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How to read more books

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Re: How to read more books

#251

Post by kipchak »

titularcomment wrote: post #238
blakes wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't blindly trust a brand new author in 2026, but it's very easy to trust an author that has put out good writing in years past. Not hard to find, there has been plenty of great books written after 2023. New authors however will certainly have to earn trust for a few years now I think. It's similar with music, if someone puts out their first album in 2026 and has no singles or EPs, no YouTube presence, etc., i…

I don't understand caring about 'slop' in creative media. Its pressingly more important in programming because there are a lot of bugs linters, complicated language models and even fuzzy sandbox searches can't catch. Even if they did, coding is collaborative work and maintaining vibecoded infra is a genuine hassle. However, none of these apply to music or books. AI or not, humane feelings always shapes a piece to its…

There's only so much time we have. If I can filter out a category of music (slop) I know from experience I'm 99% likely to not enjoy I'd like to be able to.

Re: How to read more books

#252

Post by picklesman »

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.

I'm the same way for fiction, but there's a certain class of non-fiction audiobooks (memoirs, (auto)biography, essays, etc) that works very well for me even when doing light chores.

It's made me much more selective about what podcasts I listen to, since I've realized just how information-poor most of them are.

I do still enjoy a good interview, or even just the para-social pleasure of "hanging out" with hosts I like, but I'm now doing so consciously and not by default.

Re: How to read more books

#253

Post by corky_buchek »

alunchbox wrote: post #248
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.

OP reads a book while listening to the audio version of it at the same time. It's super-retention!!

Re: How to read more books

#255

Post by picklesman »

iamtheworstdev wrote: post #249
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?

I use Libby and I have a few library cards and an audible subscription.

There are also other less ethical ways that I use, though to compensate I buy the books I really like in physical form.

Re: How to read more books

#256

Post by achatham »

Lately I've been using RSVP (rapid serial visual presentation) speed reading, where you see a single word at a time, reading at 400-600wpm. You have to pay attention or you miss the words, so the distraction questions are mostly moot. On the downside, it's a lot harder to think about what you're reading, so I'm questioning whether it even counts as having read the book. I haven't loved any books I've read this way, which could be bad luck with the content but may be more about how I'm consuming it.

Re: How to read more books

#257

Post by tikhonj »

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 did this the last time I tried reading Gravity's Rainbow and it definitely helped. Still required more prolonged focus that I have readily available though :P

Re: How to read more books

#258

Post by latexr »

misiti3780 wrote: post #233
latexr wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a meaningless gatekeeping distinction. Unless your sole goal is to be a poser who wants to be perceived as a literate intellectual who is oh so cultured and well-read, however you consume the book is up to you. Who the heck is thinking “I really want to read more books, but only if it’s in the way this stranger tells me I should, not the way I enjoy”? If you like reading paper books, good. If you like reading el…

I dont know you about you, but the reason I read is to learn and retain -- many studies havnt shown audiobooks are much worse than reading for retention. Example: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247504935_They_Hear...

> I dont know you about you, but the reason I read is to learn and retain

Millions of people read for entertainment. If you ask the people who read Fifty Shades and other erotic novels¹, how many do you think would say they do it “to learn and retain”? In fact, not retaining is something I would like to do with certain pieces of media, so I could reexperience their impact.

Have you ever listened to a good audiobook for a fictional story? There are fantastic versions of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett stories where the voice acting really brings them to life in a way many readers cannot with their internal voice (see, for example, aphantasia). How about a book written by a comedian, read by the author? Having them read the funny bits with the intended delivery and in their own voice feels like you’re enjoying another of their stand-ups. They sometimes even go slightly off-script and make jokes not in the written book. Again: Consume books however you like and let others do the same. Why does it concern you how other people enjoy their books?

¹ No judgement. Smut is a big market and you do you as long as you’re not hurting anyone else.

Re: How to read more books

#259

Post by WolfeReader »

Eueudhsbsj32 wrote: post #245
Planktonne wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

They may have been implying it; I'll say it.

Token prediction machines do not produce meaningful output.

It is much more likely that they will regurgitate, without attribution, something meaningful that a human wrote (in their plagiarism/training data).

Meaningful "output" is only meaningful if the author understood the meaning, instead of predicting words in sequence.

Re: How to read more books

#260

Post by flavionm »

peteforde wrote: post #176
AaronAPU wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That's a very shallow understanding of reading, especially coming from an author.

No, reading is not just about getting the idea from the author. It's an experience in and of itself, and the lack of something makes the experience just as much as the presence of something.

It's almost like saying a comic and an animation are the same thing, or that an animation is better, since it has more possibilities.

There's this tendency to treat things as if they're the same, otherwise one is inferior. But that's just not the case. Two things can be both different and valuable in their own way.

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