How do you extract the most possible value from a book?
Reading non-fiction, I've often found that I forget or don't apply anything I read.
Apart from trying harder, do you have any strategies to extract the most possible value from a book?
Apart from trying harder, do you have any strategies to extract the most possible value from a book?
As others mentioned, being able to relate to the content of the book helps immensely. For instance when reading The Innovator’s Dilemma I kept finding parallels to my previous industry and company. This struck me so much that I can list most of the content of the book simply by thinking back to those insights.
As a last note, non-fiction books are seldom gripping. Reading a few pages before going to sleep doesn’t cut it for me, words zip past my eyeballs without hitting the brain. I need to actively focus on the content, much more so than when reading fiction. I try to force myself to pause and actively think about the content every few paragraphs: does it make sense? Can I follow the logic of the argument? Does it resonate with my experience? It’s the only way for me to actually get anything lasting out of the book.
Value extracted, and even the best way to extract value from a book, will be heavily context dependent. E.g, here's a wildly contrived example: If you are trapped in a hut in a snowstorm you may be able to extract considerable value from a trashy novel or physics textbook in your backpack by tearing it apart to use as kindling.
It's one of those things that sounds too simple to be effective, but it works for me.
Check out “How to Read a Book”, too. It presents book reading in quite a different way than you might be used to. The book as an object that you investigate almost like a strange beetle or a transistor radio—to learn how it works.
Most nonfiction books “do something” in the way that a program does something. There’s a main purpose and a lot of subroutines and maybe some boilerplate and repetition. It’s not as linear as you might think either. And they’re embedded in a web of references. It’s very interesting to think about how you actually use a book in your life...
Suppose you read a book on Kubernetes today. You don't use Kubernetes. So you read it just because you are curious. That's the value of most books. If three years from now you start using Kubernetes then the book suddenly becomes directly actionable.
Sometimes it would be nice if life was more like an RPG - reading a book means a few hours ticks by and then you get +1 to your skill of choice - but unfortunately it's not that easy :)
- take notes in margins
- phrase what you read in your own words
- think critically about what you read
But for me, I extract the most value when I discuss what I read with others. Not only does it provide more motivation for reading but I also find myself with a lot more insight after a conversation with a friend about what we just read.
Avoid cognitive ease by reading it tilted 30 degrees.