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How to read more books

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Re: How to read more books

#171

Post by wahnfrieden »

jolmg wrote: post #165
colechristensen wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I don't think people should pretend that an audiobook is a book. You process the two in completely different ways. Is this attitude a holdover from encouraging small children to read for themselves? I don't know if this is quite the right framing but are you... hearing-illterate to some degree? Some voice actors definitely add a layer of interpretation, and some are distractingly bad, but otherwise it could not be a…

> it could not be any more of an equal experience absorbing a book through my eyes or my ears. With stories, probably. With nonstories, and depending on what kind of nonstory book, I might jump around a lot. I might like to skim quickly (e.g. chapters/sections, starting sentences of every few paragraphs, etc.), then skim more thoroughly (e.g. recheck paragraphs of a chapter to get a general flow of it and how they co…

I often pause and reflect. Or replay a couple pages or start over with a chapter. Not totally alien to what you’re describing, but most people aren’t so hands on with audio controls, sure. Though you can choose to be with the right tools for it.

Re: How to read more books

#172

Post by jolmg »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #171
jolmg wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it could not be any more of an equal experience absorbing a book through my eyes or my ears. With stories, probably. With nonstories, and depending on what kind of nonstory book, I might jump around a lot. I might like to skim quickly (e.g. chapters/sections, starting sentences of every few paragraphs, etc.), then skim more thoroughly (e.g. recheck paragraphs of a chapter to get a general flow of it and how they co…

I often pause and reflect. Or replay a couple pages or start over with a chapter. Not totally alien to what you’re describing, but most people aren’t so hands on with audio controls, sure. Though you can choose to be with the right tools for it.

Yeah, the benefit of audiobooks is being able to do it while doing chores or being out and about. The medium's ideal for being hands-off.

Re: How to read more books

#173

Post by petra »

greymalik wrote: post #129
petra wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Because using the other methods of learning, possible coupled with having a search environment inside the chat for the future, or creating memorization material for the stuff i specifically want to memorize - seems more efficient and effective.

Re: How to read more books

#174

Post by aix1 »

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.

I agree it's an annoyance. However, the only thing that's locked on those is USB flashing. It is still possible to flash from an SD card.

I recently bought a locked Xteink X4 and installed Crosspoint. It's great! (And I've been reading a lot more.)

https://github.com/crosspoint-reader/crosspoint-reader#usb-l...

P.S. Their official site, https://xteink.com, seems to sell unlocked devices.

Re: How to read more books

#175

Post by peteforde »

davkan wrote: post #124
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.

It is a skill that you can develop.

Re: How to read more books

#176

Post by peteforde »

AaronAPU wrote: post #127
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.

I'll defer to John Green, here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80SCl6n0TEo

Re: How to read more books

#177

Post by ternaus »

Audiobooks is the magic trick.

I listen them in the gym between sets, I listen them in the car, in the plane, in taxi, doing chores at home and in any other place where you cannot do more useful things, and you cannot read as well.

Five minutes here, ten there and it adds quite fast.

[1] I cannot consume every book as audiobook, some are so dense in material, that it requires actual reading.

[2]Not every book exists as audio book and not every book has a good narrator, which is quite important.

but:

[1] Quite often, you can listen them in parallel to other activities. [2] When you are driving with someone, listening audiobook together adds plenty of interesting topics to discussions after the drive + bonding experience (you are doing something together, you are focussing on the same thing together) [3] You can listen with various speeds, and for me, so far it went up to 1.5x on some books, which speeds up the process.

--- I do not have a problem to find books to read or listen as author of the post. My "To Read" list grows much faster than the information I consume.

Re: How to read more books

#178

Post by satvikpendem »

BeetleB wrote: post #138
satvikpendem wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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. Depending on the novel, there definitely can be timing in the movies. Furthermore, there's a reason the narrator performs voice acting. It adds to the experience. Speeding it up takes some of it away. As for watching shows at high speed ... meh. If I feel the urge to do it, it's a sign I shou…

I've never felt the difference for books at least to be honest. As for shows, you'd be surprised, some actually get better the higher speed you watch them at, such as sitcoms with laugh tracks, where the higher speed means no pauses for the audience to then laugh, it feels more like a modern show.

Re: How to read more books

#179

Post by pjerem »

bootsmann wrote: post #51
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…

An easy trick nowadays is to simply log out of the accounts. Most social media websites really want you to log in so they become unusable when you log out. Its a good defense in depth strategy.

Yep, or… disable the cookies on this website.

You’ll have to login each time you’ll want to access it.

If you have a password manager that allows you to login faster, just modify your password in a known way like {password_stored_in_passmanager}_IACKNOWLEDEGEIREALLYWANTTOLOGIN

If you want to keep the account but lose the access for a long time, just remove the password from your password manager, next time you’ll want to login you’ll have to use the password recovery.

Re: How to read more books

#180

Post by port11 »

The chase of more and more books because of my Goodreads friends’ goals is what got me reading 70 books a year, and abhorring the experience. What a joyless hunger to get through books FAST.

I stopped counting, and with a toddler I find bits of time to read about 20 books.

Don’t obsess about reading more. Yeah, get off your phone, but get into books to enjoy them. You don’t remember most of what you read, might as well derive pleasure from it.

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