Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 18% of the U.S. population is functionally illiterate N.B. This stat appears to pertain to English language literacy, not literacy per se. Some of those 18%ers might be reading Dante in the original Italian or Shakespeare in the original Klingon.
> Shakespeare in the original Klingon citation needed
46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
141–150 of 181 posts
Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
#142“Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.”
― Albert Einstein
Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
#143I read about a book a month usually. I wonder what that looks like in the breakout.
Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry but isn't this disingenuous? Reading a summary of the book in Wikipedia/Blinkist/ChatGPT is definitely not the same as the reading book. Sure, you may grasp at the central idea or argument superficially, but to understand it fully, with its caveats and nuances, and overarching context? You can regurgitate but not assimilate.
I dont think so. For "great works" all that stuff has been covered somewhere if you really care. You're putting way too much faith into people's intelligence (or projecting your own onto them) if you think people are picking up the nuanced bits just by reading. Which still to the thread starts point. All of that stuff could be captured in a diff medium and to my point if it's worth capturing in the first place can be…
This is a process vs product issue. Yes, the product ("here's what this is / is about") can be captured wherever, but the process of engagement is the valuable bit.
Of course no one - no matter how intelligent! - will pick up every bit of nuance. That's why engaging with what other people think (also a process!) about [whatever] is an important part of skill development. I don't think anyone is incapable of engaging in this - even if their sophistication will always be limited by their intelligence / affinity / time / etc etc etc.
This is a useful paradigm under which to consider other skills. Computer code (product) is (approaching...) wide availability from LLMs, but the skills necessary to be a good developer come through a process that involves independently solving problems and asking questions that have (at least at first!) already been addressed by others.
Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
#145I have a hard time believing 54% did read a book. 18% of the U.S. population is functionally illiterate, and I don't know for you, I really don't feel like reading a book after I work the whole day at a computer.
I’m pretty sure my father, a baby boomer, never read a SINGLE book after high school. Same with my mother. This is a perennial observation about general illiteracy in the US but who was even alive when this wasn’t the case? lol Fahrenheit 451 is a 70 year old book complaining about this exact problem.
I was in a computer program in high-school which required good grades to be in and some teenagers would just pretend to read the books and get a synopsis online. I wouldn't be surprised if they literally never read a book in their whole life. And those were not dumb or illiterate people.
Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why? All are important for a well rounded, interesting person.
Watching movies and playing video games are not required to be well rounded and interesting and they do not provide the same intellectual stimulus that reading papers and watching smart people give lectures do.
Not required but it is very likely that if all one does is read papers and watches other smart people give lectures, they are pretty one dimensional and would be an awful dinner guest unless surrounded by other similarly one dimensional people. Same would be true if all one did was watch movies or play video games.
Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of the past yes, but what about the present and future?
Well, can you name a computer game that is a great artistic work? There are many that are good , but I can't say there are any that are on a par with, say, "The Lord of the Rings" or "War and Peace" or "1984". I'd love to hear of one that was though.
I have read many books and seen many movies that I feel are worse artistic works than the best games, but I also think it's a hard comparison to make.
There is no music that compares to "War and peace" or paintings like "1984", nor is the movie "Alien" like any book. Describing H R Gigers monster design with words will not have the same artistic impact.
I think different creations can be be great artistic works on entirely incomparable axes.
Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
#148“Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.” ― Albert Einstein
This quote is always mildly irritating. Einstein was the mental equivalent of an Olympic athlete with multiple gold medals. That man was so far disconnected from the mental limitations of average people that some quotes don’t hold much value because they’re created in context of his experience. I work in a creatively challenging job, and I’m mentally wasted after a full day sometimes, to the point that anything I create is hot garbage until I rest and change my focus. I’ll read my books and play my games thank you kindly.
Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
#149People are lying about how much they do read books, and for me, it's not that books are bad but books simply have more competition than they used to.
There are multiple history podcasts, some of which are made by actual historians, which go for hundreds of episodes. It might not be "reading a book" but I really fail to see the big difference between that and an audiobook. Except that it's cheaper/easier/better than using Audiobooks.
I listen to lectures about health from doctors. Casually listening to a lecture simply wasn't something you could just do not so long ago. Is listening to a 2 hour lecture summarising information about a health topic I'm interested in worse than reading books?
I now have access to medical papers which used to be gate-kept by Elsevier with the complicity of higher education. Nowadays it seems like the vast majority of research papers are publicly accessible. Is reading scientific papers worse than reading books?
Maybe I should be paying Audible a subscription fee so that people think I'm erudite though. I don't think there's anything wrong with books but people fetishise them.
Re: 46% of Americans didn't read a book in 2023
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sadly, I agree with you. Between work and kids it just has to go. I am also blessed with no sleeping problems which means that I fall asleep the moment i go to bed. I try to read at least one book per year during vacation. I read so much when I was younger. I am not certain I will get the habit back when I get older.
Same. Can't say I miss it, either. Reading a book at this stage in my life (busy with kids) feels self-indulgent and selfish.
Yet you are posting on HN :)
I try to read some of the books my kids read, allows me to connect with them. They love talking about their books.