For me, if I schedule something it immediately becomes a chore -- another to-do on the list -- and it depletes willpower from other things that I have to do. If I'm reading for work, that's fine. But if I'm reading for enjoyment, well, that kind of kills the point of it. I want something that refreshes me instead of exhausting me.
What I've found works is setting up my environment so that reading is easy and natural. The absolute most effective thing for me has been banning my laptop and tablet from my bedroom, and setting up my phone to charge on the opposite side of the room. I keep a book or my e-reader on the side of my bed and generally need some unwinding time before sleep so I end up reading before bed.
The other massive for me is audiobooks. I know everyone has their own opinion on whether this counts as reading, but as far as I'm strongly on the pro-side. I spend a significant portion of my day -- when I'm walking, driving, chores, exercise -- listening to either podcasts or audiobooks. I've read a lot more books than I would have otherwise, and it definitely reinforces the visual/normal/book reading habit as well. I particularly like whispersync when its available, and I can switch back and forth between reading on my kindle and listening on my phone.
How do you have patience for the slow speed of audiobooks?
Is it possible to multi-task while listening to audiobooks? I'm not sure if my focus on coding would suffer, or keeping up with the book.
My fav multitasking activity right now is to watch those "average" TV shows (such as most shows in existence) on a second monitor while I work. Sure I miss some scenes and dialog due to focusing on my work, but generally I keep up. Sometimes need to rewind if I missed something crucial.
How do you have patience for the slow speed of audiobooks?
If it's a really good reader then the performance become a key part of the enjoyment, much like a great actor can really enhance the play or movie they're in.
If it's not a great or interesting performance then I just use the audiobook app to speed up the playback to the point where I find a good balance between speed and intelligibility.
But he makes a good point; sometimes you get a very good reader, who has cadence and inflections and such that actually improve the experience. It's like being told a story, rather than someone reading to you. It can be worth listening to it at 1x in such an instance.
It is possible to multi-task while listening to audio books. I find activities such as working out or driving a good match. Coding while listening to an audio book sounds like a bad idea. Coding while watching a TV show sounds even worse to me though, so YMMV.
You leave out a clause, I think: It is possible to multitask while listening to audiobooks, so long as you're not doing anything else that requires complex thought or processing.
Walking, riding, driving, working out, washing dishes, doing laundry - these are tasks not at all harmed by listening to something while you do them, and indeed people have so alleviated their monotony since the commercialization of radio.
A task like programming is something else entirely, in terms of cognitive complexity, and attempting to partake simultaneously of something that requires attention to follow means one or the other probably isn't going to get done very well.
It's no different than cleaning. Yes, it requires attention, but your attention can (and will) pass back and forth between active and passive. Evaluate, execute, evaluate, execute, with large parts of the execute phase being pure muscle memory (i.e., maintaining your speed and lane), during which you can pay attention to an audio book.
In a more programmer related parlance, you can't perform the most rigorous part of driving concurrently with paying attention to an audiobook, but you -can- task switch pretty easily. The driving is pre-emptive.
This is why I'm nearly knocked off my bike a couple of times every time i go riding. I rarely give direct instruction especially online however i strongly encourage you to change your attitude and approach to driving before you kill someone.
I should've said "highway driving", since that is what I meant. But I drive so rarely at all any more, and more rarely still off highways, that I gave it little thought - and have spent so many years driving those same highways that, save the one time or so in five years that I drive them in a vehicle other than the one with which I am intimately familiar, little thought is any longer needed.
Watching TV while coding has its limits and drawbacks. Only possible in home-office, and when the coding task is more routine than challenge. Probably a bad habit.
When I'm reading (or listening to audio books) I'm processing and reflecting on the content. If the book isn't engaging enough to demand my full attention then it's probably not worth reading.
Multi-tasking is a fallacy. It's not possible to do anything that requires a reasonable amount of concentration with mindfulness and quality if you're also trying to do something else at the same time. To try multi-task is to short change yourself of truly deep and engaging experiences.
That's true, though for myself I find that in order to concentrate on something mentally engaging I need to be physically occupied. So walking, simple chores, some types of exercise, knitting, mindlessly guitar practice. It's when I don't have something mindless to do with my hands that my mind actually ends up wandering.
Really depends on the narrator. Some are actual accomplished stage actors who invest a lot of preparatory time into the book they narrate, developing the sound of each character and reading between the lines to extract the right emotional cadence for their speech in the scene. John Lee is one of my favorites in this regard:
Another trick is audiobooks. I commute about an hour each day. I used to spend that time listening to the news, but that just made me needlessly stressed. I started listening to audiobooks instead and can now get through one major novel a month or a few shorter novels, just on commutes. It also gives another method of branching out: I find there are some narrators I just really enjoy listening to, and so I try some of the other things they've narrated too. Sometimes I like what I find.
You can either subscribe to an audiobook streaming service, or use Hoopla for free access through your local library.
Thanks for your input. I haven't really tried to listen to a complete book yet. Partly because I sometimes re-read a paragraph for multiple times and it's hard for me to do this with audiobooks.
But I do listen to book summaries such as Philosopher's Notes and Blinkist.
There's a little button that rewinds 30s for when you've absent mindlessly not been paying attention. The trouble is you go back too far and then your mind wanders again while you are waiting to catch up :P
I'm curious if you read books in paper or on a device. Many bookworms have a strong preference for (1) paper, (2) e-ink screens, or (3) devices that offer easy markup. What do you favor?
You mention that you don't use speed-reading techniques. Is this because you find them ineffective, taxing, or unenjoyable? My understanding (based on working in literacy tech) is that many speed-reading techniques — esp those taught in study skills classes — are more akin to skimming than what educators call "close reading". On the other hand, there are tools like Spritz [1], Spreeder [2], and BeeLine Reader [3] (of which I am the creator) that are aimed at increasing reading speed, but which are very different from classical speed-reading techniques.
Since you're interested in reading, I'd be interested in your take on why you aren't using classical speed-reading techniques, and if you find the tech tools to be objectionable/not worthwhile for the same reasons.
If I understand you correctly, you are the creator of BeeLine Reader. Just wanted to let you know that it seems like the TLS certificate is invalid or misconfigured, because I get an error when connecting to the site with Firefox. Thanks for the links, anyhow.
Many older books only exist on paper. And if a book is cheaper on paper I will always buy the paper version. I like the weight (cheap paperbacks are perfect) and making pencil markings, even though they are not easily exported...
Thanks for your recommendations. I think part of the reason why I don't like speed-reading, is that I haven't found one that works for me. That said, I'm always open for options.
By biggest concern about speed-reading is about knowledge retention. Yes, I may be able to read 100 books in a year, but the question is, how much can I remember and apply in real life?
I don't bother too much with reading fast because I want to have to the time to let the ideas and insights sink in before I hop on to the next book.
Regarding my preference on the reading device: For me, paper first, then anything else with the right size (I hate reading on my phone.)
I'd argue against reading so many books for two reasons:
1. So many popular non-fiction books these days resolve around a single idea, which would fit in a blog post. But then, they're expanded with a lot of fluff. Personal stories, other stories, anecdotes, the author's motivation to do whatever. I tend to search for "$BOOKNAME summary" before even buying most books.
For example, recently I "read" 'On Intelligence'. It has many good ratings, but man, it is unnecessarily repetitive. You can easily only read chapter 6 and nothing else. Or only read the popular highlights from the Kindle edition and be done with it.
2. Reading all that stuff is still mostly entertainment. It might feel like learning something new, but 99% of it is forgotten anyways. Reading with the purpose of improving oneself requires action – to actually implement the given advice or knowledge. Obviously, you can't implement the advice from 50 books in a year. So why bother at all with all those books?
I read less, but try to be more serious about the content.
I think that's a problem with publishers. They simply haven't found a business model that works well for short books - which results in authors padding their ideas with babble.
One person's babble is another person's "context" though. I think most non-fiction books should have some kind of split between learnings and case studies, anecdotes, data, examples etc...
That being said, an option to buy the TL;DR version and the expanded one should actually open up many more options for most publishers (a la most online ebooks and courses with multiple tiers).
As for your second point, I think that's somewhat covered by the last few sentences in the article - he makes short lists of what the book was about and the main takeaways. This makes the book a little more permanent, as you have some external memory you can look over to help recall more details.
Great point. I still read every word even I knew the core ideas in a book already. The purpose behind is to look at the same thing as a different identity, from a different identity.
Yes, there is no point to rush, because you're RIGHT. I believe in implementation and taking action too.
My reading slowed down when I joined the workforce too, but I've been able to keep up a rate of 10-15 books a year by making sure I have designated reading time and always a book ready to go. For me, that's while I'm eating breakfast and lunch, when I'm on a long car trip and not driving. I alternate fiction and non-fiction, fluff and educational books, and have no hesitation about putting down a book that's boring or feels repetitive. The biggest factor in making in fun, for me, is eliminating guilt from the equation. So I don't schedule it or set goals, I just leave room and opportunity for it.
I've been an avid reader almost my whole life. Since 2010, I've had a 90-minute commute to/from work each day. I can't afford satellite radio, and regular radio gets old very quickly. I initially started saving podcasts to my iPod and playing those, then I started ripping audiobooks from the library and listening to those. I also have an Audible subscription. That's three hours a day of "reading", per se, and I typically listen to 2-4 books a month that way.
I agree with the value of audio books! I have always been an avid reader (probably 20+ books a year) and I am the author of 24 books - but, when I started using Audible and listening to other audio books from the public library my 'reading' time increased a lot.
I enjoy reading blogs on the web and social media on HN and Reddit, but I find I generally get more from books on computer science, philosophy, spirituality, science fiction, cooking, etc.
EDIT: I would like to add that I also feel fine starting a book and not finishing it. This is especially true with technical books when I realize that only some of the covered topics are interesting/useful to me. This allows me to be exposed to more ideas.
How do you do find non-fiction to be on audio? The couple of times I tried it I found that all the unnecessary words give me too much time to be distracted. Works great for me for fiction, and I'm hoping I just had bad luck I'm my initial non-fiction selections ...
I learned to read 1 to 2 books a week simply by replacing my social media/phone addiction with reading books.
Whenever I would normally scroll endlessly through Facebook/Twitter/insta/HN I pick up one of my current books for reading. This includes time on the toilet, time waiting in queues or on public transport, solo meals, winding down in bed, relaxing in the sun after a hard day at work.
Why not use reading as a reward?
"I finished my project on schedule. This weekend I'll allow myself to read all day long, except for a walk with the dogs" :)
Modern life already have way too many systems, obligations and filled time-slots. I think it's healthy to just relax some times, and don't do anything just because it's supposed to be done right now.
I mean, you could use your phone to set a timer. But once you pull your phone, you've got email, someone tagged you in a photo and then you are done reading.
Same reason I won't buy a Kindle! Oh, what Android is this? Can I root it? I wonder if I could upgrade it. Etc etc. So I'm all for low-tech paper books.
I have very limited time for reading but lots of time for listening while I'm washing the dishes or travelling. When I find a book that looks interesting, I download an interview with or presentation by its author from YouTube, convert it to an MP3 then listen to it.
I have a terrible trick for reading more books: I read while I walk. I walk through Manhattan every weekday as part of my commute, through bustling populated sidewalks and squares. I am in the way. I am part of the problem. But I do get to read!
I don't think it would work for me. When my willpower is at its peak, I prefer to work or learn stuff for work. Pleasure reading seems like a waste for peak willpower.
Would make their self-help guide to Reading More a very well researched piece then ;)
Some people just like books about improving themselves in some way - Personally I read mostly Sci-fi books, but I wouldn't say it's particularly indicative of anything beyond enjoying That Sort of Thing.
What I've found works is setting up my environment so that reading is easy and natural. The absolute most effective thing for me has been banning my laptop and tablet from my bedroom, and setting up my phone to charge on the opposite side of the room. I keep a book or my e-reader on the side of my bed and generally need some unwinding time before sleep so I end up reading before bed.
The other massive for me is audiobooks. I know everyone has their own opinion on whether this counts as reading, but as far as I'm strongly on the pro-side. I spend a significant portion of my day -- when I'm walking, driving, chores, exercise -- listening to either podcasts or audiobooks. I've read a lot more books than I would have otherwise, and it definitely reinforces the visual/normal/book reading habit as well. I particularly like whispersync when its available, and I can switch back and forth between reading on my kindle and listening on my phone.