Efficient Reading

[WittyUsername]

So I've planned to read around 50 to 60 books in coming months. I want to ask you guys how I can gain most from my reading. Should I write my thoughts about the subject, the philosophy while reading the book? I'm asking this because I always read the book but I dont have definite thoughts about it or I really dont have a personal view on the book. Maybe this can help me increase my comprehension skills and help me gain insights which would've been missed during casual reading.

What do you guys think?

 

[Jesse]

Review the books you read. I find reviewing stuff makes me get concrete thoughts on stuff. Also helps your writing skills and helps you determine what makes something good or bad.

 

[Words]

"Efficiency" depends largely on your preference on the medium of information. I recommend testing if "discussions on book" fit your taste. This requires you to find some friends however.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Summarizing chapters
Straightforward

Discussion
Pretty straightforward

Thought sorting
Identifying and classifying characters, events, settings etc to make sense of them and how they fit into the big picture.

 

[WittyUsername]

Ok I get the idea. Thanks you guys. It sucks when you know stuff but cant explain it to the other person. Usually I have no clue where to start from. I have to practice on my structuring.

 

[shoeless]

if you own any of these books, i find that writing little notes in them helps me organize and process information better. that's how i got through my 30-page research paper on charles bukowski in AP english lit.

note cards are also nice.

really just depends on your style, what feels comfortable.

 

[Agent Intellect]

if you own any of these books, i find that writing little notes in them helps me organize and process information better.

I second this. To me, reading is an interactive activity. All the books I own are crammed full of underlined sentences, highlighting, writing in the margins, and tons of bookmarks stuck all over the place with writing on them. It helps to both A) summarize complex ideas in your own words and B) ask questions to the text. When I read, my mind often wanders with my own thoughts on the subject. Many of these thoughts are fleeting, so it helps to write them down. Unfortunately, this slows down the reading process quite a bit, so 50-60 books in a few months might be a bit of a long shot, unless you can speed read (which I can't).

 

[WittyUsername]

I second this. To me, reading is an interactive activity. All the books I own are crammed full of underlined sentences, highlighting, writing in the margins, and tons of bookmarks stuck all over the place with writing on them. It helps to both A) summarize complex ideas in your own words and B) ask questions to the text. When I read, my mind often wanders with my own thoughts on the subject. Many of these thoughts are fleeting, so it helps to write them down. Unfortunately, this slows down the reading process quite a bit, so 50-60 books in a few months might be a bit of a long shot, unless you can speed read (which I can't).

Yes it did. I started reading Catch 22 again but now I was making my notes and underlining. I cant "speed read" (tried to learn once, didn't work out for me) too.But the level of understanding and appreciation was much more. So even if I read, say 10 books this way, I'm good.

 

[Architect]

Hard to say, I'm not much into reading anymore. I was a big reader when younger, now I'd rather get some work done.

 

[Words]

To me, reading is an interactive activity. All the books I own are crammed full of underlined sentences, highlighting, writing in the margins, and tons of bookmarks stuck all over the place with writing on them. It helps to both A) summarize complex ideas in your own words and B) ask questions to the text. When I read, my mind often wanders with my own thoughts on the subject.

I also practice this, but not only because its helpful. It's stimulating. I'm thinking absorption of information is not what your brain wants; it wants to synthesize and produce its own creation. Interaction. That said, How much more interaction is there in discussion?