Mar 27, 2024

Reading Non-Fiction Effectively and Efficiently

how to read and how to not - notes for the self

Why? #

To get the best out of books, we need to read them efficiently. This is especially in the case where you're reading to gain knowledge and not for entertainment. Most of the text in non-fiction books are repetitive and put in as "filler". The authors are also human, right?. Only some part of the book is the real deal.

Take for example How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Half of the book is filled with examples. Sure you can potentially learn from them, but it is not going to be as efficient as you'd think so. Here, my definition of "efficient" is learning the most in less time with more accuracy and retention.

One important thing to know is that the following steps may not be applicable to everyone and every book, so you may have to tweak it to your liking; consider a book like Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, where almost everything is important and "learnable". It also depends on the person and their intention.

How? #

Get a map #

Get the gist of the book first by reading the summary or watching a video, etc. This will create a map in your mind by which you can navigate to the things that are truly important (and that serve your purpose) in the book. Imagine that you are a book connoisseur and so, critically "curate" the text based on the "map". Skip around, put some crosses and sketches, do whatever you like!

Take more time to read things if they are relevant. Or else, you know what to do. Audiobooks are a great method trade-off between getting the gist of a topic and learning the topic deeply as you can listen to it on 2x, 3x speed. It can be a great activity to do while commuting.

Know why you're reading the book #

It's important to know why you're reading the book. Is it to learn something? Is it for some reference? Is it for pleasure? Unless you know why you're reading, you'll fail to optimise the reading experience.

For example, you're reading Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. There's no way you're going to read selectively. That's the difference when you read for pleasure versus when you read to learn something.

In my opinion, one should not optimise their experience for reading fiction, unless they don't really want to immerse in it (then why are you reading fiction in the first place??)

Focus on creating neural connections #

Reading stuff passively will only slow your learning down. Instead, relate the information in the book with your previous knowledge. This is called Applied Reading. When you do that, you're developing neural connections in the brain.

Tricks like superficial reading, speed reading and others don't really work. Just as there is no such thing as "easy money", there is nothing as "easy knowledge". Quality > Quantity. So, there should be an emphasis on the accuracy instead of time.

Exercises to read effectively #

To develop stronger neural connections, you can apply these exercises in your reading time:

• Review: After reading a chapter or so, ask yourself what was the idea really? Try to actively challenge your brain.
• Debate: Play the Devil's Advocate, find something wrong with the idea and argue (with your imaginative friend, of course).
• Be the professor or creator: Teach in a coherent manner, write about it (or produce something entirely different) and fix the loopholes. Basically the Feynman Technique.
• Use Spaced Repetition and Active Recall. This is how you memorise things for longer periods of time. Say bye-bye to the forgetting curve.
• Don't do passive note-taking: That way, we're just offloading the information on to the system, and that doesn't challenge our brain enough. Resist the urge to do so.

So next time, when you read a non-fiction book, know why you're reading it, get a gist of it, curate the text, focus on creating connections and lastly, don't be passive.

Further Reading/Watching #

1. Greatly inspired from SpoonFedStudy's this video.
2. How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler.