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Just Read the Book Already

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Re: Just Read the Book Already

#91

Post by ghaff »

tapanjk wrote: post #51
paulpauper wrote: post #11

A lot of non-fiction books have a lot of filler. No need to read 300 pages when a wiki articles or PDF gives you important points

I have to agree with "a lot of filler" part of your comment. This must be a result of the expectation that publishers set for authors regarding the minimum expected length of the book. I found that I would stop reading many books past the first few chapters because then the repetition sets in. The first few chapters deliver the core message and then the author is forced to extend the narrative to deliver the expected…

Publishers are part of it but basically there's a whole economic and distribution system built around books being 200+ pages. Arguably consumers "should" be willing to pay as much for a 75 page book as a 400 page one for a given level of quality (whatever that means) but they're not. So you end up with a large class of non-fiction that pads out ideas which probably deserve something more than a 3,000 word magazine article into a 75,000-100,000 word book because that's what's required for everyone to get paid (however little). And ebooks don't really change that because very little of the cost is in physical distribution.

Re: Just Read the Book Already

#92

Post by byproxy »

rayiner wrote: post #15

“Readers” are so judgey. There is nothing wrong with reading the wikipedia summary of books instead of the whole thing. I read “Fellowship of the Ring” in middle school. Took forever! Put me off the whole enterprise.

If all you care about are plot details, maybe.

But you're missing out on a person's voice. Prose can be as beautiful as any piece of visual art in a gallery. Not only are you depriving yourself of an aesthetic experience, but also a learning experience. Reading will boost your vocabulary and help your writing and give you more cultural references to pull from (and recognize, when they come up in another's work).

But...if you can't be assed, you can't be assed, I suppose.

Re: Just Read the Book Already

#93

Post by finder83 »

I do wonder a lot about the root causes of this. Personally, I'm working on my Master's degree and am reading about 300-400 pages a week, and still enjoy reading novels if I have any spare time or during the summer. I don't have this issue, have no problem with deep focus, and am a computer programmer during the day so am constantly consuming computer-based media.

What I DON'T do is watch TV. We don't own a TV, don't have a netflix subscription any longer, and I see movies about once every 3-4 months. I do watch Youtube, but not ads...I wonder how much of an attention problem while reading is actually internet related and how much is media related.

This is completely non-scientific, but I feel like your body adjusts to what you train it to. Media and TV in particular train you to appreciate interruptions, shallower and half-hour to hour-long stories. The internet and mobile trains you to however you use it...if it's facebook, maybe reloading the feed every 30 seconds isn't the best thing to train your attention? But there is plenty of deep reading content on the web as well.

Re: Just Read the Book Already

#94

Post by ghaff »

jacknews wrote: post #66
paulpauper wrote: post #11

A lot of non-fiction books have a lot of filler. No need to read 300 pages when a wiki articles or PDF gives you important points

I agree, and even reading this piece, I just couldn't. For factual pieces, just give me the bullet points. Perhaps the the worst consistent example is the New Yorker - I just read, uh ok, skimmed, a piece about Elliot hedge fund. It's many many pages long, but could be summarized in a paragraph, or a page, to add some supporting examples. But, there's a big difference between reading for information, and reading for…

I don't really agree for the most part. But, individual preferences aside, the economic reality is that you don't get paid for doing weeks of research and turning it into a few bullet points in an abstract. At some level, people pay for quantity as well as quality.

Re: Just Read the Book Already

#95

Post by emodendroket »

gmueckl wrote: post #77
emodendroket wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the world needs to consist solely of page-turning books that "hook the reader."

I'd say that in order to stay with a book, it needs a hook that the reader can grab on to. But readers have different tastes, so while you might enjoy slow moving brooding works (just guessing), someone else enjoys some fast paced, packed, dense writing. But in either case, if the book fails to meet expectations, chances are that you'll put it aside before you finish.

I want something different from an Abe Kobo novel than I do from an Agatha Christie one.

Re: Just Read the Book Already

#96

Post by watwut »

The biggest obstacle for my reading after I got older was to find books that I would find interesting.

As I had less time, I did not enjoyed filler action/sci-fi/etx books anymore. And to this day, I did not found consistent source of interesting books for adult me. Some manga came close, but the rest I rarely cared to finish.

Re: Just Read the Book Already

#97

Post by emodendroket »

bowlich wrote: post #73
emodendroket wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not very interested in fantasy, but the idea that writing is more long-winded than it used to be doesn't really survive even the most cursory survey of literature from the 1800s. Or if that's not your speed check ancient literature and see if you find it more to-the-point. You're the second person I see in this thread complaining that texts have become too bloated and using this exact example. Perhaps the guy is…

I picked Dune/Song of Ice and Fire because they're thematically similar. In terms of bloat, excluding the Tale of Genji or the Story of the Stone, I can hardly think of anything in the 1800s that pushes into the 1M+ word mark in order to tell a complete story. I mean, people used to joke about War & Peace being long and it's hovering around 1/2 a million words -- and at least when I read it, Tolstoy seemed to be usin…

In absolute length of the longest works I can't really tell you. But the style of diction is much wordier and can often be trying for modern readers. I feel bad about this, being a proud New Englander, but I find the transcendentalists practically unreadable.

Re: Just Read the Book Already

#98

Post by CaptSpify »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #36

Interesting read (no pun intended). I find that it is hard to read something when I'm thinking about other things, which is to say my mind wanders into other areas while reading so I lose track of where I am. But on the flip side when I'm fully engaged I have a hard time stopping reading and that can lead to some late nights where resting/sleeping would have been a "better" use of my time. My biggest challenge has be…

> I find that it is hard to read something when I'm thinking about other things, which is to say my mind wanders into other areas while reading so I lose track of where I am.

I do this too, so I've started keeping a small notebook and pen in my bag. When my mind starts to wander, I write my thoughts into the notebook. I don't know why or how it works, but getting the thoughts onto a page gets them out of my head, which lets me focus.

Re: Just Read the Book Already

#99

Post by bitwize »

Raidion wrote: post #23

Problem I have with books is that it's much harder to justify the "time" to get lost in books. When I was a kid, I was near the top of the school's reading program and devoured books. But now, when I do have time on vacation or sick, I'd almost much rather read something that's educational-ish. It's hard to justify the X hours falling into a fantasy world, though it's still almost as fun as it used to be. Practically…

If you have to justify it, you're doing it wrong. Your free time is your playground. Take half an hour -- or ten minutes -- each day and enjoy those fantasy worlds. They might refresh you.

Re: Just Read the Book Already

#100

Post by [deleted] »

malloreon wrote: post #68
AlwaysRock wrote: post #63

I've gone from reading 10 books a year to reading 25+ books a year over the last few years. Mostly I've cut down on my screen time. I am on a computer all day for work but once I go home I try to spend as little time as possible on a computer. What do I do now? Come home, do yoga for 15-30 minutes, make tea, meditate for 10 minutes, read for 15 - 50 minutes. Then I'll allow myself to do other things that may occupy m…

If I had to decide between keeping my iPhone and keeping ky paperwhite, I just might go paperwhite. And I write iOS apps for a living.

[deleted]
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