How to gain more from your reading • Hacker News Board

Re: How to gain more from your reading

#11

Post by jld89 » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 3:04 PM UTC

mrjivraj wrote: post #6

I sometimes fall into the trap of bookmarking interesting content but failing to go back to read it, especially long form content, although I find such content to be the best for learning about interesting things. There were a few articles I kept coming back to but couldn't get through because of distractions, so yesterday I decided to print out the articles I wanted to read. 30 mins later, I had gone through 3 three…

This is a great idea, I have exactly the same problem. I'll try it out, though I'll probably have to print a hundred pages ha...

Re: How to gain more from your reading

#12

Post by jld89 » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 3:05 PM UTC

asimovfan wrote: post #7

Reading is my life, I spend the majority of my awake time reading. However to be honest, I can only read endlessly when I know I won't have any extra gain from it. I can read everything except what I have to read for work or study. Otherwise I am immediately bored.

A kind of procrastination I guess.

Re: How to gain more from your reading

#13

Post by rogov » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 3:11 PM UTC

"When I began disciplined reading, I was reading at the rate of four thousand words a minute," the girl said. "They had quite a time correcting me of it. I had to take remedial reading, and my parents were ashamed of me. Now I've learned to read almost slow enough." "I don't understand," said Miss Hanks.

That's from R.A. Lafferty's "The Primary Education of the Camiroi" from 1966. I think I was turned on to Lafferty by this site and immediately loved his work. Still, I have "read" six books this week, and barely even remember which ones they were, let alone what they were about.

Re: How to gain more from your reading

#14

Post by Bhilai » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 3:15 PM UTC

lugged wrote: post #8

tl;dr?

If you scroll to the bottom, there is a section with key points.

Re: How to gain more from your reading

#15

Post by wombatmobile » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 3:17 PM UTC

leokennis wrote: post #5

This article is, perhaps unsurprisingly, very well written and structured. A joy to read compared to most internet writing! It vibes pretty well with my own "rules" for reading: * I read one book at a time * In general I only read when I feel like it, but I will read every day: if I don't feel like it, I'll just read one page * At any point am I allowed to stop reading a book and pick up a new one * I do not track "p…

Why do you read one book at a time?

Have you tried more than that and found it unsatisfactory?

I usually have two books on the go. I leave them in different places. That’s key. I am a different person in each place, and I can keep my associations separate and distinct for each book.

Given enough places, I’m confident I could read more than two books in parallel.

Re: How to gain more from your reading

#16

Post by Bhilai » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 3:19 PM UTC

I mostly read fiction and I try my best to read everyday. My problem seems to be that I sometimes try to rush through the details to the main story line to figure out the plot. Because I get limited time to read, I try to read very fast and cover a lot of ground so I can know more of the story. From reading this article, it sounds like I should slow down and re-read but I am not sure if some books are worth it.

Re: How to gain more from your reading

#17

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 3:20 PM UTC

mrjivraj wrote: post #6

I sometimes fall into the trap of bookmarking interesting content but failing to go back to read it, especially long form content, although I find such content to be the best for learning about interesting things. There were a few articles I kept coming back to but couldn't get through because of distractions, so yesterday I decided to print out the articles I wanted to read. 30 mins later, I had gone through 3 three…

[deleted]

Re: How to gain more from your reading

#18

Post by TameAntelope » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 3:29 PM UTC

For non-fiction, I've found that underlining engages me more and causes me to retain the information to a higher degree than when I'm "passively" reading.

For some books I'll also use the margins or even bring along a pad of sticky notes. I tried actually taking notes while reading, but it ended up requiring too much setup for me to engage with as often as I'd like.

Re: How to gain more from your reading

#19

Post by sanderjd » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 3:31 PM UTC

I have really struggled with this, especially since having kids. The problem for me is that I have very little time to read, so I either have to read fast or read very little, reading fast doesn't really work as the article describes, so the choice is to read very little, but then that makes choosing what to read a big commitment, and that leads to analysis paralysis, and then I end up reading nothing because it's too stressful to commit to something. For an example, I spent the first 18 months or so after my first child was born reading Les Miserables. Granted, that's a long book, but lots of good books are long. If my pace for reading is something under a hundred pages a month, that means I have capacity for two or three normal length books a year, and less than one long one, and that makes each choice feel extremely precious.

Re: How to gain more from your reading

#20

Post by input_sh » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 3:36 PM UTC

leokennis wrote: post #5

This article is, perhaps unsurprisingly, very well written and structured. A joy to read compared to most internet writing! It vibes pretty well with my own "rules" for reading: * I read one book at a time * In general I only read when I feel like it, but I will read every day: if I don't feel like it, I'll just read one page * At any point am I allowed to stop reading a book and pick up a new one * I do not track "p…

> This article is, perhaps unsurprisingly, very well written and structured. A joy to read compared to most internet writing!

Aeon and its sister site Psyche are genuinely awesome. Probably the best sites I've discovered in years. Would definitely encourage you to read more of their work. There are definitely arguments I disagree with, but nothing to complain about how they're presented or sourced.

I like those longer reads that are somewhat detached from daily events that you can't really learn anything from.