Serial Reader: Reading Schedule Builder • Hacker News Board

Re: Serial Reader: Reading Schedule Builder

#21

Post by yamtaddle » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 8:57 PM UTC

Freak_NL wrote: post #15

danielodievich wrote: post #6

I am an avid reader, reading 2 or 3 books at a time, alternating between history and economics to fiction and fantasy, with detours into science and periodicals (like The Economist). I think I exceed this 50 books/year goal easily, but I never bother counting. I am also lucky to read in more than one language, for a nice variety. Incidentally, I read Moby Dick this year and found it a mixed experience, but more on a…

> Yesterday we visited with friends and their 12 year old daughter was on chapter 3 of Count of Monte Cristo and was complaining that it was dull and when it was going to start being awesome. We (her parents and our family) were cheering her to stay with it because the epic tale of escape and revenge (served quite cold) is really good. It is really good, but one thing I have learned to appreciate is that some books j…

> It is really good, but one thing I have learned to appreciate is that some books just don't work for many teenagers yet. Classics in particular!

I think it was Forster who wrote (I'm paraphrasing) that trying to teach teenagers literary novels is almost pointless, and more likely to piss them off than enlighten them, because they simply don't have the highly-developed sense of empathy to appreciate them yet.

Re: Serial Reader: Reading Schedule Builder

#22

Post by erksa » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 8:58 PM UTC

susam wrote: post #16

In 2021, I did an experiment to find out how long it takes to read classic technical books if we spend 40 minutes a day. It turned out that our small book club could read and understand a complete analytic number theory book in 120 days. The complete meetup logs are archived here: https://susam.net/club/meets/iant.html I am currently doing a similar book club meetups for Mastering Emacs. If this sounds interesting to…

This sounds very interesting. Might come lurk a couple of times if the scheduling works!

Re: Serial Reader: Reading Schedule Builder

#23

Post by TylerE » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 8:59 PM UTC

Freak_NL wrote: post #12

The estimates seem a bit high, or perhaps unbalanced from book to book. The Count of Monte Cristo is slated for 208 days at twenty minutes per day! I read mostly just in bed before going to sleep, averaging around 30 minutes. The Count of Monte Cristo took me three to four weeks (I don't keep notes on that, so it's an estimate), and I'm not a speed-reader. It's just a book that has aged well (i.e., a limited cognitiv…

If the only translation you’ve read is the public domain one from the 19th century, it was heavily censored/edited. Newer translations are much better, and have all the hash smoking and lesbian sex. (And yea, I’m being literal)

Re: Serial Reader: Reading Schedule Builder

#24

Post by roughly » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 8:59 PM UTC

danielodievich wrote: post #6

I am an avid reader, reading 2 or 3 books at a time, alternating between history and economics to fiction and fantasy, with detours into science and periodicals (like The Economist). I think I exceed this 50 books/year goal easily, but I never bother counting. I am also lucky to read in more than one language, for a nice variety. Incidentally, I read Moby Dick this year and found it a mixed experience, but more on a…

I had an extended sabbatical during the lockdown where I made an effort to rekindle my reading habit - one thing I noticed about my attention was that it came in waves. Within a minute or two of really sitting down with a book, my attention would wander; if I ignored it and attended to the book, I was fine. Fifteen or so minutes later, my brain again started wandering; getting past this mark gave me another 45 minutes to an hour of focused reading. In previous years at work, I'd find that if I didn't succumb to distraction at that 45-60min mark, I could usually get another hour and a half or two hours of serious focused work in.

I had a solid year of sabbatical in which I was able to really get to know my attention span - it's much harder to maintain and cultivate now that I'm working again, but learning those patterns has given me a lot more confidence in my ability to exercise my attention span when needed.

Re: Serial Reader: Reading Schedule Builder

#25

Post by mzi » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 9:01 PM UTC

SpeedilyDamage wrote: post #17

Freak_NL wrote: post #12

The estimates seem a bit high, or perhaps unbalanced from book to book. The Count of Monte Cristo is slated for 208 days at twenty minutes per day! I read mostly just in bed before going to sleep, averaging around 30 minutes. The Count of Monte Cristo took me three to four weeks (I don't keep notes on that, so it's an estimate), and I'm not a speed-reader. It's just a book that has aged well (i.e., a limited cognitiv…

The unabridged Count of Monte Cristo is substantially longer than the more popular abridged version.

The first copy I found have 1286 pages, so that means you read six pages per day at around three minutes per page.

Re: Serial Reader: Reading Schedule Builder

#26

Post by mokash » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 9:01 PM UTC

one piece of advice for anyone about to read war and peace: the number of chracters are vast and you'll find that the names used to refer to each can often change with no warning. different names can be used interchangeably, even in the same piece of dialogue. it can get very confusing. best to have a map of character names before you start.

Re: Serial Reader: Reading Schedule Builder

#27

Post by Archelaos » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 9:02 PM UTC

Don't be discouraged from "War and Peace", because it says that it is 235 days (probably it is much less). When I finished it, I wished it had another 1,000 pages.

Re: Serial Reader: Reading Schedule Builder

#28

Post by ozim » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 9:06 PM UTC

yamtaddle wrote: post #21

Freak_NL wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yesterday we visited with friends and their 12 year old daughter was on chapter 3 of Count of Monte Cristo and was complaining that it was dull and when it was going to start being awesome. We (her parents and our family) were cheering her to stay with it because the epic tale of escape and revenge (served quite cold) is really good. It is really good, but one thing I have learned to appreciate is that some books j…

> It is really good, but one thing I have learned to appreciate is that some books just don't work for many teenagers yet. Classics in particular! I think it was Forster who wrote (I'm paraphrasing) that trying to teach teenagers literary novels is almost pointless, and more likely to piss them off than enlighten them, because they simply don't have the highly-developed sense of empathy to appreciate them yet.

I was under impression that reading novels was ‘to develop sense of empathy’ not to enlighten them.

Re: Serial Reader: Reading Schedule Builder

#29

Post by ipaddr » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 9:08 PM UTC

I recommend reading a book every three days (on average) and doing it for a year. I did this one year and read mostly bios and history material. At the end of the year I felt I have so much more knowledge in so many different areas and has given me different perspectives.

Re: Serial Reader: Reading Schedule Builder

#30

Post by danielodievich » Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 9:09 PM UTC

Freak_NL wrote: post #15

danielodievich wrote: post #6

I am an avid reader, reading 2 or 3 books at a time, alternating between history and economics to fiction and fantasy, with detours into science and periodicals (like The Economist). I think I exceed this 50 books/year goal easily, but I never bother counting. I am also lucky to read in more than one language, for a nice variety. Incidentally, I read Moby Dick this year and found it a mixed experience, but more on a…

> Yesterday we visited with friends and their 12 year old daughter was on chapter 3 of Count of Monte Cristo and was complaining that it was dull and when it was going to start being awesome. We (her parents and our family) were cheering her to stay with it because the epic tale of escape and revenge (served quite cold) is really good. It is really good, but one thing I have learned to appreciate is that some books j…

You are absolutely right.

I was one of the teenagers who read everything that was in front of me and I think when I read the Count of Monte Cristo at ~12, I already had an understanding of at least a general outline of the Napoleonic wars and some inkling of the geography.

My brother hardly read anything as a kid and laughed at my nose being the book a lot. I remember him calling me when he was in his early 30ies and saying - hey, I am reading this Monte Cristo book and it is REALLY GOOD. I was like YEAH IT IS REALLY GOOD, I told you so! But he couldn't have appreciated it before he was ready...