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Ask HN: How Do You Read?

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Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#61

Post by klingonopera »

mattlondon wrote: post #49

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 guil…

Nope, you're not alone, you took the words right out of my ...typing.

I like reading, i.e. if there's a news topic, I prefer reading an article than watching a video about it, but I detest books.

In my opinion, authors fill books with superfluous nonsense that I couldn't be bothered with. It's often the same with news articles, I hate it when journalists start telling personal stories that convey emotion. It's just... terrible and a waste of time, in my opinion.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#62

Post by marktangotango »

mattlondon wrote: post #49

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 guil…

The way I look at reading is if you don’t read then you will only ever be exposed to ideas that people around you choose to share, and you’ll never hear or learn anything at a greater level than the smartest person in your local area.

But reading and books opens the world of ideas and knowledge to anyone. Nowadays, post internet and www, when information is abundant, reading long form books isn’t the advantage it used to be. But it can still be beneficial to read long form exposition by experts.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#63

Post by vilvadot »

_____s wrote: post #24

In my opinion, reading is more for shaping your thoughts over time. I generally don't read for recall value except for technical things, and even there, it's better to build a good mental model of the subject through a combination of reading and exercises, then use a book as a reference. For non-technical books, I've very rarely seen any value in taking comprehensive notes (except highlights). I read those on a Kindl…

An interesting way of seeing it, never thought about it that way but it definitely resonates.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#64

Post by cryptozeus »

One thing I learned and adapted from Naval Ravikanth (podcast with tim ferriss...google it) is to treat reading books like blog posts. So if I am interested in a book, I don’t have to start from the beginning. Just start browsing, open any chapter, read through it and continue if I relate with author otherwise close it down. You also don’t have to finish the book if you loose interest half way. Another unthinkable thing I do now is switch between books while reading them. Lastly re read books if you really like them. I read deepwork and when I finished I started it again right away.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#65

Post by vilvadot »

mattlondon wrote: post #49

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 guil…

> Are you like me and just feel like you should, but actually deep down you just don't really get anything from it?

No no, that is not the case. I do enjoy reading books and get good stuff from them. It's just that I feel some stuff gets lost eventually. This thread is making me see it in a different light though :)

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#66

Post by manjana »

klingonopera wrote: post #61
mattlondon wrote: post #49

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 guil…

Nope, you're not alone, you took the words right out of my ...typing. I like reading , i.e. if there's a news topic, I prefer reading an article than watching a video about it, but I detest books. In my opinion, authors fill books with superfluous nonsense that I couldn't be bothered with. It's often the same with news articles, I hate it when journalists start telling personal stories that convey emotion. It's just.…

> In my opinion, authors fill books with superfluous nonsense that I couldn't be bothered with.

And just as bad: superfluous details.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#67

Post by spookybones »

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…

What does your commonplace book look like? Is it a tome you keep on your desk, or is it portable?

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#68

Post by manjana »

mkagenius wrote: post #47
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 wa…

What do you mean by focusing your eyes onto infinity?

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#69

Post by p1mrx »

mattlondon wrote: post #49

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 guil…

Reading fiction is like hiking on a trail; you follow someone else's thoughts for a while and take in the sights. In some sense it's a waste of time, but learning how to relax and calm your "I am wasting my time" anxiety can be a useful skill for your toolkit.

Even if you manage to spend 100% of your time on "productive" things, it's not obvious that that's an optimal way to live.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#70

Post by mbrock »

kashyapc wrote: post #20

Speaking of reading and retention, there was a controversial article titled: "Why books don't work"[1]. It was also recently discussed here on HN[2]. As a serious reader, I took "offense" at first the sweeping title. But when I completely read the article, the author's contention was largely with poorly written books and lectures work ... which wouldn't make for a sensational title. - - - As to the original question,…

The author was interviewed on EconTalk recently.
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