

How To: Read more books - pauljonas
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/morebooks

======
JustAGeek
The best way to read more books is to get a job where you have to commute. And
by that I mean commute by train.

That's giving me almost 2 hours per day for pretty uninterrupted reading. Not
that I read 100 books per year but it seems that it's much more than my co-
workers, so I guess I'm above average.

Because of that I actually enjoy commuting. :)

~~~
staunch
Audiobooks and podcasts work just fine for drivers (and on the train too).
It's the weirdest feeling when you find yourself picking the slowest lane in
traffic just so you can spend more time enjoying what you're listening to.

~~~
cglee
I used to love audiobooks, until I realized how much longer they took over
reading. I prefer podcasts for drives, but even a lot of those aren't very
focused and tend to banter.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
I convert PDFs to audiobooks using an osx service and then i listen to them on
2x speed. i'm a slow reader, so it isnt a huge difference in time for me.

~~~
pavel_lishin
A text-to-speech converter sounds like an awful way read to listen to a book.

------
brezina
Copying my comment that I posted on Aaron's blog:

One more simple lesson that I learned only in my early twenties.

You don’t need to finish every book.

This is a simple but powerful lesson. It reduces the mental burden of starting
a new book to near zero. I’m now comfortable putting a book down 200 pages in.
And that makes it much easier to start the next 600 page novel.

High school english classes teach us the wrong way to read books. It took me a
long time to unlearn what I was taught.

~~~
pauljonas
Yay, I struggle with this too.

Have this compulsive need to complete the entire book.

Afraid, that not devoting enough effort I will shortchange my reading effort.
That I'd be withdrawing from a challenging but fruitful experience (if the
text is difficult, or the author's style is boring or has a level of
incomprehensibility).

I resolved this dilemma by at least making it half way through a book, or at
least first two chapters for those dreadful cases. Or not at all, as of late,
have realized that there is just so much to read, that no need to waste on
uninteresting/uninspired.

------
maurycy
Bla, bla, bla.

The most important question is, I think, why force yourself to read more
books?

I grew up in a family where everyone reads a lot of books. No one forced me to
read books but I spent most of my childhood reading something, being
completely convinced that it is good for me.

I used to read everything. From silly to hardcore stuff, like philosophy,
sociology and literature critique. From novels to strictly technical books
about management.

I was able to fluently speak about postmodernism, and I was a complete
imbecile.

It took me few years to realize that I actually learned nothing from books. My
world expanded enormously just within few years because of few random
discussions, people I met and admire, as well as Internet, and silly blogs.

If you say that books help you to focus, I'd recommend taking some hardcore
courses of typography. Writing down the whole alphabet takes much more
patience than reading almost any book.

I agree that you should read books, if you enjoy them. However, please stop
treating books as something more special than watching a movie, taking a walk
or other pleasures of life.

~~~
mquander
I think this is with you, not with the books. Maybe you're talking about when
you were a teenager or before -- I did a poor job of reading many books when I
was younger, too.

But most adults don't read good novels or tracts on philosophy or sociology
and then come out learning "nothing." I promise that there is much more than
"nothing" inside. I think it's awfully pessimistic to say that you can't learn
anything from books after your experience; books are more or less the only
window into almost the entire history of human thought and storytelling, and
not being able to incorporate that history into yourself is a problem.

~~~
maurycy
You're the essence of the problem, messieur.

What's so pessimistic about it? Whatever floats your boat, pal. If books
enrich you, keep reading. Do not force everyone else to do so, though. Might
be that there are other sources of enlightenment. Nature, nice chicks, long
discussions, Italian restaurants etc. It's pure symbolic violence what you do
right now, pal.

Easy test, though.

Speak to a random literature folk, who graduated five years ago, or so. By
average, he is completely clueless. You recognize he is smart, uses much
complicated buzzwords than you've ever heard of, but chances are, you do not
expect him to change the world, nor get laid.

It should be obvious what's my point. If you're smart, books might help you.
If you're average, books won't change it significantly and sometimes might
make things much more worse, clouding your mind or hiding your ignorance
behind overly complicated concepts. Accidentally, most of the world is not
that smart, and it's perfectly OK.

That's why I say that books are overrated, and we should ask yourself a
question whether we really get so much from them as we think we do. Chances
are that some people will keep reading but others would be more happy dancing,
drawing or being next Sasha Grey or Stoya, without this guilt they don't read
enough books.

By the way, I don't say that there is "nothing" in books. Nothing can be
something, too. However, the knowledge about Humbert Humbert and a little girl
he loved, is, for me, nothing significant.

~~~
mquander
I have to admit, you've got a point. I feel a little bit like the Christian
who insists on starting every conversation with a discussion about how you
ought to let Jesus into your heart. I will think a little bit and see if I can
defend my position this evening.

~~~
maurycy
Thank you. I appreciate your honesty.

------
badave
tl;dr: Stop visiting hacker news, reddit and other blogs; stop interacting
with people; get books from the library for free.

My opinion: seriously, blogs should count as minibooks and everytime I read a
particularly good and in depth blog or something that elicits the "I'm smarter
for reading that" moment, I'm going to keep a tally. That tally I'll consider
a chapter of a book. At 300 chapters, I'll count that as a book. Let's see how
many books I have after a year. I think it'll be around 100.

~~~
revorad
Wow, are you really reading 30,000 good blog posts in a year? Could you please
share what blogs you read? I find most blogs tiring and annoying, because
there is so little new content and so much reposting and regurgitating of the
same things going on over and over again.

I am rediscovering what a joy it is to read books. It seems it does take a lot
of work to write well. Blog posts, almost by definition, are not meant to be
well-written in terms of depth and succinctness.

But, maybe I'm just reading all the wrong blogs.

~~~
badave
See my reply to tome.

There are lots of good blogs out there. I think a substantial number of
bloggers end up getting published in books, and a lot of good writers blog.
There is a lot of information out there, my primary point is that you don't
have to consume it on parchment for it to count.

------
ErrantX
_at the first sign of mental difficulty, I tab to a different window and begin
typing the URL of a favorite blog._

Heh. As I read that I realize I have being doing it pretty much all day today.

------
axod
>> "since books can usually substitute for human company: you can take them
with you on the train and to meals and curl up with them at night and so on."

Seriously? Comes across as slightly sad to me.

The top priority on everyones list should be friends+family IMHO. Everything
else is just 'stuff'.

Also I'd say there's far more to be learned/gained/enjoyed from other human
beings than in any book.

~~~
jey
Books are actually usually written by humans. In fact they often serve as a
device for condensing, organizing, and transmitting one human's collected
insights on a topic to many thousands of other humans. It's pretty efficient
and effective.

 _dislodges tongue from cheek_

~~~
axod
Yeah they certainly have their place, but I would never put them above human
contact. I'd go insane.

------
mcav
Aaron recommends isolating yourself from other people, stopping reading blogs
entirely, and getting rid of other hobbies.

If your goal is to read a _lot_ , obviously it's primarily a matter of finding
time to read. Aaron's advice is extreme, though. Don't isolate yourself
entirely -- from people, the world, or even social media like blogs. Each of
those has value. As the saying goes, moderation is key.

~~~
sp332
Finding time is never an issue. Every day, you are handed 24 shiny new hours
to spend. The real issues (which Aaron addresses) are motivation and mental
ability.

~~~
mcav
You get 24 hours each day, true. But it's not just about motivation and mental
ability. The time you have available to read is only time you aren't doing
something else. If you have a job, or school, or family duties, or anything
else, you may not have much time available to read. Your _downtime_ is
available for you to use as you please -- via reading, or watching TV, or
whatever. That's when it's an issue of motivation. Sometimes people don't have
a lot of downtime.

~~~
seanc
For many people, time management is really relationship management. I read
that on a blog somewhere.

A lot of grown ups, most things we do, we do for other people, in one way or
another. So when we pick a thing off of the to do list, we are picking a
person to serve.

------
tungstenfurnace
Here's a radical idea: only read books that you enjoy and find interesting.
Don't measure reading success by the number of books, but by how far your hair
was blown back :-)

------
chime
"#3 Alienate everyone close to you" is the complete opposite of what I do. My
favorite technique is to read a book out loud to my wife (and before I was
married, to friends). It improves my reading/pronunciation and we discuss the
book as it progresses. We learn something new while spending time together.
Someday I hope to read to my kids and have them read back to me. I like
reading by myself too but I'd rather read it with someone.

~~~
jacobolus
Reading aloud is fun, and can be useful, but it is extremely slow. No one
reads 100 books aloud per year.

------
samd
5\. Stop reading Hacker News.

~~~
MikeCapone
But how?

~~~
klipt
Do or do not. There is no try. (I.e. weigh up your plans thoroughly, but once
you decide to implement one, implement it properly.)

IMO, I'd have to find some pretty amazing books to justify dropping HN
entirely.

------
edw519
_The biggest consumer of time is undoubtedly other people, in large measure
because talking to other people is so fun that you don’t notice time going by.
By keeping yourself away from other people (living alone is a good start), you
free up an enormous amount of time for reading. I find this is particularly
useful in reading books, since books can usually substitute for human
company..._

How sad, especially coming from someone whose opinion I respect so much.

I love reading books, programming, sports, good food and drink, and a whole
bunch of other things. But none of those things is an end unto itself. I do
all of them as part of building a better life. Why? To share it with other
people!

No matter how many cool things are on my list, sharing my life with others is
always #1. If I find myself alone, then sure, I'll pick up a good book or
project. But avoiding other people in order to have more time alone for books?
Except for extreme circumstances, that just doesn't make sense to me.

~~~
barrkel
Aaron is pretty young and acts it. He often comes out with incredibly naive
posts, especially on topics like the economy, or politics. But the
counterpoint is that his reading (especially re history) sometimes means he
comes out with counter-intuitive or enlightening stuff.

Speaking for myself, I find other people a real energy drain. I don't live
alone, but I feel delight and a deep sense of relaxation when I get the
opportunity to have the house to myself for a few days. Company can be good,
but in moderation.

~~~
electromagnetic
Some people have that draining effect on me, which is usually why I try to cut
those people out of my life. Many people I know are fun and energizing,
because they take life and themselves easy. However many of my ex-friends have
been the self-centred and self-absorbed kinds that just make your dealings
with them laborious.

I don't mean to be harsh or cold, but it's not my job to deal with someone
elses problems day in day out. I purposely chose _not_ to go into the
psychology fields for that reason. I have my own problems, I have my own
stresses, the reason I get together with friends is to _forget_ the problems
and relax.

I think it's a good guide in life to route out the sources of problems and
stress in your social circles and remove them. I'm an introvert, perhaps not
so much as others but I'm certainly not an extrovert by any measure, but with
the right groups I can be going out almost nightly and I don't feel the usual
drain.

Although I have to say, I will likely always look forward to two days alone.

------
mquander
If I may, I would like to point out the following related discussion at
_Infinite Injury_ and _Less Wrong_ on the virtues of reading original sources
in the sciences:

(original) [http://www.infiniteinjury.org/blog/2010/02/25/reading-
origin...](http://www.infiniteinjury.org/blog/2010/02/25/reading-originals/)

(response)
[http://lesswrong.com/lw/1ul/for_progress_to_be_by_accumulati...](http://lesswrong.com/lw/1ul/for_progress_to_be_by_accumulation_and_not_by/)

(I agree mostly with the arguments made in the _Less Wrong_ post, viz. "If one
wants to know the Standard Model, sure, study it directly, but if you want to
actually understand how to do the sorts of things that Newton did, you would
be advised to read him, Feynman and yes, Plato too, as Plato also did things
which contributed greatly to the development of thought.")

~~~
jacobolus
The infinite injury article is (IMO) complete hogwash. Its author assumes (but
never explores or explains the assumption) that there's some unidirectional
arrow of improved understanding and pedagogy through time (“progress”) and
that therefore modern explanations are inherently more
sophisticated/subtle/polished than the original grapplings with a subject.

What he misses is that the seminal papers in any field are forced to really
grapple with a subject for its own sake, while later works fetishize dogma and
ceaselessly pander to the interests of whoever is paying for the work to be
done, simplifying concepts to be understood by those of uncertain prior
experience, and packing in features (ooh, glossy pictures! companion website!)
that will sell copies.

There are some areas where studying the originals is not especially helpful,
because subjects weren’t yet understood. For instance, the founders of quantum
mechanics really had no clue what was going on at the beginning, and their
early papers are mishmashes of math pulled from other sources which sometimes
fortuitously explained their experimental results. So by all means, go grab
Townsend’s _Modern Approach to Quantum Mechanics_ (2002) as a more practical
and informative work.

In other areas, the famous “originals” (which is to say, those works which
were good enough to last centuries while their contemporaries faded into
oblivion) are wonderful. There’s much more insight packed into Machiavelli,
Tocqueville, or James Madison’s writing than any modern political science
textbooks.

And yes, economics as a field would be way better off if its practitioners had
any idea what its foundational assumptions were about, or tried really deeply
considering (e.g.) Smith, Veblen, Marx, or Keynes (or even, say, Von Neumann
and Morgenstern), who had a real world to answer to, not just other
economists.

------
markbnine
Maybe instead of actively _alienating people_ and _getting rid of hobbies_ ,
you can find people who share the hobby of reading?

~~~
Psyonic
What's the use? If you'd all rather be reading, I can't imagine your parties
are terribly thrilling

~~~
eru
You could take turns getting rid of people intruding. Division of labour
should give you more time to read.

------
zzzmarcus
I don't agree with some of Aaron's suggestions, but I enjoy reading and have
thought about this some too. I have a FT job, a wife, a 7 yr old and a 7 mo
old and I mangage to read 2-6 books a month. Here's what I do:

1\. Audiobooks - I subscribe to Audible.com and get books audiobooks from
library and occasionally Librivox. I listen on my 20 minute commute, while I
exercise, and when I'm doing mundane tasks like the dishes or cleaning.

2\. eBooks - I put the icons for Stanza and GoodReader on the homescreen of my
iPhone. When I find myself about to tap a game or feed reader or YouTube or
whatever I check myself and ask myself if I'm in a good state to read (e.g.
awake enough, have more than 3 minutes). I don't feel like I'm denying myself
the entertainment of another game of Doodle Jump as much as consciously
encouraging myself to opt for something that I generally find to be more
satisfying.

3\. Books by the bed. Nothing new there. I sometimes squeeze in a little time
to read real, paper books before bedtime or when I wake up.

I haven't turned down the thermostat, alienated people, ordered stacks of
library books or blocked any blogs (though I have drastically reduced the
number of blogs I subscribe to). In fact, I feel like my life is generally the
same as it was before I started reading a lot, except for the value I've found
in what I read.

If you're curious, here's what I've been reading:
<http://goodreads.com/zzzmarcus>

------
100k
I read about 40 books a year[1]. The main way I do this is not alienating my
friends but by not watching TV. I have started watching DVDs and Netflix
instant stream recently and this has cut into my reading time.

I do recommend requesting books at your library. It is awesome, like Netflix
for books.

I would like to try blocking my favorite websites. I don't know if I would
read more, but I certainly would work more.

[1] I have kept track of this since 2006, inspired by Kevin Drum. Here's my
lists:

<http://justlooking.recursion.org/2009/Jan/2#books-2006>

<http://justlooking.recursion.org/2007/Dec/31#books-2007>

<http://justlooking.recursion.org/2009/Jan/2#books-2008>

<http://justlooking.recursion.org/2010/Jan/24#books-2009>

------
breck
> I’ve read a hundred books a year for the past couple years.

I read about 30 books a year. I read about 15 books for the first time, and
then I reread a few of my favorites over and over.

I find some books are worth 1000x more than others. So when you've identified
these great books, it would be a shame to not reread them frequently.

------
liquidben
I fully agree with the value implicit in having that library book deadline to
push you to finish something that you wouldn't have finished otherwise (100
Years of Solitude was that book for me). At the same time, you can avail
yourself of the cost-free access to try something that you can't find in
bookstores in case you won't like it. I got to surprise myself with enjoying
Asterios Polyp and hating Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan.

If you try and like it, please donate to your local public library! Just think
of how much you're not spending on books and how much you'd spend for Netflix
discs

As a side tip, I've usually got notions towards more books than I actually
want to check out at a time, so creating an Amazon wish list is a really easy
way to track interests.

------
rdmcfee
Beside the point of this article I'm amazed by the following: "The average
person spends 1704 hours a year watching TV".

From my understanding an average work year is around 2000 hours. If 'the
average person' worked in an enjoyable environment that was as pleasant as
watching television or reading a book they could easily almost double their
input at the workplace by cutting out television.

Whether that would double their output is a different question all together.

Would be interesting to see a breakdown of time spent watching television vs.
per capita productivity for different first world countries.

~~~
rdmcfee
Also note that 1074 hours per year is just shy of 3 hours per day, seven days
per week. Unbelievable!

------
bliss
I'm in agreement with one point at least.

I used to force myself to complete books that I wasn't enjoying out of some
misplaced sense of achievement on completing a "difficult" book.

I had the misfortune of reading "A Chancer" by James Kelman (otherwise, one of
my favourite authors.) I was on a 4 hour bus trip, I was a captive audience.
It was dreadful.

I stopped reading the boring story that I didn't care about and let my mind
wander for 4 hours instead.

After that I now feel empowered to put down a book that I'm not enjoying, even
one I feel is meant to be "good for me."

------
tzury
IMHO, at least 85% of the books sold at Amazon (for instance) are better not
being published at all.

Being obsessive about reading books is nothing but an instance of OCD
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive%E2%80%93compulsive_di...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive%E2%80%93compulsive_disorder)).

Not daring of judging the author of this post. Yet, you cannot live this way
for too long, it might be good for a while. If this situation become a
constant form of life of one, that one is about to go insane.

------
john7
Why not to read more books:

[http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/schopenhauer/arthur/lit/chap...](http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/schopenhauer/arthur/lit/chapter5.html)

~~~
mhartl
You might like this quote, which is in a similar vein:

    
    
      Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind 
      too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who 
      reads too much and uses his own brain too little 
      falls into lazy habits of thinking.
      
          -- Albert Einstein

------
raintrees
Keep a book in the bathroom. It encourages one to slow down and let nature
take its course, and get some education/entertainment at the same time.

~~~
benatkin
Just make sure you really do slow down.

[http://www.esquire.com/features/answer-fella/toilet-
reading-...](http://www.esquire.com/features/answer-fella/toilet-reading-1209)

------
markbao
There was a site here on HN that was basically about what books you were
reading and finding books your friends were reading. What was that site?

------
shalmanese
A PDA with a good ebook reader boosted my reading rate by about 1 book a week.
During the day, there's an innumerable amount of 1 - 10 minute pauses in your
life that you can use to whip out a PDA and read a couple of pages.

Unfortunately, now I have an iPhone where the web browser is better than the
ebook reader so I find myself reading hacker news rather than novels.

------
dylanz
I don't like carrying books around. An ebook reader has me reading a lot more
now. Just load it full of good reads, and you feel obligated to get through it
all. Also, scanning through HN for good book recommendations. I'm reading "The
Art of Learning" right now, and loving it (it's got me back into chess!).

------
scdlbx
I've found that simply setting aside some time every day or every couple of
days for reading is sufficient. Once I start reading I have no problem
continuing.

------
known
I used to visit <http://www.bn.com> store on every saturday & sunday to read
more books.

------
kiba
My idea of hanging out is to read books with the other friend.

Though, my friend is a theoretical physic geek.

------
scscsc
He doesn't seem to motivate his post, but I think reading (more) (books)
should not be a goal in itself...

------
orblivion
But if I blocked hacker news, how would I find this informative article?

------
diN0bot
how to read more books: pirate them. or buy them online or to an ereader.
however you get them, convenience is key. i read 2,000-3,000 pages a month
since putting books on my computer. love it.

------
rortian
I wonder if pg ever considers paying Aaron to stop writing stuff. People that
read stuff like this have got to start wondering, "Is it really a good thing
to get a payoff before I am ready for it?"

------
scorciapino
Haha, my technique is also blocking websites. Here it goes, might be useful
for someone: <http://pastebin.com/AhY3mgU4>

