A lot of modern business/popular psychology books are rehashed ideas of older books and concepts. For example, almost every book on mental toughness is based on Stoic philosophy and being present/mindful. Almost every book on effective learning is based on deliberate practice. And so on... When you understand these fundamental concepts, you only need to read the best 1-2 books on the topic to grasp the idea so that you don't need to read the other 20 popular books that all repeat the same idea using different words. Unfortunately you have to read a lot to figure out the underlying concept of these books in order to figure out if a book you haven't read before is based on the same thing.
Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read?
41–50 of 56 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read?
#42A lot of modern business/popular psychology books are rehashed ideas of older books and concepts. For example, almost every book on mental toughness is based on Stoic philosophy and being present/mindful. Almost every book on effective learning is based on deliberate practice. And so on... When you understand these fundamental concepts, you only need to read the best 1-2 books on the topic to grasp the idea so that y…
The hard part is to find out the best 1-2 books though.
Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read?
#43I watch a lot of courses at thegreatcoursesplus.com. Each course comes with a PDF outline that has recommended reading to accompany each lecture. If that lecture interests me I use Overdrive / Libby to search for the titles in either ebook or audiobook form.
Do you have any recommended courses on that site?
Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read?
#44I'm a big fan of rereading the same books that I found super helpful/useful, vs reading a lot Used to do the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge for multiple years, until I felt I was just padding my stats with books that weren't useful Then I saw a Naval tweet that was: "I would rather read the best 100 books over and over again until I absorb them rather than read all the books.” And I adopted that strategy, which has b…
The hardest part is knowing which 100 books to reread. I'd like to think there's a period in your youth when you devour everything - even, god forbid, modern books on management. From here you move on to the classics - Dickens, Twain, Tolstoy, Fitzgerald. If a book bores you, drop it. After enough years, inevitably, you reach a point where you're ready for real literature - Dostoevsky, Proust, Molière, Kant - the gre…
Totally agree, feel like it comes down to an exploration vs exploitation optimization.
Don't have an answer unfortunately, still looking for one myself!
I do agree with the method you describe: taking the recommendations of others, and then later navigating toward what you feel is best for yourself
Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read?
#45I do the following for non-fiction titles: Make a list of book titles from the footnotes of books I am currently reading. Then just check the average review on Goodreads, if it is over 3.5, I give it a go. This allows me to read about different subjects from respected subject matter experts (since they have been cited in a book I enjoy) while also making sure that they are well written and accessible to a noob (3.5+…
I hadn’t thought about using reviews in this way before. Do you find the aggregate review numbers to be helpful on Goodreads? I find that most books I’m interested in have seemingly artificially high ratings or very few ratings.
Yep, for me the ratings are a decent gauge for the quality of a book. Given the amount you read, it's likely that you'll exhaust the list of books that are highly rated and happen to be in your domain of interest. Since I read about 2 books a month ~ 25 books a year, I haven't faced this problem.
I suggest you look into English translations of books that are highly rated in other languages. Lots of hidden gems to be found this way.
Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read?
#46Every time I come across a book I might want to read I add it to my amazon shopping list. When it's time to read a new book, first I check which titles the library has a kindle loan available for. If none, I go in order of cheapest first. Sounds silly, but it really does add up if you read a lot of books to spend so much money on them.
Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read?
#47I watch a lot of courses at thegreatcoursesplus.com. Each course comes with a PDF outline that has recommended reading to accompany each lecture. If that lecture interests me I use Overdrive / Libby to search for the titles in either ebook or audiobook form.
Do you have any recommended courses on that site?
The "Big History" one should blow your mind. The one on the Black Plague is great too. All are high quality.
Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read?
#48If you know what you want to learn it's easy to choose books, like you did with Cold War/Atomic Bomb. Healthy curiosity and research skills (to find the books worth reading for a topic) are all that's needed.
Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read?
#49My mix is 60% pre1950, 30% 1950-2010, 10% new. Nonfiction and poetry, English language.
Archive.org or any other public domain pdf source is great for pre1930 texts and I often end up buying them used in paper form. (They are very cheap in Fair/Acceptable condition...university paper libraries are shrinking...now is the time to buy them)
For PD texts, the author will often cite one or two other works in the body of the text. If you liked the original work, you will probably like the in-body cited texts. And you can quickly download a copy for free and see. Spider along the recommendations. This is great for “many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore”.
For favorite authors, there are usually interviews, or even whole books, available where the author describes works they like. You would probably like the same works too. Nowadays, you may be able to contact the (living) author directly for suggestions. Works about literature, writers, genres are another source. And bibliographies for more academic writing. Sometimes someone has written an annotated bibliography on a subject if you want to be thorough.
Please don’t “optimize” reading for pleasure. The heart chills at the word.
I have never, in my 60 years of reading, ever bought a book because it was on a bestseller list. When I see that monicker on a book, I instinctively avoid it unless I have already discovered it in some other way. It reminds me of junk food advertisements and they can be gamed. I have never regretted following that policy. Nor have I ever been interested in, nor would follow, the book recommendations of celebrities outside of their expertise.
Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read?
#50I'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 bet…
I love browsing libraries (and bookshops) but I haven’t been able to go as much this year because of pandemic-related reasons. I will definitely be going more often once things have calmed down though!
Now I want a VR Library of Alexandria experience with the entire archive.org collection.