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Slow reading and writing on it does sounds like a great way to retain knowledge, but it's hard to find a book that actually worth slow reading. What's your way

Slow reading and writing on it does sounds like a great way to retain knowledge, but it's hard to find a book that actually worth slow reading. What's your way of deciding if a book is worth reading?

blumkvist 11y ago
I'm not the OP, but if you slow read you will quickly find out whether the books is worthwhile or not. I don't think finding books is that hard, especially novels. For technical knowledge, I regularly read reference books and literature surveys, so I know what's in the book before hand and I know the quality. Keeping track of authors is hard in the beginning, but keeping track of publishers is easier and yields relatively the same results. That's why they charge so much...
SonOfLilit 11y ago
I read fiction based on recommendations or liking other works by the author, but more importantly, based on hearing people saying interesting things about the work. A good recent example is this gwern article, that finally convinced me that I must watch Neon Genesis Evangelion: http://www.gwern.net/Wikipedia%20and%20Dark%20Side%20Editing http://www.gwern.net/Wikipedia%20and%20Dark%20Side%20Editing I read nonfiction in a project-learning approach - if I need Partial Differential Equations for a game I'm writing, I'll read an article or book about PDEs. I sometimes read a nonfiction book simply because I love the author or topic (Feynman's Lectures, Hamming's The Art Of Doing Science And Engineering), but it usually doesn't work as well (project-based is awesome because you always have "how can I use this in practice?" in the back of your head, leading you to process the material in interesting ways. Skimming also helps. The most fun I've had studying a book was Steven Smith's DSP book, at http://www.dspguide.com/ http://www.dspguide.com/ (I recommend that you learn how to make music with synthesizers before you start reading.) My online reading diet is more of the fast-food-and-candy type, which is something I really should solve.
nekopa 11y ago
Check out "How to read a book" by Mortimer Adler. A great process on reading to understand more. Even has a section about reading speeds too, as well as ideas on choosing a book.

Slow reading and writing on it does sounds like a great way to retain knowledge, but it's hard to find a book that actually worth slow reading. What's your way of deciding if a book is worth reading?

blumkvist 11y ago

I'm not the OP, but if you slow read you will quickly find out whether the books is worthwhile or not. I don't think finding books is that hard, especially novels. For technical knowledge, I regularly read reference books and literature surveys, so I know what's in the book before hand and I know the quality. Keeping track of authors is hard in the beginning, but keeping track of publishers is easier and yields relatively the same results. That's why they charge so much...

SonOfLilit 11y ago

I read fiction based on recommendations or liking other works by the author, but more importantly, based on hearing people saying interesting things about the work. A good recent example is this gwern article, that finally convinced me that I must watch Neon Genesis Evangelion: http://www.gwern.net/Wikipedia%20and%20Dark%20Side%20Editing http://www.gwern.net/Wikipedia%20and%20Dark%20Side%20Editing I read nonfiction in a project-learning approach - if I need Partial Differential Equations for a game I'm writing, I'll read an article or book about PDEs. I sometimes read a nonfiction book simply because I love the author or topic (Feynman's Lectures, Hamming's The Art Of Doing Science And Engineering), but it usually doesn't work as well (project-based is awesome because you always have "how can I use this in practice?" in the back of your head, leading you to process the material in interesting ways. Skimming also helps. The most fun I've had studying a book was Steven Smith's DSP book, at http://www.dspguide.com/ http://www.dspguide.com/ (I recommend that you learn how to make music with synthesizers before you start reading.) My online reading diet is more of the fast-food-and-candy type, which is something I really should solve.

nekopa 11y ago

Check out "How to read a book" by Mortimer Adler. A great process on reading to understand more. Even has a section about reading speeds too, as well as ideas on choosing a book.