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How to read more books

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Re: How to read more books

#61

Post by djeastm »

card_zero wrote: post #29
hk__2 wrote: post #19

> First of all, you don’t have to make time to read. What you need to do is read every single time you are not doing something else. Mmh I’m not sure about that. I prefer to read for 1-2 hours rather than read 2 minutes here and 5 minutes there, especially for books that require some concentration to read, like dense stories and/or books not in my native language.

Who asked what you prefer? That has nothing to do with reading more books. Personally I have pages from books projected onto the walls, so that if I ever accidentally look up from the book that I'm reading, I read part of another book. Also I hire a mercenary soldier to watch me at all times, and if I try to stop reading even for a moment he jumps at me with a combat knife and pushes an open book into my face. In thi…

You mean you haven't installed screens to the inside of your eyelids so you can micro-read whenever you blink? Amateur hour...

Re: How to read more books

#62

Post by mrweasel »

chistev wrote: post #30

It's like lifting weight. Start with 10 pages a day every day. And then it will become too easy. Then move to 15 pages a day. Etc. Read books you enjoy.

This past year I've been reading more again, and in the past four or five months I've had the goal of reading every day. No fixed number of page or chapters, just read. It's also incredibly depended on the book if you can read 100 pages or just 10. But you're right, it becomes easier and it over time becomes your default entertainment, presumably because you brain sees it as the easy choice.

One thing that have made it easier for be though has been the decline of everything else. As someone pointed out, the internet isn't the internet we grew up with, TV shows mostly suck now and are all designed for binge watching which leaves me feeling physically ill. Same with e.g. YouTube, there are still creators who's content I enjoy, but the YouTube algorithm seems to force me out of a tangent and preferably into Shorts. Much of this algorithmicly pushed content makes me feel ill, so I try to steer clear of it.

So now I buy used books, most happens to be published in the 1970s for some reason. There are so many out there that I'll never run out of things to read and at €1-2 per books, it's cheap.

Re: How to read more books

#63

Post by blcknight »

krystalgamer wrote: post #58
blcknight wrote: post #46

I adore my XTEink 4 with the crosspoint firmware. Best small form factor ereader

been thinking about buying one, but the whole debacle with locking down the fw put me off for a bit.

Oh I didn't hear about this. That sucks. The stock firmware is terrible. CrossPoint makes it usable.

Re: How to read more books

#64

Post by mihaaly »

card_zero wrote: post #29
hk__2 wrote: post #19

> First of all, you don’t have to make time to read. What you need to do is read every single time you are not doing something else. Mmh I’m not sure about that. I prefer to read for 1-2 hours rather than read 2 minutes here and 5 minutes there, especially for books that require some concentration to read, like dense stories and/or books not in my native language.

Who asked what you prefer? That has nothing to do with reading more books. Personally I have pages from books projected onto the walls, so that if I ever accidentally look up from the book that I'm reading, I read part of another book. Also I hire a mercenary soldier to watch me at all times, and if I try to stop reading even for a moment he jumps at me with a combat knife and pushes an open book into my face. In thi…

This "serious reader" expression makes my skin crawl.

Like if it was something of a sport with olympics where people compete in their own weight and it is measured in the end to the hundredths of seconds in front of spectators in a stadion shaped library cheering READ, READ, READ! Quality is mentioned, remotely, through selection, but still, the mental picture remains the same. The post smells like a training guide from a large gym franchise for readers. It's name is 'Serious Readers!'

Re: How to read more books

#65

Post by poulpy123 »

From when I learned to read up to the end of my 20s I read much more than one book per week. Whoever after 30 or maybe a bit before I started to read less and less, until now where I read vert rarely (usually on plane).

I don't know why. Maybe it's psychological. Maybe it's just ageing. Maybe it's my brain fried first by internet then by the smartphone.

I still buy more books than I read, probably unconsciously hoping that one day the flame that pushed me to devour so many books will get ablaze again

Re: How to read more books

#66

Post by pindogu »

I highly recommend getting a super small eReader you always carry with you. I personally use this one: https://www.xteink.com/products/xteink-x3 (it attaches to the back of my phone using magsafe even) and flashed this custom firmware: https://crosspointreader.com/

The most important habit, like the author of the blog post says, is looking at a book every time you would look at your phone. Its still not great that we arent really bored anymore, but this is already much better than being on twitter.

Re: How to read more books

#67

Post by soupfordummies »

poulpy123 wrote: post #65

From when I learned to read up to the end of my 20s I read much more than one book per week. Whoever after 30 or maybe a bit before I started to read less and less, until now where I read vert rarely (usually on plane). I don't know why. Maybe it's psychological. Maybe it's just ageing. Maybe it's my brain fried first by internet then by the smartphone. I still buy more books than I read, probably unconsciously hopin…

Do those time ranges align with the rise of smartphones perhaps?

Re: How to read more books

#69

Post by shepherdjerred »

goodroot wrote: post #12

Love this blog, appreciate the author. > This is probably the most difficult part. I had to remove all social media and streaming apps from my iPhone. I removed Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, etc. When I started, I found myself picking up the phone and immediately noticing that something was missing, since the only things left to do were check the weather, read boring emails, or see my bank account. These past few mon…

I wrote about this a few years ago [0]

It's _really_ hard to break the phone habit. I was in a good place for a few years but have recently been spending time on Reddit.

It's not the end of the world. Ultimately I think going back to Reddit is because I recently haven't had the patience to really read, reflect, etc.

[0]: https://sjer.red/blog/2023/screen-time/

Re: How to read more books

#70

Post by asaix »

> Another secret is to not be scared of quitting a book. I definitely start way more than I finish. But I don’t consider an uncompleted book a failure or a bad book. I think that sometimes books have a certain time to be fully appreciated. So if I don’t finish a book today, I might try reading it again in the future.

Well said. On a related note, I think the idea of coming back to books later is essential to reading non-fiction, as I've personally found it much more productive to read until I think I've "got it", and then revisit it a few months later with a new (ideally better informed) perspective.

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