[LeicesterCity]

Hi Alan,

Previously you've mentioned the "Oxbridge approach" to reading, whereby--if my recollection is correct--you take four topics and delve into them as much as possible. Could you elaborate on this approach (I've searched the internet, couldn't find anything)? And do you think this structured approach has more benefits than, say, a non-structured approach of reading whatever of interest?

Thanks for your time and generosity, Alan!

[alankay]

There are more than 23,000,000 books in the Library of Congress, and a good reader might be able to read 23,000 books in a lifetime (I know just a few people who have read more). So we are contemplating a lifetime of reading in which we might touch 1/10th of 1% of the extent books. We would hope that most of the ones we aren't able to touch are not useful or good or etc.

So I think we have to put something more than randomness and following links to use here. (You can spend a lot of time learning about a big system like Linux without hitting many of the most important ideas in computing -- so we have to heed the "Art is long and Life is short" idea.

Part of the "Oxbridge" process is to have a "reader" (a person who helps you choose what to look at), and these people are worth their weight in gold ...

[gdubs]

The late Carl Sagan had a great sequence in the original Cosmos where he made a similar point about how many books one could read in a lifetime:

  If I finish a book a week, I will read only a few thousand
  books in my lifetime, about a tenth of a percent of the 
  contents of the greatest libraries of our time. The trick 
  is to know which books to read.

[randomsearch]

General question about this figure, which I've seen before:

> read 23,000 books in a lifetime

As a very conservative lower bound, a person who lives to the age of 80 would have to read 0.79 books per day, from the day they were born, to reach this figure.

Or, to put it another way, who has read 288+ books in the last year?

I'm quite sceptical about this figure. Any thoughts as to how this might be possible? Are the people Alan mentions speed-reading? Anyone else know similarly prolific readers?

[alankay]

Yes, it is possible. It is partly developing a kind of fluency that is very similar to sight-reading music (this is a nice one to think about because you really have to grok what is there to do it, and you have to do it in real time at "prima vista").

Doing a lot of it is one of the keys! Doing it in a way that various short and long-term memories are involved is another key (rapid reading with comprehension of both text and music is partly a kind of memorization and buffering, etc.)

I don't think I've read 23,000 books in 76 years, but very likely somewhere between 16,000 and 20,000 (I haven't been counting). Bertrand Russell easily read 23,000 books in his lifetime, etc.

[randomsearch]

I was late to this and didn't expect a reply, so thanks for taking the time to come back and respond!

I agree with the practice, as for some periods I've noticed an increase in speed when I've been consistently reading every day.

Regarding the second point - short and long-term memory - do you have a link or other suggestion for where to learn more, please?

[alankay1]

There was quite a bit of discussion about this on the HN gig about my long ago "reading list"

[randomsearch]

Thanks.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11803165

[di4na]

AS someone that read at least one book per day if not more since the age of 6, yes it is possible. I can read between 100 to 200 page per hour, depending of the book.

You reach a storage and money problem fast (Ebook are a savior nowadays). And you tend to have multiple books open at the same time.

How does it work? There are several strategy. First i read fast. Experience and training make you read really fast. Secondly, you get a grasp of how things works and what the wirter has to say. In a fiction book, it is not unusual for me to not read a chapter or two because i know what will happen inside.

Finally... Good writers helps. Good writers make reading a breeze and are faster to read. They present ides in concise and efficient way, that follow the flow of thinking.

I will take more question gladly if you have some :)

[3minus1]

> In a fiction book, it is not unusual for me to not read a chapter or two because i know what will happen inside.

This is ridiculous. It doesn't count as reading if you skip whole chapters.

[Chlorus]

Hell, I 'read' whole books by just reading the back cover! This way, I get through hundreds of books every time I visit the library!

[di4na]

Well to be honest if it is badly written and contain nothing of interest...

[tomp]

What motivates you? Do you ever apply the knowledge you've gotten this way (do you even care)?

[di4na]

Multiple things. First it is something i like.

Secondly, it is the only way i can absorb information in a way that works. Talks, video, podcast, etc are too slow for me. It lacks a good throughput of information and meaning. Which means i tend to just drop or complete what the speaker is telling.

About applying knowledge : yes everyday, in my life. Once you hit a good amount of knowledge and have a nice way to filter it, think about it and deal with it, thngs become nice. Understanding a problem come faster. You can draw link between different situations or use ideas from other field into yours.

Knowledge is rarely lost.

[randomsearch]

Thanks. What type of training did you do?

I'm not keen on skipping chapters! Do you do the same with non-fiction?

Another question - how do you keep track of what you've read? (would be happy to hear from others esp. Alan on the same topic)

[di4na]

as a training... i read. That is all. I begun when i was 5. Never stopped. So i nearly always was like that. The more you read the more you train your brain to read. And your mind to understand how to deal with knowledge and information. Filter it, classify it, absorb it, apply it.

For non fiction, yes it happens. Lot of book sjust repeat the same thing over and over again. When you begin to read a chapter and can complete what will be said in the next 20 pages just from your understanding of the whole situation, reading it is a loss of time. And it would make me be bored and get down from "The Zone".

I keep track in my brain. I have the advantage of being able to always remember if i have read something by just looking at the backcover and the first lines. I still have to forget a book i read. I can not remmeber all the technicalities of course but far enough to know if i read it before or not.

I reread the books i really like or need when needed anyway. Mainly during vacations.

[spjpgrd]

It depends on your definition of "reading a book."

Wait, what?

I've been reading a book called, I kid you not, "How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading."

Adler and Doren identify four levels of reading:

1. Elementary: "What does the sentence say?" This is where speed can be gained

2. Inspectional: "What is the book about?" Best and most complete reading given a limited time. Not necessarily reading a book from front to back. Essentially systematic skimming.

3. Analytical: Best and most complete reading given unlimited time. For the sake of understanding.

4. Synoptical: Reading many books of the same subject at once, placing them in relation to one another, and constructing an analysis that may not be found in any of the books.

Amazon link for those interested: https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Intelligent-Touchstone/...

[freyir]

Recent research (along with past research) has cast doubt on the plausibility of extreme speed reading [1].

I don't mean to contradict Alan; no doubt he's a fast reader. But if you're actually reading an entire book every day or two, you're spending a lot of every day reading.

[1] http://psi.sagepub.com/content/17/1/4

[EdwardCoffin]

Was it in The Future of Reading [1] perhaps? From page 6:

In a very different approach, most music and sports learning only has contact with a one on one expert once or twice a week, lots of individual practice, group experiences where “playing” is done, and many years of effort. This works because most learners really have difficulty absorb ing hours of expert instruction every week that may or may not fit their capacities, styles, or rhythms. They are generally much better off spending a few hours every day learning on their own and seeing the expert for assessment and advice and play a few times a week.

A few universities use a process like this for academics—sometimes called the “tutorial system”, they include Oxford and Cambridge Universities in the UK.

[1] http://www.vpri.org/pdf/future_of_reading.pdf