Reading this article makes me really question the quality of the reading the author is doing. Reading is its own justification. Stop strategizing and just do it.
Ways to Read More Books
61–70 of 123 posts
Re: Ways to Read More Books
#62Do you guys use any tool to keep track of your books? to find new books to read?
I use goodreads for tracking and the recommended books section of the kindle store which I think gives better recommendations than goodreads.
Re: Ways to Read More Books
#63Last year I read over 100 books as part of my Goodreads challenge. This year I set the target way down at 50 books and my new challenge is to finish all the books I've bought but not finished. So my rule is I have to finish 2 books from the unfinished list before I can buy a new book.
My kindle has 470 books on it with 86 of them not complete or that I have only skimmed.
Audible account is up to 70 with 26 unfinished.
And I have about a dozen paper books to finish too which is from the point about reading physical books. I find for technical topics I do way better retaining and studying from paper books than kindle ones so I've started buying paper again.
Re: Ways to Read More Books
#64Ancient Kindle (I use the keyboard edition) text-to-speech. Not as good as Audible but much more affordable. Also weird using the same narration for all books!
Humble Bundle sometimes has audio book bundle deals, usually Dr Who.
Re: Ways to Read More Books
#65I've read more in the past 12 months than in the past few years, purely because I discovered a company in the UK called the Folio Society[1]. They sell beautifully bound and illustrated editions of fantastic books, although at rather high prices (£30-40 on average). Previously the majority of the books I read came in the form of cheap ebooks from the Kindle store. As a result, I often abandoned them (or even just for…
> when I spend £30 on a single book, damn right am I going to finish it. That's an interesting exploitation of the sunk cost fallacy. [1][2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost#Loss_aversion_and_th... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalation_of_commitment
That's only works if
a) cost is high enough compared to your income
b) you are a reasonable person, and value your money enough to care
I tried to use this tactic many times, mostly to hone my programming skills - didn't work. Damn, I recently entered a postgraduate program at the university, for 2500$ cost - didn't help much, still can't force myself to spend more time learning things.
Re: Ways to Read More Books
#66I've been digging through Hacker News posts, hackernewsbooks, etc. It was a non-ficton book, about the loss of power/money/wealth in New York? I believe. It was like 1000+ pages, and only around $15, and I can't for the life of me remember what the hell it was. Had a picture of the guy on the cover, that's about all I can remember. But I know I wanted it!
Was it by any chance Titan about Rockefeller?
https://www.amazon.com/Titan-Life-John-Rockefeller-Sr/dp/140...
Re: Ways to Read More Books
#67I've read more in the past 12 months than in the past few years, purely because I discovered a company in the UK called the Folio Society[1]. They sell beautifully bound and illustrated editions of fantastic books, although at rather high prices (£30-40 on average). Previously the majority of the books I read came in the form of cheap ebooks from the Kindle store. As a result, I often abandoned them (or even just for…
Tens of thousands of people join gyms for the same reason and stop after a few weeks.
Re: Ways to Read More Books
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. I'd rather read books in my couch at my own pace than feel stressed about finishing the latest non fiction self help book. The best way to read more books is to make time for it and read books you enjoy.
Read hardbacks in the bath tub. That's the secret.
Heh, I do this all the time. I love a nice hot bath, and I love reading, so there ya go. It really is a nice combination.
Re: Ways to Read More Books
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
> when I spend £30 on a single book, damn right am I going to finish it. That's an interesting exploitation of the sunk cost fallacy. [1][2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost#Loss_aversion_and_th... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalation_of_commitment
That's only works if a) cost is high enough compared to your income b) you are a reasonable person, and value your money enough to care I tried to use this tactic many times, mostly to hone my programming skills - didn't work. Damn, I recently entered a postgraduate program at the university, for 2500$ cost - didn't help much, still can't force myself to spend more time learning things.
A similar phenomenon are the various ways people try to trick their procrastination habit, not with money (fake price) but with time (fake priorities).
However, as you correctly noticed, these techniques don't work well. That's normal, don't worry if these simple solutions don't work. Maybe you think they should work, because you often hear from people for whom "that one weird trick" worked. Or that one complicated technique. But usually these are the same people who try to sell you their book on that topic.
Instead, you need to the root of this issues, which may involve finding your true priorities, and may involve actively changing your habits. All this may be really hard, and you'll fail and retry many times - especially when trying to do this alone. Heck, there's a whole profession around helping people to fix these types of issues - some of them are highly qualified, others are charlatans. (The latter often call themselves "coaches" as that term doesn't require much qualification, so that they can't be sued if they do a bad job.)
Re: Ways to Read More Books
#70This may be an unusual opinion, but I read a lot, and I've found non-fiction books to just not be efficient means of educating myself anymore. Most topics can be illustrated and described in far fewer words than a book takes. I get about a third of the way through a lot of books and say "ok I get it", as the author basically just continues to say the same thing in different ways. I'm sure this is incentivized by curr…
It kind of depends on what books you read and what the academic culture is. E.g. in mathematics, it seems books and lecture notes are the main way knowledge is transmitted, and articles are more of an afterthought.