The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why • Hacker News Board

Re: The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

#11

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 1:24 AM UTC

komali2 wrote: post #8

StrictDabbler wrote: post #2

As I read this piece I was able to predict the direction it would go and the evidence that would be presented for each opinion. By the end I had been neither surprised nor enlightened by anything presented in it. The author likes old books, dislikes digital reading devices and audiobooks, dislikes most things written since his own birth unless they were written about the western canon or by people trained entirely in…

Similar thoughts here. Furthermore, the author's writing style is annoyingly old fashioned and unnecessarily long. >Like the man—the fellow with the name Solomon, writing under the pen name Ecclesiastes—said, “Of the making of many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh Why not just "Solomon, writing under the pen name 'Ecclesiastes', said..."? > I recall some years ago a politician whose n…

[deleted]

Re: The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

#12

Post by person_of_color » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 1:29 AM UTC

TheDong wrote: post #6

person_of_color wrote: post #4

Is there a way to quantify the positive benefits of reading? I would like to track it just like any other variable (body fat, resting heart rate, etc.)

The benefit of many things is neither well understood nor objectively measurable. How do you track the value of friends? The value of meditation? Heck, how do you track the value (negative or positive) you get from reading this site? Each of those things affects your mental state in some way, but we have no good way to directly track mental state. We can track the effect of a good mental state by observing that one i…

Tracking mental state - that's a good idea!

Re: The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

#13

Post by ggillas » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 1:31 AM UTC

The best reading breakthrough I had was to eliminate my need to complete a book.

If I've lost the plot, I throw the book away. If I've got the advice author's gist, I move on.

It's allowed me to enjoy reading fiction again, get to the books I need in the moment, and move faster through my reading list.

Re: The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

#14

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 1:36 AM UTC

tapanjk wrote: post #10

> How can one know if a book is interesting until one has read it; memorable until time has or has not lodged it in one’s memory; rereadable until the decades pass and one feels the need to read it again and enjoys it all the more on doing so? Well, 'interesting' is an opinion that an individual forms after having experienced something. In other words, there is no way for someone to not ever read an 'uninteresting'…

[deleted]

Re: The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

#15

Post by burtonator » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 1:46 AM UTC

OK.. .shameless self plug.

https://getpolarized.io/

We announced it here the other day but we specifically designed it for people very very serious about reading.

For me I put all my books in it and everything is manageable, I can go back to them, see what I've read, keep all my notes in one place, etc.

Re: The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

#16

Post by elboru » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 2:08 AM UTC

ggillas wrote: post #13

The best reading breakthrough I had was to eliminate my need to complete a book. If I've lost the plot, I throw the book away. If I've got the advice author's gist, I move on. It's allowed me to enjoy reading fiction again, get to the books I need in the moment, and move faster through my reading list.

I learned to do that not too long ago, I started reading Asimov’s Fundation trilogy, but I struggled picking the book from my desk every single time, I was supposed to love it, everyone loves Asimov, so I had to love it too, but I just couldn’t, I felt guilty. Then I realized that the point of reading a novel was to enjoy it, if I was not enjoying it then I was just reading in a pretentious way. Since then I only keep reading if I like what I’m reading or if it will help me in any way.

Re: The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

#17

Post by edflsafoiewq » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 2:41 AM UTC

komali2 wrote: post #8

StrictDabbler wrote: post #2

As I read this piece I was able to predict the direction it would go and the evidence that would be presented for each opinion. By the end I had been neither surprised nor enlightened by anything presented in it. The author likes old books, dislikes digital reading devices and audiobooks, dislikes most things written since his own birth unless they were written about the western canon or by people trained entirely in…

Similar thoughts here. Furthermore, the author's writing style is annoyingly old fashioned and unnecessarily long. >Like the man—the fellow with the name Solomon, writing under the pen name Ecclesiastes—said, “Of the making of many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh Why not just "Solomon, writing under the pen name 'Ecclesiastes', said..."? > I recall some years ago a politician whose n…

There always seems to be someone on HN willing to bemoan any prose style that aspires above the perfect perfunctoriness of API documentation.

Re: The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

#18

Post by sanderjd » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 2:45 AM UTC

Jtsummers wrote: post #9

komali2 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar thoughts here. Furthermore, the author's writing style is annoyingly old fashioned and unnecessarily long. >Like the man—the fellow with the name Solomon, writing under the pen name Ecclesiastes—said, “Of the making of many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh Why not just "Solomon, writing under the pen name 'Ecclesiastes', said..."? > I recall some years ago a politician whose n…

> > I recall some years ago a politician whose name is now as lost to me as it is to history who listed reading among his hobbies, along with fly-fishing and jogging. > What was the point of this? Why not just "reading is my hobby"? The point was that he considered reading a "hobby" as much as breathing for himself. You have to include the rest of that paragraph though to see it: > I recall some years ago a politicia…

I don't really want to pile on, but the irritating part is "whose name is now as lost to me as it is to history". It's still irritating in the context of the paragraph you quoted.

Re: The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

#19

Post by sanderjd » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 2:49 AM UTC

newdayrising wrote: post #5

StrictDabbler wrote: post #2

As I read this piece I was able to predict the direction it would go and the evidence that would be presented for each opinion. By the end I had been neither surprised nor enlightened by anything presented in it. The author likes old books, dislikes digital reading devices and audiobooks, dislikes most things written since his own birth unless they were written about the western canon or by people trained entirely in…

You sound far more motivated by bias than the author. At least he makes it pretty clear that his is an opinion.

The parent comment seems pretty clearly an opinion as well. But this is why I often end up writing "I think" and "I believe" even though people often say to avoid doing so: I'm always afraid that if I don't someone will accuse me of stating fact without evidence when I only mean to be expressing opinion.

Re: The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

#20

Post by Jtsummers » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 3:02 AM UTC

sanderjd wrote: post #18

Jtsummers wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> > I recall some years ago a politician whose name is now as lost to me as it is to history who listed reading among his hobbies, along with fly-fishing and jogging. > What was the point of this? Why not just "reading is my hobby"? The point was that he considered reading a "hobby" as much as breathing for himself. You have to include the rest of that paragraph though to see it: > I recall some years ago a politicia…

I don't really want to pile on, but the irritating part is "whose name is now as lost to me as it is to history". It's still irritating in the context of the paragraph you quoted.

> “I may be a man of fairly wide reading, but I retain nothing.” Retention of everything one reads, along with being mentally impossible, would only crowd and ultimately cramp one’s mind.

From later in the article. I took the "whose name is now as lost" as a forward reference to the later concept. Reading so much that specific facts are lost (like who he was quoting) while retaining the understanding of the quote itself.