Ask HN: How do you balance reading books vs. articles • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do you balance reading books vs. articles

#11

Post by exaltation » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:00 PM UTC

cavalcade119 wrote: post #8

I balance the two by reading longform articles that convey a single idea well, rather than books that take too long to read and clickbait articles that provide instant-gratification but nothing of lasting value. (I highly recommend the Thinking About Things newsletter [0] and LongReads [1] for finding these kinds of articles.) [0] https://twitter.com/ThinkingAboutT6 [1] https://longreads.com/

Seconding the recommendation of Thinking About Things. That newsletter is really one of the internet's unknown gems - I tire of most "interesting article" curators eventually, but they cover such a diverse array of topics that it's been over a year and I still enjoy their articles.

Re: Ask HN: How do you balance reading books vs. articles

#12

Post by duckmysick » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:09 PM UTC

exaltation wrote: post #11

cavalcade119 wrote: post #8

I balance the two by reading longform articles that convey a single idea well, rather than books that take too long to read and clickbait articles that provide instant-gratification but nothing of lasting value. (I highly recommend the Thinking About Things newsletter [0] and LongReads [1] for finding these kinds of articles.) [0] https://twitter.com/ThinkingAboutT6 [1] https://longreads.com/

Seconding the recommendation of Thinking About Things. That newsletter is really one of the internet's unknown gems - I tire of most "interesting article" curators eventually, but they cover such a diverse array of topics that it's been over a year and I still enjoy their articles.

Is there an archive of the past links from the newsletter?

Re: Ask HN: How do you balance reading books vs. articles

#13

Post by madhadron » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:12 PM UTC

> I sometimes have this thought at the back of my mind about using the same reading time for books instead.

This implies that books are inherently superior. But sometimes the author's content isn't a book length. (I see this a lot in books from Harvard Business Review where what is really called for is a dense article, but that doesn't put a book on the author's resume.)

Some arguments are intrinsically long. Building up an understanding of thermodynamics (not just a summary of its formulation) is certainly book length. Scheidel's 'Escape from Rome' is not going to fit into an article.

So I don't really balance. Sometimes I have a big book in flight and that's going to take a lot of my attention. Sometimes I don't, but I have a number of interesting articles. I aim to optimize the enrichment I get instead.

Re: Ask HN: How do you balance reading books vs. articles

#14

Post by timdaub » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:15 PM UTC

I try to minimize screen time in general and reading for me is really something I do to calm my mind. So a few habits that I developed are:

- Before bed time, I avoid screens and read novels instead - When I have spare time, I go out and read on a bench - I have my phone set to a black and white screen from 9:30pm on

Re: Ask HN: How do you balance reading books vs. articles

#15

Post by pontus » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:17 PM UTC

My experience is that books come in two forms: ones that can be summarized by a blog post (e.g. any Malcolm Gladwell book) and those that contain content of irreducible complexity (e.g. history books or textbooks). I usually get bored with the first type of book because it just rehashes the same thing over and over again.

So, when you choose book vs article, I think this distinction should be part of the thought process. Basically, if you do give up a blog post or article in favor of a book, make sure you're getting the right bang for you buck and are not just re-reading the same idea over and over again.

Re: Ask HN: How do you balance reading books vs. articles

#16

Post by exaltation » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:25 PM UTC

duckmysick wrote: post #12

exaltation wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seconding the recommendation of Thinking About Things. That newsletter is really one of the internet's unknown gems - I tire of most "interesting article" curators eventually, but they cover such a diverse array of topics that it's been over a year and I still enjoy their articles.

Is there an archive of the past links from the newsletter?

Unfortunately I don't see one on their site. The Twitter feed [0] has some links though.

[0] https://twitter.com/thinkingaboutt6

Re: Ask HN: How do you balance reading books vs. articles

#17

Post by pyrophane » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:38 PM UTC

voisin wrote: post #5

input_sh wrote: post #4

I use Pocket to postpone reading articles during the work week. I then go through the list over morning coffee on weekends on my e-reader. Once I removed that impulse to read articles immediately as I stumble upon them, I found out that I simply delete like 50-60% of collected links without consuming them. I read books either after work / later on weekends / before bed.

> I found out that I simply delete like 50-60% of collected links without consuming them. This is an interesting result! Why do you suppose this is?

I do the exact same thing. For me I think it has to do with the fact that when I am going through everything I'm confronted by how long it would take to read everything I have saved previously, so I'm much more in the mind to get rid of stuff to make the overall readjng time manageable.

Re: Ask HN: How do you balance reading books vs. articles

#18

Post by luxurytent » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:55 PM UTC

timdaub wrote: post #14

I try to minimize screen time in general and reading for me is really something I do to calm my mind. So a few habits that I developed are: - Before bed time, I avoid screens and read novels instead - When I have spare time, I go out and read on a bench - I have my phone set to a black and white screen from 9:30pm on

Yup. I read articles during the day. How I pick those can be whatever came up that week/moment or I groom my Pocket backlog.

But before bed, I want my brain to calm down and books help that. Routine is 30 minutes before bed reading a paper novel. I also attempt to make this fiction (as most of my other reading is non-fiction)

It's tough with two kids, but I've prioritized it this year and have appreciated myself for doing so.

Re: Ask HN: How do you balance reading books vs. articles

#19

Post by scarecrowbob » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:56 PM UTC

I have several books going at any given time and will generally only read a chapter or a couple of pages. If it is material I find especially tough (for me it's been Deleuze or Lacan) I might only read a page or so a day.

Typically, I am doing this in the evening and I have a regular time after my evening meditation and walk.

Being able to structure that only happened after my kiddo got into high school and it's been easier since he's at college and I am wholly on my own.

Re: Ask HN: How do you balance reading books vs. articles

#20

Post by martindbp » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:56 PM UTC

I prefer books over articles for a few reasons. One, it feels like more of an accomplishment (I know this is a shallow reason to read, but it's a reason nonetheless). Second, I'm much more likely to remember the source of a piece of information if I read it in a book, which helps with organizing and remembering what I've read. Random articles just leave me with a vague feeling of knowing something but not why I know it. Third, a published book is more likely to good.