Setting aside the question of motivation, how would a working adult find the time to work through all these books? The author of this clearly leads a busy life outside of reading math textbooks.
Reading a math textbook is time consuming endeavor, regardless of underlying ability. The author herself mentions this in the introduction. I can think of a few factors that might make it possible for a busy person to go through all these books in a few years:
- They include books that were read partially while taking course.
- Consistency: allocating 1 - 2 hours per day for a few years.
- Doing exercises selectively: If you only do a handful of exercises per chapter this would dramatically increase the rate at which you go through a book. This would come at the cost of deeper understanding.
I have a large backlog of math books I'd like to read, but time is a constraining factor. If people have found strategies for reading these types of books, I'd like to hear about them.
For me, it’s all about consistency. It’s spending a few minutes to a few hours every day, forever, til the day I die.
I usually can squeeze in 30 minutes to an hour every day to study something (whether it’s math or something else — right now I’m studying cinematography). Sometimes that’s in 15-minute chunks if it’s a busy day. Usually it’s before bed or while I’m eating lunch or if I have extra time on the weekends while my kids are napping.
It’s all about just doing a little bit every day. That’s been successful for me.
Reading a math textbook is time consuming endeavor, regardless of underlying ability. The author herself mentions this in the introduction. I can think of a few factors that might make it possible for a busy person to go through all these books in a few years:
- They include books that were read partially while taking course.
- Consistency: allocating 1 - 2 hours per day for a few years.
- Doing exercises selectively: If you only do a handful of exercises per chapter this would dramatically increase the rate at which you go through a book. This would come at the cost of deeper understanding.
I have a large backlog of math books I'd like to read, but time is a constraining factor. If people have found strategies for reading these types of books, I'd like to hear about them.