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How to read more books

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Re: How to read more books

#41

Post by WalterBright »

dude250711 wrote: post #31
goodroot wrote: post #12

Love this blog, appreciate the author. > This is probably the most difficult part. I had to remove all social media and streaming apps from my iPhone. I removed Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, etc. When I started, I found myself picking up the phone and immediately noticing that something was missing, since the only things left to do were check the weather, read boring emails, or see my bank account. These past few mon…

Pre-2023 books I presume?

I collect books, but have decided to omit the post 2023 ones.

Re: How to read more books

#42

Post by heyheyhey »

freefaler wrote: post #39
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #22

I have an almost-four year old child and not a lot of downtime. I used to listen to podcasts when I was doing dishes, cleaning the house, walking the dog, etc. I've mostly abandoned podcasts in favor of audiobooks. It didn't feel like they were benefiting me in any meaningful way—almost like they were just empty calories for my ears. I finally made it all the way through The Power Broker recently, which I've wanted t…

There is also another benefit to books, on average they are much better than a random 3 hour podcast. If you care about what you read, you'd be getting something that the author has spend a lot of time, skill and energy to write, the editor would have spend a lot of time and skill to improve with the author. I have a measure for all content I consume, quality/hr of reading/listening. If it's just a long video that ha…

Comparing a podcast to a book is like comparing a 30-minute TV episode to a 3 hour Scorsese movie. Similar mediums with completely different goals.

Re: How to read more books

#43

Post by singpolyma3 »

password4321 wrote: post #36
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #22

I have an almost-four year old child and not a lot of downtime. I used to listen to podcasts when I was doing dishes, cleaning the house, walking the dog, etc. I've mostly abandoned podcasts in favor of audiobooks. It didn't feel like they were benefiting me in any meaningful way—almost like they were just empty calories for my ears. I finally made it all the way through The Power Broker recently, which I've wanted t…

I would audiobook 24/7 with the open ear headphones (Shokz etc) but I don't think I could afford to pay for that much that was worth listening too / low maintenance.

Use the library

Re: How to read more books

#45

Post by elAhmo »

WalterBright wrote: post #40
freefaler wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also another benefit to books, on average they are much better than a random 3 hour podcast. If you care about what you read, you'd be getting something that the author has spend a lot of time, skill and energy to write, the editor would have spend a lot of time and skill to improve with the author. I have a measure for all content I consume, quality/hr of reading/listening. If it's just a long video that ha…

I gave up on podcasts because of the excessive insertion of commercials, and the execrable user interface of the iphone podcast app.

There are other apps too, such as Overcast, and ads on podcasts are really easy to skip.

Re: How to read more books

#47

Post by theoreticalmal »

coffeefirst wrote: post #32
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #22

I have an almost-four year old child and not a lot of downtime. I used to listen to podcasts when I was doing dishes, cleaning the house, walking the dog, etc. I've mostly abandoned podcasts in favor of audiobooks. It didn't feel like they were benefiting me in any meaningful way—almost like they were just empty calories for my ears. I finally made it all the way through The Power Broker recently, which I've wanted t…

I got a Libro.fm sub when my son was born last year and am finding the same. I actually think this is about quality. Podcasts that take real effort (Hardcore History, Fall of Civilizations, Gastropod) are absolutely worth my time, but they're basically mini-audiobooks in their own right.

Hardcore History is phenomenal. It’s a bummer the release cadence is so slow, but I understand why

Re: How to read more books

#48

Post by theoreticalmal »

card_zero wrote: post #29
hk__2 wrote: post #19

> First of all, you don’t have to make time to read. What you need to do is read every single time you are not doing something else. Mmh I’m not sure about that. I prefer to read for 1-2 hours rather than read 2 minutes here and 5 minutes there, especially for books that require some concentration to read, like dense stories and/or books not in my native language.

Who asked what you prefer? That has nothing to do with reading more books. Personally I have pages from books projected onto the walls, so that if I ever accidentally look up from the book that I'm reading, I read part of another book. Also I hire a mercenary soldier to watch me at all times, and if I try to stop reading even for a moment he jumps at me with a combat knife and pushes an open book into my face. In thi…

Only one mercenary? Are you even book-maxxing?

Re: How to read more books

#49

Post by DamnInteresting »

I did a similar thing a few years ago, I deleted reddit, social media, and other time-wasters from my phone, and now I keep a queue of books in an e-reader app. When I have a few idle moments somewhere, my options are to sit and think (sometimes a nice option), or read some book.

I get through about 2 books per month this way. I haven't noticed eye strain issues, but I tend to keep the brightness low and the font size reasonable. If you struggle with eye strain, you might benefit from an e-book phone case (e.g., https://www.inkcase.com/inkcase-for-iphone/) if you don't want to carry a separate device.

Re: How to read more books

#50

Post by WalterBright »

elAhmo wrote: post #45
WalterBright wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I gave up on podcasts because of the excessive insertion of commercials, and the execrable user interface of the iphone podcast app.

There are other apps too, such as Overcast, and ads on podcasts are really easy to skip .

Yeah, I can skip forward 30 sec, then back up, blech. It's just not worth it when you constantly have to interact with the podcast app.

Scott Adams' podcasts were different. He inserted very few commericials, and they were short enough there was no reason to skip forward. I tried many other podcasts after he passed away, and they all were largely long, boring commercials. Yuck. I now listen to Pandora or Soma FM instead.

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