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How to Read a Novel

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Re: How to Read a Novel

#11

Post by veridies »

pickledoyster wrote: post #5

the single takeaway from this book ad of a post: the CEO of Stripe claims to have read 10 novels/yr. Which is either a boast of how much free time he has or how he skimmed through some major novels. Third option: a lie.

If one reads a page a minute, which is a pretty decent rule of thumb, then a 600 page novel takes you ten hours, and reading ten of those takes you 100 hours. That’s reading for roughly 20 minutes a night over a year, taking some days off. Not the most common hobby nowadays, but hardly inconceivable for a busy person.

Re: How to Read a Novel

#12

Post by bowsamic »

voisin wrote: post #9
almostgotcaught wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird take - how exactly could literature improve "in depth and characterization"? What new "technology" has been made available to authors that enables them to create deeper characters?

Not OP, but breadth and depth of understanding about psychology have improved dramatically and exposure to diverse viewpoints thanks to hyper connectedness likely make it possible to go deeper.

In my opinion, all the best art expresses the "unknown knowns" of the human, i.e., the unconscious that has not been brought to light. Art is an expression of what is really true but not known. Knowing about it doesn't make it easier to express. To bring up the old trope, the curtains are never just blue, not in the sense that the artist is always putting in some conscious meaning, but that the choice of blue says something about the artist's human feeling even if they didn't intend it

Re: How to Read a Novel

#13

Post by patrickmay »

pickledoyster wrote: post #5

the single takeaway from this book ad of a post: the CEO of Stripe claims to have read 10 novels/yr. Which is either a boast of how much free time he has or how he skimmed through some major novels. Third option: a lie.

That's one every five weeks. Middlemarch is roughly 900 pages. Assuming one reads five evenings a week, that's 36 pages per sitting. Each page is roughly 300 words. An average reading speed is about 250 words per minute; let's knock that down to 200 for denser works like those discussed. That's 54 minutes of reading per day.

Hardly a huge time commitment, especially as a way to decompress from the day.

Re: How to Read a Novel

#14

Post by bowsamic »

pickledoyster wrote: post #5

the single takeaway from this book ad of a post: the CEO of Stripe claims to have read 10 novels/yr. Which is either a boast of how much free time he has or how he skimmed through some major novels. Third option: a lie.

Are we really in an age where reading 10 novels a year is considered unbelievable?

Re: How to Read a Novel

#15

Post by thesuitonym »

pickledoyster wrote: post #5

the single takeaway from this book ad of a post: the CEO of Stripe claims to have read 10 novels/yr. Which is either a boast of how much free time he has or how he skimmed through some major novels. Third option: a lie.

Even if we assume a 12 hour average workday for a CEO (I wouldn't, but let's be generous) and 8 hours for sleep, that gives him 4 hours of time to do whatever he wants with. If his main hobby is reading, 10 novels a year would be easy in that time.

Also, everybody knows CEOs have a lot of free time. They don't have real jobs.

Re: How to Read a Novel

#16

Post by zabzonk »

bowsamic wrote: post #14
pickledoyster wrote: post #5

the single takeaway from this book ad of a post: the CEO of Stripe claims to have read 10 novels/yr. Which is either a boast of how much free time he has or how he skimmed through some major novels. Third option: a lie.

Are we really in an age where reading 10 novels a year is considered unbelievable?

Probably yes - according to some estimates the average person may only read one, or less.

Re: How to Read a Novel

#17

Post by lapcat »

zabzonk wrote: post #16
bowsamic wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are we really in an age where reading 10 novels a year is considered unbelievable?

Probably yes - according to some estimates the average person may only read one, or less.

That's by choice, not by impossibility. How many hours per year do they spend scrolling through social media?

(I ask ironically on social media. But in my defense, I'm currently reading two novels.)

Re: How to Read a Novel

#18

Post by zabzonk »

voisin wrote: post #9
almostgotcaught wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird take - how exactly could literature improve "in depth and characterization"? What new "technology" has been made available to authors that enables them to create deeper characters?

Not OP, but breadth and depth of understanding about psychology have improved dramatically and exposure to diverse viewpoints thanks to hyper connectedness likely make it possible to go deeper.

> breadth and depth of understanding about psychology have improved dramatically

Provide one tiny bit of evidence for this. Do you seriously think that Shakespeare (for e.g.) did not have a profound understanding of human psychology?

Re: How to Read a Novel

#19

Post by desas »

pickledoyster wrote: post #5

the single takeaway from this book ad of a post: the CEO of Stripe claims to have read 10 novels/yr. Which is either a boast of how much free time he has or how he skimmed through some major novels. Third option: a lie.

This is a ludicrous take. I was on vacation last week and read three books, albeit not weighty novels. I can't remember when I read as few as 10 novels per year. I'm not a CEO, but reading is also far from my only hobby.

Re: How to Read a Novel

#20

Post by kstrauser »

KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #6
jihadjihad wrote: post #4

> But my admiration for Middlemarch and Bleak House goes beyond their portrayal of the psychological interiority of their characters. [...] Both novels succeed at something else: they invite us to think across multiple scales of experience—and to make causal and associative connections between those different layers. To toss another into the ring, I can't think of any novel I've read that could rival The Brothers Kar…

Lol I always laugh when I see people talk up Dostoevsky and any 19th century writer. It's 2025 now and literature has improved in depth and characterization as much as any other field.

You’re nuts. I read “Crime and Punishment” a couple years ago, and went in knowing literally nothing about it except that it was famous.

It was astonishingly good. It felt fresh, modern, and claustrophobically suspenseful in a way I wouldn’t have believed possible for a book that age.

If you don’t like it, fine. Preferences are a thing and we don’t all have to enjoy the same stuff. But to dismiss it as obsolete or out of touch is madness. It’s a classic for a reason.

Along those lines, I read “Moby Dick” last year for the first time. Now I’m annoyed with everyone who led me to imagine it as some dusty tome to slog through. It’s hilarious. Ishmael’s a sarcastic smartass with a lot to say.

Some of the classic are classics for a reason, ya know?

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