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How to read more books

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Re: How to read more books

#241

Post by menno-sh »

picklesman wrote: post #235

I read 189 books last year, mostly due an accidental discovery. I have a lot of trouble reading in noisy places, since I get distracted easily. My habit would be to put on some very minimal / low-information ambient music like Stars of the Lid and it worked well. Then one day I randomly decided to put the audiobook on while reading and it was a revelation. After adjusting the audio rate to match my reading speed (usu…

I've tried this with information dense podcasts, reading the transcript while listening. That works really well for me, but I hadn't considered doing the same with books. Honestly seems like a great idea, I'll give this a go.

Re: How to read more books

#242

Post by marcd35 »

picklesman wrote: post #235

I read 189 books last year, mostly due an accidental discovery. I have a lot of trouble reading in noisy places, since I get distracted easily. My habit would be to put on some very minimal / low-information ambient music like Stars of the Lid and it worked well. Then one day I randomly decided to put the audiobook on while reading and it was a revelation. After adjusting the audio rate to match my reading speed (usu…

agree with all the above. i usually throw on brown noise/moving water youtube videos since the frequencies cancel out most distracting noises. one of my fav ambient music channels is obsidian soundfields on youtube.

another trick recommended by Huberman is wearing a hoodie and reading in front of a blank wall. this will will restrict your visual field and not get distracted by passing cars, light reflections, etc.

i think the biggest "trick" to follow through with reading is the screening process at the outset. ask yourself - why do i want to read this? what do i hope to learn from it/get out of it/etc? am i reading it just because other people are talking about it? answering some of these questions should help you follow through when you 'get stuck' or lose interest, which you can then review the initial reasons why you picked it up in the first place. should also make it easier to put down/ DNF

Re: How to read more books

#243

Post by gjm11 »

picklesman wrote: post #235

I read 189 books last year, mostly due an accidental discovery. I have a lot of trouble reading in noisy places, since I get distracted easily. My habit would be to put on some very minimal / low-information ambient music like Stars of the Lid and it worked well. Then one day I randomly decided to put the audiobook on while reading and it was a revelation. After adjusting the audio rate to match my reading speed (usu…

I think I might have trouble with that approach for "harder/denser non-fiction" because for such reading I might well want to stop and think from time to time -- maybe there's an argument I'm not convinced by and want to reason through step by step, maybe there's a mathematical calculation with a non-obvious step, maybe there's a clever observation that I want to think about the implications of, maybe I've just realised that I lost focus and haven't really taken in the last page, etc. -- and I'd expect the extra friction of pausing and restarting the audiobook to get in the way a bit.

I assume you don't find that; is that because you very rarely feel the need to stop and think, or because it turns out that doing so isn't significantly impeded by having an audiobook playing?

(More generally I'd expect that sort of book to have easier and harder bits and I'd likely want to read them at different speeds. But I could believe that the advantages of doing this are enough to make up for it being harder to do that.)

Disclaimer: I basically never listen to audiobooks, so my guesses at what might or might not work well for me are (1) sheer guesswork and (2) not very interesting except in so far as other people have the same sort of experience I'm guessing I would.

Re: How to read more books

#244

Post by carlosjobim »

dredmorbius wrote: post #158
carlosjobim wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Past a point, finding material worth reading actually does become a challenge, despite the tremendous volume of published works (hundreds of thousands to a million or more books through much of the 20th century and beyond). Where does that point arrive? I'm right now at a point where my to read list is increasing faster than I can read, because I keep adding books mentioned in the other books I''m reading.

To an extent it depends on what your interests are, what your research skills are, and how well you can articulate what it is you're looking for. That last especially if you're dependent on others to find materials of interest. For someone reading for distraction, with narrow interests and tastes, who's covered most of the obvious canon (Great Books, literary prizes/awards, etc.), coming up with useful recommendation…

I'm just reading for my own pleasure, and if any other book which seems interesting is mentioned in a book, or any person of interest, or place of interest, then that's another one to the list. Of course it's hit-or-miss, but fairly soon into a new book you know if it's worth continuing.

If you've covered most of the obvious canon, then that person has read a lot and must have developed their tastes and curiosity into new paths, where there again is an endless variety. Unless there's a more urgent need for real life living instead of books.

Re: How to read more books

#245

Post by Eueudhsbsj32 »

Planktonne wrote: post #182
Eueudhsbsj32 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does it matter whether the writing is AI generated or not? You should always be critical of everything you read. I have stopped reading plenty of books after a few chapters when I realized there was little value in it for me.

We read books because the words convey meaning, not because they appear to.

So you're implying AI is incapable of producing meaningful output? Have you not used models from the last few years?

Re: How to read more books

#246

Post by dqv »

kriro wrote: post #206
dqv wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a maybe. People's brains work differently. For one thing, in the written version, it's way easier to scan backwards precisely to a point in the text to clarify missed details. Sometimes I like to stop reading for a moment and take in the scenery. With an audiobook, the narrator has already decided to blurt out the next line. Or I'd have to quickly pause it and lose my train of thought. With reading I'm fully…

Fair enough, I understand the UX/interacting with the medium argument. Regarding the processing in the brain, there's claims that "The Representation of Semantic Information Across Human Cerebral Cortex During Listening Versus Reading Is Invariant to Stimulus Modality", see: https://www.jneurosci.org/content/39/39/7722 The study has issues but at least the hypothesis of representing information independent of the mod…

Yes, this is where the disagreement between the two camps arises. Some people view reading holistically while others are only concerned with the end result. If only the end result matters, it doesn't matter much how you got there.

This isn't a perfect comparison (since I believe there may be some underlying mechanical difference), but it's like how it's possible to get your nutritional needs met with liquid nutrition or eating whole foods. They have the same end result nutritionally, but some people find liquid nutrition to be horrible.

I think it's especially the case for harder-to-read books that I prefer the textual version. Some books are highly referential. They may take place in a country I'm not familiar with. Take The Stranger by Camus. I have never been to Algiers (or Algeria for that matter), so I want to get a feel for the beach in Algiers. Sometimes the author will refer to a flower I've never heard of, so I will look it up. Stuff like this is important to me for experiencing the story, but for others, it's not important. They use context clues to determine "it's a flower" and just fill in whatever flower they feel like putting there.

Re: How to read more books

#247

Post by picklesman »

gjm11 wrote: post #243
picklesman wrote: post #235

I read 189 books last year, mostly due an accidental discovery. I have a lot of trouble reading in noisy places, since I get distracted easily. My habit would be to put on some very minimal / low-information ambient music like Stars of the Lid and it worked well. Then one day I randomly decided to put the audiobook on while reading and it was a revelation. After adjusting the audio rate to match my reading speed (usu…

I think I might have trouble with that approach for "harder/denser non-fiction" because for such reading I might well want to stop and think from time to time -- maybe there's an argument I'm not convinced by and want to reason through step by step, maybe there's a mathematical calculation with a non-obvious step, maybe there's a clever observation that I want to think about the implications of, maybe I've just reali…

Oh for sure. I listen with wireless buds with a huge button (Jabra Elite 4, sadly no longer made) so pausing/unpausing takes almost zero effort.

For particularly dense passages I'll just slow down the audio as needed as well.

Even for fiction I find myself starting more slowly as I get to know the characters, and then speeding up as I want to.

Re: How to read more books

#248

Post by alunchbox »

picklesman wrote: post #235

I read 189 books last year, mostly due an accidental discovery. I have a lot of trouble reading in noisy places, since I get distracted easily. My habit would be to put on some very minimal / low-information ambient music like Stars of the Lid and it worked well. Then one day I randomly decided to put the audiobook on while reading and it was a revelation. After adjusting the audio rate to match my reading speed (usu…

wait audiobooks is = reading? Do you find the retention of info as valid? I have a hard time focusing at least in my experience haven't tried audiobooks in a long time.

At least for me the effort of scanning, reading, and thinking about the authors perspective and the grind is where the knowledge sinks in for me.

Re: How to read more books

#249

Post by iamtheworstdev »

picklesman wrote: post #235

I read 189 books last year, mostly due an accidental discovery. I have a lot of trouble reading in noisy places, since I get distracted easily. My habit would be to put on some very minimal / low-information ambient music like Stars of the Lid and it worked well. Then one day I randomly decided to put the audiobook on while reading and it was a revelation. After adjusting the audio rate to match my reading speed (usu…

so you have to buy the book and the audiobook?

Re: How to read more books

#250

Post by picklesman »

marcd35 wrote: post #242
picklesman wrote: post #235

I read 189 books last year, mostly due an accidental discovery. I have a lot of trouble reading in noisy places, since I get distracted easily. My habit would be to put on some very minimal / low-information ambient music like Stars of the Lid and it worked well. Then one day I randomly decided to put the audiobook on while reading and it was a revelation. After adjusting the audio rate to match my reading speed (usu…

agree with all the above. i usually throw on brown noise/moving water youtube videos since the frequencies cancel out most distracting noises. one of my fav ambient music channels is obsidian soundfields on youtube. another trick recommended by Huberman is wearing a hoodie and reading in front of a blank wall. this will will restrict your visual field and not get distracted by passing cars, light reflections, etc. i…

Yeah I noticed when I'm reading in a place with a lot of other stuff going on I usually need to go more slowly due to ambient distractions.

As for screening I've never consciously asked myself what I wanted to get out of it but I like the idea.

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