by dar8919 on 4/11/15, 8:17 PM with 9 comments
by wlkr on 4/12/15, 9:34 PM
For non-fiction books my approach is markedly different and I seek out a lot of online and peer reviews. With non-fiction books being a more significant investment (time and cost vs expected advancement of knowledge) I can spend weeks deciding which books will be useful to me.
by ay1n on 4/12/15, 8:47 PM
I also recommend Farnam Street Blog (http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/) for a lot of interesting suggestions.
by rdc12 on 4/12/15, 5:53 AM
I still find a lot of success in just going to a second hand book store and finding gems in a fairly short amount of time too. But obviously more niche books are unlikely to be there.
Goodreads, does tend to be fairly good at identifying authors of a similar theme, but that has only been of limited usage to me.
by tumba on 4/11/15, 10:18 PM
For each subject in which I am interested, I maintain a bibliography. The most common way entries are added here is by discovering references to books or articles in other things I am reading.
When reading books in physical media, I usually draw an arrow by references or notes that indicate books I should add to these bibliographies. When I am done with a book or article, I go back through and add any such references that still seem relevant to my bibliography. (I do this at the same time I am transcribing notes and quotations, files of which are also an important part of my system.) I usually include a brief note on why I believe this work will be of value and where I got the reference.
Where this becomes useful is when I am pursuing some sort of study. I have learned that I study best with some object in view, so even if my study is for general education, I prepare a syllabus that presents objectives of some sort (code to write, questions to answer, etc.).
Once I have the objectives prepared, I use my living bibliography files to create a reading plan. Of course, once I really delve into a subject, that plan usually expands and I add more references into both my general bibliography and reading plan.
This process provides me an apparatus to pursue my interests in a structured way to make the most of my time. I don't worry much about what to read next except in the context of some such study.
I have found that without this sort of structure to focus my reading, I am in danger of becoming a dilettante. I don't have an exceptional memory, and if I read without a structure, I easily fall into the trap of cultivating superficial knowledge without ever getting deep enough to answer substantive questions or do original work.
I do, however, want to encourage serendipity, so I subscribe to and read periodicals in variety of fields. I have also found The London Review of Books and book reviews in leading newspapers to be useful sources of references and lines of thought that I would probably never otherwise discover.
by rdc12 on 4/15/15, 9:09 AM
by gershwin on 4/11/15, 10:47 PM
by mingusdew on 4/13/15, 4:28 AM