How to Read a Book

> I'm probably not in the position of educating teenagers as my life has not been a success. Not true! The OP should learn not only about (and from) models but also anti-models! Addressing OP: On anti-models, read NN Taleb's books (the Incerto) and Charlie Munger (his speech on inversion / thinking about what you would do, and how you would do it, in order to ensure a miserable life — and then not doing those things). Read statements from the elderly / terminally ill about what they regret having done or not done in their lifetimes. A lesson I wish I had learned at your age: for most things in life, B– quality or "80% of the perfect performance/solution" is almost always more than enough, and can be accomplished quickly. (E.g., it's easy and fast to sweep the floor so that it's mostly clean / 80% of optimal cleanliness. You feel better about your surroundings, you clear your head, and fewer future problems arise.) This is the 80/20 principle at work. Get to 80% on everything fast, and then only spend time polishing/perfecting what really matters. (I was raised in a perfectionist family/environment/culture — to my detriment, in many ways.) Similarly, it's OK (and probably…

_How to Read a Book_ is excellent. I don't apply Adler's method precisely in my reading, but many of his notions are simply now part of my mental toolkit, particularly his notion of "coming to terms", AKA "make sure you understand how the author is using the words he's using, and what precisely he means by them." This is especially important when reading philosophical or technical material, especially material from another era.

Peter Bevelin's Seeking Wisdom. The other day someone on here recommended The Philosopher's Toolkit, and I ordered a copy based on that recommendation. I've only started to dip into various parts, but I can already confirm that it is a good introductory compendium of the basics of philosophy, logic, and argumentation. In the same vein is Daniel Dennett's Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking. A personal favorite is Frances Yates's The Art of Memory (think: intersection of rhetoric, mnemonic systems, philosophical systems, and the occult during the Renaissance). Matthew Butterick's Practical Typography and Typography for Lawyers. Bryan Garner's The Winning Brief. Umberto Eco's How to Write a Thesis. Adler's How to Read a Book. Pierre Bayard's How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read. I could go on. Book posts are my favorite posts on HN, but they always lighten my wallet and at home I'm surrounded with ever-growing piles of great material.

How to Read a Book by Adler. It describes a systematic way of reading, interpreting, criticizing, and judging the value of non-fiction. An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis by Hospers. Provides an approach to thinking about different types of philosophical problems. Both are accessible and will make you super genius.

> What are you reading and why? Audiobooks are a special case for me. They help fill the time when I'm driving to work, mowing the lawn or doing dishes. If I consume my entertainment during these productive times, I find I'm less drawn to television and other mindless distractions. They also help me to be motivated to do tasks that I otherwise find dull. The better alternative is to find a friend to share these tasks with, but that is not always a practical option. While I do read for entertainment, I really enjoy non-fiction as long as it's light. If I want to explore a topic and truly learn something, I often need to find a text version. That said, I have found some great audiobooks that I have learnt from: -The Goal -Pragmatic Programmer -Designing Data-Intensive Applications -Thinking Fast and Slow -Ultralearning The best entertainment so far have been -Dune -The Expanse series -The Bobiverse series -The Expeditionary force series.…

As with other questions of book recommendations: - What are you reading and why? - Do you have an goals in reading, or is it merely entertainment / distraction? - In the latter case, the Cheshire Cat's advice to Alice is appropriate. https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rgs/alice-VI.html - I'd strongly recommend keeping a reading diary or log, which includes not just book read, but books recommended or suggested, either by others or your own past reading. This can include incidental mentions within books (occasional in fiction) or footnoted or bibliographic references (nonfiction). - Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book concludes with a list of 137 classics. Most of those should have public-domain audio versions. (His book itself is recommended reading, and an HN perennial.) - Podcasts are another alternative to audiobooks. There are podcasts of book reviews themselves. I'm more familiar with academic ones including the New Books Network, and reviews from the LSE, Yale University, Princeton University Press, etc. Author interviews can be amongst the best available, though production quality (notably for NBN) can vary greatly.…

How to read a book by Mortimer Adler. Greatly improved my efficiency in gaining understanding from printed works, so acted as a force multiplier across several aspects of life.

Read though the first section thoroughly (I recommend attempting all the strategies presented in it on the book itself), and then skim through the "how to read this type of book" section - it's really not necessary and much less enjoyable of a read IMO.

I plan to reread a couple core works for myself. Of that list the ones that I’d recommend for others are: Aurelius (trans. Martin Hammond) Fear and Trembling Man’s Search for Meaning Tolstoy’s Confessions Kundera’s The Art of the Novel After doing a thorough reading of “How to Read a Book” I decided to try rereading a few books to pull more out of them. I can’t recommend “How to Read a Book” enough - despite its anachronisms and glaring faults, it’s the only book I’ve found that has genuinely made me feel that I’ve not really read a single book in my life.

My five year old is a voracious reader. I feel like this is one of the most important educational tools you can give anyone. We stress to her that if you can read, and comprehend, there's nothing you cannot learn. That's why I included the first two on this list. How to Read a Book - Mortimer Adler How to Read Slowly - James Sire The Personal MBA - Josh Kaufman The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie

Last year I gave myself a Zuckerberg-style goal to read a book every two weeks. It started well, but some months were harder than others (usually when the book wasn't very good, so I would switch to podcasts for a few weeks, before getting back on track). Here's an unordered list of the best: [BUSINESS / SELF-IMPROVEMENT] - "Work Rules!" - about Google's culture and values - "Search Inside Yourself" - about mindfulness, meditation, and the impact on your life. - "What got you here won't get you there" - Liked a lot more than I expected. - "Re-read Innovator's Dilemma" - a great classic; never gets old. - "How will you measure your life" - from the same author. Also excellent. - "The Best Service is No Service" - good overview on why Amazon's customer service is so good - "Crucial Conversations" - half is common sense; half is good tips to practice everyday. [PROGRAMMING] - "Fluent Python" - was afraid it'd be too basic, but not really. Enjoyed it a lot. - "Think Complexity" - about algorithm complexity, data structures, etc. Great read. - "Python Data Science Handbook" - meh. - "Fundamentals of Deep Learning" - good intro. Helped me solidify some concepts from Andrew Ng's ML course…

+1 for How To Read a Book by Mortimer Adler. I wish I had found this at a younger age.

Probably the best to start with is "How to read a book". That opened my eyes and helped me a lot with deciding what to read and how to read it.

"How to read a book" should be the first book gift you ever give. It changed my life. https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Intelligent-Touchstone/... (https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Intelligent-Touchstone/dp/0671212095)

Franny and Zooey -- Salinger Mostly by introducing me to the Stoics (Aurelius especially) and a variety of Eastern, especially Zen Buddhist, works. Revolutionary Road -- Yates Yay, mentioned that one in two threads today and it's not even noon yet! A History of Western Philosophy -- Russell Vonnegut in general. Bluebeard serves as a good overview of his major themes and ideas, to pick just one book. The part about how people with small talents who were once valued by their communities have been rendered eccentrics of no special value to anyone by easy, cheap, global distribution of media is always near the front of my mind. How to Read a Book -- Adler

-Black Swan & Fooled by Randomness -The C Programming Language -The Non-Designers Design Book -How to Read a Book -Never Eat Alone -Art of War -Bill Bryson's a History of Everything(~)