How do you read and absorb information from eBooks on your screen?

Question

I have a 1000 page ebook about C, Objective-C and Cocoa that I need to read and I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions as to how I could optimise the way I read it so I don't get distracted. Like everyone, I prefer to read a physical book and printing the ebook would obviously be impractical and a huge was of resources. How would you go about read a 1000 page ebook on your screen?

Answer 1

From the way you ask the question, it seems you do not have a Kindle, iPad, or Tablet device. When I need to read an ebook, I choose to read it on my Kindle. It has a similar feel and look of a book and does not require looking at a monitor the entire time.

A way to keep from getting distracted is to unplug your ethernet/turn off your wireless. The internet will probably be the biggest distraction and if you "turn it off" you will not have as big of a temptation to get online.

Answer 2

When reading any programming book, I have to code some of the examples. In fact, the more I write code, the more time seems to fly by (hence I believe I'm less likely to be distracted).

Also, in the past, I've added certain forums, email sites, etc to my hosts file to keep them from loading. :)

Answer 3

I use TextAloud with one of their natural voices to read it to me. Being a bit dyslexic this is sometimes better then reading. The new acrobat reader has "Read Aloud" as a feature, so I just set it to the natural voice and i'm good to go.

Answer 4

I bought a Kindle DX recently. It wasn't cheap, but it was the best investment I made in a long time. It can easily display ordinary PDFs and you can read in your bed or on sofa where there are significantly less distraction than on a PC. And it reads better than a LCD screen :)

Answer 5

I agree with the others who have recommended a Kindle. Alternatively, if you have access to a second monitor, I find it helpful to have the e-Book open on one monitor and be coding examples of what I'm reading on the other monitor.

Answer 6

When learning new programming stuff, E-Books is the foundation in my opinion. Because when you try to learn it from the Internet you can't find the proper flow of learning from beginning to advanced.

how I could optimise the way I read it so I don't get distracted?

When reading don't try to read it by force. If you don't find it interesting to read. Read fast and try to grab just the important points.

If this is not working for you (in that specific time) Search the internet on that specific thing your're reading. This would be a different experience and after you get what you want from the Internet you can read the book. You will understand the book more clearly.

Some other tips

• Don't read 10's of pages continually. Read few pages and try to understand the concept. If you can't understand (in most of the cases for me) Internet is a good companion. Get help from him.
• Practice: From everything you learn, before moving into the next topic practice it
• Note that everything in those 1000's of pages aren't that important. Understand what's important to you and what's not.
• E Books usually points out only the theoretical stuff. But programming is about best practices. Learn the theory and find where it's applicable in Real world.

Answer 7

What are you trying to get out of this book? What is your ultimate goal? When I read programming books I usually read for a while, then write some code to see if I understand the concept I just read. For example, if I am studying reflection, I write a class with a number of methods of different access levels and then write another class to test my knowledge.

Answer 8

I use Mendeley, constantly (as in very frequently and between interruptions) make/share notes and sync between machines (and collaborators).

Answer 9

The internet is the main distraction, so as @sange suggested, turn it off, or read on a device that is disconnected. @davidhaskins suggested coding along with the examples presented in the book, which is often an essential, so that means a device such as a tablet or Kindle is not optimal. So try a laptop or netbook you're able to work on without too much trouble and disconnect from the net. Thing is, if you need to look something up, then you're going to be tempted to reconnect and, well, the distractions begin.

So here's a technique I like to use.

Read the ebook on a disconnected device, but have a network connection in a physically different location, like another room or another desk. If you need to look something up, you can, but you have to make some physical effort to do it. Save up some things you'd like to look up and do them in a cluster. Be mindful about what you're doing (the physical movement from your present location to where the reference device helps with this) and, if you tend to get sucked in on the connected device, set a timer to remind yourself to go back to reading. A timer with a loud tick can sometimes help to focus the mind.