How do you read books?

It may seem a stupid question, but how do you go about reading books? I mean books that contain some useful information worth to be remembered, not novels. Do you take notes, use page markers, highlight some text...?

Whenever I read a book, I have the same problem: once I have read a significant portion of the book, I start to "forget" content that I have already read. I thinmk that it could be a good idea to take notes as I read, but at the same time it would disrupt my reading flow/pace, so I would like to know how do you guys approach it.

 

When I read How to Win Friends and Influence people I would read the chapter once and then go back and underline the parts that I found to be most useful. I also like to read biographies and autobiographies but I just read those through. I never had a problem forgetting portions of books I've read but if that happens to you I would recommend bookmarking the sections the seem dense and may go over your head during your first read through causing you to forget the content.

 

Thank you! I should probably do it. Btw it is not that I literally forget a lot of stuff, but for example, now I am reading the Caesars Palace Coup, in which there are many events happening through the book, so sometimes I lose track or don't have in mind some things.

btw what is your opinion on carnegie's book?

 

I mainly only read books on planes and trains and the like on journeys. If I’m at home, I’m either working out somewhere or playing poker. 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

I used to be of the thought that the more books I could read would enable me to amass a massive amount of knowledge and conquer the markets. If I ever take the GMAT or something, I’ll probably pick up speed reading for a little bit to improve on my verbal potential.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

I can’t edit on here so just making multiple posts, but have a large amount of books. When I buy a house, one room is going to be the library with art, chairs/couch and 2 walls of books.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

I usually have 2-3 books going, one I can pick up and put down (aphorisms, poetry, essays), and 2 I'm going cover to cover (usually one reread, and one new read), I pick one of them up anytime I have free time, and my selection only depends upon my mood

if I want to remember something for work, I'll take a picture of the page, use the highlighter function on the photo, and email it to myself at work (I have an outlook rule that filters emails from my personal to my work). allows me to keep my pace while still remembering for later

 
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I'm generally reading about a half a dozen books at a time. Of that, roughly 2 are fiction whilst the rest are non-fiction. All tangible, can't do Kindle.

I always have a highlighter and a fine point marker for isolating the key sentences and sections whilst reading. I seldom take notes but if I do they are brief. The highlighting makes it so that if I want to go back and reread the book, reading over the highlighted parts would suffice as that is what stood out as most important to me. The danger, however, is that that can change, and if I go back and read a book years later, perhaps what I originally found to be important and highlighted years ago, might not be that important now. It rarely happens, but I have had if occur.

If something sticks out to me as being incredibly profound, say a few sentences or even a small paragraph, I put these together, print and laminate, and use as a book mark. Sounds gimmicky but for me, I've found this to be a great way to constantly visit something that I don't want to forget. 

I get most of my reading done during breakfast and during the time I'm on the toilet (keeping it honest haha). This affords me roughly an hour of reading a day and I can get through many books over the course of the year this way. 

 

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