Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Art Garfunkel's Library

artgarfunkel.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 146 posts

Re: Art Garfunkel's Library

#111

Post by [deleted] »

hamburglar wrote: post #107
mahogany wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Second, do you ever shake the feeling that having a book read to you is somehow qualitatively not as good as reading it from the page? Why would it be? I get where you're coming from, as I generally prefer reading over audiobooks, but it may be good to remember that story-telling began as an oral tradition. I don't see why reading a story would be superior to having someone tell you a story. I doubt The Odyssey was…

> I don't see why reading a story would be superior to having someone tell you a story. I doubt The Odyssey was a lesser experience before it was written down. Well I don't think it necessarily has to be lesser, especially if it's designed to be verbally delivered, but it's a different art form, and it's not how most literature was created to be delivered. So it seems fairly obvious that you're going to lose somethin…

[deleted]

Re: Art Garfunkel's Library

#112

Post by danenania »

hamburglar wrote: post #82
peteforde wrote: post #51

Audiobooks, borrowed for free from my library and listened to via the excellent Libby app, have been a life-line over the past four years. I went from 3-4 books a year to 3-4 books a week, sometimes more. I listen in the bathroom, while exercising, cooking, cleaning, cycling, gardening. My listening speed is typically 1.75x for dense prose and hard science, all the way up to 2.5x for fiction and biographies. The secr…

I've never really gotten into audiobooks, but my pace of reading paper books has fallen off considerably lately, since I've fallen into a pattern of simply falling asleep when I pick up a book. My girlfriend loves audiobooks because she can "read" while doing chores or walking or whatever, and reads constantly. So I've been considering trying that out, and I have questions for you. First, does this work very well for…

I like both paper and audio books, but for me I generally feel a bit less engaged with audio, I think, for a couple reasons.

One is that someone else is deciding on the pacing. With paper books, I tend to take a lot more pauses to think things over or savor something particularly insightful, dramatic, funny, or what-have-you in the story. I could just pause the audio for the same effect, but there seems to be an inertia when someone else is reading that stops me from doing it as often.

Second is that it's a lot easier with audio to pay less than full attention. If I realize I haven't been fully listening for some period of time, either because of an external distraction or because my mind has gone off on some tangent, I'm less likely to go back because of the annoyance of trying scrub back to the exact location where I tuned out. This creates a tendency to shrug it off and keep going, which adds up to a lower level of absorption overall.

With a physical book, it's much easier to backtrack and re-read sections, and I'm a lot less likely to zone out in the first place since I have to actively read each sentence. Of course, sometimes I do realize that I've been visually 'reading' a paragraph or two while my mind is actually somewhere else, but I seem to snap out of it a lot quicker with a physical book than with audio, and it only takes a second to jump back up the page and re-read (much quicker than finding my exact point of departure in the audio).

Re: Art Garfunkel's Library

#113

Post by jonny_eh »

supersrdjan wrote: post #47

I used to keep a list like this (more modest though) but I stopped once I realized it's demeaning both to me and the books. The problem was that the list had no other purpose except as a kind of trophy case. I felt proud about my list, as if finishing a book is an achievement, as if reading is a sport, as if reading a lot makes you better than those who read less. I was disgusted by my own vanity, and moreover, consi…

Ever pick up a book and wonder if you've already read it?

Re: Art Garfunkel's Library

#114

Post by goto11 »

olvy0 wrote: post #42

Did he actually read War and Peace, The Great Gatsby, Catch 22, Candide, The Picture of Dorian Gray, a Malcolm X biography and two other books during the single month of Feb 1969?? I find that a tad hard to believe... But whatever. I'm a pretty fast reader myself, so I'll take that as a challenge / inspiration for myself :)

Lets say this is two thousand pages altogether (half of them is War and Peace). That would be 70 pages a day. This is doable even with a full time job. Certainly more than the average person reads, but easily done for an voracious reader with a flexible schedule.

I don't know how time consuming it was to be a folk music star, but they weren't expected to workout and train choreography all day, the way pop stars are today.

Despite its reputation War and Peace is actually a pretty easy read. Perhaps except the final essay with Tolstoy philosophy of history.

Re: Art Garfunkel's Library

#115

Post by ccn0p »

supersrdjan wrote: post #47

I used to keep a list like this (more modest though) but I stopped once I realized it's demeaning both to me and the books. The problem was that the list had no other purpose except as a kind of trophy case. I felt proud about my list, as if finishing a book is an achievement, as if reading is a sport, as if reading a lot makes you better than those who read less. I was disgusted by my own vanity, and moreover, consi…

many moons ago i used my bookshelf to impress girls. is that vanity?

Re: Art Garfunkel's Library

#116

Post by danenania »

AlbertCory wrote: post #101
gnuj3 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is something I had to learn over the years. I always had this notion that I HAD to finish something (book, movie) to be able to express the opinion on it. Now, if I dont enjoy it I just stop reading and when I’m asked what did I think of it I simply answer that I didnt finish because xyz. It gives you so much more time resulting in reading something you actually enjoy.

Right. More and more nowadays with non-fiction, I read a few chapters, realize I've already heard everything the author has to say, and drop it. Life's too short.

It's also very common for non-fiction books to have 20 pages of substance, but be padded out to 200 or more with repetition and filler.

Re: Art Garfunkel's Library

#117

Post by AlbertCory »

danenania wrote: post #116
AlbertCory wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. More and more nowadays with non-fiction, I read a few chapters, realize I've already heard everything the author has to say, and drop it. Life's too short.

It's also very common for non-fiction books to have 20 pages of substance, but be padded out to 200 or more with repetition and filler.

Indeed. Read those 20 pages, say "OK, I got it," and skip the padding.

Re: Art Garfunkel's Library

#118

Post by prepend »

supersrdjan wrote: post #47

I used to keep a list like this (more modest though) but I stopped once I realized it's demeaning both to me and the books. The problem was that the list had no other purpose except as a kind of trophy case. I felt proud about my list, as if finishing a book is an achievement, as if reading is a sport, as if reading a lot makes you better than those who read less. I was disgusted by my own vanity, and moreover, consi…

I think there are the risks you described. But I keep a list to remember what I’ve read. I’m getting old and have found I don’t remember everything I’ve read decades ago.

I think it’s valuable to not use it for bragging or measuring purposes. But this is the same risk and value of any diary, I think.

Re: Art Garfunkel's Library

#119

Post by mzs »

supersrdjan wrote: post #47

I used to keep a list like this (more modest though) but I stopped once I realized it's demeaning both to me and the books. The problem was that the list had no other purpose except as a kind of trophy case. I felt proud about my list, as if finishing a book is an achievement, as if reading is a sport, as if reading a lot makes you better than those who read less. I was disgusted by my own vanity, and moreover, consi…

I should have kept a list. Now I'm older and I can't recall 'where I read that' or worse start reading a book and realize in chapter three 'oh I read this one already.' It's even worse with video.

Re: Art Garfunkel's Library

#120

Post by mahogany »

hamburglar wrote: post #107
mahogany wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Second, do you ever shake the feeling that having a book read to you is somehow qualitatively not as good as reading it from the page? Why would it be? I get where you're coming from, as I generally prefer reading over audiobooks, but it may be good to remember that story-telling began as an oral tradition. I don't see why reading a story would be superior to having someone tell you a story. I doubt The Odyssey was…

> I don't see why reading a story would be superior to having someone tell you a story. I doubt The Odyssey was a lesser experience before it was written down. Well I don't think it necessarily has to be lesser, especially if it's designed to be verbally delivered, but it's a different art form, and it's not how most literature was created to be delivered. So it seems fairly obvious that you're going to lose somethin…

> Well I don't think it necessarily has to be lesser, especially if it's designed to be verbally delivered, but it's a different art form, and it's not how most literature was created to be delivered.

That's a fair point. However, when I write, I often read it aloud in my head, so I'm always "checking" that things sound good verbally in a way. I'm not sure how common that is, but it does seem to me that since writing is ultimately modeled after speaking, it's intimately linked with it.

Back to the audio books, I will say that I've had a hit or miss experience. Not only does the quality depend on the writing itself, but it also depends heavily on the narrator. An example of an audio book I listened to recently which I think is fantastically done is Moby Dick narrated by William Hootkins. The narrator injects a passion and perspective that I originally did not pick up on while reading it.

Post reply on HN