Reading burnout

[Blackhat1894]

I've been trying to read a lot of books , for example on on the book of life , how do you guys manage to not get burnout when reading, I feel I digested to much of everything

 

[Freestarwins]

I wouldn’t see that as a problem just a sign to start practicing or that maybe you’re making yourself read about practices that do not really click with you . But if it is clicking then just a sign to start practicing and then if you struggle with creativity a bit you will naturally find yourself reading more

 

[Digiquo]

Burnout from reading comes to me when I read a lot of information, but haven't actually processed any of it. What I mean by that, the information has been placed into my memory more or less, but I haven't connected it to anything else to make it anything more than trivia.

One way you can circumvent this problem is to write about what you've read as soon as you're done reading, in your own words. This pretty much forces your brain to actually parse through all of the information and attempt to understand it in a way that makes sense to you, and it also quickly reveals where you may have lapsed in focus and didn't actually absorb what you read, which forces you to reread the section to fill in your gaps. This back and forth of reading, writing, and reading again makes the reading process more active and engaging, and it helps you retain and comprehend the information better too.

Of course, if the book is exceptionally interesting, this isn't really necessary since chances are you're making the connections in real time as you're reading in that case. But for dryer, duller, or just outright boring information, the above method can do wonders.

 

[Darkat]

Burnout tends to be a problem when reading stuff you do not find interesting. Try to concentrate on areas that you have the greatest attraction to.
Also, spread your reading out, you do not have to cram everything in at once, you can take years to read up on subjects you want to study, what's the big hurry?

 

[Hu96ie]

I stopped reading and wanting to know as much as possible and started doing... it radically changes everything!
You start to understand what you need and when, without being overwhelmed by information that is currently useless.

 

[Sarah Bea]

I've been trying to read a lot of books , for example on on the book of life , how do you guys manage to not get burnout when reading, I feel I digested to much of everything

I think hitting a wall happens to everyone when they try to consume too much information too fast; treating reading like a marathon rather than a sprint is key to actually retaining what you digest.

 

[HoldAll]

Burnout tends to be a problem when reading stuff you do not find interesting.

I sometimes felt like that when I still bought and read printed books and felt obliged to finish them because I had spent money on them, even when they turned out to be duds that bored me to tears, but with almost every book being available online for free nowadays, things have greatly changed. Now I will simply discard the duds after a few pages, only read the chapters that seem interesting, or go down another rabbit hole they may have led me to without ever finishing the rest of the book.

Additionally, it's helpful to take breaks now and them and do something physical instead, e.g. household chores or going for walk, however (and this is important!) without mulling over what you've just read - let it settle while keeping your mind blank if you're practicing mindfulness, or focus on what you're actually doing right now instead. It helps me enormously.

Whenever a book is touted as a must-read and the widely acclaimed authoritative work on subject X, I'll nevertheless put it into a folder in my collection if it fails to capture my imagination. It has frequently happened to me (and it's still happening to me as I write this) that I come back to such a standard work I just hadn't been ready for later on. To some books I'll return, many will just take up storage space (for now?). Reading burnout has happened to me in the past whenever I failed to assert my autonomy, for example when I thought: "Wow, that author is so erudite and bright, and I'm such an ignorant slob, I must study harder!" No. We're reading because we that's what we love, not because we're cramming for exams or write reviews for pay.

 

[Darkat]

I sometimes felt like that when I still bought and read printed books and felt obliged to finish them because I had spent money on them, even when they turned out to be duds that bored me to tears, but with almost every book being available online for free nowadays, things have greatly changed. Now I will simply discard the duds after a few pages, only read the chapters that seem interesting, or go down another rabbit hole they may have led me to without ever finishing the rest of the book.

Additionally, it's helpful to take breaks now and them and do something physical instead, e.g. household chores or going for walk, however (and this is important!) without mulling over what you've just read - let it settle while keeping your mind blank if you're practicing mindfulness, or focus on what you're actually doing right now instead. It helps me enormously.

Whenever a book is touted as a must-read and the widely acclaimed authoritative work on subject X, I'll nevertheless put it into a folder in my collection if it fails to capture my imagination. It has frequently happened to me (and it's still happening to me as I write this) that I come back to such a standard work I just hadn't been ready for later on. To some books I'll return, many will just take up storage space (for now?). Reading burnout has happened to me in the past whenever I failed to assert my autonomy, for example when I thought: "Wow, that author is so erudite and bright, and I'm such an ignorant slob, I must study harder!" No. We're reading because we that's what we love, not because we're cramming for exams or write reviews for pay.

Got to say though, that I still love to sit down and read a proper book, rather than pdf's on a computer.
Not always possible though, some books are very hard to track down and/or expensive, then I will resort to pdf's.

 

[Digiquo]

Got to say though, that I still love to sit down and read a proper book, rather than pdf's on a computer.
Not always possible though, some books are very hard to track down and/or expensive, then I will resort to pdf's.

You should look into getting a Kindle then, one of the ink kinds, not the Amazon branded iPad. They are a very nice middle ground between a physical book and a digital copy. And the best thing about them which I only discovered earlier this year, you can download any PDF you want onto them for absolutely free. I believe they also support epubs and a few other digital formats, so long you have a working link to the free PDF. The process to do that isn't the most intuitive, but I used it to download Eric Purdue's translation of Agrippa's 3 Occult Philosophies. Sorry Eric, I'm sure that's your life's work, but I'm not dropping 300 dollars on a book.

 

[Darkat]

You should look into getting a Kindle then, one of the ink kinds, not the Amazon branded iPad. They are a very nice middle ground between a physical book and a digital copy. And the best thing about them which I only discovered earlier this year, you can download any PDF you want onto them for absolutely free. I believe they also support epubs and a few other digital formats, so long you have a working link to the free PDF. The process to do that isn't the most intuitive, but I used it to download Eric Purdue's translation of Agrippa's 3 Occult Philosophies. Sorry Eric, I'm sure that's your life's work, but I'm not dropping 300 dollars on a book.

Tried a Kindle years ago, still love the feel of a real book.