HN Explorer

Ask HN: How you read books?

4 points by dillmac ↗ HN
Hello,

I have around hundred books to read. But I can not make time for reading in this busy and distracted world. What are your effective ways to read books effectively and faster to retain information?

5 comments

[ 5.4 ms ] story [ 10.6 ms ] thread
adamnemecek
Spend like 15 minutes reading the table of content and build a mental scaffolding for information.
bewe42
Active reading. First scan TOC and headlines. Then read superficially. Grasp the author’s leading propositions by dealing with his most important sentences. Ask questions while reading.

After reading a certain amount of text, close the book and summarize in your own words what you have read. Again ask questions how the key ideas relate to what you already know.

The ultimate exercise is syntopical reading where you compare several books on the same subject with each other.

Best intro: "How to read a book" by Adler.

P.S: I'm very interested in this subject, I'm trying to build an app to support active reading.

Edit: re-reading your question, you seem to want to read faster and consume as many books as possible. As you can guess, my advice is the opposite. Read slow but deep and fewer books (just pick the best out there)

brudgers
I take a structuralist [1] approach to reading. The primary value I get from reading a book is how it helps me understand other things I have read and other things I will read. The internet helps because I can google facts, even many of the facts I am reading. What I cannot google is the way the ideas in one book illuminate things I have already read.

Now it is worth mentioning that I am not in school (which does not mean I am not learning). So there is no test on the book in two to twelve weeks. It is also worth mentioning that the quantity and type of reading I do varies and how long I spend reading a book also varies from a day and into the night to years...I reread books too, and perhaps one of my criteria for what I read is "Is this worth rereading."

Implicit in your question are two conflicting goals: making time to read and not making time to read by reading faster and more effectively. Nobody asks, how do I make love effectively and faster? Well maybe an engineer, but that's another story.

Good luck.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuralism

ljquintanilla
Audiobooks. You can listen while doing chores/commuting/working.
simonblack
I have around hundred books to read.

Why those hundred? Why not some other hundred? In other words, what is the selection criteria?

Is it necessary to read those hundred books? Why? Are they reference books or story-books?

If reference books, do you need to read the whole book or just the relevant parts of it?

If story-books, what is it you want to discover? The actual story, or the style of writing? Again, do you need to read the whole book or just the relevant parts of it?

Does it have to be a physical book you read? Could a summary do? Many books are reduced to a short summary of the storyline in Wikipedia. Could a movie or documentary do? Could an audio-book do?

Regarding actual brain-input time. There are lots of times during the day when you have a few minutes available: on public transport; while sitting in the toilet; while relaxing before turning the light off at night; while eating your lunch; reading it off a computer screen; listening to audiobooks while driving, or walking, or resting.