How to Read Difficult Books (9 simple steps)
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A lot of you have asked me how I read so many long, difficult books, so in this video I share my method and give you some tips on how to read difficult books. After posting a very long video last month, this time it is a short one.
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@orangepeel3465
10 ай бұрын
I have looked everywhere trying to find information on your background. Who are you? Do you teach at a university? Where did you study?
Don't mind me noting things down in the comments 1. Start with short books 2. Judge a book by its cover (or snippet or intro or ending even) 3. Have a deadline 4. Make predictions 5. Skim, skip, and stop 6. Take notes (on your phone) 7. Summarize the book in own words (your snapshot) 8. Analyze the book (your interpretation, argument, and your supporting lines from the book) 9. Your take/angle of view (1-sentence summary, 1-sentence analysis, your unique perspective) Conclusion: pick and choose, 4 brains for reading (judging books, breaking down books, digesting heavy elements, regurgitating for others), goal of reading is to read and respond (sounds like Stanley Fish) Thanks for the video.
@BlantonDelbert
10 ай бұрын
Thanks. Even though this channel has a lot of good content and I greatly appreciate this channel, I don't need what you have outlined. I will make a better suggestion. First read the book's CliffsNotes. Then, when you read the difficult book, you will understand the difficult book. Read CliffsNotes for Plato's, "Republic." Then, read Plato's, "Republic." You will get it. That's the simple process right there.
As an Iranian, I am proud that the Blind Owl is one of your favorites😊 Translation of its complicated plot and metaphors must have been very hard.
@peterplotts1238
9 ай бұрын
"The Blind Owl," I don't know it, but now I'm curious. I will look for it. You can learn a lot about people if you know what they read, what they really read. Frankly, just the fact that a person reads at all, in the age of the internet and social media, is remarkable.
I’ve never related more to another reader in my life. Thank you for this contribution, I’ve always felt like a sort of freak because I do exactly what you explained and I picked on these habits entirely through my reading experience but other fellow readers often looked at me like I had 5 heads… I’m getting emotional so I’ll end my comment here… Thank you again.
This is so good - thank you so much ! You are brilliant 🙏🏻
Thanks a lot for sharing this great idea♥️
I love this channel, Fiction Beast. Thank you, sir. Keep teaching , the world needs you more than ever now. I loved Professor Harold Bloom from Yale as an example, who now has passed, but it my papa and his library who starting me reading at a young age. I write my notes down with pen and paper, I never liked cellphones or computers much, although there is dark and light in technology. Great books I read over and over again throughout my life.
@Fiction_Beast
10 ай бұрын
Thank you for sharing. Yes pen and paper was my method until I discovered dictation notes on my phone.
I'm a discovery reader (I love that expression) through and through. I'm now reading Tristram Shandy and enjoying the feeling of being dragged along. I started reading In Search of Lost Time last October and am still reading Swann’s Way🤦. What I enjoy most about your videos are the analyses. Thank you for sharing your tricks.
@Fiction_Beast
10 ай бұрын
Thank you! If it wasn’t for this channel I would also be a discovery reader. With Proust i sometimes open a random page and read. It is like snacking.
You’re such an inspiration!❤❤❤❤❤
You’re wise and kind for putting this out. Here’s some scratch. Please do more of this. Excellent work.
Looking forward to this. The older I get the less patience I have for books that are long and obscure. They are just poorer value for time, which is precious. - There's a saying that if you can't explain something to a six year old, you haven't understood it yourself. This might apply to some authors. - Alternatively, obscurity can hide superficiality, as it's considered a challenge to decipher it. Would Heidegger be as popular without his obsurity? - Obscurity can also provide an pseudo-intellectual defense of bad ideas. e.g. John Searle's and Noam Chomsky's criticism of French Obscurantists. - Another saying is that long and short arguments contribute to the same end. Sure, books should inspire and stretch, but they should also speak to you and themselves be authentic, written with a sincere desire to get the point across clearly, respectful of the reader and their time.
Thanks for the helpful video. I’ve been struggling to keep up with my reading plan. Now I know how to approach books that might be beyond me or beneath me or just a bad pick.
Absolutely excited
Fantastic video FB. I would love if you do a video of your top 100 fave novels 🙌
@Fiction_Beast
10 ай бұрын
I have a video on top 10 but top 100 is a great suggestion.
Another great video. I love your videos on Proust they are very insightful. I've still to read the last volume and I have enjoyed the series. It is already my favorite book now. I'm currently reading Fictions by Borges and it is amazing too. Some of the themes are mind blowing. Do you have a video on that book? Thank you for posting.
@Fiction_Beast
10 ай бұрын
Wonderful! I’m working on a video on Borges.
@angelacraw2907
10 ай бұрын
@@Fiction_Beast I look forward to seeing it.
I really want to read in search of lost time some time but im not sure im ready yet , i want to experience it fully and get immersed into it while my mind is clear and focused because i think it will be a one of a time experience and i will gain a lot out of it. Maybe during a summer that i will have a lot of free time and peacefulness of mind. I will surely try some of your tips.
Love your videos. I can’t skip. I have to read every word of a book, even if I’m reading an excruciatingly difficult or boring passage. I’m too OCD to skip. I might miss something. ❤
@Fiction_Beast
10 ай бұрын
I used to read every word but now i need to be efficient with my time to create content here.
@haydenwalton2766
10 ай бұрын
@@Fiction_Beast I hope you didn't skip any proust !!
Thanks!
@Fiction_Beast
3 ай бұрын
Thank you1 really appreciate the support.
Buen canal bro..!!
Thank you
thank you for all the hard work you put in this channel. unfortunately i cannot read anymore because i am partially sighted. y
@Fiction_Beast
10 ай бұрын
Sorry to hear that. Do your listen to audiobooks?
Excellent
Do you have any plans of covering cormac mccarthy's work? I believe he is one of best modern writers.. Btw that was another superb video by you
When I read difficult books, I listen to the audiobook on 1.5x speed. This is especially effective with theater pieces because of the multiple voices.
Moo! I’m out there grazing with you.
Here's my method for reading a difficult book. 1. Read until I get stuck, then give up. 2. Pay attention to what I couldn't grasp in the book until it becomes apparent in my own life, study whatever it was from other sources, or just continue living until I can understand what I was reading (if ever). 3. Start reading the difficult book again until I get stuck again. 4. Return to Step 2. But seriously, those books that are easy to read (and apparently, to understand) require far greater scrutiny! Why? They most often are hoodwinking you.
May I ask, when you encounter a book with a luxurious impenetrable vocabulary do you research the definitions as you go along or get to the end of the chapter to look back?
Favorite Books: A la Recherche Du Temps Perdu Satantango Melancholy of Resistance Sea of Fertility by Yukio Mishima Pedro Paramo Madame Bovary Ficciones Voyage au Bout de la Nuit
are you going anytime soon ti make a video about Heidegger as i feel that he contributed in the formation of existentialism and individualism in western thought. perhaps we need a video about the scholar and philosophers who tackled the issue of individualism philosophy like you did about existentialism.
@Fiction_Beast
10 ай бұрын
I was not planning but it seems a suggestion. Let me see what I can do.
Could you make video abt Mo Yan and his famous novel "Red Sorghum Clan"?
please what"s the name of the painter of the last painting
Just a heads up The "Step 3" card says "Start With Small Books", when it should have been, I think, "Make Predictions". Just a small mistake in the editing. Very good video, I liked it a lot, just trying to help what little way an audience can.
@kathypop4
10 ай бұрын
*Have a deadline
@Fiction_Beast
10 ай бұрын
Thanks for noticing. Yes it is a mistake of course.
In Search of Lost Time is not a difficult read, it's wonderfully well written and I had the pleasure of reading an excellent translation. About 150 pages of it before I through in the towel last week because I'm not going to spend the next 4000 pages reading about the writer's feelings for his mother. It's not difficult, it's pointless.
@angelacraw2907
10 ай бұрын
Lol, it is not for everyone. I've loved reading it and my only regret is not being able to read it in the original French.
@jaye2491
10 ай бұрын
Getting 150 pages into a 4000 page work and deciding to stop would say that in some way it's a difficult read. The language and writing itself isn't of course, but it is a difficult read for most to get through just based on its size and the fact it doesn't connect with everyone :)
@urethralbeads7771
10 ай бұрын
What translation?
@Kimomaru
10 ай бұрын
@@urethralbeads7771 C. K. Scott Moncrieff.
@Kimomaru
10 ай бұрын
@@jaye2491 It is not a difficult read. The average reader, I imagine, would spend six months reading through all six books, so the "hook" shouldn't take long to get to. 150 pages in and there's no hook at all to be found except a depressing account of his relationship with his mother. The great Russian authors are completely different and they all seem to subscribe to the "Checkov's Gun" school of thought - there's no waste and they don't take 4000 pages to get to the point. It's a personality thing, but I think anyone who can endure this work, drowning in maudlin sentimentality, is just into this kind of stuff. If anything, In Search of Lost Time leaves me feeling deeply sympathetic for Proust, it's clear to me that he was in a bad place when he wrote this work.
Can you also go for book which are non classical there will be more audience
Take your time with parts you struggle with. The more you read from a certain time period and style the easier it gets
Thanks for reminding me to regurgitate. My old circle of friends constantly discused books. They can't all have been swallowed up by the interwebs and other transient media. My old litrature loving friends step away from the glowing screan.
Choose books you thin you will enjoy. Always the most important one
Please discuss betrand russells book
I really want to read War and Peace but I fear not understanding the entire historical context more than the length of the book
@jameswight6259
10 ай бұрын
There’s not really that much to the historical context, at least nothing that doesn’t make it totally worth it, in my view.
I don’t consider Proust difficult to read. The novels are long and people give up for that reason, not because they stylistically hold the reader at arm’s length .
What is your opinion on this penguin translation? Is it better than the montcrieff one ?
@Fiction_Beast
10 ай бұрын
I read the penguin version. It is awesome but a bit expensive.
what do you do for a living?
It strikes me that entering the world created by the novelist may be obstructed by a lack of familiarity with the author's and the novel's socio-historical context. There is a vast gulf between Tolstoi's world and ours, for example. A 21st-century reader unfamiliar with the prevailing social arrangements of Imperial Russia could easily be intimidated or distracted and miss the whole of what he has to say.
Make a video on jiddu krishnamurti please 🙏
Hilarious video. I know I’m cheating but audio books tend to be the way for me to go through long books, or any books these days given the hectic schedule
@nicolasvasquez8048
10 ай бұрын
Read or listen, it matters not. Knowledge is what we seek, and if it is acquired then the goal is achieved.
Do you reread a long novel
Happy grazing, bookish people! 🤓
IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME SPOILER: Hi, i havent read ISOLT yet, but i read by accident that Albertine would die. i just wanted to know if knowing that is going to affect my reading experience.
@angelacraw2907
10 ай бұрын
In my opinion the book is more about time, memory, existence and the exquisite writing rather than plot, so no it shouldn't be a deciding factor.
@yacine_mkhlf
10 ай бұрын
@@angelacraw2907 thank you!
@Fiction_Beast
10 ай бұрын
I don’t think reading Proust for plot is a good motivation. That’s why most people quit.
I am a discovery reader to this day.
@vaseofflowers4619
10 ай бұрын
Me too. Still too lazy to read any other way
I listened to this at 2X speed
2:30 Mongolian ger.
I see zero difficult books on your shelves.
Is it just me that is annoyed when he says "mate", "mating"?
Thank you for this. I want ideas on how to find the next good book. Here are some of my ideas, but I want my Indian friend to tell me more ways. I wanted to have a top 100 favorite books list to look at and thus figure out what to read. I went to Goodreads and clicked on books I read until I could figure I had gotten at least all the ones likely to be in the top 100. Then I mulled on how to make a top 100 favorite books list for about three years. Finally, I decided that series books or books in the same fictional world were one slot on the list. Suddenly I put together a top 20 favorite books list and in less than a week it became the top 100 favorite books. I looked at it and thought Russian literature and so had an amazing 2022 reading year. Now this year I am trying to see if I can beat last year. These five (5) books from 2022 were in my top 35 favorite books of all time. 1) "Resurrection" by Leo Tolstoy 2) "Smoke" by Ivan Turgenev 3) "Virgin Soil" by Ivan Turgenev 4) "Torrents of Spring" by Ivan Turgenev 5) "In the First Circle" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn These additional three (3) books from 2022 made the top 65. 6) "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy 7) "First Love" by Ivan Turgenev 8)"Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady" by Samuel Richardson The 2023 books in order are 1) “Vilette” by Charlotte Brontë 2) “Poland” by James A. Michener 3) “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” by Anne Brontë 4) “Teacher Man” by Frank McCourt 5) “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair Five (5) above are top 35 favorite books of all time; the following four (4) made the top 65. 6) “The Women of Rothschild: The Untold Story of the World's Most Famous Dynasty" by Natalie Livingstone 7) “Hard Times” by Charles Dickens 8) “The Warden” by Anthony Trollope 9) “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë I looked at all the books of both years as well as exactly where they all fell on the list and figure one more book in the top 35 or two more books in the top 65 and I can say 2023 beat 2022. I even went to ChatGPT and asked based on my top 150 for the AI to give me 30 books to read. It made some logical choices, but so far my mother and I have picked books that win more than ChatGPT.
@ReligionOfSacrifice
10 ай бұрын
TO READ NEXT “He Knew He Was Right” by Anthony Trollope “Chesapeake” by James A. Michener “James Madison: America's First Politician” by Jay Cost "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami “Pachinko” by Min Jin Lee "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee “Tis” by Frank McCourt
@ReligionOfSacrifice
10 ай бұрын
TOP 35 FAVORITE BOOKS 0)"The Holy Bible: King James Version" copyright 1967 1) "Verbal Behavior" by Dr. B. F. Skinner 2) "Resurrection" by Leo Tolstoy 3) "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 4) "Fathers and Sons" by Ivan Turgenev 5) Myth Adventures - series by Robert Asprin 6) The Chronicles of Narnia - series by C. S. Lewis 7) "Vilette" by Charlotte Brontë 8) "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy 9) "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 10) "Smoke" by Ivan Turgenev 11) "Poland" by James A. Michener 12) "Roots" by Alex Haley 13) The Silmarillion - The Hobbit, or there and back again - The Lord of the Rings - Middle Earth stories by J. R. R. Tolkien 14) Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov 15) "Eugene Onegin" by Alexander Pushkin 16) "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 17) "Paris 1919: six months that changed the world" by Margaret MacMillian 18) "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" by Anne Brontë 19) "Virgin Soil" by Ivan Turgenev 20) "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen 21) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn - by Mark Twain 22) Old Mother West Wind series - wildlife children series by Thornton Burgess 23) "Microbe Hunters" by Paul de Kruif 24) "Cancer Ward" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 25) "Teacher Man" by Frank McCourt 26) "Kon Tiki" by Thor Heyerdahl 27) "From Beirut to Jerusalem" by Thomas Friedman 28) "The Berdine Un-Theory of Evolution: and Other Scientific Studies Including Hunting, Fishing, and Sex" by William C. Berdine 29) "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair 30) "The Painted Bird" by Jerzy Kosiński 31) "Interview with the Vampire" by Anne Rice 32) "Torrents of Spring" by Ivan Turgenev 33) "Mere Christianity" by C. S. Lewis 34) "Emma" by Jane Austen 35) "In the First Circle" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
@ReligionOfSacrifice
10 ай бұрын
FAVORITE AUTHORS 1) Ivan Turgenev (Fathers and Sons) 2) Leo Tolstoy (Resurrection) 3) Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Idiot) 4) Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich) 5) C. S. Lewis (The Magician's Nephew) 6) Charlotte Brontë (Vilette) 7) J. R. R. Tolkien (The Hobbit) 8) Isaac Asimov (Foundation and Empire) 9) Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice) 10) Mark Twain (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer) 11 Anne Brontë (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) 12) George Eliot (Silas Marner) 13) Anthony Trollope (The Warden)
@sonjajolovic718
4 ай бұрын
@@ReligionOfSacrifice Kaputt od Kurzio Malaparte
@ReligionOfSacrifice
4 ай бұрын
@@sonjajolovic718, skimmed over a hundred books. Read 72 books. 14 books I read this year have fallen in my top 40 books of all time. This means this year I read over one third of my favorite books, but aside from finding authors you like and sticking to them or sticking to a genre or picking classics, how do you find good books?
Books are awesome
so you never fall in love to people or books, you are just a little more sofisticated calculating machine?