On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 1:31 PM, Joe Attardi <jatta...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 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? > 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 -- Blog: http://joeygibson.com Twitter: @joeygibson <http://twitter.com/joeygibson> Google+: https://plus.google.com/111042226687589256691 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to javaposse@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to javaposse+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
