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How to read more books

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Re: How to read more books

#121

Post by boznz »

nephihaha wrote: post #78
jppope wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Audiobooks are just a different medium. I don't think people should pretend that an audiobook is a book. You process the two in completely different ways. This doesn't imply one is better than the other either. For me I don't like audiobooks because its very slow and spoken stories should have a different cadence, velocity, set of dynamics, and diction than a book should (check out "the moth" to see what I'm talking…

Audiobooks are heavily dependent on the reader. In one case, I had an audiobook where the translator was the reader. She is an excellent translator but a poor reader. Many authors are poor readers of their own work. They are certainly good while you are on a long drive etc, because they entertain you while doing some another task which you wouldn't be able to do while reading. During lockdown, I could not read due to…

When I write a character, I picture not just the character but the voice, same with reading, and going from a paper or eBook to an audio book usually breaks both. Books I write rarely include characters from Manchester (UK), so reading voices with my strong accent would definitely break a lot of my books. It is also the reason I sometimes don't enjoy movies if I have read the book. It is not a one way street though, some really good narrators can improve the experience a lot, same with good directors.

Re: How to read more books

#122

Post by cubefox »

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…

> Maybe it's my brain fried first by internet then by the smartphone.

Same. I started to read significantly less once I had a PC with Internet access. Also stopped playing video games. Then, with smartphones, I stopped reading books altogether.

Re: How to read more books

#123

Post by peteforde »

$0.02: the way to read more books is with a really good pair of earbuds.

The Libby app (with Audible to fill in the blanks) makes it incredibly easy to train up your listening speed dramatically, making it possible to finish several books per week for free, while doing your morning rituals, commuting, washing the dishes.

The thing you have to absorb is that reading more does not come at the cost of doing other things, unless those other things are podcasts or recorded music.

You just have to be somewhat assertive about realizing that if you shave for 3-4 minutes, that's 1% of a novel at 2.5x speed. All of those interstitial moments in your day add up, fast.

Re: How to read more books

#124

Post by davkan »

peteforde wrote: post #123

$0.02: the way to read more books is with a really good pair of earbuds. The Libby app (with Audible to fill in the blanks) makes it incredibly easy to train up your listening speed dramatically, making it possible to finish several books per week for free, while doing your morning rituals, commuting, washing the dishes. The thing you have to absorb is that reading more does not come at the cost of doing other things…

Personally I am incapable of maintaining concentration on an audiobook while doing even mundane chores. I can only listen to audiobooks on longer drives or road run/bike rides. So I stick with podcasts around the house where attention lapsing for a minute less likely to cause you to lose the whole thread.

Re: How to read more books

#125

Post by swed420 »

PsylentKnight wrote: post #110
jppope wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Audiobooks are just a different medium. I don't think people should pretend that an audiobook is a book. You process the two in completely different ways. This doesn't imply one is better than the other either. For me I don't like audiobooks because its very slow and spoken stories should have a different cadence, velocity, set of dynamics, and diction than a book should (check out "the moth" to see what I'm talking…

I agree that it’s a pretty different experience for fiction, where the subjective experience is everything and the narrator can color your experience a lot. For nonfiction, I think the two mediums are virtually the same depending on the density of the book. Most differences come down to the fact that you’re more susceptible to distraction. Most nonfiction books are light and repetitive enough that I don’t think it’s…

Personally I like to highlight certain passages (non-fiction) for future reference, and this only works on ebooks.

Re: How to read more books

#126

Post by heyheyhey »

dv35z wrote: post #93
heyheyhey wrote: post #14

I started a habit to read during my lunch/dinner breaks. I wear headphones, put on some lo-fi beats or jazz, and read a chapter or two until I'm done eating. I really enjoy it and it's a nice reprieve especially at work.

Got recommendations for specific songs / groups for Lo-Fi beats & jazz? What I've found is that many lo-fi playlists contain songs that have a lot of distracting noises (voices, distorted guitar twang, rain drops, record crackle, etc) - so I've been slowly-but-surely making playlists of study/reading songs. Thanks!

No recommendations to fix that, I usually just look up some lo-fi playlist on Spotify. I actually listen to lots of video game music (i.e. Diablo 4, Final Fantasy, etc.) as well.

Re: How to read more books

#127

Post by AaronAPU »

peteforde wrote: post #123

$0.02: the way to read more books is with a really good pair of earbuds. The Libby app (with Audible to fill in the blanks) makes it incredibly easy to train up your listening speed dramatically, making it possible to finish several books per week for free, while doing your morning rituals, commuting, washing the dishes. The thing you have to absorb is that reading more does not come at the cost of doing other things…

I think audio books are to reading as e-bikes are to biking. Yes, in some sense they are the same. But in some important ways they aren’t.

I have probably upset two groups of people and sorry for that. I don’t want to yuck your yum, I just think the differentiation between these categories matters.

Re: How to read more books

#128

Post by satvikpendem »

BeetleB wrote: post #21
satvikpendem wrote: post #18

Audiobooks and tracking. I still watch a lot of YouTube and other social media so I haven't had to cut anything out yet I have many audiobooks on my phone loaded up that I listen to at 2x+ speed as well as have a spreadsheet of what I'm reading and how long it takes. Before anyone comments, yes I can understand it just fine as I've acclimated myself over years to do so, it's similar to blind people being able to unde…

Audiobooks for me as well. I read voraciously when I was young, but never seemed to be able to when much older. Simply listening to an audiobook while driving to work let me "read" a lot more than I thought it would. At the time, my commute was only 10 minutes, but I still managed to read a book per month and listen to my favorite podcasts! Definitely would not recommend higher speed for fiction, though. For fiction,…

That's funny because for some shows with a lot of filler I do watch them at higher speeds, not movies though. I disagree fiction audiobooks at high speeds are the same as movies at high speeds though, once you acclimate to the narrator it doesn't matter whether it's fiction or not, there's no timing like there is in movies.

Re: How to read more books

#129

Post by greymalik »

petra wrote: post #75
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…

For me, as an avid reader of non-fiction books, for learning, i'm starting to question the value of reading them, compared to a good in-depth discussion with an LLM about a subject, together with reading academic papers and long articles/blog posts.

Why not both?
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