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Comment by Brajeshwar | Hacker News Reader

I don't have strict rules, methods, or patterns. However, I follow common themes such as skimming (or speed-reading) boring/mundane sections, change books and come back later, read multiple books at a time.

Personally, I feel something missing if I totally skip something, so I tend to or try to finish what I read. I was known to be that kid who read Newspapers top to bottom of all pages, so that is that.

My tricks;

- Don't drive, get an Uber and read. I have finished so many books inside an Uber car.

- If I'm flying, I finish about 2 typical books per leg of the flight.

- Always have your Kindle or a Book with you. Read instead of looking at your phone. ;-)

- If you have kids, read to show them that you read, they will follow.

Here is from our family's collective https://oinam.fyi/books/ (WIP).

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Re:your point about kids, as a brand new father, I think about this a lot. Kids model and mimic what they see, for better and for worse.

Up to a certain point 'reading from a Kindle' looks exactly the same as burying your face in a phone. Do you prefer physical books at home to model the reading behavior? Or have you found that young kids understand that e-book reading is not the same as phone-use?

Absolutely right about Kindle. I did not elaborate that point. My daughter, when she was 5-ish, used to think I do not read because I'm on a Kindle. So, after going fully digital I went back to physical books about 5 years back. Now, I mix about 1 physical for every 4 kindle books. At 11-year, she do gets it now and have her own Kindle with one -- you can read as many books as you want.

I wrote about it at https://oinam.blog/why-physical-books-matter-7a2872c64821

> Personally, I feel something missing if I totally skip something, so I tend to or try to finish what I read. I was known to be that kid who read Newspapers top to bottom of all pages, so that is that.

I am the same way. This makes it very hard for me to skim books or even sections of books because it feels like I’m “cheating” and not really finishing the book properly. This also makes it hard for me to quit books halfway, even if I don’t enjoy it.

I know that both of these things (skimming and knowing when to quit early) are vital skills for readers, but my completionism borders on obsessive.

Based on my own measure of "read a book" I read zero books in 2020. Based on OP's measurement I read about 20. It's interesting what comes out when asking a simple question. My main take away is I should be less rigid as I'm like you where the fact I don't read anything thoroughly creates a block to reading more.

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