How much do you read?

Hello everyone,

I would like to know how much do you guys here on TS read everyday. With reading I mean all sort of "intellectual" content like books, articles etc. 

To be honest, I was never that much into books or reading in general. But  a few days ago I came to the point where I told myself that reading is going to make me smarter in a few ways. Reading articles for exams or learing different things / processes by heart are not going to change me to the person I want to be in lets say 10 years.

Are there any suggestions how "beginners" can remember more stuff which was ready by them? Because sometimes I have a hard time to explain to a friend what exactly I have read in an article a few hours ago.

 

Thanks in advance!

Most of my reading comprises of research papers. But extensive and detailed summaries make it hard to keep up with everything, so I limit it to highlighting important parts and making a few notes related to the overall argument and to take a few minutes to explain the article to myself.

I don't think you should read things in order to appear smart, you should read about things you are interested in as that's the information you're more likely to retain. For instance I read a pop science book about bad medical practices which I found interesting and so learned a lot from it. However, if you gave me a book about cars, I could read it and understand it but probably wouldn't retain much of the information as it's not particularly interesting to me. So my advice would be to read topics you're interested in.

As for time spent reading, that's entirely subjective. I can read three or four books a month and then go without for a little while. It really depends but I wouldn't recommend forcing yourself to read as there's no enjoyment in that.

What kind of things do you like reading? Fiction, Journalism, History etc?

 

1 Like

I don't really know, a lot though.

Samiad you may be right, that forcing is not the right way. But in my case it is not "forcing" . I really like reading and the things I read are very interesting. The thing is that I was never an "active" reader. If I hated reading I would force myself, yes, but I do not hate it.

There are a lot of things which are interesting. I love fiction, journalism and in the future I want to learn more about hardware and networks. The only problem is that I do not know where I should start. 

Well if you're thinking mainly about educational literature, learning how to network for example, I think that that requires more of a practical application. There's no point reading a book about networking cover to cover without actually practicing any of it. Of course there a ton of courses out there if you really want to take it seriously. There's also a ton of info online if you want to teach yourself.

My reading habits have gotten bad lately, I mostly tend to be reading man pages in linux the forums and tech documents. I probably only ever read 30 to 40 books a year anymore. A few years ago I was at least getting in a few hundred a year unlike when I was in high school and I had time between high school and college classes to raid the library and read 10 to 20 a day. Funny thing will always be with all the years of reading I never got good at writing in any way. Could be my intense Hatred for the subject but still.

Good luck with learning how to like reading, I find it hard to watch TV and easy to read.

Not as much as i should. I read books every few days, currently reading game of thrones. I find myself reading articles and "doing the internet" most days.

I have never been i big novel reader as i'm very slow reader and takes me so long to finish a book but Technical books vehicle repairs books with pretty diagrams. Or some thing where i need to or like to have better understanding of something  sure everyday .but novels and stuff i cant do i put it down to i don't have a good imagination as well .

As far as books are concerned...probably not as much as I should.  I do, however, read lots of online articles.  This is more of a two to three times a week type thing.  Last week I read a bit about Python and got my hands a little dirty in Code Academy.  The week before that I focused my attention on OCN's water cooling guide.  And this week I have been thinking about learning about a random Linux distribution.  I spend most of my time researching the latest PC hardware.

I read mostly non-fiction popular science and electronics books. Used to read two books a week but have now slowed down to about one or two  a fortnight. I find novels though don't hold my attention at all.

I really love to read, with cold weather coming on, I will probably read even more. I found offering myself a few different reading options, I enjoy it lots more.

I have my nook, and I have a fairly expensive reading program I use on my computer. I have a 24 inch monitor, and the reading program offers me a few nice reading options, It will scroll the book automatically, and I can set the speed.  It jump it a page at a time automatically, and my favorite feature, is it will read out loud to me, of course I had to buy the voice from a different place, but works great.

Now If I drove more, the reading program will export the book with the reading voice I own, and I have a nice audio book for my car.  With a cheep set of wireless headphones, I at times let the book read to me while I putter around the house.

 

My vision is not the best, so changing the font size and its color, with a different back ground color makes it even easier to read. 

 

Not as much as I should, have too much on the go to sit back with my Kindle like I want to.

Need new bookshelf, but won't fit in my flat. :(  

I do read a lot and it give you knowledge and expose you to other ways of viewing the world. It is however very important to question everything you read. Books are very powerful since it is very easy to take what you read at face value. 

Always question the book, who wrote it and for what purpose. Sometimes reading can be done not because you are trying to get information on the subject the book handles but because you want to get a deeper understanding of the thought process of the person/persons that have written it, or to better understand people who usually reads that particulare author. 

 

A great way of getting the most out of your reading is to stop after a chapter or two, or just when you read something interesting/hard to cope/keypoint, and contemplate what you have just read. Start writing your own notes, and get back to them when you have finished reading. 

Just reading from start to finish works sometimes and is what most people do when they are in school, but it will not make things stick.

As has already been stated, don't pick up a book about a subject you have no interest in, it would be like watching a movie you hate or playing a game you don't want to play.  

I rarely have time to read. Other than technology blogs sites, whenever I have time to read it's spent reading my AP US History book (quite a fun read honestly, writtten kind of like a novel http://www.amazon.com/America-Narrative-History-Eighth-Vol/dp/0393934063 idk if that is the right edition) or my AP Art History book (http://www.amazon.com/Gardners-Through-Ages-13th-Edition/dp/B002K9IVBY also not sure if this is the correct edition) but even though I am forced to read them they can be quite enjoyable. All American citizens should read the US history book I linked, it's a big eye opener, based on fact not legend unlike most history books.

You should check out Brian Tracy's accelerated learning techniques as far as remembering what you read goes. You can also highlight important info using different colors and than create a key for each color. The brain is more likely to remember colors and patterns that a page of text. I would recommend reading something your interested in I find that if im interested in something I remember it a lot easier. 

In a day i mostly read 1 chapter a book in fact i got a new book and it is a christian book that i bought in Helsinki at http://www.sacrum.fi as a matter of fact i am in chapter 3 now and i am really learning a lot from it.

I'd love to read more, but sadly, I have few books, little money, and there is too much noise around me. Seriously, I cannot stand the slightest sound when reading.

Reading something like a George RR Martin, maybe 300+ pages in a day. 

Something like The Philosophy of Aristotle could be 20-50 pages in a day.

A text such as Software and Hardware Engineering by Fredrick M Cady could be 200-300 a day.

I like to read about an hour or two at a time, for 4 hours a day every day. and it always depends on the personal difficulty of each text.

I love reading, I like to read for at least 3 hours a day non college books but most of the times I have to read college related books I am currently studying international relations and international law so... Its not usually the most joyful reading but it makes me read a wide variety of books that I probably wouldn't read otherwise, in my free time I like to read science fiction and fantasy books mainly because I read too many "realist" literature and news every day :)
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