How to read properly?

[Igor82]

I have a very slow reading habit:

• I read a book, ver slowly, reading a sentence repeatedly to squeeze all the juice from it
• I underline not just the decisive "insight" quotes in the book, but I underline like every important statement there, like an important context that stands in the book.
• I write down paragraphs f what I've just read, or else I will guilt myself for not writing it.

My fundamental belief is that If I don't underline, write or read really "much ", then I will forget all I've learned from the book.

Also, like in my commonplace journal, I write stuff down that I don't want to forget, but this is mainly theory rather than insights:

Should I JUST wrote down/underline/write in my commonplace book, the insights, rather than all the theory that I "don't want to forget, but will forget anyway". I mean, insights are like shifts, in reality, I got an insight once when I masturbated, like when you tense the penis up, the role of that is actually to give the man (and woman) more pleasure during sex! This was a shift for me, an insight, and I know I will never forget that every time I do the thing.

What do I do? Help

[Maarten]

After you have read a book, I urge you to ask yourself how much of it you still remember after a month or two. Probably that is not all that much. Being perfectionistic about missing all the tiny details is something I used to struggle with myself when reading books, but really what you want to be getting from any book is really the big ideas. There is no real purpose to taking notes of something when you already understand it.

 

A good practice you could put into place right now is to ask yourself after reading a few chapters what you have just read, and then see what the big ideas in it were. Generally, the information in non-fiction books can be divided into question & answers (the meat), and explanations & examples (really just filler content).

 

There is a very good book that covers exactly this topic on Leo's booklist. I highly recommend checking it out

[PhilGR]

@Igor82 That's me?lol

[Echoes]

@Igor82 "I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I just read and mark stuff that resonates with me. I also only read if I really feel like that's what I want to do right now. Not out of guilt or obligation. A book is not there to replace thinking for yourself. You have to mainly think for yourself and take responsibility for your understanding of the world. 

Also don't take books too seriously. In the end it's just paper that can be burned and your life would be not much different. It's just language, not reality. I find if I take a more relaxed attitude about reading it's more entertaining AND I learn more.

The feelings you described are exactly what the education system does to us: Enforcing feelings of guilt, obligation, pressure and insecurity around the process of learning, when it could be a joyous process. Our "job" is  to realize we are not in school anymore. 

Edited August 8, 2018 by Echoes

[Igor82]

Really cool, thanks for replying guys!

2 hours ago, Echoes said:

@Igor82 "I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

This one really struck me, man! Thanks. 

@Maarten I can imagine myself doing that practice, yeah! Claiming the big ideas = Questions, and answers, all else that im really trying to savor or remember, is just filler content, its all the stuff that I can ramble about myself, once I had the insight. I see how books will give me insights, and even if I write them down or not, I will not forget them, in the way that I will not forget the penis mechanism.

The filler concent will be remembered as much as the insights themselves, like the last meals I have eaten. But when I look upon the world, I will see it with more clarity and greater wisdom, never forgetting the insights in that sense, because they have hande made me.