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Ask HN: How are you reading (nonfiction) books/pdfs in 2025?
Everytime I start reading a book, I feel like uploading it in NotebookLM/ChatGPT to get QA; but these don't let me read in their app, and its not easy to get digital copies of books. I also want to ask questions adjacent to what I'm reading easily; I wonder if there are great apps/hacks people have for this.
- lysace 2y agoTwo-page-layout, fullscreen, 43" 4k display, great chair.
- philomath_mn 2y agoDo you set the screen in your lap?
- lysace 2y agoNo :-) It's on a big-ass desk, about 70-80 cm away from my eyes.
- kanodiaashu 2y agothat's a large large display..
- HenryBemis 2y agowell sometimes Fortnite is in the menu, so why have many screens?? ;) With that said around 2017 I was living in a tiny apartment in London (then moved to a bigger one). The space was 25-30sqm so.. not much room. I bought a second-hand 40" TV, and used it for both work, play, netflix/hbo, etc. Although I prefer Fortnite on 'smaller' (below 35") screens.
- throwaway888abc 2y agono hacks for me - google books (laptop/mobile) and in-app notes
- broken-kebab 2y agoCould you elaborate a bit about what exactly do you do with ChatGPT? Because in 2025 I mostly read books like I did a decade before (except e-ink is nicer today). Sometimes I want to search, or use AI to clarify something, but if there are too many cases for it then either the book isn't great, or I need to sleep
- kanodiaashu 2y agoTwo big things immediately: 1. I often ask it to summarize specific chapters or parts of the book after a particular point because the book has started feeling repititive from that point; and then I go into rabbit holes about that content 2. I ask ChatGPT to find related podcasts/content online for specific parts of the book
- billconan 2y agoI need to read research papers. I just implemented my own paper reader ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU_WeER2PSs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU_WeER2PSs but it doesn't have an AI agent.
- wannabebarista 2y agoI read a lot of public domain stuff on Google Books or HathiTrust (usually pdfs). I use a small eink tablet. This was a gamechanger for me. No more eye strain from reading on a monitor. I will occasionally ask Gemini if I'm confused or need context. Luckily, most models are trained on public domain books! Edit: I also take notes. Most of the time it's to connect what I'm reading with another book/paper rather than just summarizing.
- HenryBemis 2y agoI used to do 10" Kindles (normal screen android tablets infested with Amazon bloatware) that I'd 'hack' and use ReadEra for all my ebooks, and the Kindle app for the Amazon stuff. I now have a 12" Samsung tablet, removed all bloatware, still use ReadEra (you can backup and migrate notes/etc in a new tablet). It's light, has battery for days (if you remove bloatware). Gutenberg has thousands of books, and you can find more in 'local-themed websites' on specific languages. You can also find plenty of stuff on internet archive. There are so many!!!/thousands of book in the "classics" and the "ancients" that will give you all the wisdom you need in life and/or the various "redbooks" (thinking of IBM rn).
- kanodiaashu 2y agoReadEra is interesting, thanks. I find it hard to only rely in Gutenberg etc for non fiction books.
- kanodiaashu 2y agoDidn't know of HathiTrust - interesting, thanks. When you do ask do you manually type/copy paste (i assume so)
- wannabebarista 2y agoIf it's a passage, I usually input it manually, which can be a pain. But it's more common for me to just ask general questions. For example, when confused about a term, I asked "In Thoughts on the Funding System and Its Effects from 1824, what did Piercy Ravenstone mean by a sinking funding system?" Sometimes, it needs a lot more context to output anything that makes sense.
- chistev 2y agoGoogle drive
- WillAdams 2y agoI listen to public domain books on Librivox while working my day job. I've been downloading some public domain math texts from Project Gutenberg to my Kindle Scribe to read/research.
- tmaly 2y agoI like the books app on the ipad. I can select text and copy it over to Obsidian to take with my notes.
- constantinum 2y agoNon-fiction as audiobooks
- laksmanv 2y agoI'm a huge fan of Kindles, though I'm sure similar e-ink readers are good too. I love it because there's no eye strain like an ipad (which I have but no longer use for reading). You can charge it once and it will last for weeks without a recharge. The highlights are amazing - you can highlight key points throughout the book (if you have a kindle scribe you can use the pen to highlight which is a nice experience) and then go online and view all your notes in one place - pretty useful like your own cliff notes. Also if you get kindle, you can get a Libby account with your public library and get basically any book for free (pending hold/wait times, but I haven't found this to be an issue). When you checkout a book on the libby app it is automatically sent to your kindle, no hassle. I use a smaller kindle for reading in bed, and the scribe for reading at my desk. You can certainly make do with one though. I love that when it's not in use, you can set it so it shows the cover of the book you're currently reading, nice touch. They're fast/snappy and work well. The back light and dark mode is great for night time reading. I didn't get hype over dark mode, but it really makes sense when you're reading at night in the dark less light coming out on your face. If you use more than one like me, it syncs across devices which is nice. Lately, I tried reading a book while listening to the audio book at the same time. This was very immersive and I actually finished the book in one sitting, a great way to absorb information and stay focused, while still being able to highlight. Finally, a lot of people talk about liking having an physical copy of the book as a preference, but I've found the advantages above out weigh it. You can't highlight your physical book and then seem them all in one place and quickly go through them. I sometimes get a physical copy for fiction books, but for non-fiction where I want to highlight and apply info, kindle is my choice. And as a fun thing you can do with your kindle - a lot of people find nice cases and decorate with stickers, so there's still something new/fun if you miss that new book smell ;)
- kanodiaashu 2y agoI had kindles for a while until I read that the higher resolution on ipad makes it as easier on the eye and is possibly more important than lesser light on e-ink. Ultimately I settled on the ipad due to the amazing pencil and versatility while reading pdfs of papers/color material, and the ability to search on device far more easily. I've often wanted to switch easily between reading and listening but nothing seems to provide that.
- skydhash 2y agoI've settled on two modes: Either speed-reading or note taking. If I'm speed-reading a book and I find something interesting, I screenshot the section. The few books that make the cut, they're in my "bookshelf" and slotted for a deep read where I'm actually trying to learn the stuff it's explaining. That's when I take notes, think about the concepts, and try to explain them to my friends.
- kanodiaashu 2y agoHow do you actually speedread? And how much time does this take for about a 200 page book? I really like the explaining to friends part; wonder if you could give me a couple of examples of specific books where you did this.
- skydhash 2y agoAlmost all my books are pdfs so I just load them in the reader and then navigate using the spacebar. I mostly focus on headings, asides highlight, the first and last lines of each paragraph, the figures. The goal is to familiarize myself with the structure of the book and some of the concepts, so I tend to skip examples, stories, and techniques. It’s about 3 to 15 seconds for a page, but I can linger on a section I like. As for explanations, they tend to be contextual. So if someone tells me they have issue with time management, I can briefly explain the gtd method. If someone tells me about some habit they’re trying to follow, I advise to use the atomic habits principles. I also have a few WhatsApp groups spanning my interests, so I can share there too. I keep the explanations short and expand if asked.
- epirogov 2y agoMendeley Desktop
- maxbrydak 2y agoReadwise reader, mostly for ebooks and PDFs, which makes the most of my reading other than papers or blog posts, for which I use readwise as well. It integrates really well with Obsidian, so all of my highlights are directly put into my second brain. I'd love to find a FOSS alternative though
- bpiche 2y agohttps://www.kavitareader.com https://www.kavitareader.com Kavita is awesome. I host it on my pc and serve it to my iPad/iPhone over a zerotier VPN