Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read?

Prompted by today’s post about Bill Gates’ “Good books for a lousy year” I’m curious how you decide to read next.

I happen to read a lot (129 books last year, 121 so far this year) and widely, but I’m wondering if I could be directing my reading better. I tend to read in certain threads for a while (I read a lot about the atomic bomb and Cold War this year, for example) but also tend to get interested in popular or award winning books, whether contemporary or not. I also read a lot of fiction, where my choices tend to be even more random than my non-fiction choices. Or I get interested in one author and read everything they’ve written.

My method isn’t necessarily bad but I’m thinking it might be time to optimize my reading a bit.

So HN: How do you decide what to read?

For non-fiction I'd usually go to the bookstore and pick the thinnest book on the subject. I don't like filler in nonfiction books. My favorite thing about them is if I don't understand a difficult passage I can go back and read it again until I do. Among others, this technique has gotten me Relativity[1] and QED[2] to name just a couple.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15852.Relativity

[2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5552.QED

I'm a library fanatic, so I usually end up browsing at the local library until I find one or two books that look interesting. My local library actually has an "Undiscovered Gems" section that has lead me to some interesting reads from authors I'm not familiar with. I also keep a running list of interesting titles on my library account, putting holds on them as I finish books.

I'm like you, I usually bounce around between fiction and non-fiction to keep my reading balanced. For me, half the fun of reading is simply exploring and discovering new books/authors/series!

129 books in one year is quite something. Is reading part of your job? I felt like I spent a decent amount of my free time reading this year, but I’ve completed only 23 books so far.

A very strong input into my book choices is reading the ‘classics’ in various domains. I will make frequent use of “Top 100 X books in Y” and “best X book of all time” queries.

I very much subscribe to the idea that selected books form a cultural and intellectual endowment of society to its members. Reading these selected books allows me to competently participate in society, as so much of our communication, institutional structure, and culture is downstream of these works. Examples of such works would be Shakespeare, Dickens, Silent Spring, The Intelligent Investor, Manufacturing Consent, Plato’s Republic.

I find the more important question to be "how do you remember what you read?". I think (at least in my case) remembering more of what I've read would be a better investment in time than reading more, or better directing my reading. I would love to hear tips people have.