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I Learned to Read Again

substack.magazinenongrata.com

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Re: I Learned to Read Again

#41

Post by relativeadv »

pseudonymidy wrote: post #7

Is there value in identifying the difference between reading a longer article like this one and an actual book? Reading the news from the AP/Reuters and a book on history? I spend lots of time online, primarily on my phone, reading. I don’t watch videos and I don’t use social media aside from browsing the Reddit front page. I try to justify my online escapes because I’m reading a substack, a bit of news, an interesti…

> "Is there value in identifying the difference between reading a longer article like this one and an actual book?"

I know its such a common thing to suggest, but if you haven't, I really would suggest reading Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan.

tl;dr is that every single medium of communication shapes the message it is trying to deliver. This is unavoidable and once you understand that you begin to see it everywhere (LLMS? yes).

Re: I Learned to Read Again

#42

Post by throw4847285 »

buzzwords wrote: post #25

Interesting, I struggle to read. I always have. But I genuinely enjoyed it. Few years back I told a colleague that by the time I reach the end of paragraph I forget how it started. He told me sounds like a learning difficulty. So I did a test, thinking I was dyslexic. It turns out I have ADHD with particularly bad short term memory. Anyways my question for everyone here, how do you read with ADHD? How do you over com…

I just speed ahead, and I always retained more than I thought I did. If I keep going, eventually I can reach a kind of flow. It doesn't matter if I missed bits here or there.

Or, you could try the opposite, and slow down. It sounds like torture, but eventually, it will become habitual.

Re: I Learned to Read Again

#43

Post by Insanity »

pseudonymidy wrote: post #7

Is there value in identifying the difference between reading a longer article like this one and an actual book? Reading the news from the AP/Reuters and a book on history? I spend lots of time online, primarily on my phone, reading. I don’t watch videos and I don’t use social media aside from browsing the Reddit front page. I try to justify my online escapes because I’m reading a substack, a bit of news, an interesti…

I didn't read Peak Mind, but two books that are somewhat in the same vain (based on your description) are:

1. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59794522-non-things

2. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/236849376-attensity

First one I highly recommend. Second one I'm reading now, so far it's.. okay. The ideas in the book resonate with me but the writing is poor. The first book (Non-Things) talks about our relation to the digital versus the physical, and it convinced me to stop using my phone as much.

Re: I Learned to Read Again

#44

Post by tehjoker »

pseudonymidy wrote: post #7

Is there value in identifying the difference between reading a longer article like this one and an actual book? Reading the news from the AP/Reuters and a book on history? I spend lots of time online, primarily on my phone, reading. I don’t watch videos and I don’t use social media aside from browsing the Reddit front page. I try to justify my online escapes because I’m reading a substack, a bit of news, an interesti…

Books are generally far higher quality texts too. The really good articles get republished as books, think about that.

Re: I Learned to Read Again

#45

Post by Ostatnigrosh »

I deeply resonate with this. Even when I began reading, I felt myself wanting to jump away into my email or some other needless task. After getting through the premise, it felt almost like a challenge to read the entire blog. Very well done.

Re: I Learned to Read Again

#46

Post by [deleted] »

loughnane wrote: post #35
colechristensen wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite part of How to Read a Book is how it classifies books into books worth skimming over, books worth reading each word exactly once, and books worith studying and actively engaging with in depth. How to Read a Book is definitely worth skimming, but it is quite repetitive and filled with unnecessary volume. It would get the job done at 1/10th the length.

I’ve read it a few times both on my own and with my kids. I could maybe buy 50-60% of the length would be ideal, but not 10%. Ironically, one of the points made in the book—and close to your point—is that even in the greatest book of all time there are passages that are more and less worthwhile. The art of being a good reader is identifying the worthwhile and going over it slowly (maybe even rereading it) and identif…

[deleted]

Re: I Learned to Read Again

#47

Post by [deleted] »

justincarter wrote: post #13

Is reading morally superior? It seems like greater society (with the apps) is rapidly changing back to an oral culture which seems to be humanity’s default setting. Edit - via the visual boost of short form video

[deleted]

Re: I Learned to Read Again

#48

Post by SoftTalker »

pseudonymidy wrote: post #7

Is there value in identifying the difference between reading a longer article like this one and an actual book? Reading the news from the AP/Reuters and a book on history? I spend lots of time online, primarily on my phone, reading. I don’t watch videos and I don’t use social media aside from browsing the Reddit front page. I try to justify my online escapes because I’m reading a substack, a bit of news, an interesti…

Even a longer online article or news story is very short compared to a book.

Reading a book is a bit more like getting into a "flow" state writing code (although, with LLMs now doing most of the writing, that may not happen any more either). You become immersed in the prose, getting all the characters and the roles they play in the story into your mental context. You tune out the rest of the world to some degree, lose track of passing time, and if you are interrupted it feels like a jolt and it takes a while to get back into that state.

Re: I Learned to Read Again

#49

Post by SoftTalker »

nemomarx wrote: post #37
Barrin92 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Your environment is your destiny, if your environment is littered with distractions you will be distracted. I can't remember which author it was right now but they made the point about weight loss. You will hear countless of stories of people saying "I spent six months in this US city with great restaurants, man I gained 30 pounds", but you never hears someone trying to lose weight by moving to a place where people…

The simplest version of this, which I did myself, is just to have less food in the house. Stop buying snacks, only get items you have a planned meal for, and you spend a lot less willpower resisting the temptation to grab stuff while you're already in the kitchen or etc. It's harder to modify what restaurants and online orders are available to you, but maybe you can work up to blocking or uninstalling those apps or s…

A big thing that helped me was just to start cooking/preparing most of my meals myself. Restaurant portions are usually too big and they load up the food with sugar and sodium to make you eat more of it and still want dessert.

It's easy to learn how to make an interesting variety of simple dishes with a relatively small number of staple ingredients. It doesn't end up taking more time than going out or waiting on DoorDash.

Re: I Learned to Read Again

#50

Post by shigawire »

throw4847285 wrote: post #42
buzzwords wrote: post #25

Interesting, I struggle to read. I always have. But I genuinely enjoyed it. Few years back I told a colleague that by the time I reach the end of paragraph I forget how it started. He told me sounds like a learning difficulty. So I did a test, thinking I was dyslexic. It turns out I have ADHD with particularly bad short term memory. Anyways my question for everyone here, how do you read with ADHD? How do you over com…

I just speed ahead, and I always retained more than I thought I did. If I keep going, eventually I can reach a kind of flow. It doesn't matter if I missed bits here or there. Or, you could try the opposite, and slow down. It sounds like torture, but eventually, it will become habitual.

Can you read dense novels with this? I feel like you'd miss subtleties, but grasp the overall story or simpler books.
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