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How To: Read more books

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Re: How To: Read more books

#61

Post by mquander »

maurycy wrote: post #47
mquander wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is with you, not with the books. Maybe you're talking about when you were a teenager or before -- I did a poor job of reading many books when I was younger, too. But most adults don't read good novels or tracts on philosophy or sociology and then come out learning "nothing." I promise that there is much more than "nothing" inside. I think it's awfully pessimistic to say that you can't learn anything from…

You're the essence of the problem, messieur. What's so pessimistic about it? Whatever floats your boat, pal. If books enrich you, keep reading. Do not force everyone else to do so, though. Might be that there are other sources of enlightenment. Nature, nice chicks, long discussions, Italian restaurants etc. It's pure symbolic violence what you do right now, pal. Easy test, though. Speak to a random literature folk, w…

I have to admit, you've got a point. I feel a little bit like the Christian who insists on starting every conversation with a discussion about how you ought to let Jesus into your heart. I will think a little bit and see if I can defend my position this evening.

Re: How To: Read more books

#63

Post by euccastro »

axod wrote: post #43
slig wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought he was being sarcastic.

From the comments: "I don’t watch TV, I have no social life"

He's quoting someone else there. He's presenting that quote as a "shorter and better" account of his situation, but I don't know if every extreme should be taken literally.

Re: How To: Read more books

#64

Post by jsz0 »

edw519 wrote: post #24

The biggest consumer of time is undoubtedly other people, in large measure because talking to other people is so fun that you don’t notice time going by. By keeping yourself away from other people (living alone is a good start), you free up an enormous amount of time for reading. I find this is particularly useful in reading books, since books can usually substitute for human company... How sad, especially coming fro…

It's a fair point. Lots of people over extend themselves socially and they suffer intellectually because of it. I know far too many people who just have a causal interest in different topics but have no substance. They can repeat things they read on a blog but they have no original ideas because they don't spend the time to do the reading. I think being a smarter person with original ideas has a lot of social value so it's not completely incompatible. Quality over quantity.

Re: How To: Read more books

#65

Post by pauljonas »

brezina wrote: post #51

Copying my comment that I posted on Aaron's blog: One more simple lesson that I learned only in my early twenties. You don’t need to finish every book. This is a simple but powerful lesson. It reduces the mental burden of starting a new book to near zero. I’m now comfortable putting a book down 200 pages in. And that makes it much easier to start the next 600 page novel. High school english classes teach us the wrong…

Yay, I struggle with this too.

Have this compulsive need to complete the entire book.

Afraid, that not devoting enough effort I will shortchange my reading effort. That I'd be withdrawing from a challenging but fruitful experience (if the text is difficult, or the author's style is boring or has a level of incomprehensibility).

I resolved this dilemma by at least making it half way through a book, or at least first two chapters for those dreadful cases. Or not at all, as of late, have realized that there is just so much to read, that no need to waste on uninteresting/uninspired.

Re: How To: Read more books

#66

Post by Luyt »

staunch wrote: post #22
JustAGeek wrote: post #12

The best way to read more books is to get a job where you have to commute. And by that I mean commute by train. That's giving me almost 2 hours per day for pretty uninterrupted reading. Not that I read 100 books per year but it seems that it's much more than my co-workers, so I guess I'm above average. Because of that I actually enjoy commuting. :)

Audiobooks and podcasts work just fine for drivers (and on the train too). It's the weirdest feeling when you find yourself picking the slowest lane in traffic just so you can spend more time enjoying what you're listening to.

I listen to audiobooks on my iPod while bicycling through the countryside.

Re: How To: Read more books

#67

Post by bliss »

I'm in agreement with one point at least.

I used to force myself to complete books that I wasn't enjoying out of some misplaced sense of achievement on completing a "difficult" book.

I had the misfortune of reading "A Chancer" by James Kelman (otherwise, one of my favourite authors.) I was on a 4 hour bus trip, I was a captive audience. It was dreadful.

I stopped reading the boring story that I didn't care about and let my mind wander for 4 hours instead.

After that I now feel empowered to put down a book that I'm not enjoying, even one I feel is meant to be "good for me."

Re: How To: Read more books

#68

Post by JustinSeriously »

revorad wrote: post #31
badave wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily just blogs, but I'd say around 100 articles easily. I'd also include tutorials and discussions that are substantial as part of reading those articles.

Examples please? I still find that number hard to believe.

I don't know if you can read 100 good things daily, but you can easily get the equivalent of 20 really good books a year just by reading occasional links from Arts & Letters Daily at http://www.aldaily.com/.

(I'm not affiliated with the site, I've just found it to have a good signal-to-noise ratio.)

Re: How To: Read more books

#70

Post by Enra2 »

axod wrote: post #28

>> "since books can usually substitute for human company: you can take them with you on the train and to meals and curl up with them at night and so on." Seriously? Comes across as slightly sad to me. The top priority on everyones list should be friends+family IMHO. Everything else is just 'stuff'. Also I'd say there's far more to be learned/gained/enjoyed from other human beings than in any book.

At that point it seemed obvious to me that he was kidding.
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