If I finish a book a week, I will read only a few thousand books in my lifetime, about a tenth of a percent of the contents of the greatest libraries of our time. The trick is to know which books to read. - Carl Sagan, 'Cosmos' (1980)
Why Some People Become Lifelong Readers
21–30 of 79 posts
Re: Why Some People Become Lifelong Readers
#22I've read 50 books this year after reading only 30 last year. I want to really crank then out in these next few months.
It is so important to me to keep reading and keep improving.
Re: Why Some People Become Lifelong Readers
#23I absolutely love reading. I can't make it through four seasons of TV (my most recent failure is Battlestar Galactica '04) and I can't seem to get myself to suffer through repeated failure at video gaming for more then thirty minutes at a time, but I absolutely love books. My trio of hobbies are coding, writing, and reading and it's a really happy and productive combination! I prefer fiction, generally hard science f…
I find having a good supply of books to read comforting!
I love the Japanese word Tsundoku. So perfect!
Re: Why Some People Become Lifelong Readers
#24I go through periods of intensive reading, then downtimes. These both span for months. Problem is a lot of it is dreck. Some books draw out a story for 1100 pages then stuff all the cool stuff in the last 200 pages. It feels dishonest. A lot of classics aren't. A lot of pulp is captivating and fast paced. I tried reading infinite jest - I had to return it. I finished fear an loathing in las vegas in a day. It's a cra…
I recommend Infinite Jest on Audible. There are advantages to it being an audiobook, one being that since you aren't holding the pages, you won't see it coming when a chapter ends. This prevents you from rushing to complete sections, rather, you just go along for a ride while the story is told, not knowing where/when it'll end up.
Re: Why Some People Become Lifelong Readers
#25I go through periods of intensive reading, then downtimes. These both span for months. Problem is a lot of it is dreck. Some books draw out a story for 1100 pages then stuff all the cool stuff in the last 200 pages. It feels dishonest. A lot of classics aren't. A lot of pulp is captivating and fast paced. I tried reading infinite jest - I had to return it. I finished fear an loathing in las vegas in a day. It's a cra…
I recommend Infinite Jest on Audible. There are advantages to it being an audiobook, one being that since you aren't holding the pages, you won't see it coming when a chapter ends. This prevents you from rushing to complete sections, rather, you just go along for a ride while the story is told, not knowing where/when it'll end up.
+1, and you don't have to worry about having three bookmarks placed correctly :-)
Re: Why Some People Become Lifelong Readers
#26I'm a life long reader. Finished the majority of the classics section one might find in an american library. I find it hard to get a steady stream of quality narrative with engaging ideas, so I tend to find a good author and read everything I can find they've written. I'm also one of those can't-sleep-more-than-4-hours-a-day people, so I spend time reading books then.
Re: Why Some People Become Lifelong Readers
#27I go through periods of intensive reading, then downtimes. These both span for months. Problem is a lot of it is dreck. Some books draw out a story for 1100 pages then stuff all the cool stuff in the last 200 pages. It feels dishonest. A lot of classics aren't. A lot of pulp is captivating and fast paced. I tried reading infinite jest - I had to return it. I finished fear an loathing in las vegas in a day. It's a cra…
The key is to just put it down and move on to another book if you’re not enjoying it. Many people have a completist attitude towards reading - they continue to slog through to the end of a book once they’ve started, even if they don’t like it. They’ll make slow progress, and it blocks them from picking up a new book. Cut your losses early - your total reading throughput will be much higher, and most nonfiction books…
I used to power through books I didn't like, just to finish them in case they were redeemed somehow. Then I realized, too many books too little time. I dropped Neal Stephenson's Anathem because of this, although I have read every other one of his books and cover to cover. It just didn't click and I didn't fancy re-reading it when it did finally click.
Re: Why Some People Become Lifelong Readers
#28>a chief factor seems to be the household one is born into, and the culture of reading that parents create within it. Aye, my mother regularly took us to the biggest public library within driving distance. Every few weeks. And we didn't just grab and go, we would spend some time browsing the stacks. As her mother did before her. It was inexpensive entertainment for those that weren't well off. I developed very wide i…
This just brought a big ass smile to my face! Some of my fondest childhood memories are of my dad rolling out of the local library with a six foot tall stack of hardcovers... if I recall the library had a checked out limit of a dozen titles and he took full advantage, so I’d have to help him carry them out to the car :)
Re: Why Some People Become Lifelong Readers
#29Reading for me goes through cycles. For months, I would not feel like reading at all, except for the daily dose of WSJ.com or HN and Reddit programming. Then, all the sudden I happen to discover a book from those online sources and spend most of my free time to read it. Sometimes, I went back to finish books I abandoned ages ago if they happen to coincide with what interest me at the moment. For example, I started to learn playing piano with some of Bach’s easy classical pieces (1st prelude in WTC book 1, minuet, etc...). It strikes me that I have a book discovered from HN called Godel, Escher, Bach from 2009. I stopped reading after the 1s chapter back then. Now, I can’t seem to put it down and am on chapter 5. I think knowing a bit about music and appreciating Bach make this book approachable for me again.
The other example is Enterprise integration patterns. I got it in 2006 but never finished it. Now, I start reading it again with a lot of interest after getting involved in a project at work with a lot of teams tangled with integration issues.
Re: Why Some People Become Lifelong Readers
#30In primary school I read anything and everything but my favorite was science fiction. After finishing school, I didn't read as much and noticed something: my creativity seemed less and I wasn't coming up with many big 'next step' ideas. After starting to read regularly again, it came back.