reading-habits 5

I have this nagging feeling (maybe you do too?) that it’s cheating and I’m not really learning if it’s so easy. The same voice makes me feel guilty when using coding agents to code or ChatGPT in meetings. I’m telling that voice to relax. I upload books to Claude and ask it to “Comprehensively and engagingly summarize and fact-check, writing in Malcolm Gladwell’s style, the book …”. I can read it in an hour instead of twelve. Four bullet points instead of forty. With (this surprised me) roughly the same number of insights I actually do something with. ...

I read 51 new books in 2024 (about the same as in 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020.) But slightly differently. I only read Manga this year. Fullmetal Alchemist (Vol 12 - 27). What started off as a childishly illustrated children’s book evolved into a complex, gripping plot. Attack on Titan (Vol 1 - 34). I read it while I watched the TV Series (reading first, then watching). It started explosively and the pace never let up. I had to take breaks just to breathe and calm my nerves. The sheer imagination and subtlety is brilliant. It’s hard to decide which is better—the manga (book) or the anime (TV). The TV series translates the book faithfully in plot and in spirit. It helped that I read each chapter first, allowing me to imagine it, and then watch it, which told me what all I missed in the book. I absolutely would not have understood the manga without watching the anime. ...

How to read when time is short. Read the “How To Find The Essential 20%” section carefully. Another interesting post from Bert on How to Learn More With No Extra Effort uses the principle in the post below to suggest we take a lot of breaks while learning. i cdnuolt blveiee taht i cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht i was rdanieg. the phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mind is amazanig. aoccdrnig to a rscheearch taem at cmabrigde uinervtisy, it deosnt mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. the rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. amazanig huh? yaeh and yuo awlyas thohgut slpeling was ipmorantt. ...

I’m fairly stingy. When it comes to books, I’ve always taken it to extremes. For example, I’ve read several Asimov novels at Landmark (Chennai). I’d walk into the stoor, pick up an Asimov, just stand there (no seats) and read for 4 hours. After the neck-ache becomes unbearable, I’d leave and come back the next day. I got pretty tech-savvy once I got a laptop and a mobile phone. I would walk over to bookshops, note down the names of interesting books on my mobile, and download books in digital format. I’ve a pretty large collection now. ...

Powerful thoughts against digitization. And since these days I need an excuse to justify the amount of paper I’m using, this article helps ease my conscience.