Underrated Technique to Help You Read Hard Books

Difficult books can stop you in your tracks. Dense philosophy, tricky novels, notoriously hard classics... all present a huge challenge in the life of the serious reader.
And yet, you want to face them. There's nothing more rewarding than beating a hard book and being proud you finished it. But how? It's no easy task. That's where superficial reading comes in. It is a rare technique that can help you get through any hard book with confidence and pave the way for all the understanding to be made clear to you.
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00:00-00:35 Intro
00:35-1:23 'Superficial' Isn't Always Bad
1:23-2:50 Lower Your Expectations
2:50-3:34 Reading Habits Should Be Sustainable
3:34-4:20 You Can Always Reread
4:20-5:15 The Technique
5:15-8:30 Why This Works
8:30-9:09 Try It Yourself

[@mohitandcinema]

"If you study the trees too closely, you lose the forest"... great quote 👏❤️

[@odysseas__]

One of my favourites

[@moyhdehehe9493]

vagabond?

[@OrdenJust]

And yet, Sherlock Holmes said, "From a drop of water, a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other." How to reconcile these points of view?

[@dzaster4050]

​@@OrdenJust you are quoting a fictional detective written by someone who believed in lobotomy

[@OrdenJust]

@@dzaster4050 Yeah. So what?

[@Wingedmagician]

I needed to hear this. I have this bad habit of reading books at a snails pace. Identifying every detail and concept as I go. No wonder I stopped reading

[@odysseas__]

Hope it improves your reading for you

[@edwarddylin128]

As one of Hegel’s most ardent defenders, seeing Phenomenology of Spirit in the thumbnail is hilarious cause at a certain point no technique can make reading Hegel ever feel easier than reading Hegel 😅

[@odysseas__]

Haha I bet, it's just 'the hard book' in my head so I used it there.

[@dodetkotob]

Excellent advice! My professor told me a similar thing when we read Foucault for the first time. Now I look back and I think it was the single advice that got me through my MA readings

[@odysseas__]

That's great! And thanks too

[@Enhancedlies]

i love finding fantastic gems of channels like yours, new sub 100%

[@odysseas__]

Thanks so much, good to have you!

[@yosmuc]

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS! I remember you have mentioned it on one of the prior videos, and this was one of the best suggestions I have encountered. I could finally progress with reading without the usual frustration and perfectionism 🙏

[@odysseas__]

So glad to hear that! I appreciate it as always

[@opx2100]

Fantastic Video, I was in need for advice like this.

[@cartfion]

That's amazing... I've been doing that with a lot of different areas, just keeping getting superficial information, and more, and more, and more, and after a while you start painting the picture of it. I've done that with Astrophisics, a little bit of history and also a bit of human biology... When you have a lot of superficial understanding of things, new topics are easier to understand and you end up getting way more out of it.

[@odysseas__]

That's a great way to put it, I agree!

[@mountaing0y]

Very helpful. Thank you! I can definitely apply this.

[@odysseas__]

Glad you thought so, and I appreciate it!

[@mcw0805]

I agree with everything about the superficial reading. This what I started doing with classics when I started reading more casually. I try to read summaries or commentary/reviews in between as a supplement (and most of the time, it still doesn't help lol). Moreover, if your primary goal is to see the main point of the entire book, I think it's also very much okay to read some spoilers or just get to the conclusions first and figure out what led up to that by going backwards.

[@odysseas__]

Great points, especially the strategy of working backwards

[@uwha9394]

Thank you for this video!

[@odysseas__]

Thanks, it means a lot

[@bobby-and2crows]

Awesome man, concise, liked and suscribed and ill binge what some of your videos, and heed.

[@odysseas__]

Thanks, glad you found value!

[@user-bw4cz8wc3d]

Very well done. I read Ulysses r

[@odysseas__]

For sure, it feels wrong in the moment but can set the stage for something greater later on

[@maxmontauk7281]

This is exactly my approach to reading Lacan - the only thing that works for me!

[@odysseas__]

Good to see it in action then!

[@mre4465]

Very interesting approach!

[@odysseas__]

Thank you

[@programmingaccount9563]

Great advice that I never apply. I always have had the gut instinct to just get through a difficult read with the same intentions you've described. The main blockade is the time investment. It leaves me in a paralysis of choice where I feel as if I really need to pick the correct book. Thats a whole other issue I believe. Anyway; wanted to add that this advice can be implicated in a lot of ones daily life activities. Working out being a great example. Doing a push up is better then not. You do not need to delve too deep at first - the main battle is beginning.

[@odysseas__]

I feel you. Do you mean you want to understand everything because of the time you put into it? Or is it something else?

[@ryang7759]

this was really good

[@odysseas__]

Thanks I appreciate it

[@Verboten-xn4rx]

Tibetain Book Of The Dead looks rock hard. But how to fight demons in the next world useful. Remember I never did read that book about Zen Nihilism Kyoto School and Western Philosophy because the terms according to one review has been simplified but It was such a specialist area their were few who had approached it. Nor when I checked it were there any MA courses on Leninism ( not really a surprise) No where in the Western world.

[@earnestlanguage4242]

i've got that Hegel book and it IS a bear!

[@odysseas__]

Haha definitely. I remember opening it up for the first time and not understanding a word.

[@TheIllerX]

I think the first step is to ask yourself why you read the book in the first place and even if you should try to read it. If it is a book written in a unncessarily complicated way, maybe it is simply not worth reading and it is better to choose an author not trying to make things seem more complicated than they are. If you want to sharpen your skill in trying to understand some obscure, perheps old text with old language, then yes, it might be worth it. Then you know this is valuable for you. But beware of believing that incomprehensible is the same thing as deep, important, insightful and so on. Sometimes it just simply means that the author is bad at communicating his/her ideas, or that his/her style does not suit you, so don't even bother reading the book. You have to really value your time. Is the effort put in this book really worth it, compared to picking several more accessible books? The advice of learning superficially and first to try to see the main points is excellent of course. You need to see the forest before analyzing the trees. Sometimes superficial understanding itself have a value, depending on the subject and context. However, I want to stress that often, expecially in science/mathematics, it is much better to go the other way around and really understand things more or less completely before moving on. If you know some mathematical method up to like 90%, but there are things you don't really understand, you will still not be able to use it in a realyl meanignful way. Yes, you might be able to plug numbers into formulas, but, a bit paradoxical, you will miss the big picture if you don't understand the details.

[@odysseas__]

Brilliant advice -I agree. Some author's are just too obscure or plain bad to warrant a decoding session every time you read them.

[@PGY2000]

Just started beyond good and evil by Nietzsche!! Great advice!

[@odysseas__]

Thanks, hope it helps!

[@PGY2000]

Yes, I already see differences in my approach and just getting through the book in general. Great advice!! @@odysseas__

[@rohanbidi]

I have a contrarian view - maybe its not contrarian and I don't disagree with this video - when I'm on a book that's long and dry, I tend to read another lighter book in parallel. Somehow my flow of the difficult book is not spoilt, if anything it helps me finish it. Perhaps it has something to do with the mind being refreshed by the simpler book, a bit like the idea in a separate video of yours about how walking helps to unclog the mind.

[@odysseas__]

That's also a great strategy! I don't see it as mutually exclusive with this strategy too. Whatever works best for you, is best.

[@lasttimecommenting]

I do this too! I read nonfiction during the day and fiction before I go to bed to wind down. That way the books are so different they have distinct streams in my head

[@rohanbidi]

@@lasttimecommenting Very true. It's like by reading a simpler book we don't use up all our mental energy which might get exhausted by only reading the harder book.

[@user-ig3el1qo9x]

Thank you ❤

[@odysseas__]

Much appreciated!

[@Verboten-xn4rx]

The hardest is James the Brother of Jesus Robert Eisenmann not Just 1 Judas but 30 odd every page a Rubick's cube of multiple characters. Brain turns to jelly. Nothing else like it.

[@odysseas__]

Sounds like you have good experience with tough reads

[@gargleblasta]

That is why i love audio books: so much easier to power through a book 😊

[@odysseas__]

True, good for a first read I'm sure

[@DanielGTaylor]

I've been using this approach to get through the 64 volumes of the Great Books of the Western World (including the 10-volume Gateway to the Great Books set). So far I've made my way all the way through Gateway set, and I'm up to volume 14 of the Great Books themselves ("The Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans" by Plutarch, if anyone was wondering.)

[@odysseas__]

Brilliant, that's some challenge, so it's great to see you go so far into it

[@bernard-darnton]

From my first failed attempt on Gravity's Rainbow, all I can remember is a tangent on the aromatic chemistry of bananas. Might be time to have another crack at it.

[@Verboten-xn4rx]

Soft Machine or Naked Lunch Burroughs's like falling off a log instant addiction ( no Burroughs isn't a boring druggy writer or gay queer fan boy) the Picador anthology the only book I read 9 times over 1 after the other. Others say : But where's the story?? It's so hard to read 😂 while flicking through 1000s of edits TV / Internet without so much as a blink. When it just clicks without trying. Life is an edit.

[@thatcasualdragon2975]

So there's this guy, Corey Olsen, known as "The Tolkien Professor" and he gave this advice when talking about reading The Silmarillion for the first time. Basically, just read it and don't worry about the details. I've used it on a lot of things and it's so good. Although do read the footnotes with Infinite Jest, there's story there, since it's fiction. The thing I slightly disagree with is the part about avoiding commentaries. Sometimes, even when reading superficially, you can get completely lost, and that's when I think picking up a good commentary can help. Not for looking up every reference and detail, but just read a chapter of the hard book and then the corresponding chapter of the commentary still fairly superficially. It'll help with some of those details you're skipping, but also just help keep you on track. It's super nice to have something that can do the 'remembering' for you too. Like "Hey, remember this thing that happened earlier? That's what this relates to!" so you can keep going without getting bogged down. Often, when I do this, I actually end up not needing the commentary all the way through and then I drop it and just read the book, but sometimes (Infinite Jest was one because it's so convoluted) I use it all the way through to help sort of keep track of things while also continuing momentum.

[@odysseas__]

That's a fair point -it's all about moderation and doing it just enough to help you without being a liability

[@user-hx1ob7sl8o]

I see Infinite Jest I click like.

[@raginald7mars408]

… as a German Bio Chemist Ph D This is entirely Genetic I wa stunned in first Semester Chemistry the most talented were on top on anything all the time + effortless Almost looking at anything And they had it. Stunning. The more effort you need to learn anything The less talent you have And you are prone to tricks Like these Self Titanick

[@odysseas__]

Natural talent matters, but it's also a skill you can develop and improve. Dismissing it as purely genetic is defeatist.

[@raginald7mars408]

@@odysseas__ I am a genetic De Featist!

[@robertlotzer7627]

I think the problem, at least for me, is that there is so much to read. To reread a book then makes you feel like you are missing other books or authors. But that’s the point of a really important author or book. It is worthy of rereading and forgetting the rest. I wish I learned this at a younger age.

[@odysseas__]

I get that feeling too. In my head, as long as I spend the time learning, it's well spent -whether it's rereading something or not.

[@Verboten-xn4rx]

Thought about the Kabalah? I have a superficial view of it over years wouldn't be reading it for its own internal comparatives binary codes literary stuff ect but purely in the irrational spiritual sense if it works that way. Unlike when I was a lot younger objective deep reading comparative reading ect exegesis deconstruction anti logos ontology epistemology ect ect in to a text don't interest me ( when the style of reading is the reading that replaces the actual text exercise) The accident of the text ( occultism / revelation) is much more important than a cover reading in the face of old age death ect. But the Kabalah appears to be about 100 canonical works difficult choice. Seems as arcane as a Borges story just looking at the Codex. Hermeticism is obscure. Meant to be so. A secret world.

[@joem.246]

Slightly off topic, but what would you suggest to do when you've lost steam with a book? I'm 100 pages away from finishing Crime & Punishment and I'm finding it difficult to pick the book up, and when I do I'm bored and want to immediately put it down!

[@odysseas__]

I feel you there. In my experience, having short reading session for fiction prevents me from getting absorbed into it -it could be that? Otherwise, you could try putting it down for a short period and coming back later.

[@onorth5615]

What are your thoughts on beginning the process with some light preliminary research into the difficult work that you’ll be reading (e.g., KZbin videos reviews, Wikipedia, study aids, etc.) just as a way to prime your mind? Then, after having read through the work once, superficially and without interruption, go back and revisit these support materials.

[@odysseas__]

I'm all for it -the goal's to learn and anything that helps you is good. Maybe less so for fiction though, I prefer to go in blind, make my interpretations and then read other resources after.

[@NiallsSongs]

I’ve used a version of this since I was a youngster and one surprising result is how often stuff you’re currently reading clarifies something that you hadn’t understood earlier in the book.

[@odysseas__]

For sure, and you just have to power through and get there

[@sydneyhart]

The technique is called Cliff Notes!

[@odysseas__]

Never knew that!

[@red7833]

i am aproaching Das Kapital by Marx with this technique and it helps a lot, but you need to bee acive in the lecture, it's not just reading words.

[@odysseas__]

For sure, an effort should still be made to understand

[@christine6059]

After the first superficial reading, should one not expect to have enjoyed it?

[@odysseas__]

I'd argue it makes enjoying it easier because you can keep up a flow better. So probably not.

[@lederpsta42]

The best method for understanding difficult books is to be a student not only of that book per se but of the TRADITION from which it comes. For example, it would be an ABSOLUTE WASTE OF TIME to try and read Hegel without reading Kant first. Or, another: it would be a WASTE OF TIME to read Paradise Lost before a reading of the KJV. Do not be fooled: there is no value in reading a book you do not understand just to be able to tell people you read it!

[@odysseas__]

I agree, some books need their own specific approach like you say. This technique is not a replacement to that, but an addition.

[@edwarddylin128]

Nah I read Hegel’s Science of Logic without reading much Kant at all first and I’m doing completely fine, Science of Logic is my favorite book ever 😂

[@kanethegoat7768]

Worlds coolest sigma right here

[@spikedaniels1528]

So how does your approach differ from what is commonly known as “skimming?”

[@odysseas__]

As I know it, skimming is flicking through the pages, ignoring most of the content, and trying to find some specific point or idea. This approach is more thorough, closer to sitting down and reading traditionally.

[@spikedaniels1528]

@@odysseas__ // Okay, thank you - * Happy Holidays! *

[@odysseas__]

@@spikedaniels1528 You too!

[@susannahdijkstra3260]

🐦

[@amirleo9126]

its ok to not understand? 😄

[@drendelous]

all youtubers trying to find the way forget one thing: consumerism culture won't let you read those books. you need several attempts and years or months ok to stay with them while you yourselves advocate to rush and consume your top fives tens this year that year. just stop promote garbage modern books all over the internet so that your followers finally understand it is ok to buy two books this year, second hand, classics

[@odysseas__]

They aren't mutually exclusive. You can read easier books alongside the difficult ones that take you months and years

[@agucci]

No book is hard. 😂