Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The joy of reading books you don't understand

reactormag.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 263 posts

Re: The joy of reading books you don't understand

#21

Post by sonorous_sub »

senkora wrote: post #17
jyunwai wrote: post #10

A useful habit that I've begun to follow with more complicated books—especially when reading them out of personal interest—is to actively avoid taking notes or worrying about background material on a first read. I've recently read and greatly enjoyed a historical fiction novel called "Augustus" written by John Edward Williams and published in 1972. On the surface level, it's about the events of the life of Augustus C…

I finished Infinite Jest without taking notes. I definitely missed a lot of stuff but I loved the experience and it ended up being one of my favorite books. I think Infinite Jest is a great example for this sort of thing because I later realized that I had completely missed the entire main plot. By the author: > There is an ending as far as I’m concerned. Certain kind of parallel lines are supposed to start convergin…

I like the short form stuff DFW wrote for Harper's Magazine. The one about his trip to the state fair with an old flame is sublime.

Re: The joy of reading books you don't understand

#22

Post by PaulRobinson »

jyunwai wrote: post #10

A useful habit that I've begun to follow with more complicated books—especially when reading them out of personal interest—is to actively avoid taking notes or worrying about background material on a first read. I've recently read and greatly enjoyed a historical fiction novel called "Augustus" written by John Edward Williams and published in 1972. On the surface level, it's about the events of the life of Augustus C…

This made me think of Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum, where you find yourself thinking “I need to look some of this stuff up, it’s becoming hard to know if I understand it all”, but that is part of the satirical commentary he wanted to make - it’s very meta, very good, not knowing all of the esoteric references is the exact point.

Re: The joy of reading books you don't understand

#23

Post by dr_kiszonka »

jyunwai wrote: post #10

A useful habit that I've begun to follow with more complicated books—especially when reading them out of personal interest—is to actively avoid taking notes or worrying about background material on a first read. I've recently read and greatly enjoyed a historical fiction novel called "Augustus" written by John Edward Williams and published in 1972. On the surface level, it's about the events of the life of Augustus C…

I have no research to back this up, but I think the need to understand everything may result from low self-esteem. Specifically, when not knowing something, people with low self-esteem may feel stupid. To eliminate this feeling, they† focus on learning. It is a good adaptive mechanism, especially compared to maladaptive ones like avoidance behaviors. A potentially better one is learning not to derive self-worth from how much we know or how others perceive us.

† Some of them, not everyone, on average, etc. Also, different people have different motivations. Not everyone who has a curious mind has low self-esteem. People are complex.

Re: The joy of reading books you don't understand

#25

Post by ofcourseyoudo »

sonorous_sub wrote: post #21
senkora wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I finished Infinite Jest without taking notes. I definitely missed a lot of stuff but I loved the experience and it ended up being one of my favorite books. I think Infinite Jest is a great example for this sort of thing because I later realized that I had completely missed the entire main plot. By the author: > There is an ending as far as I’m concerned. Certain kind of parallel lines are supposed to start convergin…

I like the short form stuff DFW wrote for Harper's Magazine. The one about his trip to the state fair with an old flame is sublime.

Also the one about a cruise trip, Michael Joyce, and Lost Highway... essentially everything from "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again"

Re: The joy of reading books you don't understand

#26

Post by maroonblazer »

sonorous_sub wrote: post #21
senkora wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I finished Infinite Jest without taking notes. I definitely missed a lot of stuff but I loved the experience and it ended up being one of my favorite books. I think Infinite Jest is a great example for this sort of thing because I later realized that I had completely missed the entire main plot. By the author: > There is an ending as far as I’m concerned. Certain kind of parallel lines are supposed to start convergin…

I like the short form stuff DFW wrote for Harper's Magazine. The one about his trip to the state fair with an old flame is sublime.

Also, his documenting his 7-day Caribbean cruise, aptly titled (IMO) "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again"

Re: The joy of reading books you don't understand

#27

Post by autoexec »

jyunwai wrote: post #10

A useful habit that I've begun to follow with more complicated books—especially when reading them out of personal interest—is to actively avoid taking notes or worrying about background material on a first read. I've recently read and greatly enjoyed a historical fiction novel called "Augustus" written by John Edward Williams and published in 1972. On the surface level, it's about the events of the life of Augustus C…

> A useful habit that I've begun to follow with more complicated books—especially when reading them out of personal interest—is to actively avoid taking notes or worrying about background material on a first read.

I recommend using those little sticky tabs instead. If I come across something I want to look up later, or want to come back to for whatever reason I use one on the page itself to to highlight the line, and another at the top so I can find the page again. By the time I'm done reading it might be full of those little tabs but it doesn't really slow me down in the moment.

Re: The joy of reading books you don't understand

#28

Post by savanaly »

jdmoreira wrote: post #14

Those that read 'The Book of the New Sun' will know the feeling

I love reading books that I don't understand and not understanding them. As long as I know there is something there, which I could either look up what others have pieced together online, or reread carefully myself. Funny thing is looking that stuff up or figuring it out is optional, I still enjoy the read where I'm in the dark enough that sometimes I move on. And look back fondly on the book. Gene Wolfe books are very good for this style of reading.

I feel guilty mainly when I run into someone else who says they love the book, and I am totally unable to have a meaningful conversation about it because to be honest I didn't understand or retain much from it. And I end up looking like a poser a lot of the time I'm sure, and maybe I am in some way. But I still read and enjoyed it!

Re: The joy of reading books you don't understand

#30

Post by voisin »

I’ve recently started reading The Iliad. I find it challenging because characters can be referred to by a variety of different things, even within the same paragraph or two, so it is challenging to follow the conversation or who is being discussed.

I’ve taken to asking ChatGPT to summarize chapters and key characters within the chapter after I’ve finished each chapter and it helps give me feedback as to whether what I thought happened was what indeed happened. It’s also given me little contextual tidbits that are helpful and apparently would have been known to audiences of the time but for me would have gone unappreciated.

It’s helpful, though I think I’d prefer an annotated copy over ChatGPT so I have realtime information as I read without the lag of finishing a chapter first (or added friction of stopping to search and starting again)

Post reply on HN