Reading Tips | This autumn, I read 5 books on the subway.

Last weekend, taking advantage of the atmosphere of the competition, I invited a few friends and made a big meal for the first time in my life. Congratulations to EDG!

Reading gives everyone the opportunity to have a conversation with different souls. - Anonymous

When I was a child, the most common phrase I heard was: "Why do you only know how to play games 🎮? Can't you read a book 📖 when you have nothing to do? Isn't reading a way to relax?"

Now that I have grown up, reading has indeed become a way to relax, while playing games is no longer relaxing. Carrying teammates is just too tiring 🐶～

In this article, with the help of Takashi Saito's book "The Secret of Efficient Reading," which presents 55 reading tips 💡, I will share the reading techniques that I have truly experienced. I hope to inspire you and welcome you to share your reading experiences.

❓ The first question raised by this book: There is never enough time, when will I be able to finish a book? With so many book genres, which one should I read first? The content of a book is too much, how can I absorb useful knowledge?

🎯 The goal of this book is clear: to help readers develop the habit of reading. Many people give up reading at the beginning because of low reading efficiency, but it is not because they don't like reading.

What should the mindset of reading be like?#

🏁: Relax and don't let reading bring pressure, and maintain the expectation of surprises brought by reading.

At the beginning of the book, some methods are proposed 🛠:

It is not necessary to read from beginning to end in order;
Sometimes you can start reading from Chapter 3;
Remember that about 30% of the content is sufficient;
Take 3 minutes from your leisure time to finish reading a book;
Record your thoughts on reading on social platforms, just 3 lines.

Try to understand these methods. In fact, the author wants everyone to not feel too much pressure when it comes to reading. When you let go of the baggage of thinking from your student days, such as the fear of reading comprehension in Chinese exams 😱, you may regain the confidence to read thousands of books. PS: If you don't like this book, just switch to another one, take it slow～

We also need to know that there is a fundamental difference between not being good at reading and disliking reading. It is very likely that you are just not good at reading, not that you dislike reading. People who are not good at reading have the desire to read, but they give up reading because of low efficiency or other reasons; when you become good at reading, you will find that the surprises brought by reading are beyond imagination.

For example, after I finished reading "Poor Charlie's Almanack" by Charlie Munger, the diversity of thoughts in it made me curious about various industries, and I felt that there was endless knowledge waiting for me. The feeling of going to an appointment was great.

"Poor Charlie's Almanack"

💡: Coincidentally, I recently discovered a collaboration between a content creator and Bilibili, a general knowledge course called "Lin Chao: Interdisciplinary General Knowledge Course for Young People". If you are interested, you can check it out～

Breaking the rigid world of dividing subjects into arts, sciences, and commerce
Includes 25 lessons, 22 disciplines, and 120 thinking models, priced at 100 yuan (rational consumption, this one is free)

Where should I start reading?#

🏁: Not too long, familiar field, interesting topic, favorite author.

If you are just starting the habit of reading, it is not recommended to read books that are too long, as this can easily lead to a sense of frustration. However, you can also plan your time for a thick book by chapters or sections, turning the big goal into many small goals, so that you don't feel that the goal is unreachable from the beginning.

Moreover, you can plan to read multiple books at the same time during the same period. If you get tired of one book in a few days, you can switch to another type of book, and after a few days, you may miss the previous book and switch back to it. This cycle repeats, and you will finish reading multiple books at once! Of course, this is my reading habit, which is somewhat similar to the combination of work and rest, but it is different from the rules of dating 🤫.

Also, a familiar field can lower the threshold for reading, increase comfort, and may refresh your cognition. Interesting topics and favorite authors can increase the attractiveness of the book 📖 to you, maintain your reading motivation, and may add new skill points to your skill tree 🌲.

For example, I wanted to learn about the development history of Chinese civilization, so I have been reading "Five Thousand Years of Chinese History" by Mr. Lin Handa and Mr. Cao Yuzhang recently. This is a popular history book that tells 262 historical stories from the creation of the world to the corrupt official Heshen, with a total of 430,000 words. For me, it is also a book with a relatively long length. After reading a story from a dynasty, I may want to put down this heavy history book (although I can't feel its actual weight on WeChat Reading) and read other books or other types of reading materials. It has been more than a month, and I have already read 44% of it. During this process, the "running companions" include "The Secrets of the Intestines" (with a push article: Little Popular Science | The Secrets of the Intestines You May Not Know), "The Secret of Efficient Reading," "The Secret of Efficient Rest," "The Most Important Thing About Investing," "Criminal Law Lecture Notes," and so on. I have already finished reading the previous few books, and I usually read about 3 books at the same time. If there are more books, I may need to use high technology.

PS: For foreign books, you also need to choose a translator that suits you; you can pay attention to books that have been revised many times, which at least indicates that they have passed the test of the market.

Under what conditions is it more suitable for reading?#

🏁: Fixed scene (with a bit of noise), limited time.

Fixed reading scene, concentrate on reading.

What kind of scene is more suitable? On the sofa in the morning 🛋️, on the subway to work 🚉, after lunch in the office 🥣, after taking a shower at home 🛀, or in bed before going to sleep 🛏️? Choose a scene where you are usually not disturbed and enter the world presented by the author~ In addition, you may have the experience that you are more easily focused in an environment with noise or people coming and going.

Clearly define the duration of this reading and the time to finish reading the book.

Set a time limit for this reading, just like the existence of DDL, it can make people more focused; you can also try to limit the time you spend with this book to only 1 or 2 weeks, and no matter what, you must finish reading the last page on the last day, so that you can adjust the reading pace at any time, get a sense of achievement on time after finishing reading, and feel good about it. Then you can read the parts you like in detail, or go to the world of the next book. However, I usually don't have a specific time limit to finish reading a book, just enjoy the process, and try this method when I have the opportunity.

How should I start when I just get a book?#

🏁: Preface, table of contents, word count / page count, reviews; avoid reading from beginning to end in one go.

Read the preface, mainly to listen to what the author wants to say to you before you read the book, which usually includes the author's original intention for writing the book, the content the book wants to present to readers, and some thoughts the author had during the writing process, etc. In other words, the preface can give you an expectation and a first impression of the whole book.
Flip through the table of contents to see the structure of the whole book, understand the aspects the author will share, and if the author writes summary words at the beginning or end of each chapter, you can take a look at them. This way, you can outline the general structure of the whole book in your mind, make the book more familiar, and know what stage you are in when you actually read it.
Be clear about the word count and thickness of the book, which is convenient for estimating the reading time or the difficulty of finishing the book. Prepare yourself mentally in advance.
Pay attention to the reviews 🌟 of this book, including reviews on Douban, reviews on WeChat Reading, and reviews from people around you. This can give you an expectation of the whole book, focus on the highlights of the book, and not the shortcomings. If the reviews are low or do not meet your expectations, you can find another book, which may have a more suitable alternative; if you have already bought the book and then discovered this, it would be better if I didn't say it. In theory, every book will have its highlights, and the key is how much time you can spend to explore them.

In addition, you can also pay attention to the author's personal experience, the historical background, and similar books on the same topic. These are good preparations for better understanding the content of the book.

Avoid: Reading from beginning to end in one go.

This may not apply to certain types, such as novels, where it is always better to be full of unknowns 🥸.

But this applies to most types of books. It is also a principle from the perspective of writing a book. Not to mention writing a book, for example, when I write this article, it is difficult for me to write it from beginning to end in one go. Instead:

First, write the preface of the entire article, expressing the purpose of writing this article and the content it wants to present to readers;
Then, write the titles of each section, establish the overall structure of the article, and when writing the titles, I will also write a few sentences for each section, writing down what I want to express in each section;
Then, fill in the content of each section;
Finally, review the entire article and make some adjustments to inappropriate paragraphs.

In short, don't be obsessed with writing well in one go or passing it once, as this can easily lead to stagnation, and reading is similar.

What else can I do while reading?#

🏁: ~~Listen, smell, taste, touch~~. Create a sense of rhythm in reading, and mark with your hands.

It's not just the world of music that needs rhythm 🎵, the world of reading also needs it.

This sense of rhythm can come from the hand that turns the page 📖, reminding it to prioritize the action of turning the page. When reading a long work, a reading method with a proper rhythm is key. For content that you are not interested in, you can completely fast forward for 30 seconds or read at 2x speed, just like watching a drama. This way, no matter how thick the long work is, as long as you can read at a certain rhythm, you will be able to read it smoothly to the end.

Go ahead and try quickly flipping through pages and only reading the climax part that you understand a little～

Underline and make marks 📒, and add your own thoughts when appropriate.

As for the way of underlining, you can refer to the three types of lines in WeChat Reading: yellow highlight, orange underline, and blue wavy underline. You can decide how to use them:

Yellow highlight - core ideas, such as content that enlightens or summarizes the whole book;
Orange underline - highlights, such as places worth savoring or digging deeper into;
Blue wavy underline - hidden gems, can be points that interest you or are useful to you.

In addition to underlining, you can also add your own thoughts to appropriate content, say whatever comes to your mind, don't hesitate. Maybe when you read this book again in ten years, it will be a wonderful experience. You will have new insights or even refute yourself from ten years ago. For example, during the period when I was interviewing for a job, I read "Walden" by Thoreau. I felt that the ideas it expressed were contradictory to my state of job hunting because it kept telling me to live a simple life, stay away from materialism, stay away from the city, build my own house by a peaceful lake, and live a life of contentment. I am looking forward to reading "Walden" again in ten years and what kind of experience I will have. Maybe I already have a Walden in my heart.

Walden

In short, this process of marking is actually a process of deep thinking and knowledge transformation. It can not only allow you to quickly pick up the highlights of the whole book when reviewing, but also accumulate material for conversations and inspiration for life. It can also allow you to collide with your past self in terms of thoughts.

PS:

For books that you want to read but find difficult to understand, you can find corresponding interpretation articles or videos to listen to different perspectives on the reading experience.
After finishing reading a book, try writing down where and when you read the book in the front page of the book. This is also a mark of beautiful memories.
If you have a bathtub at home 🛁, you can try the "bathing and reading" method proposed by the author. It sounds enjoyable.

How to transform the book into your own energy?#

🏁: Find three highlights, summarize in 30 seconds, write an article...

Every book has its highlights 📸️. Find three that you think are the most important and write them down. These are the energy that you may be able to use.
If you were asked to recommend this book to someone else, try to introduce it in 30 seconds ⏰. This may also be your valuable gain.
Writing an article 📃 is also a good way of transformation. The article you are reading now is the result of it. I hope you can feel the energy conveyed by the author or me.

Go challenge yourself!#

Reading is not just about acquiring knowledge, it is a creative act in itself. Do you have any efficient reading tips? Feel free to leave a comment and share!

Attached: Takashi Saito's "The Secret of Efficient Reading" - WeChat Reading Link