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Re:Ask HN: How you read books? by brudgers on Friday December 29, 2017 @10:39AM (#16029945)
I take a structuralist [1] approach to reading. The primary value I get from reading a book is how it helps me understand other things I have read and other things I will read. The internet helps because I can google facts, even many of the facts I am reading. What I cannot google is the way the ideas in one book illuminate things I have already read.

Now it is worth mentioning that I am not in school (which does not mean I am not learning). So there is no test on the book in two to twelve weeks. It is also worth mentioning that the quantity and type of reading I do varies and how long I spend reading a book also varies from a day and into the night to years...I reread books too, and perhaps one of my criteria for what I read is "Is this worth rereading."

Implicit in your question are two conflicting goals: making time to read and not making time to read by reading faster and more effectively. Nobody asks, how do I make love effectively and faster? Well maybe an engineer, but that's another story.

Good luck.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuralism

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