
How I Consume Books - mubaris
https://mubaris.blog/book-reading/
======
Barrin92
>his knowledge is small compared to non-fiction. Rest of the book is for your
entertainment. And fiction does a good job of presenting the idea. To absorb
the idea, it doesn’t require a thorough reading of the book (sometimes it
does). For the same reason, I find audiobooks are a better medium for
consuming fiction. By doing so, you also save your time.

this is such a horrible take on fiction that I've seen popup in recent times.
'Consuming' fiction as a sort of pokemon card collection and to 'acquire
knowledge'.

Better read a few works of fiction deeply and genuinely for their own sake
rather than trying to vacuum up books in the name of some shallow self
improvement. This post reminds me of the guy with the lamborghini and the
bookshelf in his garage.

~~~
nostalgk
Exactly. Reading any good book and fully understanding it takes a lot more
than a simple once-through hearing. Sure, you might catch the themes and be
able to have a water cooler conversation, but the best books are the ones that
_aren 't_ page turners; ones that you spend all night on, and only make it
through 20 pages.

Besides, when I read something really good, like Hitchhiker's Guide, I usually
flip it over and start it again!

~~~
hawski
I know that I'm in minority, but could you tell me what do you find great
about Hitchhiker's Guide? I find it ok-ish. It feels overly chaotic for me.
Like it really tries to wave the idea of improbability at me and eventually
shove it. Of course everything is exaggerated for comedic effects, but for me
it's like it tries too hard. The result is very incoherent.

It reminds me of a few movies I enjoyed dearly when I was a kid. After a
rewatch they seem like a bunch of good gags, that tell a miserable story. If I
would judge the scenes by themselves, I would say they are nice. However if
you put them in order, it seems forced to put a story together.

I had similar thoughts after reading Pratchett's The Colour of Magic. Though
after I started reading The Light Fantastic it fell into place. I would say
that those two books should be inseparable. Whatever happens in the first does
not make sense until the second book. Now I can say that I enjoyed it more
then Mort and Guards! Guards!, but at the moment it's all I read from
Discworld, do maybe my opinion is yet to change. I wonder if it's the same
with Hitchhiker's Guide. But I'm on 19th chapter of 4th book and although this
one feels much better, whatever happens in previous three still does not make
any sense.

I'll pass if you will tell me it should not make sense, that's figurative 'it'
and I get it as it is. Because coherence is what makes a story for me.

~~~
kthejoker2
Yeah ... HHGTTG is like a super extended standup routine or vaudeville act.
Reading for "coherence" or "an idea" is missing the point.

~~~
C1sc0cat
It was a radio show originally

------
Hemospectrum
I was honestly looking forward to an explanation of what utensils to use, and
what sort of wines to pair them with. As it turns out, lignin is not
especially nutritious to human beings, so perhaps “read books” would be a more
helpful choice of words. Obviously the implication is that you only read a
book once, but I’m not sure I can get on board with that.

I think I’ll go reread _Red Dragon_ , which has a lot to say on the topic of
consuming.

~~~
Loughla
This may not be the best forum for this, but I actually have a (what I believe
to be) really good story about consuming books.

The first time I read Howl by Ginsberg, it was a copy given to me by someone
who, as I look back now, was trying to guide my life away from its trajectory
at the time. I was young, had, again as I look back now, an un-diagnosed
mental illness, and was self-medicating through a combination of illicit drugs
and terrible decisions.

This man gave me his copy of Howl that was from 1958. It was one of his most
prized possessions. The gift came with a lecture, as did most meetings with
this man, about my life and the life of the Beat poets back then. He expressed
several lessons that have stuck with me to today. He demanded that I read the
book that night and consider its themes.

There are times in your life when conscious decisions have an everlasting
impact. I remember, I vividly remember sitting in my car - where I lived at
the time - looking at that book after finishing a cold can of Dinty Moore beef
stew. It was mid-October. The leaves were turning brown, but not fully brown
yet. It was unseasonably warm, and the mosquitoes were bad enough that I had
to use a t-shirt cut in half to cover the window opening, just so I could have
some air movement without being eaten alive.

And there on my passenger seat was this book. Again, conscious choices. I
heard Jim's words, how desperately pleading, but still forceful they were. I
think he could see that I was actively trying to burn myself out.

So I picked up his, again, 1958 edition of Howl, and started reading. Jesus
that poem. It's just the perfect thing that has ever existed. You can taste
the sweat and shit and hate and love that Ginsberg poured into that poem. It's
over 60 years old, but FUCK is it still so fresh.

I remember sitting in that car, just devouring that poem (metaphorically). I,
for an instant, saw myself dying, and for what? Some weird anger I couldn't
let go of about how my parents treated me when I was a kid? About how my life
was seemingly unable to straighten itself out?

That book, and I cannot stress this enough, hit me so hard that I broke down.
I cried. Ugly, snot faced, loud sobbing, just awful.

And I knew, at that moment, that I needed to get help. I knew that I needed to
seek out someone, probably Jim (it was Jim) to help me. And I knew that my
life would never be the same from that moment.

I knew that I had to remember this moment for when it got too hard to cope
with 'straight' life. I knew that I needed to do something to be able to
remind myself that change was now a part of me, not just something I was
doing.

I ate the cover of the book.

~~~
Lambdanaut
I would love to read a book from you. That was beautiful, touching, and
imminently relatable.

------
majos
My approach to fiction is different from the author's, but there is a point
where we agree: taking notes on books greatly improves the experience.

Before and during college I read a fair amount of fiction. Most of it I
enjoyed in the moment, and sometimes I even experienced those deep-truth-
feeling "whoa" moments. But even then they faded from memory within a few
months. Eventually, I'd recommend the book to somebody but, when pressed for a
reason why, struggle to produce much beyond "oh, it's just...really good...".
This bothered me. If that book was so damn good, why couldn't I articulate
even some of that goodness?

Solution: now when I read a book, I keep a written list on the bookmark of
page numbers for quotes I like. After I finish the book -- or decide to stop
reading it -- I go back and type those quotes up in a Google doc. An OK book
might have one or two, a book that "speaks to me" might have 20. Even if the
book is amazing, a dozen quotes usually provides a reasonable-enough sketch to
jog my memory. Finally, I write a few paragraphs of thoughts about the book.

This sounds a little tedious, but keeping the list as you go is pretty easy.
Typing up the quotes and writing some thoughts might take a half hour. And it
seriously improves retention of why I liked or disliked the thing and makes
the reading process more participatory. Now, when I recommend a book to
someone, I can usually call back some of my notes and form a coherent reason.
I'm also more likely to run into a situation and realize "oh, very smart
author x wrote an illuminating paragraph about this in book y that makes a
point way better than I could, let me ctrl-f my Google doc and fish that out".
And this doubles by deepening _my_ appreciation of what I've read.

It's like keeping a journal: stepping back, collecting thoughts, and analyzing
can be a lot of reward for comparatively small investment, especially next to
the amount of time reading the book probably took.

~~~
Aromasin
I do the same thing. My reasoning is, if you're going to put dozens of hours
into a book, or hundreds into a good series, an extra 20 minutes at the end to
file away any good memories from that really isn't too much of a time expense
in comparison. Sometimes it's even fun. I basically wrote an essay on the
Stormlight archive (probably my favourite ever series) which is something
teenage me doing my English Literature GCSE's would have gagged at the thought
of.

~~~
CGamesPlay
This is off-topic but since you've obviously thought about it, why is
Stormlight Archives good? I was pretty turned off Sanderson after Mistborn
because there were some aspects I really didn't care for.

~~~
Aromasin
I read the Mistborn novels following my reading of Stormlight, and compared to
the later I really struggled to get through them. They read more like teen-
fiction in comparison.

There's been a stark improvement in his writing quality. The Stormlight
Archive is much more robust in characters (granted the main protagonists can
still get a bit angsty in places), incredible in terms of world-building
(which of course is what Sanderson is really know for), and has a story line
with enough plot twists and development to keep you entertained despite the
page count.

I highly recommend it, but if the size of the volumes are bit daunting the
Audible narrations are decent too. I flipped back and forth between the two,
listening to it in the car and then reading from where the recording left off
when I got home. I'm not normally a fiction buff, but I'm chomping at the bit
in anticipation for the next in the series.

The 3 books total about 1.25 million words mind, so get ready for the long
haul.

------
joppy
> Most of the fiction books are based on the presentation of a concept or a
> group of concepts.

This is quite a narrow view of fiction. Story, relationships, worldbuilding,
emotion, and language are just some of the reasons I read fiction (and I
imagine, just some of the reasons many authors write fiction).

~~~
C1sc0cat
And not forgetting the sensawunder - I got into new age SF after I had run
through the kids library at around 13.

Reading SRD, Ballard and so on

------
iserlohnmage
The author tried to advocate a "practical view" of fiction books. When your
sole aim is to extract some useful idea, why not read the abbreviated version
or community reviews on Goodreads?

~~~
Veen
Because fiction is (in part) an exploration of ideas through their expression
in narratives, characters, lives, history, emotions, settings, language, and
so on. It's not possible to reduce the richness of that exploration to a
summary, because you lose everything that made the book worth writing and
reading in the first place. The author of the article fundamentally
misconstrues what fiction is.

~~~
latexr
> The author of the article fundamentally misconstrues what fiction is.

Which, I believe, is the point the parent comment was making. They don’t seem
to be advocating a read of the abbreviated version in general, just to the
author of the post seeing as they seem to put fiction’s value on the idea.

------
SolaceQuantum
I disagree heavily with the author's understanding of fiction and absorption
of ideas in fiction. Fiction IMO is best viewed as an exploration into a
concept and not a presentation the way non-fiction is. In the way nonfiction
describes the shape of a phenomenon, and is excellently riveting in its
placement of the reader in the backdrop of whatever it describes- fiction
walks the reader through edge cases and underbellies of the same world.

As an avid reader of nonfiction and fiction equally, the two cannot be read
with the same eye to gain the most. If one were to continue with the consuming
metaphor- it's very possible to eat fried rice with a shallow, metal spoon-
but some authenticity is lost in the experience of eating even when it still
reaches your mouth and your gullet just the same.

~~~
hinkley
In college I let my roommate borrow a copy of a fairly long fantasy novel with
a lot of scene building and heavy on foreshadowing. He returned it the next
day and asked for the sequel, which is how I learned he was a speed reader.

I was appalled. Part of the book was wondering what every obscure comment five
hundred pages ago meant and whether it would come back to bite people. It was
like a murder mystery without the murders. If not for the anticipation, other
bits if the story arc were actually a bit weak (like many authors, they don’t
want an editor but desperately need one).

I never did figure out what he was getting from the story when he was getting
through them in three or four hours.

------
hedgedbycaveats
The whole point of fiction books is actually reading them! And we utilize
completely different brain functions to read and understand fiction books
which is very important in today's world (imagination, creativity, etc.), and
hard to replace with anythinig else. It is not about "I know what the book is
about"..

------
polyvisual
My mother was a librarian for 30 years and I gained a love of books from her;
I just I wish I had more time to read.

Between my day job in Fin Tech, my sideline business in my handmade leather
goods and with two children at primary school, I basically have ten minutes
before I fall asleep in bed at the end of the day to squeeze in a few pages.

~~~
perfunctory
> I just I wish I had more time to read.

When I started working two days a week a colleague of mine said he was jealous
and wished he could do the same. While he agreed that objectively there was
absolutely no reason he couldn't actually do the same.

Isn't it about setting priorities? What stops you from for example spending
less time on your side business and more time reading? Please don't take it as
judgemental, I am really curious.

~~~
asark
> When I started working two days a week a colleague of mine said he was
> jealous and wished he could do the same. While he agreed that objectively
> there was absolutely no reason he couldn't actually do the same.

Spoiler warning for a season 1 episode of Black Mirror: this is precisely the
gut-punch realization delivered at the end of the "future" "sci-fi" episode
Fifteen Million Merits. It is set in the future, and it is sci-fi, but it is
not at all _about_ the future or _about_ sci-fi—it's entirely about now. A
horrible, pointless, sterile existence—but where are the enforcers, if this is
some kind of dystopia? Robot drones, cyborg lackeys of the system packing
heat, sadistic future-cops? There are none. Not a single one. Perhaps the
outside world was ruined so there's no escape? Oh, but no, it wasn't. It's
right there. The episode's given us no reason to believe anyone who wanted to
couldn't walk right out into it. But they don't. And neither do we (mostly).

~~~
Bakary
Isn't the enforcer a lack of money for most people? You can "walk out"
progressively by saving aggressively but it takes a while, if it's even
possible. You can take a more extreme route but it's far from a trivial
achievement.

~~~
asark
It's largely the comfort and familiarity. Yeah you _could_ walk away, but
there's so much risk. So back to your stationary bike to make little pellet
things for some reason, eating food out of a vending machine, while watching
reality TV and decorating your virtual avatars using Merits you've earned at
your job of dubious actual value, anxious always that you'll fall down a rung
on the social ladder (while, of course, mocking those who have).

[EDIT] at least as the episode depicts it, which is very much a slice from a
range of middle-ish class perspectives. Fussellian middle-class anxiety
certainly appears (though not the full scope of it) and perhaps is most
prominent, but there's more going on than _just_ that. The episode's not
trying to be about everyone, I don't think.

[EDIT EDIT] I think the key components of that episode are that 1) the system
they live in is starkly meaningless, divorced from anything recognizable as
value in practically any ordinary sense and in almost every single action they
take, 2) nothing like a jack-booted thug, even broadly, ever features—the
closest thing we get is "cuppliance" which is bad, sure, but given how passive
it is and in the context of the rest of the episode, reads almost like an
escape hatch for the writer rather than an intentional part of the thrust of
the story, 3) an attempt at actual rebellion at the system is smoothly and
efficiently coopted by the system—some clear ironic self-criticism from
Brooker, that—and 4) our final shot reveals that they may well be able to just
walk away any time they like.

(some people like to wonder whether the windows at the end are real or
screens, but between what _precisely_ they depict, which is not some
remarkable vista or wilderness but a fairly ordinary one, and the context of
the rest of the episode, I don't think there's a ton of ambiguity there)

------
misiti3780
I do something similar to "incremental reading" when reading all books (minus
fiction, which i tend not to read). I use kindle highlights and notes to keep
track of important sections of the books as i am reading them. Every few days,
I export all my current notes to Anki and review them every day. This allows
me to retain almost everything I read in some form, and also allows me to read
many books at one time, especially technical books, because the topics etc are
fresh in my mind.

I am not inherently anti-fiction, but there are way too many non-fiction books
out there that I want to read that I cannot find them time.

~~~
rshudson
Do you have an automated way to export your notes or is it manual?Would love
to hear more about your workflow.

~~~
misiti3780
It's totally possible to automate the process using Anki Connect (Polar
Bookshelf does this). But I tend to do it manually because I like to add
context and pictures when appropriate.

When Im using it to learn something like a new spoken language, pictures and
sounds are very important. When I am using it to learn a new computer
language, it is important to provide context and a good example/card to
remember some specific programming syntax or feature.

------
fogus
> I find audiobooks are a better medium for consuming fiction. By doing so,
> you also save your time.

There should be a YMMV attached to this sentence because it's certainly not
the case for me. The best that I get and retain comprehensibility of audio is
1.75x speed and that's still a lot slower than I can read the same text. Maybe
the author meant that it saves time because you can do it in the car, whilst
jogging/walking-dog, cleaning the house, etc. But in that case it's running on
a background process (or at best time-sharing) which thwarts
comprehensibility. YMMV

~~~
Aromasin
I found that as I listened to more and more audio books, I ended up increasing
and increasing the speed of playback. 50 or so books in and a 2x speed is
quite leisurely listening, which I increase if I find the pace slowing. I
don't agree that comprehensibility is a fixed variable with regards to
playback speed.

------
spookybones
Fiction, among other things, is about learning empathy, multiple viewpoints
and moral frameworks, and interiority. Some say, by the end of a good fiction
work, you will know the protagonist more than you know anyone in your life
because you will never have that level of access to another person's
consciousness. These points, of course, aren't exclusive to fiction. But,
fiction is exceptionally good at them. When I hear someone say they read only
non-fiction, more often than not, they reveal an impoverished imagination.

------
DecayingOrganic
Nuttall notes that "speed, enjoyment and comprehension are closely linked with
one another" (1996: 128). She describes "The vicious circle of the weak
reader: Reads slowly; Doesn't enjoy reading; Doesn't read much; Doesn't
understand; Reads slowly. . ." (p. 127) and so on. Extensive reading can help
readers "enter instead the cycle of growth. . . . The virtuous circle of the
good reader: Reads faster; Reads more; Understands better; Enjoys reading;
Reads faster. . ."

Thus, I would conclude that any activity, be it note taking or a similar
endeavor, if proves to be disturbing the reading fluency of the agent, it
could result in unintended secondary consequences, as such to foster an
aversion to reading, supported by the deduction in reading pleasure and
comprehension.

At the end, the agent could find itself spending less time reading, the main
culprit being the very methods which it sought to maximize reading
productivity, as such methods proved to be destructive for its reading
fluency.

------
rimher
Any tips on how to handle reading through more technical books?

~~~
mesaframe
What exactly is your problem? Comprehension or remembering what you read? If
it is comprehension then I would suggest picking up better book and/or a
dictionary. For remembering what you learn. Practice!

~~~
playing_colours
what also helps with a technical book is to refresh what you learnt yesterday
in the beginning on a session. You will remember things better and load the
context.

------
EasyTiger_
I honestly detest the overuse of the word 'consume'

~~~
harowitzblack
drink mango juice, it'll ease the pain

~~~
necovek
You probably meant "consume mango juice" :)

------
vcavallo
how did this post even end up here? OP says he reads and takes notes. is this
interesting or news to anyone?

------
te_chris
Or just read reviews if you don't actually care about the book. The leading
news papers and literary journals all publish reviews of most books.

This is just sad, especially the emphasis on consume.

------
smacktoward
_> Most of the fiction books are based on the presentation of a concept or a
group of concepts. The concept that presented by the book is the knowledge
you’re gaining. This knowledge is small compared to non-fiction. Rest of the
book is for your entertainment._

What? Why would you think that the point of fiction is to coat a set of
shallow ideas with a thick layer of empty-calorie entertainment?

 _> I like Fantasy and Young Adult stories._

Oh.

~~~
asark
There are exceptions, but an awful lot of "I read so fast and just love
reading and read like three books a week" stories end up at "oh, you mean YA
and fantasy and slim, low-calorie business and self-help books. OK I guess."

I read some of that stuff too, but I wouldn't dream of using my speed at
reading them (or anything, in fact, but especially those) as a point of pride.
I'm old enough not to be at all ashamed of them and I'd happily talk about
reading them, but no way I'd brag about how many books I get through if that's
most of what I've been reading. I mean I can go grab some Goosebumps books and
read like 10 of those in a day if I want. They have chapters and everything so
that counts, right? Then I can get some shirts and tote bags and pins and
bumper stickers telling everyone what a reader I am.

There are lots of sorts of books.

And if you're using that as your basis for _what fiction is_ then you've got
some learning to do, to put it mildly.

[EDIT] just to highlight a part you quoted again, this is so, so frustrating
to read:

> Most of the fiction books are based on the presentation of a concept or a
> group of concepts. The concept that presented by the book is the knowledge
> you’re gaining. This knowledge is small compared to non-fiction. Rest of the
> book is for your entertainment.

No. There are certain kinds of fiction that, when done right, have you
stopping at most every couple pages to _think_ and _absorb_ and _reflect_ , if
you're reading it in such a way that you'll get anything out of it. If you're
reading it the way you read Terry Goodkind probably you won't, and you'll have
a bad time, and maybe think it's "bad" and "boring" and so on. Just like
listening to 80s top-40 pop music doesn't really prepare you to give a deep
listen to Miles Davis, or Beethoven, or hell even Public Enemy, despite it all
being music.

------
dredmorbius
Mortimer J. Adler, _How to Read a Book_.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book)

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/how-to-read-a-
book/oclc/90737...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/how-to-read-a-
book/oclc/907377198)

------
sciencewolf
This article was a bit infuriating-- not because of what the techniques are,
but why they were presented. Here's an analysis at
[https://algodaily.com/lessons/how-to-consume-books-in-
whatev...](https://algodaily.com/lessons/how-to-consume-books-in-whatever-way-
you-want)

------
pcora
> I like Fantasy and Young Adult stories.

What are Young Adult stories? Anyone have any examples? I am genuinely
curious.

~~~
SolaceQuantum
Young Adult stories are stories that are often where the protagonists are
coming-of-age, still dealing with school or part-time jobs, parents are
significant in their lives, etc. The themes are often coming-of-age, finding
suitable mentors (and avoiding villanous mentors), new love, etc.

I'd suggest:

The City Of Ember

Akata Witch

The Hate U Give

The Sun Is Also A Star

There's also the ones most people know: Silverwing (more children's
literature), Harry Potter, Holes...

~~~
jemorya
Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin

~~~
merpnderp
One of the best works of fiction I've read as a child and still re-read today.

------
FpUser
I do not consume books. I read them

------
nohope
This is like: you can double the number of songs you listen if you fast-
forward the player 2x!

------
polyterative
So basically he takes notes

------
rinze
I just read them.

------
mubaris
I'm trying to consume all these comments

~~~
moab
I don't think anyone is trying to be mean/overly critical with their comments
here. I hope you keep writing/submitting to HN.

