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The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

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Re: The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

#21

Post by Nav_Panel »

elboru wrote: post #16
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 kee…

Honestly... I grew up reading Asimov, but I didn't read Foundation until my 20s, and I was... underwhelmed. I still adore his short stories (I often re-read them and discover something new), and I have fond memories of his Robot Detective novels and the standalone book "The Gods Themselves". But I also didn't love Foundation. So, don't feel bad.

Re: The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

#22

Post by stepvhen »

burtonator wrote: post #15

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.

Perhaps I missed it, but i didn't see anything about physical copies, i.e. it seems this is focused (exclusively?) for the ditigal reader. Is that the case?

Re: The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

#24

Post by ACow_Adonis »

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.

How so? It's clearly linking the idea that the person's name being lost to history is connected to being the type of person who lists reading on the same level as other incidental hobbies.

Re: The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

#25

Post by paulcole »

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…

> Why not just "Solomon, writing under the pen name 'Ecclesiastes', said..."?

Talk about annoyingly old fashioned and unnecessarily long. Let’s try:

“Solomon aka Ecclesiastes said...”

Re: The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

#26

Post by ACow_Adonis »

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…

I for one read the whole thing and find it enjoyable. I do not agree with his position on western literature, and he is clearly deliberately writing for people who already have some level of understanding of western literature and his Jewish heritage, but style wise I found it quite respectable, if not moderately haughty...

Re: The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

#27

Post by ACow_Adonis »

paulcole wrote: post #25
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…

> Why not just "Solomon, writing under the pen name 'Ecclesiastes', said..."? Talk about annoyingly old fashioned and unnecessarily long. Let’s try: “Solomon aka Ecclesiastes said...”

In reply to both yours and the original post, the writer does that because he is slyly signalling to you feigned humbleness with a little wink to his readers with respect to the personage of Solomon.

You know, using language for subtle humor rather than just brevity, which, if i recall correctly, he actually discussed this topic and dismisses the speed readers and those always looking for efficiency and speed: like speed eating or speed sex I believe the analogy was.

Re: The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

#28

Post by paulcole »

ACow_Adonis wrote: post #27
paulcole wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why not just "Solomon, writing under the pen name 'Ecclesiastes', said..."? Talk about annoyingly old fashioned and unnecessarily long. Let’s try: “Solomon aka Ecclesiastes said...”

In reply to both yours and the original post, the writer does that because he is slyly signalling to you feigned humbleness with a little wink to his readers with respect to the personage of Solomon. You know, using language for subtle humor rather than just brevity, which, if i recall correctly, he actually discussed this topic and dismisses the speed readers and those always looking for efficiency and speed: like s…

I was poking fun at the guy I was replying to – not making a modest proposal that fewer words is always the ideal.

Re: The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

#29

Post by confounded »

edflsafoiewq wrote: post #17
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…

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

Orwell would have written superb API documentation.

(Even if every deprecated end-point was described having a faint smell of boiled cabbage.)

Re: The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why

#30

Post by ekphrasis »

roymurdock wrote: post #7
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…

I like the bitter passion. Who would u recommend to read outside the unremarkable western canon?

A few tips: ”One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich” by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ”Things fall apart” by Chinua Achebe, ”Wide Sargasso sea” by Jean Rhys, poetry by Anna Achmatova, ”My life in the bush of ghosts” by Amos Tutuola, ”A personal matter” by Kenzaburo Oe, ”Woman in the dunes” by Kobo Abe, ”The grass is singing" by Doris Lessing.
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