How I Read Books | Hacker News Reader

How I Read Books

13 pointsnomilk16 comments

I think many people misunderstand how to use books generally. They're such simple things. Many people think you have to read every page of a book starting at the first page and go to the last page, before moving on to the next. Maybe because that's what they were taught in school?

How I read:

- as many books as I want concurrently (from 0 to infinity)

- sometimes I skip entire chapters to get to the bits I find important

- sometimes I read parts of a book and decide it's a bad book, or not useful to me, so I put it aside

- sometimes I read the same paragraphs/pages/chapters/books multiple times, rarely, but occasionally, many, many times (e.g. some essays I read approximately every 3 months, since they're so important to keep front of mind).

- very often, I take notes, often many pages of notes. These are an amazing resource for years to come

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Skipping parts in books was a big mental shift for me that has made me a much happier reader. I used to force myself to read through parts of books I already knew. If you read technical books, the overlap between them continues to grow and sometimes I really only want like half a book. Sometimes the additional perspective on a familiar concept is valuable, but I don't force myself to spend time on them anymore.

I also listen, as I've done for 40 years since my first SpeechThing. Now I have end-to-end harmonic mixing thrown in. I automate Firefox scraping of daily articles, but for longer books, I read as much as I want and when the session closes the remainder is queued up at the rear, so I get back into those queued books in the quiet weekends when then articles are exhausted. I listen from very early morning until midday.

I'm not familiar with the tech; what is harmonic mixing for audio book readouts? Would you please elaborate?

My DJ Reader mixes music into my right brain while it manages TTS into my left brain.

> Many people think you have to read every page of a book starting at the first page and go to the last page, before moving on to the next. Maybe because that's what they were taught in school?

I do it because if I don't I get details crossed between them, creating one heck of a cross-over episode.

I also find listening more interesting than reading. Sometimes I even do it while working, if the job is routine and not too complicated. But technical books and materials have to be actually read, sometimes several times over...

How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book

How do you know what chapters to read or skip? Just by the title?

I take a similar approach with technical write-ups and complex systems models, I skim for structural concepts first, jump to the core formulas/mechanics later

It depends on the book. This style of reading is suitable for textbooks and journal articles, but does not work for fiction, where reading order can be quite important.

True, you cannot absorb fiction when you're skimming a book.

What you're describing requires a level of literacy possessed by less than 10% of the adult population.

I like to listen instead of reading books.

which essays do you read every 3 months? open to hearing from more than just the OP too

Thanks for asking (I too am interested to hear others')

The Days Are Long but the Decades Are Short for simplification, balance and inspiration: https://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades...

Orwell's Politics and the English Language on the importance of precise use of language: https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwel...

Orwell's Why I Write on critical thinking and clear communication: https://www.telelib.com/authors/O/OrwellGeorge/essay/whyiwri...

Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Address (a speech rather than an essay, but worthy of quarterly viewing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

Oscar Wilde's A Sentimental Journey Through Literature - a disciplined but scathing repost to a critic who takes shots at Wilde's work without understanding nor appreciating it. Timeless, given how much media is poorly substantiated opinion at best, and outright emotional babble at worst: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14240/14240-h/14240-h.htm#:~...

Thank you, this has been very helpful information

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