How I read a book

I read at least 25 books per year, both fiction and non-fiction. I have also worked out a system in order to get as much out of each of these books as possible, and most importantly to actually remember what I read. Today I would like to share my system in case it might help someone else.

This is how I read a book.

What to read

This might sound like an obviously important topic, but don’t worry too much about what to read. As long as you keep the Lindy Effect (see below) in mind, you will most likely get something out of just about everything you read. And the best part is that the more you read, the more you will get out of every book. This is because you will be able to draw parallels and connections to what you have read before, realize which ideas contradict or support each other, understand where someone’s idea is coming from and so on. I usually read 2-4 books in parallel. That way, I know I can always pick up something suitable to read regardless if my energy level is high or low.

The Lindy Effect

The most important guideline I follow when deciding what to read is something called the Lindy Effect. It dictates that if a text was written a long time ago and is still relevant, it will probably stay relevant for a long time to come as well. So since The Rime of The Ancient Mariner still resonates with me, more than 200 years after it was written, it will probably stay relevant for at least another 200 years to come. On the other hand, something that was written on Twitter 5 minutes ago will – as a general rule of thumb – probably only stay relevant for the next 5 minutes. So focus on reading stuff that has already passed the test of time, and spend as little time as possible on trying to keep up with the endless and everchanging news feeds online. By extension, books are usually better than magazines, magazines are generally better than newspapers, and newspapers are generally better than most online articles (except those that are still relevant after having been around for ages).

Read broadly

This is probably a matter of personal taste, but I have found it more valuable to read introductionary books in a broad number of subjects rather than focusing deep into just a single area. I feel that you get much more in return for the time invested this way (the Pareto principle). To have at least a shallow understanding of as many fields as possible will also help you draw connections you might otherwise miss. It’s fascinating to realize that you can draw parallels between any subjects, no matter how different they might seem at first sight. I also encourage you to read both non-fiction and fiction, especially classics (again due to the Lindy Effect). Reading fiction is not only relaxing but good fiction is also filled to the brim with life wisdom and new ideas in a form that is easy to consume and process. (Science fiction is obviously the best genre as it is both science AND fiction).

When to quit

In his amiable little book The Dip, Seth Godin teach us the wisdom of knowing when to quit. Always keep in mind that you are in no way obliged to finish a book just because you started reading it. The general rule of thumb that my mommy told me is that you have to read at least 100 pages minus your age before you are allowed to give up on the book (so if you are 30 you should read at least 70 pages before quitting. If you are over 100, you are allowed to judge a book by its cover). I sometimes cheat and give up even earlier than allowed by this rule, especially when reading fiction. Life is far too short to waste time on reading boring books.

I have found out that when reading books that mainly revolve around presenting a single idea, it is usually enough to just read the first third of the book or so. The rest tend to be just more details and examples of the same thing, which you can read if you don’t quite get it or still isn’t convinced. Otherwise, feel free to proceed to the next book. You are of course also allowed to skip certain chapters, jump back and forth and so on. Pick the cherries out of the cake.

How to remember what you read

For the better part of written history, books have been objects of great value. This belief seems to be rooted in our culture even today to some extent, and most people handle their books with great caution and devotion. But a modern book costs near to nothing, especially paperbacks. It is therefore important to get the misconception of every single book being valuable out of your head. There are of course valuable books, collector’s items and such, but the topic of this blog post is reading as learning tool, and books should be treated just as those tools they are. No more, no less.

Take notes

Always have a pen nearby when you are reading. Underline important passages. Scribble thoughts in the marginals. This method will raise your focus while you are reading and help you processing the book in the next step. Obvious note: don’t do this in books you have borrowed from the library or someone else.

You can also have a piece of paper nearby for taking longer notes if you prefer. This is more time-consuming than writing directly in the book, but the good side of it is that is forces you to put your thoughts into words. When I do this, I strongly prefer writing with pen and paper rather than digitally. The digital world has far too many distracting pitfalls to properly keep focus on the task at hand (research indicates that just having your smartphone within sight reduces your cognitive ability).

Write down words and concepts you don’t fully understand. If you still get the gist of the sentence, you do not need to break your reading flow by looking it up straight away though (see Spaced repetition below).

Summarize

After you have finished a book, I believe it is important to process what you have just read if you want to actually remember something and maybe even to draw some additional conclusions of your own. The method for doing this is to go through all your underlinings and notes from the previous step and summarize these in your own words. To facilitate this process, I have set up a personal wiki where I collect all my notes on stuff that I have read (this is sometimes referred to as a commonplace). I like the wiki format, because it enables me to cross-reference between different books and authors, but to be honest, the actual format does not matter at all. Your favourite text editor or plain old pen and paper works just as fine. For me, taking physical notes and then summarizing on the computer works best. The fact that I have to re-write everything while I digitilize my summary means that I get an extra mental processing of the book’s highlights for free.

Spaced repetition

The one app that has changed my life the most is Anki. I cannot recommend it enough. I make flashcards out of all words I didn’t know before (I come upon new words all the time since English is not my native language) as well as important facts or ideas from the book I want to remember. If I would like to remember the plot from a fictional book, I could make flashcards out of important events or key characters in the book as well but I haven’t done so to a great extent yet. The concept of spaced repetition is a big topic in itself so I won’t describe it in further detail here, but I strongly recommend everyone to try it out. Spaced repetition is the number one key element to actually remember what you learn by just investing the minimal amount of time necessary to do so.

Final words

Hopefully this article gave you some inspiration and ideas to try out on your own. If you have any feedback, questions or comments – don’t hesitate to drop me and email.