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Ask HN: Value of reading a book without comprehension?

2 points by ikkah ↗ HN
I wonder if reading a book or listening to audio book without comprehending it at the time of reading/listening is still valuable?

Case 1. Imagine you are reading (your eyes going through text) and brain got distracted while trying to comprehend and compare what you are reading with your experience from the past. You realize it after 1 page is done. Do you think your brain still can store chunks of data?

Case 2. You are reading super insightful book, which has 10 primary insights per page, but you only understand 1 insight. Do you think your brain still saved other insights and eventually will reveal it to you?

Case 3. You are listening audiobook and your brain didn't keep up with the content (language understanding or trying to comprehend past sentences made you think about it too much, and anything else) Because going back and forth can slow down the listening, do you think continuing listening is still valuable and gives enough insights?

Why am I asking? I have mild ADHD and reading books is difficult to me, add into this language understanding (English is not my native language) and I am spending 10-15 minutes per page, trying to understand everything.

At the same time, OReilly subscription makes me really sad, by telling book with ~200 pages takes 5h to finish.

10 comments

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aaronwalker
No expert, but I do think that reading without comprehending helps--I find that it primes my brain to understand the content better when I go over it a second or third time.

I also struggle with reading speed, and I can easily to get lost when reading dense material, but what also helps me stay focused is actively annotating my thoughts on the page while I'm reading.

eimrine
Great answer! I use to write down a lot on my SICP book, that are words of stupid thoughts of mine. I think this is unhealthy, so I bought another SICP if I will need to gift or to show to somebody else, both books are in English which is also not my mother language. Second book was used and it has only highlighting, which I consider a proper annotations. No other book I consider so personal to me that I feel a needness to write in it.
ikkah
going over book multiple times could be a good practice and helps with memorizing the content. But when you read for the first time, do you think brain still stores the content?

I mean, brain is just a set of chemical reactions based on inputs. Reading has 3 parts. (1) Eye running through text and sending it to the brain. (2) Brain is trying to connect the content with other neurons. (3) Storing data, probably in the form of neuron connection, after step (2), which found correct place to store.

Now assuming process never ends and human anyway can't control 100% of that chemical reaction. While your brain is trying to figure out other thing, can it still execute steps (2) and (3)? Because (1) didn't stop

eimrine
> While your brain is trying to figure out other thing, can it still execute steps (2) and (3)? Because (1) didn't stop

My brain can not store sence if the sence is exposed to me. If the sence is yet to be exposed this is GIGO.

I think visual cortex may remember visual information - pictures, funny fonts, position of some lines of text, maybe some specific words even if the book is foreign and not understandable. But I do not believe you can cut off all words out of book and read it in random order and receive understanding.

BUT from my experience of reading, there is one way of conscious reading without reading the page fully - when I am reading super quickly for finding "good" and "bad" words. In my scientific areas there is often enough to see or not to see some specific words and surnames to understand what approach is being describe and is it novel for me. So, I believe there is a JS programmer who can read a totally new 200-page book "JS for beginners" for less than 5h and understand it fully.

eimrine
1. That is why reading is the king. You just reread. If you do not reread, you do not have a story.

2. Definitely not. I know one of such book, I use to reread it once per every few months. Year after year I keep finding new insights.

3. Going back or forth is stupidly realised on any music player except vinyl and maybe casette, that's why you might consider to keep listening. Normally after missing a few words, the text became glibberish, but typical news or Youtube content may be keep listening without losing the context even at higher speed.

200 pages per 5h is not slow if you are reading OReilly even on your mother language.

ikkah
> 200 pages per 5h

This is not my reading speed, this is what OReilly is suggesting me about how long it takes to finish reading this book. Also available in many blogging platforms, where time to finish is calculated based on number of words.

eimrine
Time to finish a page of mathematical paper may be tens minutes per line. OReilly is famous of programming books, some of those are not much easier. Examples are not for just reading and there is no way to finish 200 pages book full of examples in 5 hours.
dragonwriter
200pp in 5h is a reasonable time to read a book as if it were a novel—when I was younger a did more linear reading, my usual expectation was about 1 page per minute, which is 300pp in 5h—but that's usually not how I would expect one to consume a technical boom. to maximize value.
WheelsAtLarge
You can't learn unless you understand. So spending the time to understand what you are reading is well worth the time.

I'm someone that had great difficulty getting through books at one time. I would read a sentence, my mind would wonder and then I could not understand what I had just read so I had to read it again. It happened over and over again. It was so frustrating.

I got passed it by constantly reading. Figure out what you like to read and read that as much as possible. The more you do it the easier it gets. I won't be easy. It took me years to be able to read a book without constantly having to reread sentences.

Also, reading might not be the best way for you to learn. Try other methods and see if you can find an easier way to learn.

simonblack
You have to be able to understand it on at least one level.

If there is no understanding at all, as in reading a book written in a foreign language, the 'words' are just space-delimited jumbles of letters.

Even then, you can at least try to sound them out, I suppose. But a book written in Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Thai, or Chinese for (say) an American is just a bunch of meaningless squiggles.