Mortimer J. Adler, How to Read a Book.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book
https://www.worldcat.org/title/how-to-read-a-book/oclc/90737...
How I Consume Books
101–109 of 109 posts
Re: How I Consume Books
#102I disagree heavily with the author's understanding of fiction and absorption of ideas in fiction. Fiction IMO is best viewed as an exploration into a concept and not a presentation the way non-fiction is. In the way nonfiction describes the shape of a phenomenon, and is excellently riveting in its placement of the reader in the backdrop of whatever it describes- fiction walks the reader through edge cases and underbe…
In college I let my roommate borrow a copy of a fairly long fantasy novel with a lot of scene building and heavy on foreshadowing. He returned it the next day and asked for the sequel, which is how I learned he was a speed reader.
I was appalled. Part of the book was wondering what every obscure comment five hundred pages ago meant and whether it would come back to bite people. It was like a murder mystery without the murders. If not for the anticipation, other bits if the story arc were actually a bit weak (like many authors, they don’t want an editor but desperately need one).
I never did figure out what he was getting from the story when he was getting through them in three or four hours.
Re: How I Consume Books
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
> When I started working two days a week a colleague of mine said he was jealous and wished he could do the same. While he agreed that objectively there was absolutely no reason he couldn't actually do the same. Spoiler warning for a season 1 episode of Black Mirror: this is precisely the gut-punch realization delivered at the end of the "future" "sci-fi" episode Fifteen Million Merits. It is set in the future, and i…
Isn't the enforcer a lack of money for most people? You can "walk out" progressively by saving aggressively but it takes a while, if it's even possible. You can take a more extreme route but it's far from a trivial achievement.
It's largely the comfort and familiarity. Yeah you could walk away, but there's so much risk. So back to your stationary bike to make little pellet things for some reason, eating food out of a vending machine, while watching reality TV and decorating your virtual avatars using Merits you've earned at your job of dubious actual value, anxious always that you'll fall down a rung on the social ladder (while, of course, mocking those who have).
[EDIT] at least as the episode depicts it, which is very much a slice from a range of middle-ish class perspectives. Fussellian middle-class anxiety certainly appears (though not the full scope of it) and perhaps is most prominent, but there's more going on than just that. The episode's not trying to be about everyone, I don't think.
[EDIT EDIT] I think the key components of that episode are that 1) the system they live in is starkly meaningless, divorced from anything recognizable as value in practically any ordinary sense and in almost every single action they take, 2) nothing like a jack-booted thug, even broadly, ever features—the closest thing we get is "cuppliance" which is bad, sure, but given how passive it is and in the context of the rest of the episode, reads almost like an escape hatch for the writer rather than an intentional part of the thrust of the story, 3) an attempt at actual rebellion at the system is smoothly and efficiently coopted by the system—some clear ironic self-criticism from Brooker, that—and 4) our final shot reveals that they may well be able to just walk away any time they like.
(some people like to wonder whether the windows at the end are real or screens, but between what precisely they depict, which is not some remarkable vista or wilderness but a fairly ordinary one, and the context of the rest of the episode, I don't think there's a ton of ambiguity there)
Re: How I Consume Books
#104>his knowledge is small compared to non-fiction. Rest of the book is for your entertainment. And fiction does a good job of presenting the idea. To absorb the idea, it doesn’t require a thorough reading of the book (sometimes it does). For the same reason, I find audiobooks are a better medium for consuming fiction. By doing so, you also save your time. this is such a horrible take on fiction that I've seen popup in…
I hate the 2-day book "Lambo guy", but this has nothing to do with him. Edit: "Hate" is giving him too much credit, but I do think he is profiting of fooling already confused and lost people. I learned some important lessons in life from fiction books, which quite literally changed my life. Good fiction reflects reality - that's why authors like Branden Sanderson will always be a complete joke, they don't understand…
Right. God forbid you enjoy a book because of the characters and the story. Only philosophical, topical, and metaphorical works matter!
Re: How I Consume Books
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do the same thing. My reasoning is, if you're going to put dozens of hours into a book, or hundreds into a good series, an extra 20 minutes at the end to file away any good memories from that really isn't too much of a time expense in comparison. Sometimes it's even fun. I basically wrote an essay on the Stormlight archive (probably my favourite ever series) which is something teenage me doing my English Literature…
This is off-topic but since you've obviously thought about it, why is Stormlight Archives good? I was pretty turned off Sanderson after Mistborn because there were some aspects I really didn't care for.
The general reason they're well liked is that they have deep and well thought out world building, while also being fairly fantastical. Characters aren't entirely realistic and sometimes parts of the books can drag, but they're true epic fantasy.
I'd still recommend Way of Kings to you, it's quite a bit different from Mistborn, and his writing has come a long way.
Re: How I Consume Books
#106>his knowledge is small compared to non-fiction. Rest of the book is for your entertainment. And fiction does a good job of presenting the idea. To absorb the idea, it doesn’t require a thorough reading of the book (sometimes it does). For the same reason, I find audiobooks are a better medium for consuming fiction. By doing so, you also save your time. this is such a horrible take on fiction that I've seen popup in…
indeed, there are some acquaintances who consume books 'filtered' via blinkist ^^). all in the hope of claiming in their conversation circles of how broadly read they are.
Actually, a friend asked me why don't people read/listen to good summaries (like blinkist) but read the whole book? I read the whole book, but I have no answer for him. Many non fiction books have a single idea with many pages of examples. Say if you want to read the 7 habits of highly effective people, why not just read what those habits are? Why do you have to read through all the examples?
Re: How I Consume Books
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
> most fiction books I read don't have any deeper meaning That's fine; keep doing what you enjoy. But there is life-changing fiction, so it is not as though there is nothing a person could choose to read that would be great.
Both you and the post I replied to seem to imply that fiction books without any deeper meaning cannot be good or great.
I think that the best books, including fiction, are ones that I find myself reflecting on later. Sometimes years later. I don't find that airport mysteries do that for me.
Although, sometimes I read those and enjoy them, mostly in an airport. No harm done.
Re: How I Consume Books
#108Any tips on how to handle reading through more technical books?
Read "How To Read A Book", it has a lot of good techniques.
Re: How I Consume Books
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do the same thing. My reasoning is, if you're going to put dozens of hours into a book, or hundreds into a good series, an extra 20 minutes at the end to file away any good memories from that really isn't too much of a time expense in comparison. Sometimes it's even fun. I basically wrote an essay on the Stormlight archive (probably my favourite ever series) which is something teenage me doing my English Literature…
This is off-topic but since you've obviously thought about it, why is Stormlight Archives good? I was pretty turned off Sanderson after Mistborn because there were some aspects I really didn't care for.
I read the Mistborn novels following my reading of Stormlight, and compared to the later I really struggled to get through them. They read more like teen-fiction in comparison.
There's been a stark improvement in his writing quality. The Stormlight Archive is much more robust in characters (granted the main protagonists can still get a bit angsty in places), incredible in terms of world-building (which of course is what Sanderson is really know for), and has a story line with enough plot twists and development to keep you entertained despite the page count.
I highly recommend it, but if the size of the volumes are bit daunting the Audible narrations are decent too. I flipped back and forth between the two, listening to it in the car and then reading from where the recording left off when I got home. I'm not normally a fiction buff, but I'm chomping at the bit in anticipation for the next in the series.
The 3 books total about 1.25 million words mind, so get ready for the long haul.