101–110 of 258 posts
I've had enough recommendations on HN and IRL to fill up my wishlist for some time. Beyond that, I usually go to a "top 100" fantasy/scifi list. After I've had enough fiction I'll throw in some learning material.
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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.
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 feel like there's a bootstrapping issue here, though. What do I read in order to learn to read How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler? Or do I merely read that book once, in order to learn the technique, before re-reading it?
This might be off topic but let me explain:
On many occasions, I have witnessed people doing pushups, but at the end of their counting, they do half-assed pushups, so you could see that they are more interested in "finishing" their goal of 10, 15 or 20 repetitions than actually doing the exercise correctly (doing the exercise correctly could end up with them doing only 5 correct pushups)
Reading books is the same, most people are only interested in the idea of reading books, like the idea of doing sport, to "keep healthy", but don't actually enjoy the journey. So people would set arbitrary rules of "2 or 3 books a month" for example.
So here's what I do: - I changed my definition of "finishing a book" to "never". I stopped trying to read 2 books a month because it no longer has any meaning in my system, but also, no matter my progress through a book, it doesn't matter at all.
Never finishing a book is actually true: a book chapter can send me in a journey over the internet looking for more information on that particular subject, or re-think about the previous chapter because now I have new insight, etc. So really, I never finish my books and it's exactly why it's cool. It's like swimming because you like it VS swimming to reach the other side.
Finally, I don't remember every word of what I have read in the past years, but it sure shaped who I am today, the choices I made, the interests I have, etc. So it's ok to forget, what matters is the journey and what you get out of it, a book never quits your reading list once it gets there, unless you only care about counting your "done" list.
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 feel like there's a bootstrapping issue here, though. What do I read in order to learn to read How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler? Or do I merely read that book once, in order to learn the technique, before re-reading it?
I don't finish a book if it's dull. If I'm constantly getting bored or feel like the information is just someone preaching out of their ass or pointless, I'll either skim the book or just drop it. I don't feel bad about this anymore. My reading list is so damn long, what's the point wasting my time on books I was wrong for picking? Sunk cost fallacy and all.
I've learned my lesson the hardway and I'm very, very careful about business books. Especially the pop-culture ones. I only read it with reviews by people I respect highly and they must be critical of the book. If it's just praising the book, I refuse to get it. Or the book is a few years old and is still respected. So many books in business are such dogshit. It's amazing.
I do keep a reading list in excel and add to it constantly. Sometimes add some notes how I felt about it. A lot of times I add books mentioned in other books I'm reading.
If the book is bought and not from the library, I underline with a nice black Uniball pen and mark the top of the page. Highlighters can get really annoying on my eyes if there's a lot of it. I learned that from high school. My eyes went out of focus with too much highlighter on the page (probably just me). If I'm reading the book with specific purpose, I'll make notes in the book itself.
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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 use…
Fifty years ago, I may have agreed that books are invaluable, precisely because of the information contained within. But ever since the Internet became a thing, and almost universally became the main source of information for everybody, I often feel like many people are holding on to books because they're not willing to let go. ...a case of false attribution in regards to format vs. content, if there's such a thing.
It's not a format vs. content thing. I'd rather have all my books in a six-ounce Kindle than on massive bookshelves lining my walls. It's simply that the vast supermajority of recorded information collected by the human race has been in the form of books. If you stay on the internet, you're barely dipping your toes in the water.
That having been said, there are a ton of useless books that can easily be skipped, many of which stem from stretching an essay-sized idea into 200 pages. The Internet cut out a lot of that nonsense. And there are certain things, like programming, that you're usually better off learning directly from the internet. But once you're past the intellectual puddle-jumping of popular business and self-help, books are where it's at.
I mostly read non-fiction. To improve my recall over the past 7 years, I type up notes as I read. It's made the process of reading much slower, but it has helped when I've needed to recall some example or detail or framework of a book.
I did this (selfishly) for myself, but decided to upload my notes at https://github.com/mgp/book-notes. (Shameless plug I suppose?) The README explains exactly how I take the notes – but essentially there's no shortcut. I have my text editor open and simply type notes as I read.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the things I’ve come to feel is that so much of the reading I do on the web (news, etc.) is fundamentally ephemeral in it’s relevance to my life and goals. Put another way, 90% of it doesn’t actually contribute to my knowledge or personal growth — it won’t matter tomorrow or once I realize some immediate goal. Sure, I get entertainment out of it, but that’s mostly it. In my view, non-fiction books can be a goo…
on the contrary, I have found that reading stuff on the web is 90% of what contributes to my knowledge. I can say that whatever I am today (in terms of what I know), it is most probably because of the internet. Not just in terms of computers, but just daily life, directly or indirectly. I think it is just a matter of the source in your case, which may have led you to feel that 90% of what you read doesn't contribute…