Tips for effectively reading programming books

[Joe Attardi]

Hi all,

What are some ways you effectively absorb knowledge from reading programming books? For language or feature specific stuff, obviously working on a project with it is the best way to learn. But what about more general things - stuff like Effective Java or Head First Design Patterns? 

Do you take notes while you read? Skim and reread for detail? Any good tips to offer?

[Jan Goyvaerts]

I'm making annotations with crayon in the books - or highlighting ebooks - when reading interesting things. That's usually how I'm remembering it later when the occasion presents. :-)

And skipping what I'm quite sure is not applicable to what I'm doing at work. I'm rarely reading a book cover to cover. But neither am I afraid to reread books when I need a refresh about a subject. 

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[Fabrizio Giudici]

On Tue, 12 Jun 2012 21:39:18 +0200, Jan Goyvaerts <java.a...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I'm making annotations with crayon in the books - or highlighting ebooks
> -
> when reading interesting things. That's usually how I'm remembering it
> later when the occasion presents. :-)
>
> And skipping what I'm quite sure is not applicable to what I'm doing at
> work. I'm rarely reading a book cover to cover. But neither am I afraid
> to
> reread books when I need a refresh about a subject.

I usually can't remember anything that I didn't do in code. So, if I'm
learning some new programming technology, I have to write some code in it.



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Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect, Project Manager
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[Weiqi Gao]

You don't read books.  You just buy them and put them on the shelf and wait five years.  After five years, you either go "I am glad I didn't waste my time on that DCOM stuff!" or "They are still talking about it, it must be something useful.  Let me read it."

 

How you read a book depends on how you learn things.  Different people learn things differently.  So what works for one won't necessarily work for others.  Even the same person will absorb differently in different stages of life.  So what worked for you when you were a teenager or in your twenties won't necessarily work for you when you are in your fifties.

 

Pay attention is the most important tip I can give to anyone.  When you are young and the subject is interesting, this is very easy.  When you are older and have other things to distract you, it's often the case that you seem to be reading a book but you are really not, your eyes merely glance over the words and as soon as you a done reading a sentence, paragraph, its content is forgotten.

 

Taking notes, highlight the topic sentences, read out aloud, tear off a page from a book when you're done reading it, etc., are all ways to force yourself to pay attention to the content.  These are trained behavior.  For example, I was trained to take notes, not to high light on the book when I was young.  Therefore none of my books have any highlighter marks, they are all like new. :)

 

Another thing that I'm trying to learn now is to "catch" myself when my mind wanders away from the book.  Ultimately, what you read needs to become part of your memory.  And there is a science about how to effectively achieve that goal.

 

Several years ago, "Your Brain: The Missing Manual" was recommended by one of the Posses (I think Dick).  It has some tips on how to improve your memory.

 

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Weiqi Gao

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http://www.weiqigao.com/blog/

[Casper Bang]

Generally, I like to consume a book from front to back, but it obviously depends on the editing. It doesn't matter much with Effective Java, but with a book like Head First Design Patterns you'd certainly want to build up the basics before moving into more complex double-dispatch composite patterns (I.e. visitor). Luckily, most modern text books will include the authors reading style recommendations in the introductory chapter.

I highlight interesting passages with a color marker; pseudo bullet-points who either shake my existing understanding of something or "smells" of something being worth remembering (I.e. "Store only weak references" at the bottom of page 26, Effective Java SE). Sometimes, when introduced to a piece of code that elegantly solves a problem, I will put a check-mark next to it (I.e. "Enum type with constant-specific method impl" at the bottom of page 152, Effective Java SE). Occasionally, I will write a big question mark next to a passage, if I disagree or something warrants further study.

In short, the book is *mine* and I won't hesitate to annotate/mutilate it in order to extract the most value out of it. :) The most important thing is to find a quiet time to read in when you are not too tired, nor too creative... this I am still struggling with when juggling work, house, family and hobbies.

/Casper

[Joey Gibson]

The biggest thing for me is to /never/ just download and read the pre-written code from the author's site, if at all possible. I type in every example from the book and ensure that it works as the author says it should. Only if I have a problem that I can't get past will I pull down the code and compare it to what I wrote. Doing this really helps me remember what I've read. I also take notes, but they usually end up as comments in the code.

As for highlighting, I've never been one to highlight or write in paper books. I also don't like to break the spines. The last several programming books I've read have been via Kindle, and I like the fact that highlights, bookmarks and notes are sync'ed across devices. I wish I could get that same syncing across devices for PDFs that I import into iBooks and/or the Kindle app, but nobody supports that yet.

Joey

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