How to retain most from reading a book ? Practical Tips?

[davidcherlane]

Probably not something you want to read, because I am sure you know, but I’m not sure there’s much you can do to motivate yourself to read, other than knowing that the information you gather from whatever you’re reading will ultimately benefit you in the long run. I’ve experienced extended bouts of depression, and find that what got me out of it the most was a disciplined routine. I find that the general idea that you should perform a task for atleast fifteen minutes before stopping to be a pretty good one.

In regard to information retention:
Firstly, there’s nothing wrong with reading a book multiple times, as each time will likely yield new insights. Secondly, there are plenty of resources already existing on this forum that help in the practice of organizing concepts and ideas from books into memories. I’ll link a few posts that I’ve read below.

How to Memorize a Book or Textbook

How to Memorize a Book or Textbook

How Do I Memorize a Book?

Do you want to memorize a whole book or just the most important concepts in a book? There is more than one way to “memorize a book”. Start by reading this in-depth guide to memorizing a book. Memorizing every word is a difficult task and will be time consuming even with memory techniques. If you still want to try it, type “verbatim” into the search box. If you want to memorize the main points of a book, like a school textbook or a history book, take notes from the book and then place each fa…

Guide to memorizing a book

This is my guide on how to memorize a book(since everyone asks). I will try to keep this as succinct as possible. Before reading, one should have read the getting started guide, and be familiar with memory palaces, linking, etc. IMHO, there are five main ways to memorize a book. Way 1: Memorize just the title and author. Way 2: Memorize title, author and the table of contents/main plot points. Way 3: Memorize a couple main ideas and/or quotes from each chapter. Way 4: Memorize the main idea of…

Memorizing key ideas of a book: do it while reading, or go through the book again after reading it once?

I read a lot of dense non-fiction, but I find that after finishing a book I have only a hazy, unordered understanding of what I’ve read. What do you think is the best method of memorizing read material? I really don’t want to use flashcards or an app as that will take away the pleasure of it and make me less inclined to read. It’s much more relaxing to read lying on a couch or under a tree than at a desk or with my phone. My theory is that the optimal method would be along the lines of — crea…

And I do agree with Josh; explaining an idea or concept to yourself as though you were teaching it to a different person helps a lot :). Hope this helps.