Ask HN: How do you enjoy fiction books? - shxdow
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mindcrime
Could you maybe elaborate a bit on exactly what it is you're asking? This is
so vague as to be basically impossible to answer as it is.

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shxdow
Fair point.

As far as non fiction goes, I know how to achieve whatever my goal maybe
(learning most of the time). Which translates to taking notes, testing code,
proving theorems myself etc... But whenever I pick up a fiction book I'm not
really sure if I should be doing anything in particular besides "just reading"
the thing. This often times caused a very strong sense of bordedom in me. Is
there anything in particular I would want to be doing ? What would make me
enjoy fiction more is I primarily read to learn new things ?

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mindcrime
Oh, gotcha. That's an interesting question. For me, I do usually "just read
it" when reading fiction. But in my case, to be completely honest, a lot of
the fiction I read is more on the "low brow" end, and is just escapism when I
need to let my brain rest a bit. I spend a lot of time reading non-fiction,
taking online classes, watching math videos on Youtube, etc., and sometimes I
just want to "unplug" and veg out to some generic thriller novel.

 _Is there anything in particular I would want to be doing ? What would make
me enjoy fiction more is I primarily read to learn new things ?_

The one obvious thing I can think of would be to make it a point to stop and
look up, and internalize, any unknown words you might encounter. Also, if you
read literature that includes untranslated phrases in other languages (that
you don't already know) you could make it a point to try translating those
passages, or at least look up the translations online and think about how they
integrate into the work.

Or if you read literature that references historical events, or famous people,
or real locations, etc., you could go off and research those
(people|places|events). I have actually done a little bit of that when reading
novels by Daniel Silva, since he incorporates a lot of interesting references
to historical events and places in his books.

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notomorrow
by reading it

