A useful habit that I've begun to follow with more complicated books—especially when reading them out of personal interest—is to actively avoid taking notes or worrying about background material on a first read.
I've recently read and greatly enjoyed a historical fiction novel called "Augustus" written by John Edward Williams and published in 1972. On the surface level, it's about the events of the life of Augustus Caesar (better known in the book as "Octavian")—but on a deeper level, it's about the rarity of longtime friends in life, and dealing with aging and one's mortality. I put the novel off for a year because I thought I had to read a non-fiction historical account of Augustus's life first, as I thought I couldn't appreciate the novel without doing so, due to the unfamiliar character names and events. But one day, I just decided to try it out—and I found myself naturally remembering the character names and events without special care in reading the novel.
Similar experiences have been reported by people engaging with various forms of media. I've seen readers take copious notes on the novel "Infinite Jest," which has a reputation for being a difficult read, only to burn out. In contrast, readers who have finished the novel said that they didn't need to take notes, and that the story began to make sense simply by reading more.
I've also seen a similar pattern from subjects as academic mathematics, where some learners spend too much time on textbook explanations instead of working on the textbook problems, to subjects as relaxed as computer role-playing games, in which some players end up dropping these games due to a perceived need to take notes to understand the story, before they can get immersed in the game's world.
I think a lot more understanding and enjoyment of various subjects can be attained by being comfortable with confusion for a while. While note-taking has its place in understanding a subject, I've personally found that immersion is the most important factor for understanding.
I finished Infinite Jest without taking notes. I definitely missed a lot of stuff but I loved the experience and it ended up being one of my favorite books.
I think Infinite Jest is a great example for this sort of thing because I later realized that I had completely missed the entire main plot. By the author:
> There is an ending as far as I’m concerned. Certain kind of parallel lines are supposed to start converging in such a way that an “end” can be projected by the reader somewhere beyond the right frame. If no such convergence or projection occurred to you, then the book’s failed for you.
Nothing converged for me at all and yet I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I’m still not quite sure what to think of that.
Aaron Swartz (yep, that Aaron Swartz) wrote a great essay that explains the ending and main plot in clear language:
But I don’t think I got any part of that plot by reading the book. It’s all hidden and disjointed, and there’s so much interesting stuff at the surface that you almost don’t even care to go deeper.
If you ever get the urge to read Infinite Jest again (which I highly recommend—a second read is easily more enjoyable than the first), the Infinite Jest Wiki includes some page-by-page annotations that are nice to have on hand.
https://infinitejest.wallacewiki.com/david-foster-wallace/in...
Probably overkill to look up every little thing (and most of the annotations are just defining SAT-worthy words anyway), but I liked having it around when a random word/phrase would make no sense and it turned out to be a vintage shaving cream brand or some bit of Boston-ese.
And it's free of spoilers, so friendly enough to first-time readers, but I do think a first read is best with no notes or supporting material or anything. Other than two bookmarks, lol.
+1 for re-reading. I’d also suggest the audiobook as an alternate form that is differently accessible. Certainly it’s easier to follow some of the changing perspectives as the narrator does a good job of voicing differently.
The best thing about reading(and finishing) Infinite Jest is that you are not sure. Not sure if the book has ended, not sure about anything. I've read and listened to multiple interpretation of the book. But that is what makes it a different experience(because of varying perspectives)
Infinite Jest seems excessively long and I haven't worked up the motivation to read it yet, but his short stories / essays in Consider the Lobster are excellent, including the titular story which is about a lobster festival in Maine. And looking at the comments in this thread, seems like he had some kind of fascination for fairs and other touristy things.
I have no research to back this up, but I think the need to understand everything may result from low self-esteem. Specifically, when not knowing something, people with low self-esteem may feel stupid. To eliminate this feeling, they† focus on learning. It is a good adaptive mechanism, especially compared to maladaptive ones like avoidance behaviors. A potentially better one is learning not to derive self-worth from how much we know or how others perceive us.
† Some of them, not everyone, on average, etc. Also, different people have different motivations. Not everyone who has a curious mind has low self-esteem. People are complex.
This made me think of Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum, where you find yourself thinking “I need to look some of this stuff up, it’s becoming hard to know if I understand it all”, but that is part of the satirical commentary he wanted to make - it’s very meta, very good, not knowing all of the esoteric references is the exact point.
Foucault’s is amazing. It’s a great story, but it also delivers a visceral experience that really mirrors what the characters are feeling. One of the best “medium is the message” books.
I think that property is essential to really good books. The running of Aragorn and Legolas and Gimli is a long boring slogto read. The trek up Mt Doom is agonizing.
The transformation of writing from the awesome kids tale of Sorcerer's Stone thru the awkwardly adolescent middle books to the powerfully adult writing and plots of Deathly Hallows is such a effective parallel to the kids growing up.
I see so many comments about taking notes while reading. I didn't even know that was a thing. I'm not even sure if I would want to do it, because it would interrupt the reading. My own personal belief (which I came up with just now) is that reading novels should be a smooth relatively easy affair. Because I read simply for the fun of it. This may not be the case with academic books however. I just, start reading.
I have in fact stalled on books before though off the top of my head only SICP and Anna Karenina come to mind. I'll reattempt both of them in the near future. Stalling on SICP was probably due to me not having the sufficient math background, which I'm slowly working on fixing. The post you wrote gives me hope.
There's a possibility that I've been doing things the wrong way all these years.
First read, I don’t take notes unless I’m familiar with the material. At most, I’ll mark interesting passages. But I usually pause after each or every two chapters, reflecting on the concepts.
I don’t take notes with fiction books, but I pause whenever I can’t give it my full attention (interruptions, some other tasks, tired).
I think taking notes while reading fiction would be relatively unusual (outside fields like literary criticism), but taking notes while reading non-fiction is quite common, especially when grappling with denser material.
For example, I kept extensive notes while reading Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy. The work assumes you're internalising as you go along, which is somewhat inescapable given the nature of the material. The author can't stop to re-explain some finer point of Aristotle's every time it is engaged with in the subsequent two thousand years.
Pausing to take notes helps one reflect on the material and solidify their understanding, but also gives them a quick reference later if necessary. I just use my phone's Notes app, to keep the barrier as low as possible.
Fascinating. My first response to your opening paragraph was horror - how on Earth could you hope to really internalize and learn from a textbook without taking notes on it? - before realizing that you were (mostly) referring to fiction or entertainment media. In which case, yes, I wholeheartedly agree with you - don't do anything to pull yourself out of the story, remain immersed and (if it's a well-structured work) it will start to make sense to you.
I did take notes throughout my first playthrough of Elden Ring, for instance, and started enjoying it a lot more once I stopped!
> A useful habit that I've begun to follow with more complicated books—especially when reading them out of personal interest—is to actively avoid taking notes or worrying about background material on a first read.
I recommend using those little sticky tabs instead. If I come across something I want to look up later, or want to come back to for whatever reason I use one on the page itself to to highlight the line, and another at the top so I can find the page again. By the time I'm done reading it might be full of those little tabs but it doesn't really slow me down in the moment.
Agreed. I used to struggle with remembering all these names in novels, but recently came to terms with the “dysnomia” by drawing parallels between reading fiction with hearing anecdotes, where capturing the rough dynamic and vibe is more important than remembering characters; confusing names is venial if the confusion is part of the experience.
If you enjoyed Williams's Augustus, do give Stoner and Butcher's Crossing a read. I "enjoyed" them even more than Augustus. Enjoyed is in quotes because they are both emotionally devastating -- Stoner more so than Butcher's Crossing. I didn't feel like myself for a week after reading Stoner and a decade later I still often think about it.
I read Stoner a month ago, and just finished Augustus. Both are among the best books I have read this year, so far at least. I’ll be picking up Butcher’s Crossing soon but needed some lighter reads in-between :)
I will admit that there is some level of joy in finding previously unnoticed angle or joke on re-read. Every few years or so I find one such gem in Pratchett's books. It does make me smile. I don't think I can emjoy Infinite Jest or Ulysses that way.
For non-fiction, I will admit that it is hard for me to take that advice. I am currently going through a historical analysis book, which in itself covers a complicated topic and references tons of source materials, which now I feel almost obligated to add to my reading list. And for harder subjects, it feels like I get lost on the foundational materials if I don't take notes.
I've recently read and greatly enjoyed a historical fiction novel called "Augustus" written by John Edward Williams and published in 1972. On the surface level, it's about the events of the life of Augustus Caesar (better known in the book as "Octavian")—but on a deeper level, it's about the rarity of longtime friends in life, and dealing with aging and one's mortality. I put the novel off for a year because I thought I had to read a non-fiction historical account of Augustus's life first, as I thought I couldn't appreciate the novel without doing so, due to the unfamiliar character names and events. But one day, I just decided to try it out—and I found myself naturally remembering the character names and events without special care in reading the novel.
Similar experiences have been reported by people engaging with various forms of media. I've seen readers take copious notes on the novel "Infinite Jest," which has a reputation for being a difficult read, only to burn out. In contrast, readers who have finished the novel said that they didn't need to take notes, and that the story began to make sense simply by reading more.
I've also seen a similar pattern from subjects as academic mathematics, where some learners spend too much time on textbook explanations instead of working on the textbook problems, to subjects as relaxed as computer role-playing games, in which some players end up dropping these games due to a perceived need to take notes to understand the story, before they can get immersed in the game's world.
I think a lot more understanding and enjoyment of various subjects can be attained by being comfortable with confusion for a while. While note-taking has its place in understanding a subject, I've personally found that immersion is the most important factor for understanding.