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Ways to Read More Books

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Re: Ways to Read More Books

#51

Post by behnamoh »

TTPrograms wrote: post #46

This may be an unusual opinion, but I read a lot, and I've found non-fiction books to just not be efficient means of educating myself anymore. Most topics can be illustrated and described in far fewer words than a book takes. I get about a third of the way through a lot of books and say "ok I get it", as the author basically just continues to say the same thing in different ways. I'm sure this is incentivized by curr…

> Most topics can be illustrated and described in far fewer words than a book takes.

This. That's why infographics are fun to read and look at. I'm not saying that books should be in the form of shapes and infographics, but I think we should leave this traditional way of publishing books as if they're HTML pages. More CSS in the books would definitely go a long way.

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#52

Post by alexpetralia »

TTPrograms wrote: post #46

This may be an unusual opinion, but I read a lot, and I've found non-fiction books to just not be efficient means of educating myself anymore. Most topics can be illustrated and described in far fewer words than a book takes. I get about a third of the way through a lot of books and say "ok I get it", as the author basically just continues to say the same thing in different ways. I'm sure this is incentivized by curr…

Reminds me of Naval Ravikant who suggested reading books more like blogs - you shouldn't feel some social pressure to "finish a book" but rather skip the parts you don't enjoy and drop it whenever you feel like you've gotten the main point. I've been doing this more recently and found that I don't get stuck on books anymore, no longer bottlenecked by certain parts which are boring and redundant.

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#54

Post by e2e4 »

kaolinite wrote: post #48

I've read more in the past 12 months than in the past few years, purely because I discovered a company in the UK called the Folio Society[1]. They sell beautifully bound and illustrated editions of fantastic books, although at rather high prices (£30-40 on average). Previously the majority of the books I read came in the form of cheap ebooks from the Kindle store. As a result, I often abandoned them (or even just for…

Nice physical books could be indeed a pleasure to read; here is an interesting approach of printing books on bible type paper (haven't tried it yet; but does look appealing): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2008089/Time-reading...

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#55

Post by vog »

kaolinite wrote: post #48

I've read more in the past 12 months than in the past few years, purely because I discovered a company in the UK called the Folio Society[1]. They sell beautifully bound and illustrated editions of fantastic books, although at rather high prices (£30-40 on average). Previously the majority of the books I read came in the form of cheap ebooks from the Kindle store. As a result, I often abandoned them (or even just for…

> when I spend £30 on a single book, damn right am I going to finish it.

That's an interesting exploitation of the sunk cost fallacy. [1][2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost#Loss_aversion_and_th...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalation_of_commitment

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#56

Post by Fifer82 »

I would thoroughly recommend trying some modern Audiobooks if you have not tried them yet. It may remind you of your grandmother but seriously, they have replaced most of my entertainment. I even got a waterproof speaker to listen in the shower! The full cast audiobooks are especially awesome. I have "read" just over 500 books since 2009 so no idea how many hours I have lost in total!

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#57

Post by Fifer82 »

TTPrograms wrote: post #46

This may be an unusual opinion, but I read a lot, and I've found non-fiction books to just not be efficient means of educating myself anymore. Most topics can be illustrated and described in far fewer words than a book takes. I get about a third of the way through a lot of books and say "ok I get it", as the author basically just continues to say the same thing in different ways. I'm sure this is incentivized by curr…

I have the exact same feeling about Films. I wonder if there is a specific name for this? I always say I seen every film combination possible before I was 14. People will say of course I haven't, but they are talking about the fluff. I know what the film is going to be instantly, and if it doesn't turn out like I planned, it isn't enough of a difference to care.

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#58

Post by anigbrowl »

TTPrograms wrote: post #46

This may be an unusual opinion, but I read a lot, and I've found non-fiction books to just not be efficient means of educating myself anymore. Most topics can be illustrated and described in far fewer words than a book takes. I get about a third of the way through a lot of books and say "ok I get it", as the author basically just continues to say the same thing in different ways. I'm sure this is incentivized by curr…

I get that. Books that are written or edited with a view to maximizing sales rather than reader satisfaction are going to go for the lowest common denominator, and if you're a quick study then over time you'll find more and more books beneath your comprehensive capability and then your boredom threshold. Unfortunately the best books on a given may be too difficult for the general reader, and a bimodal distribution emerges in which the gap between the popular and the expert levels of understanding becomes increasingly difficult to traverse.

Depending on your subject of study, you might find older books written for a smaller but more discriminating historical audience worth your while. Of course you'll miss on innovation and critical thought since the date of original publication, but Sturgeon's law suggests that much of that may be dispensable depending on the historical scope of the subject. Dover Books specializes in affordable reproductions of obscure or neglected works on a wide variety of topics.

Re: Ways to Read More Books

#59

Post by anigbrowl »

Fifer82 wrote: post #57
TTPrograms wrote: post #46

This may be an unusual opinion, but I read a lot, and I've found non-fiction books to just not be efficient means of educating myself anymore. Most topics can be illustrated and described in far fewer words than a book takes. I get about a third of the way through a lot of books and say "ok I get it", as the author basically just continues to say the same thing in different ways. I'm sure this is incentivized by curr…

I have the exact same feeling about Films. I wonder if there is a specific name for this? I always say I seen every film combination possible before I was 14. People will say of course I haven't, but they are talking about the fluff. I know what the film is going to be instantly, and if it doesn't turn out like I planned, it isn't enough of a difference to care.

Your aesthetic affiliation is Formalism. Try some Peter Greenaway to revive your jaded palate. Not fluffy; I've worked in film for >a decade and other branches of the arts for about as long, and wallow deeply in aesthetic theory. Greenaway trained as a painter before getting into film and it shows.

Much that is written on film theory is a doomed attempt to reconcile aesthetic practice to Marx, Freud or other critical thinkers, but you may enjoy the Lacanian musings of Slavoj Zizek or Joan Copjec, especially this anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Shades-Noir-Haymarket-Joan-Copjec/dp/...

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