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How to read more books

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Re: How to read more books

#211

Post by soco »

i_am_a_peasant wrote: post #208
kriro wrote: post #202

I do not agree with his take on audio books. I find having a book with me and reading at all times as suggested a bit impractical, however for audio books it is way more feasible. I have long-ish commutes of 5h every couple of weeks and listening to audio books on the drive is great. I also listen to audiobooks when I vacuum, clean, grocery shop. Always unabridged versions and I research quite a bit what I want to li…

i never managed to pay attention fully to an audio book. i always have to go back 30 seconds every now and then cause i lose the plot. i am the same with books. i never read it linearly. i jump back a lot and reread a page or two. and jumping back is just way easier with text. and it’s easier with a physical book than on a kindle. on my big android tablet i can scroll fast back if it’s a pdf. but it’s not always fun…

Maybe it's not your problem, but I realized I can only fully pay attention to audiobooks in my native language. Arguably not even then, when there are interruptions, obviously, but listening in any other language I can't even tell why I lost track - I just find myself in some unknown place and I have to rewind. This of course limits a lot the fun, because it's a hassle to constantly have to rewind some literature (also less availability in the first place). Luckily it's less of a problem for a course or technical article where I'd rewind often anyway to think better about some aspect.

Re: How to read more books

#212

Post by telxosis »

coldblues wrote: post #145

I have gained so much by reading comments on Hacker News, articles, lurking in groups and forums, watching YouTube videos. Reading books is important because they have knowledge that is not accessible in another format. It is an efficient way to condense information and pass it around. At least it used to be, when paper was more scarce. Now books get fluffed up for padding. A lot of people should be writing articles…

I gain the most by reading books from about 1920 to about 1979.

What I don't bother reading anymore is a non-fiction, New York Times bestseller that always has the form of something like "Robustness - The new science of blah blah blah".

There is always a better book on the topic that goes much deeper and that form is the dumb version meant to sell books.

Re: How to read more books

#213

Post by kamranjon »

kriro wrote: post #202

I do not agree with his take on audio books. I find having a book with me and reading at all times as suggested a bit impractical, however for audio books it is way more feasible. I have long-ish commutes of 5h every couple of weeks and listening to audio books on the drive is great. I also listen to audiobooks when I vacuum, clean, grocery shop. Always unabridged versions and I research quite a bit what I want to li…

In your examples you are always doing something else while listening to an audio book. This was the authors point. Reading is the activity - and I definitely agree - I still listen to audio books, but for a different purpose, to avoid boredom when exercising, etc but I don’t consider this reading. I really think most people can learn quite a bit, especially in this age of instant gratification, by sitting down and performing just the task of reading. For me it is a huge boon for my mental health to engage in this way. I think you could do it with audio books too, but I don’t know a single person who engages with them in that solitary way, it is always an addition to some other activity.

Re: How to read more books

#214

Post by alemilos »

I really enjoyed the article, particularly the admission of leaving the books unfinished. If reading may be seen as a rational activity, the choosing of a book I think, should be mostly istinctive, and so should deciding to abandon it.

Re: How to read more books

#215

Post by telxosis »

AyanamiKaine wrote: post #37

While I do agree that reading is really important especially when it comes to good books. BUT simply consuming something for the sake of consumption is rarely a good idea. I know of people that read books and consome them like food everyday, and wont learn anything thing from them. Their content becoming a distant memory as time passes. What is the point of reading something if you forget it 2 weeks later? You may re…

No offense, but you are just aren't that well read if you are mentioning Godel, Escher, Bach as proof of how much you are going to learn.

This post is irony at a base level.

You ultimately have to sift through a lot of books to get past popular books like Godel, Escher, Bach and on to something like Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience.

Re: How to read more books

#216

Post by bonoboTP »

kamranjon wrote: post #213
kriro wrote: post #202

I do not agree with his take on audio books. I find having a book with me and reading at all times as suggested a bit impractical, however for audio books it is way more feasible. I have long-ish commutes of 5h every couple of weeks and listening to audio books on the drive is great. I also listen to audiobooks when I vacuum, clean, grocery shop. Always unabridged versions and I research quite a bit what I want to li…

In your examples you are always doing something else while listening to an audio book. This was the authors point. Reading is the activity - and I definitely agree - I still listen to audio books, but for a different purpose, to avoid boredom when exercising, etc but I don’t consider this reading. I really think most people can learn quite a bit, especially in this age of instant gratification, by sitting down and pe…

There are activities that are quite autopilot, like vacuuming, washing dishes etc. Such activities have always allowed for listening to language, typically in a group.

Of course this is not for difficult math textbooks or dense philosophy.

Re: How to read more books

#218

Post by alabhyajindal »

> I always have a book with me when I go out with my partner, even if I don’t usually end up reading it. If she has to run an errand and I have to wait, I don’t waste my free time with nothing to read. I have become good at walking my dog while reading — I even got complimented for that by a stranger — and I make sure I never go to the bathroom without a book.”

This does not sound an improvement over using a phone. We don't have to occupy ourselves every waking moment. It's okay to not do something for a minute.

Re: How to read more books

#219

Post by kriro »

pflenker wrote: post #201

I find it very hard to find books worth reading. It’s so difficult to separate Signal from noise - there are just too many books and too few reliable curators. Amazon ratings, goodreads, some book awards, best seller lists - they all are sometimes hit, mostly miss for me.

Depends on what you want to read. For fantasy and sci-fi fiction I really like the Youtube community. I did not expect this at all but there are a lot of great "Booktubers" in the 3-5k subscriptions range. Tiktok and Instagram have a lot more "vanity" people and it feels like more of a "look how much I read har-har" kinde of vibe and I avoid them completely.

It is indeed an odd challenge to find good books because I hate to be spoiled and that limits the search options quite a bit.

Re: How to read more books

#220

Post by marliechiller »

telxosis wrote: post #215
AyanamiKaine wrote: post #37

While I do agree that reading is really important especially when it comes to good books. BUT simply consuming something for the sake of consumption is rarely a good idea. I know of people that read books and consome them like food everyday, and wont learn anything thing from them. Their content becoming a distant memory as time passes. What is the point of reading something if you forget it 2 weeks later? You may re…

No offense, but you are just aren't that well read if you are mentioning Godel, Escher, Bach as proof of how much you are going to learn. This post is irony at a base level. You ultimately have to sift through a lot of books to get past popular books like Godel, Escher, Bach and on to something like Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience.

I dont understand the point your comment is making. Are you being facetious or genuine?
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