Ask HN: How do you decide a non-fiction book is worth your time?

As I'm far past my student years I don't _have_ to read certain books. So nowadays I read non-fiction the same as fiction: I read until the book doesn't hold my interest anymore. I don't feel compelled to have to finish a book. As you said, not reading bad books (or good books that are just not for me in that moment) leaves more time for reading other books.

I buy enough books, but I mostly read books from the library. Wonderful institutions, those are. Don't like a book? Just return it and get a few others.

Having a set of "cool" words or definitions and "anti-cool" one. Having a hope that some special topic helps in the research. Also unlike with fiction books, it is very typical to read about some narrow thing, maybe few pages, and to consider the book as a read because of some achieved goal.

You're getting ahead of yourself. Before reading How To Read A Book you need to have first read How To Read How To Read A Book.

It's easy - you check youtube for short summary and in 99.99% of cases realize it's just another crap, rephrasing old ideas or author's wishful thinking.

The more popular book - the more useless it usually is.

I mostly go by a) recommendations from people I trust b) reviews (that I mostly find in the dailies).

Also, if you focus on classics I think you’ll be fine. I.e. Hemingway, Kafka, Dickens et al. Classics can have their flaws too, but I think we can assume they didn’t become classics by pure chance. So IMHO it’s a reasonable filter.

I usually get new book ideas from other books, maybe it's a reference to an author or a quote. This has been great for staying in the topic. Another similar source are articles I read online, specially the ones that look well researched.

A site that has been a great source for ideas is https://www.themarginalian.org/ by Maria Popova. It's so well written and she usually brings together different books that are somehow connected by the topic of the article.

The last post is a list of the best books for 2023, a lot of non-fiction https://www.themarginalian.org/2023/12/19/favorite-books-of-...

Now you need to read the https://www.amazon.com/Talk-About-Books-Havent-Read/dp/15969...

Honestly, I default to "it's not worth my time."

If something keeps popping up and the answer is, "Damn, I should probably have just read that book." then I get a copy of the book.

A reading habit, past a certain point, is self-propagating, in my experience. Based on conversation, explicit reference in other texts, and a general sixth-sense of what books to read next, I find that I rarely have a miscue. Abandoning a book that’s no good, or that you simply can’t get into for whatever reason, is a big part of making a self-propagating sense for reading highly reliable. I write a lot about what I read, and I think this further helps to direct my reading.

You can try writing a little testimonial when you start a book that would include your reasons for reading the book. When the book no longer seems to satisfy that rationale, it may be a good sign to abandon the book.

It depends on what you mean specifically by "worth your time"? What "value" (in the sense that you're using) are you trying to get from the book? If you are reading to solve a specific problem, then a book being worth your time would depend on its ability to help explain the problem or approximate ways towards a solution. However, if you are reading non-fiction for other reasons, such as leisure, then the value-approach becomes more complicated.

I keep a list of recommended books, fiction and non-fiction. I try to note where the recommendation came from.

Many come from people I know and who know me and my tastes. If a book is recommended by more people, it notches up.

I then add mood to this. I take account of what I feel and pick books that fit into that. For example, I try to round out my fiction and perspectives by reading a Russian literature classic. But they tend to not be the cheeriest of the bunch, and even though I feel due for the next one, I am holding off until the sun stars shining.

Another example: went sailing in the summer and read Old Man and the Sea as well as Moby Dick, because they both deal with wet and salty subjects.

My mood affects what I read. WhAt I read affects me. I try to steer this loop as best as I can.

I generally rely on others to recommend nonfiction. If someone with a perspective or insight I find challenging or compelling mentions a book I haven't read, I at least will take a look. On occasion I'll stumble on an interview with the author that sufficiently piques my interest.

Also, when I fixate on a new topic I often find that certain titles will be repeated in forums, chats, HN, articles, etc and I make note of things multiple people that seem to know things mention as useful.

- any current self-help style book can be discarded without further thought

- navy seal anecdotes call for an instant binning

- bad prose joins the others in the furnace

Serious points aside, your steps don't work for non-fiction. Well, not the kind worth reading anyway. How would you do so with a novel?

I go by recommendations or author I like. Maybe a classic I've heard about. Sometimes I find a volume in a public space and give it a skim. I read as long as I get enjoyment out of it. If it is a drain or badly written I stop. Same with films.

Anything I enjoy doing is worth my time. I enjoy reading non-fiction when the topic is interesting and the writing isn't terrible. It's usually such a small investment that if I'm interested in the topic I can take the risk in picking up a book about it even if I later discover that the writing is horrible and don't finish it. For books that are obnoxiously/unreasonably expensive I'll find a digital copy or make sure it's recommended. It is sometimes useful to be able to flip through the book first though just to make sure that it actually covers what I want to know and to get a feel for the depth/level of experience it's written for.

Step 1: make sure it's not on the New York Times bestseller list.

That list is quite manipulated. Makes for fascinating reading to see the dynamics of it explained.

The test of time. I just recently finished reading Skunk Works, and in the last few months seen a few references to it here on HN and and on reddit. It was published almost 30 years ago and people still talk about it online? That's an easy signal for quality to go by. Counter example: Freakanomics. It did not pass. Even though everyone was so hyped about it at the time. Too bad we don't have a time traveller hanging around to give recommendations.

i try to read a lot of (even recommended books) of the blog post expanded into book type. If the author is so disrespectful of my intellect to repeat the same statement fifty billion times in different ways - they can go to hell, i wont continue reading their book.

Reading the first actual chapter + a power skim helps work out if its worth your time. I also dont have time for people that dont write in Plain English...i dont need your ego making complex topics harder to understand because you like the smell of a thesaurus.

I try guesstimating the "information density". Often you can tell from the title that a topic is so specific that the book shouldn't be as long as it is. Self help books selling you one revolutionary idea are an example. Other books (often general business advice types) will fill themselves with many examples, but there's little novelty with each next example. On the other hand, some topics, e.g. history, would have to present a lot of facts that you wouldn't have guessed otherwise (unless you've read something similar before), so I'm inclined toward these books.

At some point I realized that it is okay to drop a book I started reading. If it turns out to be boring or not meeting whatever expectations I had, I just ditch it and move on.

I mostly listen to audiobooks so difficult to skim though these beforehand.

Get candidates from blogs I follow, magazines and the like. Also do keyword searches for my areas of interests and look for new books in those areas.

Usually I just do a quick check of the Amazon reviews and maybe some professional reviews and if it sounds okay I'll add it to the queue.

I finish about 95% of the books I start.

Consider the following: reading bad books can help you better appreciate good books.

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If it's anything but journalism, I won't read a book written by a journalist. They almost always lack the expertise to be reliable.