It's easy to blame the internet, but for me the biggest reason why my deep reading capacities suffered was college. If every semester you have to grind thousands of pages, the art of skimming and superficial reading is necessary survival tool. Writing papers with short deadlines quickly leads to fishing for quotes and references in source material. After few hard years of college it's difficult to get back to old reading habits, even if it's just fiction in leisure time.
Just Read the Book Already
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Re: Just Read the Book Already
#82I disagree with most of what she says. I know I spend too much time online, but at the same time I don't have any problems getting lost in books. Just last week I devoured Name of the Wind (600+ pages) in a matter of days, even though I ultimately didn't particularly like it. It seems like she has trained herself to read a certain way and then blames the world around her for her own actions. Spending time online does…
And probably you are missing the fact, that way how you read is established when there were no internet around.
Re: Just Read the Book Already
#83It's easy to blame the internet, but for me the biggest reason why my deep reading capacities suffered was college. If every semester you have to grind thousands of pages, the art of skimming and superficial reading is necessary survival tool. Writing papers with short deadlines quickly leads to fishing for quotes and references in source material. After few hard years of college it's difficult to get back to old rea…
My reading habits suspended during college for skim culture, and rebounded every break from school and fully recovered after graduation.
Re: Just Read the Book Already
#84For around ten years I didn’t read much, not because I didn’t want to, I certainly did, but because it takes too long. I get up at around 6am, get home from work at around 5pm and then I have daily chores mixed with family stuff for 3-5 hours. Not much left after that, and I’m not good at setting fixed hours for specific hobbies, so reading a whole book just didn’t work out for me. I soon found that even if I managed…
I’m kind of in your camp. Back when I had a lot of time, I used to read a lot. But it’s such a low bandwidth communication, and books seem to have so much useless filler material. I tried e-books but failed. If I listen to them while I’m doing something else like commuting, I don’t pay attention (since I’m trying to not get killed on I-680), and if I listen while I’m not doing anything else, I fall asleep. Still wait…
A year or so ago, I decided I wanted to read all of the "best" books so I found a few lists of the best literature in English from the past few hundred years and read a few dozen of the books that showed up on most lists, and I realized that really well written books aren't nearly as low-bandwidth as a lot of more pulpy type books are.
Obviously I didn't enjoy all of the books on the list, but even the ones I kind of slogged through felt like they contained more... knowledge (wisdom?)
I'm also really into sci-fi and fantasy, so I've been working my way down awards lists like the Hugos. The books on these lists also seem more high bandwidth, with the bonus of giving you exposure to a bunch of different authors who have mostly all written a bunch of stuff that's similar to whatever won them the award.
Re: Just Read the Book Already
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
The author's more concerned with fiction
Fiction has suffered the same bloat. Used to be that letting an author ramble for 200,000+ words was considered indulgent. Dune told it's entire story in around 180,000 words, I can hardly say anything more intriguing is going on in Song of Ice & Fire at 1.7 million words.
That's not a perspective I expected someone to argue, and I'd argue directly the opposite.
I find the older the book, the slower and more waffly (if you want to be uncharitable) its prose. I haven't looked into this at all, but it always feels to me like editors are a new edition to the writing process.
Ironically I usually really enjoy the actual prose they wrote, because it's often beautiful, but after dozens and dozens of pages of hearing about how pious some bishop is you have no context for you really start to wish Victor Hugo would just move the fuck on.
Re: Just Read the Book Already
#86In the digital world of brainless games, and binge watching media it is very hard to focus on reading as our minds are being trained to get most amount of information in as compressed way as possible. While commuting on trains of NYC I tend to look around and see 9/10 people are either playing some no brainer games or watching something while listening to music. Hardly would we find a reader involved in his/her kindle or a book or even reading on phone. I am guilty of binge watching a show endlessly sinking in my couch (even while working). I think rather than fighting whether we are reading a device or a physical book the important point is that we keep reading and promote reading to our next generation with all mediums available (book, kindle, mobile, messengers...) and whichever is the most convenient for them.
Re: Just Read the Book Already
#87I now read on the surface and very quickly; in fact, I read too fast to comprehend deeper levels, which forced me constantly to go back and reread the same sentence over and over with increasing frustration.” She had lost the “cognitive patience” that once sustained her in reading such books.
I had a similar, but opposite problem most of my life since computers came along. In high school, I started reading technical books on programming. Along with my textbooks, of course. Around my junior year, I realized that I'd lost the ability to just smoothly flow through 'light' text. I'd obsessively rescan paragraphs if I'd missed a single word.
About once a decade, I'd realize that I'd lost the ability to read fiction for pleasure and make it a point to redevelop the skill. My last bout was reading everything by Murakami.
Maybe her mind is just wandering, because in my opinion the key to fiction is allowing yourself to skip minor details and let your brain figure it out as you go.
Re: Just Read the Book Already
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
The author's more concerned with fiction
Fiction has suffered the same bloat. Used to be that letting an author ramble for 200,000+ words was considered indulgent. Dune told it's entire story in around 180,000 words, I can hardly say anything more intriguing is going on in Song of Ice & Fire at 1.7 million words.
Dune and A Song of Ice & Fire use very different narrative techniques.
In Dune most of the narration follows a protagonist that navigates the world. In A Song of Ice & Fire there is not a single protagonist. There are multiple characters that are elevated to the same level of importance. Covering world events from each point of view requires more pages. Having multiple characters that are the same level of importance is one of the hallmarks of the series. When starting to read the series a person is usually told that they will not be able to predict who will die. This is a key element of the story telling process.
A Song of Ice and Fire has more named minor characters and a wider range of named minor characters. In my opinion this makes the world more rich and represents a deep understanding of the entire society. Dune deals primarily (99% or more) with aristocrats and their servants/warriors. A Song of Ice and Fire will talk about everyone from Kings to poor fisherman.
Re: Just Read the Book Already
#89I think most people are too committed to finishing books that they start. Changing my attitude about this has made a huge difference in how much book content I actually read.
Until pretty recently, if I found myself reading a book that I found boring, or too dense, or hard to get into, I would just get "stuck". I wouldn't be able to pay attention for long enough to make real progress, but it would "block" me from starting any other books.
Now I just abandon the book and move on to a different book that I haven't started reading yet. It makes a huge difference in my "book throughput", and reading books cover-to-cover is overrated in any case.
Re: Just Read the Book Already
#90I disagree with most of what she says. I know I spend too much time online, but at the same time I don't have any problems getting lost in books. Just last week I devoured Name of the Wind (600+ pages) in a matter of days, even though I ultimately didn't particularly like it. It seems like she has trained herself to read a certain way and then blames the world around her for her own actions. Spending time online does…
And probably you are missing the fact, that way how you read is established when there were no internet around.
I'm not sure if this is supposed to be directed at me or a general comment, but the internet was most certainly there when I started reading. In fact I hated reading when I was in middle school. It was only in my last couple years (of school) that I really started to enjoy it.