word of excerpts I'll take down to my notebook later on. This way, it's still portable, I don't dmaage the book, and I'm able to take notes.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#44

Post by bno1 » Sat, Aug 31, 2019, 6:51 PM UTC

stingraycharles wrote: post #9

I feel like I’m an outlier here on HN, but I read very slowly. My mind constantly switches back and forth between other stuff, and frequently have to repeat (sections of) a page just because I wasn’t paying enough attention. Needless to say, I don’t read a lot. Once in a while I find a book that interests me, and usually it takes me around a week or two to complete (when reading around 30 - 60 minutes a day).

I used to be like that. I usually read fiction in the subway during my daily commute. I think my average is below 30 minutes of reading per day. After a few months of doing this my mind stopped wandering and I was able to zone out and focus on reading without any effort.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#45

Post by werber » Sat, Aug 31, 2019, 6:55 PM UTC

I always have an audiobook in rotation. I keep a book and all my current magazines in my bathroom (generally smaller bites, collections of essays, poetry), a book next to the couch (usually non fiction), one next to my bed (always fiction), and then I have a different book in each of my back packs. I'm usually reading 5 - 10 at a time and unless it's like gravity's rainbow, I try to finish each within a month of starting. I studied literature in college and used to read one book at a time and was very intense about it, but reading a ton of different things at once is more fun and I find myself making connections between things I wouldn't make otherwise

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#46

Post by werber » Sat, Aug 31, 2019, 6:56 PM UTC

werber wrote: post #45

I always have an audiobook in rotation. I keep a book and all my current magazines in my bathroom (generally smaller bites, collections of essays, poetry), a book next to the couch (usually non fiction), one next to my bed (always fiction), and then I have a different book in each of my back packs. I'm usually reading 5 - 10 at a time and unless it's like gravity's rainbow, I try to finish each within a month of star…

Oh and I read a ton of articles from here at work

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#47

Post by mkagenius » Sat, Aug 31, 2019, 6:56 PM UTC

stingraycharles wrote: post #9

I feel like I’m an outlier here on HN, but I read very slowly. My mind constantly switches back and forth between other stuff, and frequently have to repeat (sections of) a page just because I wasn’t paying enough attention. Needless to say, I don’t read a lot. Once in a while I find a book that interests me, and usually it takes me around a week or two to complete (when reading around 30 - 60 minutes a day).

> I wasn’t paying enough attention.

This is a problem. For few weeks I am trying to conquer it by focusing eyes onto infinity while looking at the computer. It helps me wade off thoughts other than whats printed (and I just read) on the screen. So read a line, focus to infinity (and picturise what was said in the line), read next line.

Experiment is on only for a few weeks now, but it surely helps in attention and wading off extraneous thoughts.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#48

Post by 8ytecoder » Sat, Aug 31, 2019, 6:58 PM UTC

guidoism wrote: post #16

Great question! In my fourth decade of life I’m finally figuring out the optimal way to do this myself. I’ve forgotten so so many books over the years that I supposedly read. Read How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer Adler. ( https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Classic-Intelligent/dp/... ) I’ve given this book to a bunch of people on my teams as it also helps with communicating id…

One of the reasons I love the kindle. I highlight my favourite quotes and phrases regularly and then after I finish the book I summarise it into an essay.

For instructional books I make a bullet point list of key learnings.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#49

Post by mattlondon » Sat, Aug 31, 2019, 6:58 PM UTC

Interesting... Lots of people seem to read a lot of books - I get lots of recommendations from people at work and stuff. People talk about reading a book a week or whatever.

I've never enjoyed reading books - right from childhood up to now. I try to avoid it. I have gifts from birthdays and christmases from years ago where the book sits entirely unread on the shelf for a year or two until I give it away once the guilt has subsided.

The thought of starting reading a book from start to finish just fills me with a sense of tedium and of wasting my time. I've not read a single book in perhaps the last 20+ years.

I feel like there is a glimmer of how I feel from this question: "how to get the most out of each book"... are you actually getting anything at all by reading each book? Are you like me and just feel like you should, but actually deep down you just don't really get anything from it?

Am I alone?

(P.S. I am a fluent reader and readily enjoy reading the news & technical docs (and don't really watch TV or movies that much - maybe an hour or two a week), but books - boy oh boy I simply couldn't care any less)

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#50

Post by Insanity » Sat, Aug 31, 2019, 7:00 PM UTC

stingraycharles wrote: post #9

I feel like I’m an outlier here on HN, but I read very slowly. My mind constantly switches back and forth between other stuff, and frequently have to repeat (sections of) a page just because I wasn’t paying enough attention. Needless to say, I don’t read a lot. Once in a while I find a book that interests me, and usually it takes me around a week or two to complete (when reading around 30 - 60 minutes a day).

I read slowly, absolutely nothing wrong with that. I like to think and process what I read as well so when reading non-fiction it is even worse. But I don't mind, I enjoy reading at my own pace :)