Previously you've mentioned the "Oxbridge approach" to reading, whereby--if my recollection is correct--you take four topics and delve into them as much as possible. Could you elaborate on this approach (I've searched the internet, couldn't find anything)? And do you think this structured approach has more benefits than, say, a non-structured approach of reading whatever of interest?
Thanks for your time and generosity, Alan!
So I think we have to put something more than randomness and following links to use here. (You can spend a lot of time learning about a big system like Linux without hitting many of the most important ideas in computing -- so we have to heed the "Art is long and Life is short" idea.
Part of the "Oxbridge" process is to have a "reader" (a person who helps you choose what to look at), and these people are worth their weight in gold ...
If I finish a book a week, I will read only a few thousand
books in my lifetime, about a tenth of a percent of the
contents of the greatest libraries of our time. The trick
is to know which books to read.> read 23,000 books in a lifetime
As a very conservative lower bound, a person who lives to the age of 80 would have to read 0.79 books per day, from the day they were born, to reach this figure.
Or, to put it another way, who has read 288+ books in the last year?
I'm quite sceptical about this figure. Any thoughts as to how this might be possible? Are the people Alan mentions speed-reading? Anyone else know similarly prolific readers?
You reach a storage and money problem fast (Ebook are a savior nowadays). And you tend to have multiple books open at the same time.
How does it work? There are several strategy. First i read fast. Experience and training make you read really fast. Secondly, you get a grasp of how things works and what the wirter has to say. In a fiction book, it is not unusual for me to not read a chapter or two because i know what will happen inside.
Finally... Good writers helps. Good writers make reading a breeze and are faster to read. They present ides in concise and efficient way, that follow the flow of thinking.
I will take more question gladly if you have some :)
Secondly, it is the only way i can absorb information in a way that works. Talks, video, podcast, etc are too slow for me. It lacks a good throughput of information and meaning. Which means i tend to just drop or complete what the speaker is telling.
About applying knowledge : yes everyday, in my life. Once you hit a good amount of knowledge and have a nice way to filter it, think about it and deal with it, thngs become nice. Understanding a problem come faster. You can draw link between different situations or use ideas from other field into yours.
Knowledge is rarely lost.
This is ridiculous. It doesn't count as reading if you skip whole chapters.
I'm not keen on skipping chapters! Do you do the same with non-fiction?
Another question - how do you keep track of what you've read? (would be happy to hear from others esp. Alan on the same topic)
For non fiction, yes it happens. Lot of book sjust repeat the same thing over and over again. When you begin to read a chapter and can complete what will be said in the next 20 pages just from your understanding of the whole situation, reading it is a loss of time. And it would make me be bored and get down from "The Zone".
I keep track in my brain. I have the advantage of being able to always remember if i have read something by just looking at the backcover and the first lines. I still have to forget a book i read. I can not remmeber all the technicalities of course but far enough to know if i read it before or not.
I reread the books i really like or need when needed anyway. Mainly during vacations.
Doing a lot of it is one of the keys! Doing it in a way that various short and long-term memories are involved is another key (rapid reading with comprehension of both text and music is partly a kind of memorization and buffering, etc.)
I don't think I've read 23,000 books in 76 years, but very likely somewhere between 16,000 and 20,000 (I haven't been counting). Bertrand Russell easily read 23,000 books in his lifetime, etc.
I agree with the practice, as for some periods I've noticed an increase in speed when I've been consistently reading every day.
Regarding the second point - short and long-term memory - do you have a link or other suggestion for where to learn more, please?
I don't mean to contradict Alan; no doubt he's a fast reader. But if you're actually reading an entire book every day or two, you're spending a lot of every day reading.
Wait, what?
I've been reading a book called, I kid you not, "How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading."
Adler and Doren identify four levels of reading:
1. Elementary: "What does the sentence say?" This is where speed can be gained
2. Inspectional: "What is the book about?" Best and most complete reading given a limited time. Not necessarily reading a book from front to back. Essentially systematic skimming.
3. Analytical: Best and most complete reading given unlimited time. For the sake of understanding.
4. Synoptical: Reading many books of the same subject at once, placing them in relation to one another, and constructing an analysis that may not be found in any of the books.
Amazon link for those interested: https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Intelligent-Touchstone/...
In a very different approach, most music and sports learning only has contact with a one on one expert once or twice a week, lots of individual practice, group experiences where “playing” is done, and many years of effort. This works because most learners really have difficulty absorb ing hours of expert instruction every week that may or may not fit their capacities, styles, or rhythms. They are generally much better off spending a few hours every day learning on their own and seeing the expert for assessment and advice and play a few times a week.
A few universities use a process like this for academics—sometimes called the “tutorial system”, they include Oxford and Cambridge Universities in the UK.