Reading big difficult books

[filosofitar]

I'm new, nice to meet you.

 

I have a few very thick books (philosophy in a foreign language) that I wish I could somehow digest better, they feel quite overwhelming and I have ended up getting completely stuck even though they are the best books I've ever read - what a strange feeling! The philosophy itself is not the main difficulty, just the combination of philosophy, foreign language and the thickness of the books.

 

I've had this problem for a long time now so I thought I'd finally ask some fellow book lovers. Do you know any good techniques for digesting such books (I wish I could just inject them straight into my bloodstream!) - techniques that wouldn't feel too much like school?

[Booknutt]

Reading a subject like philosophy in a foreign language is two challenges at once filosofitar - which is one too many! 

So either learn the language fluently enough to read 'em as they are, or see if you can find economical copies of the books in English! 

Either way,  your local public library may be able to help for a fraction of the cost.

 

Where do we get the idea you love a challenge?!

 

Have a great rest-of-Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

[doris.ehcd]

A few thoughts:

- Do you read in cafes? I find that being in a cafe helps me focus on and even enjoy difficult reading without it feeling too much like "work" (i.e. if I were sitting in my home office or at a library.)

- Tracking your progress through the books could help with maintaining the motivation to keep going? Goodreads has a function where you can easily update what page you're on in books that you're reading and your network of friends will see the update.

- You could participate in or follow online discussions about the book, even if it's on the work in translation: this could help with digesting and engaging in the ideas as you're working through the book.

[chesilbeach]

Some one on a podcast recently recommended setting yourself a target number of pages to read each day.  They said 50 pages per day, but they were talking about novels which are generally easier to read, but it you went for say 25 pages per day, that would be 500 pages in just under three weeks which for a difficult book, does seem quite so daunting.

[Brian.]

A target number of pages to read each day is a really good way of tackling bigger books. I am planning on reading War & Peace in 2018 by tackling one chapter a day as all the chapters are really short.