Letting go of the idea of keeping up
reactormag.com
Letting go of the idea of keeping up
1–10 of 164 posts
Re: Letting go of the idea of keeping up
#2I read around 150 books a year. Most of it is what I like to call "shitlit", or alternatively inconsequential literature.
This does not mean I am better or worse than anyone, just that my default state is reading. Friends eventually read books when recommended them and we talk about then.
Reading shouldnt be a target, it should be for enjoyment. I enjoy shitlit, but others may not.
Re: Letting go of the idea of keeping up
#3Goodreads statistics don't add pressure. They take it off. This article assumes that reading is a chore.
If I notice that I'm falling behind it's because I'm not taking enough me time. It's so easy to get wrapped up in work, research, deadlines, grants, students, etc. Then you burn out.
Reading stats are a way to keep that at bay. And even better it's cumulative and I can't cheat. If I've been really busy this month, I have to make even more room next month to catch up. That space gets filled with afternoons where I relax, sip tea, enjoy the view, read, learn something new, get a new perspective, or just live in another world for a while.
What an awful take on life and reading.
Re: Letting go of the idea of keeping up
#4not just books but almost everything. there is a lot of anxiety seeing others put out stuff when you are barely stringing along. dont beat yourself up, focus on beating yourself.
Re: Letting go of the idea of keeping up
#5It's so strange because my experience is the opposite. I see a lot of content about reading and books (how there are no great books anymore, what was the best book, etc), fun facts and other trivia about authors, a few books getting made into movies (hello Dune, but I was thinking of the Martian and Ready Player One) ...
but I don't see any of this cultural expectation, this peer pressure. (One of my friends keep recommending me books and movies, but that's an exception. Okay, I saw Pikkety's Capital on a different friend's bookshelf. And that's it.)
...
and it's also interesting because I remember when half of the world was waiting for GRRM to stop trampolining!
I purposefully put down the last book somewhere around halfway because I thought the next one will be upon us soon, so it'll be great to pick it up and read the remaining story in one go. Hah.
And somehow after Banks died I stopped reading books. (Sure, no connection, but well, it would have been nice to get more of his funky space stories!)
Re: Letting go of the idea of keeping up
#6I read around 150 books a year. Most of it is what I like to call "shitlit", or alternatively inconsequential literature. This does not mean I am better or worse than anyone, just that my default state is reading. Friends eventually read books when recommended them and we talk about then. Reading shouldnt be a target, it should be for enjoyment. I enjoy shitlit, but others may not.
if you read 150 books a year you are well ahead of the crowd. However it would be tough to apply all 150 books contents to real life. If you enjoy reading keep doing it. I would love to be able to read 150 books or let alone make the time for it.
Re: Letting go of the idea of keeping up
#7Every time Goodreads comes up on HN it sounds like a cross between Facebook and drug addiction. I am very glad that I care about as much about other peoples' opinions on the books I read as I do their opinions on my wanking technique.
Re: Letting go of the idea of keeping up
#8I read around 150 books a year. Most of it is what I like to call "shitlit", or alternatively inconsequential literature. This does not mean I am better or worse than anyone, just that my default state is reading. Friends eventually read books when recommended them and we talk about then. Reading shouldnt be a target, it should be for enjoyment. I enjoy shitlit, but others may not.
if you read 150 books a year you are well ahead of the crowd. However it would be tough to apply all 150 books contents to real life. If you enjoy reading keep doing it. I would love to be able to read 150 books or let alone make the time for it.
They're only well ahead of the crowd if someone's measuring for some reason, otherwise they just have a number and other people might have their own numbers, but regardless it's just as arbitrary as having a number for how many video games you played or tv shows watched.
I read probably 6 books last year, all of them left me with some little useful takeaway. I didn't watch any shows, and none of the movies seemed remotely compelling. These numbers and whether I come away feeling good or not are basically a series of dice rolls from year to year, and I'm never desiring to do arbitrarily more of any of them; the time comes when the time comes.
I only ever want to do more when something else is diverting my attention in a way I dislike. For example, I love hiking and I love video games, but one has an endless viable season and the other doesn't.
I used to feel differently though. I used to want to persistently clear my Pocket list, but now I just let the things that really seem compelling draw me in, and the rest can sit there waiting.
Re: Letting go of the idea of keeping up
#9I'd always thought of it as being a perk of being a nerd that I didn't feel the need to "keep up" with fashions.
TV series, books, movies, bands, whatever. I'll partake if I fancy it, if I don't, who cares? I won't be cool? I never was cool, and hell, they changed what it was anyway.
Re: Letting go of the idea of keeping up
#10I read around 150 books a year. Most of it is what I like to call "shitlit", or alternatively inconsequential literature. This does not mean I am better or worse than anyone, just that my default state is reading. Friends eventually read books when recommended them and we talk about then. Reading shouldnt be a target, it should be for enjoyment. I enjoy shitlit, but others may not.
Respect.
I'm gonna start using "shitlit" from hereon out.
And also, there are people I respect who said they read 100+ books a year, and that you should, too. But while others in my circles were eager to jump on the train, for me, I thought it would be performative, and be about having read said 100+ books than digesting any of it. And what more, I recall that I best retain info via reading if I have skin in the game, rather than feeling like reading makes me appear more approvable to others.
All that is to say, it's good to hear from someone who reads a ton that a lot of your reading is kinda junk stuff (even if 150+ books a year is still a crazy metric – and as a tangent, people who ride bikes a ton say that a lot of their miles they rack up are junk miles, so I'm sure there's an equivalent of shitlit in any pursuit/ hobby/ interest/ endeavor).