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Do you read?

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Re: Do you read?

#61

Post by adamsmith »

danteembermage wrote: post #18

I read and I read fiction for the most part. I want to make the case though that fiction is not necessarily non-educational and is rather uniquely educational or educates in a unique way. One common excuse for fiction reading is to suggest you learn passive facts about the setting as you progress pleasantly through the story, but that's not a particularly strong argument in favor or reading fiction. Sure I could pick…

Yes I've found reading a story and learning through vicarious living to be effective.

That's why my two favorite startup books are High Stakes No Prisoners and Founders at Work.

Re: Do you read?

#62

Post by keefe »

I wish I could read like I used to, but I have a full time job and I'm building a prototype for a startup simultaneously. I usually get through every month or two reading in the same spare moments a lot of people take for reading (:

Re: Do you read?

#63

Post by jwesley »

matthavener wrote: post #41
hardik wrote: post #19

I love reading; to the point that I avoid buying books when I am in middle of any important projects, just get too obsessive about it. In fact I remm as a teenager I used to have "reading marathons", would finish entire book in one go sitting on my window for 12-15 hours. I used to be a fiction guy and only recently have started to heavily dabble into non-fic also. At the moment I am reading The Black Swan by Nasim N…

Is the black swan worth reading? The first couple pages were fairly interesting in b&n

Black Swan is definitely worth reading. It is somewhat repetitive and you may find it dull if you don't have a taste for philosophy, but I think it's an extremely important book -- its an overview of the cutting edge of human thinking and illustrates the mistakes of past thinkers that continue to trouble us.

Re: Do you read?

#64

Post by cousin_it »

I read about 5 books a month.

Math books: always worth reading.

Programming books: never worth reading.

Fiction: a pleasant way to spend time, but rarely pays off.

History: mostly crap, but personal memoirs are often insightful.

Books that changed me: Orwell's "1984" (role of words), Hunter Thompson (personal courage), Henry Ford's "My Life and Work" (work attitude).

Good stuff that should be better known: Eric Hoffer's "True Believer", Jerome K. Jerome's "Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow", Marcus Aurelius.

Re: Do you read?

#65

Post by ice_man »

ojbyrne wrote: post #31
danteembermage wrote: post #18

I read and I read fiction for the most part. I want to make the case though that fiction is not necessarily non-educational and is rather uniquely educational or educates in a unique way. One common excuse for fiction reading is to suggest you learn passive facts about the setting as you progress pleasantly through the story, but that's not a particularly strong argument in favor or reading fiction. Sure I could pick…

I personally tend to look down on people who read only non-fiction (though obviously not as much as people who don't read at all). It suggests a lack of imagination. And I think perhaps that's the self-improvement aspect of fiction - it exercises the imagination.

I read non-fiction books exclusively. I find them to be a nice break from my imagination. I tend to look down upon people who look down upon people.

Re: Do you read?

#66

Post by bloch »

phr wrote: post #57
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #4

I love books and reading, although I'm finding as I get older I'm much more willing to "bail out" of a book. I also find myself in multiple books. Quite honestly I think this is due to a decreasing attention span. I think there are two types of reading. The first type is conversational or fun reading. It's like having a dialog with the author. The second is structured reading, where the goal is information transfer a…

"...as I get older I'm much more willing to "bail out" of a book." I used to feel honor-bound to finish any book I started, but now I'm smarter than that. Life is too short to keep slogging through something that doesn't interest me.

"Another way to read quickly is to cut bait on the losers. I start ten or so books for every one I finish. I don't mind disliking a book, and I never regret having picked it up and started it. I am ruthless in my discards."

Tyler Cowen http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2006/12...

Re: Do you read?

#67

Post by zzzmarcus »

Startup Idea: Hacker News reading recs.

I use Goodreads now, but it doesn't really solve the problem recommending books to me that people like myself enjoy. It shows me what my mom and other people I know read, which is interesting, but most of the time not particularly relevant to my interests/career.

If there was a review site that essentially did what this thread does--let people with common interests recommend books to each other, I'd look there first when I was choosing what to read next.

Re: Do you read?

#68

Post by qeek »

Not really. Not proud of it, but I just don't see that much value in reading. It seems like a waste of time to me. I'd rather use that time to get more done.

I might start reading about web design and related topics, since that's what I do and I could probably learn a lot from this kind of books, but honestly I'm not interested in reading fiction at all.

Maybe it because of all those boring books I was forced to read as a kid at school.

Re: Do you read?

#69

Post by ojbyrne »

ice_man wrote: post #65
ojbyrne wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally tend to look down on people who read only non-fiction (though obviously not as much as people who don't read at all). It suggests a lack of imagination. And I think perhaps that's the self-improvement aspect of fiction - it exercises the imagination.

I read non-fiction books exclusively. I find them to be a nice break from my imagination. I tend to look down upon people who look down upon people.

I think the nature of this site is that we are somewhat critical of the mainstream (digg, etc). I.e. we look down on them. I didn't mean my comment to be taken personally, it is just my opinion, and it may be flawed. But I don't think so.

Re: Do you read?

#70

Post by unalone »

I read. I tend to reread older books nowadays: you get to the point where new books really stop seeming interesting.

I have Anathem, for instance, and it's not a very pleasurable book for me to read. Stephenson is not deft enough with words, I feel: he lacks a certain subtlety. I'll end up reading Anathem, but it's taking me a while. And I find much value in rereading books that I'm certain I don't fully comprehend. I read Joyce and Beckett a lot.

I also put lots of books on my Kindle. That's where I get new books, mainly, unless the new book is special to me in some way.

But yes, I read. I read a lot. I love reading. I devour novels. I also like nonfiction, though there are fewer nonfiction authors that I enjoy.

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