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No Spanish reading crisis?

commonreader.co.uk

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Re: No Spanish reading crisis?

#21

Post by nicbou »

world2vec wrote: post #13
bcjdjsndon wrote: post #5

If youre only counting books I haven't read anything for maybe a decade. And I maybe read about a hundred hours in life total before that. If you include a screen I've read everyday for the past 25+ years

IMHO screens and audio don't count as reading books.

I disagree.

I read books, but I also read essays, newsletters, blogs, Wikipedia articles, discussions and so on. These also contain important and useful information. It's not a dichotomy between books and slop. Hell, a lot of books should have been blog posts.

Audiobooks are also valid, as are podcasts. Sure, they might not engage you like text does, but they still impart knowledge.

To me, this is like ranting against electric bikes because they're not as difficult. If they get more people to engage in a fun activity, then they serve their purpose.

Re: No Spanish reading crisis?

#22

Post by mrexroad »

toolslive wrote: post #14

> Democracy is safe in Spain! iirc, The Prince from Machiavelli is required reading during secondary education. That will surely awaken their political awareness.

Re-reading it atm, for first time in ~25years, and I’m struck with how much of historical context my kids don’t have that I’d want them to before recommending it to them. I feel I had more of that context when I first read it, but maybe I’m rose tinting my initial reading.

Re: No Spanish reading crisis?

#23

Post by rupertdev »

world2vec wrote: post #13
bcjdjsndon wrote: post #5

If youre only counting books I haven't read anything for maybe a decade. And I maybe read about a hundred hours in life total before that. If you include a screen I've read everyday for the past 25+ years

IMHO screens and audio don't count as reading books.

I personally think that though the medium is different, audiobooks are at least _similar_ to reading a book.

Screens however, are you including something like an eReader as _not_ reading books?

Re: No Spanish reading crisis?

#24

Post by BoingBoomTschak »

KaiserPro wrote: post #15
world2vec wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO screens and audio don't count as reading books.

Could you expand on the audiobook part? Im assuming that screens dont count because its not novels/literature but audio books are the same content but delivered by a different medium, I am genuinely curious as to your opinion on is not counting

Depends on the amount of focus you dedicate to your listening. But unlike reading, it's much easier to use it as background activity.

Also, I'm very much convinced that the brain is distracted away from the content by the voice acting and intonation; same way that most people physically can't concentrate when listening to music with vocals, evolution made us really sensitive to the human voice.

Re: No Spanish reading crisis?

#25

Post by dvdkon »

world2vec wrote: post #20
paulryanrogers wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article doesn't distinguish reading books from reading anything else. Though it's pretty short and light on details. The article it cites strongly implies the reading is only books. All that said, [I find] reading books is overrated. They're often outdated, low effort slop, and even more so in this AI era.

How could fiction books become outdated? That is an absolutely alien opinion for me! -edit- I said "non-fiction" when I meant "fiction". Of course non-fiction books become obsolete quite fast sometimes.

Pretty easily - I don't think reading a medical text from the 19th century will give you up-to-date information. I'd agree that the concept doesn't apply to fiction, though.

Re: No Spanish reading crisis?

#26

Post by paulryanrogers »

n4r9 wrote: post #16
outime wrote: post #4

>Democracy is safe in Spain! Honestly, this sounds like a shitpost and I'd remove the line if I was the author. That aside, I really don't understand the glorification of reading. I love reading (also I'm Spanish) and I do it every day, but reading can also just mean reading romance novels and living in a parallel unrealistic world, and that doesn't make you or "democracy" better than a non-reader that may be a movie…

> that doesn't make you or "democracy" better than a non-reader that may be a movie watcher addict I dunno. There's something to be said for having the focus to sit down and read through a book. It suggests someone is a little more comfortable with their own thoughts and doesn't succumb to constant tech distractions. Which in turn suggests an ability to think more clearly and less emotively about politics.

> It suggests someone is a little more comfortable with their own thoughts and doesn't succumb to constant tech distractions.

Could just as likely suggest they're affluent enough to have time to sit down and read vs listen to an audio book or just skim news in a magazine or on a screen between jobs.

Re: No Spanish reading crisis?

#28

Post by derektank »

n4r9 wrote: post #16
outime wrote: post #4

>Democracy is safe in Spain! Honestly, this sounds like a shitpost and I'd remove the line if I was the author. That aside, I really don't understand the glorification of reading. I love reading (also I'm Spanish) and I do it every day, but reading can also just mean reading romance novels and living in a parallel unrealistic world, and that doesn't make you or "democracy" better than a non-reader that may be a movie…

> that doesn't make you or "democracy" better than a non-reader that may be a movie watcher addict I dunno. There's something to be said for having the focus to sit down and read through a book. It suggests someone is a little more comfortable with their own thoughts and doesn't succumb to constant tech distractions. Which in turn suggests an ability to think more clearly and less emotively about politics.

>It suggests someone is a little more comfortable with their own thoughts

Maybe. There’s been a significant backlash against popular fiction authors for writing in anything but the first person, single fixed POV recently which sort of suggests that readers don’t like having to deal with the interiority of multiple different characters. If they’re not comfortable with the bare minimum of cognitive dissonance are they really doing much thinking, or just letting the text wash over them as someone does while watching a YouTube video?

Re: No Spanish reading crisis?

#29

Post by hbn »

KaiserPro wrote: post #15
world2vec wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO screens and audio don't count as reading books.

Could you expand on the audiobook part? Im assuming that screens dont count because its not novels/literature but audio books are the same content but delivered by a different medium, I am genuinely curious as to your opinion on is not counting

Audiobooks do not feel like disconnecting. It feels like another app on my smart device pumping digital sound into my ears.

Leaving my devices inside and sitting on the porch, reading a book feels much healthier for my brain. And more intentional consumption than passive noise to kill time.

Re: No Spanish reading crisis?

#30

Post by amanaplanacanal »

erelong wrote: post #11

I think from seeing articles like this a few times, that there's a lack of definition from people as what counts as "real reading" and about what materials "count as real reading" (since I think probably people are reading these days more than ever - it just may be on forums like HN, social media, and AI output, etc.) so if you just define that specifically then we could just promote it on social media, people readin…

I've seen many of these types of articles, and usually they are taking about long form reading, meaning books.
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