[HN Gopher] Ask HN: How to Read More Books?
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Ask HN: How to Read More Books?
I would like to read more books rather than spend time on the
Internet. But each time I pick up a book I think I can probably do
a little bit of work or practice some interviewing skills like
leetcode rather than reading which is not going to give any
benefit. Secondly, books are overly verbose so I tend to read 10
min summaries which obviously don't convey the material as nicely
as the real book. Anyone find this familiar? How do you commit
yourself to a healthy reading habit? (I prefer physical books than
another digital device like Kindle).
Author : posharma
Score : 22 points
Date : 2022-05-06 18:52 UTC (4 hours ago)
| romanhn wrote:
| Audiobooks have been a lifesaver in my otherwise busy life. I
| listen when I drive and when I do chores primarily. Try to
| alternate fiction and non-fiction, been doing it for probably 15
| years now. Last couple of years I've started increasing the
| playback speed very slowly, training myself to get comfortable
| with it. Currently at around 1.75x for non-fiction, 2x speed for
| fiction. More literature covered with minimal loss of
| comprehension (won't say it's zero, but small enough of an issue
| given the benefit).
| jay3ss wrote:
| I wish that audiobooks worked for me, but I just can't pay
| attention to them. I tried listening to one on a long car trip
| and I couldn't pay attention for more than a few minutes.
| mindcrime wrote:
| _leetcode rather than reading which is not going to give any
| benefit._
|
| _Secondly, books are overly verbose_
|
| Sounds to me like you have some pretty rather odd beliefs. It's
| not clear, based on this, that you really even want to read more
| books. I'm very unsure what to tell somebody who seems to
| basically be saying "I don't find reading valuable, but I want to
| read more." Ya get what I mean?
|
| It might be time to work on reframing some of your thoughts about
| this, which might or might not end up with you deciding to even
| bother. Not that there's anything wrong with that, whichever way
| it comes out.
|
| All of that said, the best thing I've ever done to help myself
| read more is simply to set a yearly goal for how many books I
| want to read (I use Goodreads to keep track). Having a goal
| hanging over my head is constant motivation to work towards it.
| But note that while it's a goal, it's not like the "Goal Books"
| are all books that are meant to be "productive" in some way. IOW,
| it's not all about learning, or improving skills, etc. I totally
| intermingle the books I read purely for leisure with the ones I
| read for any other purpose (which does, at times, include
| learning, improving skills, etc.)
| kingkongjaffa wrote:
| How do I downvote this?
|
| Since when did HN posters start talking to each other like this
|
| >Sounds to me like you have some pretty fucked up beliefs
| millzlane wrote:
| Keep posting constructive comments that contribute to the
| discussion at hand. You will get there eventually. For now,
| flag what you think should be flagged and move on.
|
| Also, if you have better advice for the Poster. Feel free to
| post your own comment.
| mindcrime wrote:
| I edited my comment to soften the tone a bit, while
| preserving the overall gist of what I wanted to say. Thanks
| for helping keep me honest.
| guidoism wrote:
| Overly verbose? Indeed for the modern non fiction book. Most are
| really just 10 page articles expanded to fit in what people
| perceive as the standard book length.
|
| Honestly as much as this sounds like a joke, make your next book
| "How to read a Book" by Adler. It changed the way I read books
| and now I don't feel bad skimming a book and deciding that it's
| not worth my time
| guidoism wrote:
| Actually, before you even read that book take a look at the
| Wikipedia page for it
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book
| bszupnick wrote:
| I know you wrote you prefer physical books to digital devices
| but....I recently got a Kobo ([Libra
| 2](https://us.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-libra-2)) and just by
| virtue of creating the habit of always having it on my person,
| I've been reading a ton more.
|
| Phone, wallet, keys, Kobo. That habit was a much easier lift than
| the guilt-inducing "must read X pages/hours per Y" demands on
| myself, and it led to more reading.
| skydhash wrote:
| Same. I have a Kindle Basic (great for reading, bad for pretty
| much everything else). It can fit my back pocket, so I put it
| there whenever I go out. Every waiting moment is an occasion to
| read a few pages of my current book. I've also disable cellular
| internet on my phone, so it's always the best distraction
| instead of going to Twitter or Whatsapp status.
| tamiral wrote:
| I setup a bedtime routine where I try to read at least 30 mins or
| until I get really sleepy. I've been able to finish more books
| this way and it really helps in retaining concepts.
| t-3 wrote:
| I use an ebook reader and a notebook. It has a browser, but the
| touch interface has enough friction to make it hard to get
| absorbed into distractions. The notebook helps me take notes and
| eliminate the "gotta look it up right now" feeling. Also,
| blocking social media and news sites with host files or at the
| router (router is preferable, as DoH in Firefox and Chrome bypass
| hostfile blocking).
| PaulHoule wrote:
| I might be the wrong person to answer because I'm obsessed with
| books and sometimes have been told by my therapist, my wife, my
| son, etc. to lay off the reading.
|
| Two things I like are: (1) reading on public transit (often
| physical books) and (2) reading a tablet when doing cardio at the
| gym.
|
| Also I think there's the matter of finding the right books. Some
| books really do invite you into a world that takes a lot of
| effort to get into, say
|
| https://www.lacan.com/beingandevent.html
|
| I find this is a good analogy
|
| https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1105469/
|
| It is like going somewhere on vacation or playing a video game or
| experiencing virtual reality. You get out what you put in.
| specproc wrote:
| My reading ebbs and flows, but the big motivation for me is that
| big pile of books I've bought that I've not read yet.
|
| Just buy books at every opportunity. Second hand ones are dead
| cheap. Get anything you like the look of.
|
| Reading is also social. Pass books around with your friends.
| Lend/give ones you like to people who might like them. They'll
| recommend you stuff and reciprocate.
| scrapheap wrote:
| I actually now track my reading using Kanban. Books I've decided
| to read go in to Pending. When I actively start reading one it
| moves into In Progress and when I complete it it moves into Done.
|
| I limit my actively being read books down so that I've never got
| more than 2 on the go at once, though quite often I'll only have
| one being actively read.
|
| It has certainly made a difference for me, as I now get through
| about 60 books each year.
|
| If you're wanting to read shorter fiction books then try looking
| at some of the older classics, as they tend to be a lot shorter
| than modern books.
| Jtsummers wrote:
| What I've done and has worked for me:
|
| 1. Take the book, leave the phone and laptop at home. Go to a
| coffee shop, park, bar (a chill kind of bar, not a sports bar or
| a dive bar) and read. <-- no longer works well for me, I don't
| live in a downtown so it's not as convenient.
|
| 2. Declare a space in the home to be tech-free. <-- Works ok for
| me in the winter time here when I can't go outside
|
| 3. Read after doing some other activity and make _that_ the
| habit. After I go for runs or mow the lawn, I sit on the back
| deck and read. <-- this one seems to be the most consistent, but
| is a spring/summer/early fall thing here, not a year-round
| approach. In more temperate climates you could do this year
| round.
| huevosabio wrote:
| The first one is my preferred method. I leave the phone at home
| and go to a coffee shop with a notebook and a book. I read,
| ponder and write as I feel like.
|
| I find that not having anything to distract me allows me to
| absorb more the reading, and when just pondering, the wandering
| thoughts get to go to interesting places instead of being
| censored by the urge to check Twitter.
|
| I am still too slow reading books, though, because I don't do
| this often enough and because I end up interleaving note taking
| and reading.
| thfuran wrote:
| Why do you think leetcode is more useful than books?
| posharma wrote:
| Keeping your coding skills sharp always helps with interviewing
| when changing jobs.
| ozzythecat wrote:
| Leetcode might help with interviewing, but I'd say that's
| about it. I don't think I'd optimize my general learning and
| discovery with trying to pass arbitrary interviews.
|
| Real world coding has very little to do with leet code
| problems. Debugging, problem solving, diving deep into legacy
| code and reducing or skillfully dealing with complexity.
| That's more like real life.
| thfuran wrote:
| Preparing for interviews for specifically those companies
| that do leetcode style interviews is a very narrow use case
| and one that's only useful if you actually intend to
| interview for such a position soonish. I'd say that books
| are, as a category, incomparably more broadly useful.
| PaulHoule wrote:
| I'd be rich if I had a dollar for every student who told me
| "I understand the concepts but I can't do the problems" in
| math or physics and then in debugging their problem solving
| it became clear that they don't understand the concepts at
| all.
|
| There is nothing like doing the problem sets when it comes to
| learning something like math or computer science. If you did
| the problem sets successfully but didn't read anything else
| or go to lectures you pass the class.
|
| Lately I decided I was going to completely understand Java
| Generics (like how exactly the solver works) and found that
| there weren't any good books or web pages on the subject,
| instead I was going to have to read Chapter 18 the Java
| Language Specification as many times as it takes and come up
| with my own problem set. (I just wish I had a way of making a
| unit test that "passes" if the function doesn't compile!)
| jackling wrote:
| Not my area of expertise, but wouldn't most compiler books
| have chapters on generics work for general languages? You
| could use that to reason on how Java generics work.
| mindcrime wrote:
| _Keeping your coding skills sharp always helps with
| interviewing when changing jobs._
|
| So what? How much of your time do you spend changing jobs,
| versus everything else you do?
| bruhbruhbruh wrote:
| Find books that you enjoy.
|
| Set a goal for number of books, pages, or hours per day you want
| to read.
|
| Find a time of day that you read - I always read fiction before
| bed. When I read non-fiction, it is usually with breakfast/before
| work.
|
| Stop sweating the 'opportunity cost' of doing things - just do
| them if you enjoy them, and don't worry about how you could have
| been spending your time more effectively/efficiently.
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(page generated 2022-05-06 23:02 UTC)