How to actually learn from books?

[Raphael]

How do you learn from the books that you read? I personally take notes in my commonplace book but the issue is that I quickly forget the content, so I have to go back to my notes. I would like to be able to remember and understand more from what I'm reading.

[Vali2003]

Re-reading them, I guess. You could also follow the strategy in the video below, but it's quite a pain in the ass. I find that applying the ideas from a book, discussing the contents with friends or mulling them over through the day also helps.

It kind of depends what sort of book it is. If it's the practical kind, applying it to whatever topic it's about is probably the best method. For politics, discussing it helps.  

This video is if you really want to remember shit and study it. But, like I said above, it requires a lot of effort. But you can't get around that anyways. And, if the book is great, it may be worth it. 

 

 

[Leo Gura]

Your mind will not remember things it does not need.

Be careful trying to memorize a bunch of trival knowledge. Your mind is designed to remember what is practical to it.

[Ramasta9]

2 hours ago, Raphael said:

How do you learn from the books that you read? I personally take notes in my commonplace book but the issue is that I quickly forget the content, so I have to go back to my notes. I would like to be able to remember and understand more from what I'm reading.

When you read books ideally you want to be in a clear and mindful state, in a noiseless environment, ideally in nature if possible but anywhere quiet is good and turn off your phones, notifications, devices, shut off and go deep into the book. This will help you absorb better and especially if you aren't jumping from book to smart phone to multiple activities during the day, you absorb and retain better by focusing only or mostly on the book with natural breaks for toilet and eating and meditation. The next important thing is to actually apply and practice the things you are reading, make them into reality, this transforms the knowledge into wisdom by applied action not just reading and taking notes. I only need to read a book once properly and never need to read it again unless i didn't do it the way I just explained here. Hope this helps. 

[Nick_98]

2 hours ago, Raphael said:

How do you learn from the books that you read? I personally take notes in my commonplace book but the issue is that I quickly forget the content, so I have to go back to my notes. I would like to be able to remember and understand more from what I'm reading.

Look the thing is if it is not an interesting read it won’t stick to your head.

Ask yourself one simple question. What’s interesting in what I am reading? If you can spot the interesting thing you’ll be engaged with it and learn a lot more, but if you ask this question and you don’t find anything interesting chances are the book is not the right one for you.

[SimpleGuy]

Apply what you read.

[Raphael]

Thanks for your answers. I never thought about the fact that my mind won't learn something it doesn't need.

[Leo Gura]

Your mind remembers things easily when they are related to your life purpose. Remembering requires meaning and significance. The information must be significant to your higher goals. Not just random scientific or historical facts.

That's why you forgot 99% from school. None of it was meaningful to your life goals.

Edited Saturday at 10:24 PM by Leo Gura

[Hojo]

Read out loud.

[Ramasta9]

7 minutes ago, Hojo said:

Read out loud.

This too helps yes, physicality the words > actions > manifest stronger ripples > results.

[iamlite]

This is cliche advice, but find books and topics that you enjoy!

Take some ideas from the book and try to apply it in your life 

You can also take notes or audios

It is important to find your unique learning style. All people's minds are different and have different interests

Hope that helps

[Rilles]

I find that reading starts to make sense after you get to something like 20-30 books, when you can actually start drawing connections. One or two books won’t really give you a holistic view. 

[Reciprocality]

@Raphael Close your eyes and recall the meaning of what you knew were important when you read it after having read it, do not allow yourself to learn things in isolation but instead think about what you already know such that what you are reading either confirms or excepts it.

Everything you learn must be a meaningful statement, and every statement must connect to more general properties that allows those statements to be made at all (universal generalisation), just as every statement must pertain to every instance of its predicate (universal instantiation).

This is actually how you think already, as justified through Curry-Howard correspondence and Topos theory, it is a strong mapping between logic, computation and geometry. (check also category theory, logic, type theory, categorical logic)

 

Cross reference what you read, this allows the part of your mind that recognises the essence of things to operate with full force via the intersection of those things, it also is a method for brute forcing the universal generalisation mentioned earlier.

[Reciprocality]

When we form a hypothesis it will be much easier and straightforward to infer why evidence contradicts it when it does so, reading works the same way, you should have expectations of all kinds when you read. When evidence does not contradict the hypothesis you have now a cross reference of sort for why to believe what your read and can use mental energy to generalise and infer beyond it.

So know what you are expecting or fail at comprehending.

[Joshe]

On 1/16/2026 at 7:24 AM, Leo Gura said:

Your mind will not remember things it does not need.

Be careful trying to memorize a bunch of trival knowledge. Your mind is designed to remember what is practical to it.

A good disclaimer for your book list. 

I scoffed at my dimwit ex girlfriend for telling me “books are stupid”. But looking back, she did have a point.

Edited 3 hours ago by Joshe

[theleelajoker]

On 16.1.2026 at 1:24 PM, Leo Gura said:

Your mind will not remember things it does not need.

Be careful trying to memorize a bunch of trival knowledge. Your mind is designed to remember what is practical to it.

+1

Fits my experience.

Your mind filters automatically what it considers relevant.

Relevance = what is required now, what is useful, what is applicable, what can be integrated.

I re-read a book currently that I read about 2.5 years ago last time. And I'm thinking "oh shit how could I not get this back then? How could I not see that? The information was there, right in front of me"

[d0ornokey]

"I want to learn to meditate to be calmer"

*read a meditation book (or 3)*

*Do 500 hours of meditation based on the theory*

 

Edited 1 hour ago by d0ornokey

[Joseph Maynor]

I look at all books as models only.  What's I'm interested in is what I can use from books in my own systems to improve how I create.  So first I start with my systems (my current bag of tricks for creating) and then use interfacing with information (books and communication more generally) as a way to improve my own palate for creating.