How do you do it?
December 15, 2024 2:32 AM Subscribe
Statistics suggest that the “average” American reads something like twelve books a year. Upon a moment’s reflection it should be obvious that this statistic is useless. Millions of people finish school and never read another book in their lives: not long ago I spoke to a recent high school graduate (his grade point average was just below perfect) who had not read a book since elementary school. Twelve books a year is, I suspect, the kind of figure we arrive at because some people read nothing and others read several books a week. As it stands, enormous numbers of Americans say they wish they read more than they do, if only they could figure out how. It is to such persons that the following is addressed: The One Hundred Pages Strategy [The Lamp]
Oh, so I just need to read more! This somewhat reminds me of the time I was diagnosed with anxiety, and the doctor prescribed relaxation. Thanks, doc.
posted by Admiral Viceroy at 4:32 AM on December 15 [23 favorites]
posted by Admiral Viceroy at 4:32 AM on December 15 [23 favorites]
This reminds me of my "walk 25 miles a day" strategy which I recommend to people who feel like they don't exercise enough.
Seriously, though, I used to read 100 pages a day and my main motivation was a bad case of depression and a desperate need to escape. Now I feel much better and I read when I want to and I carry my phone everywhere because I like it and I often watch TV.
posted by mmoncur at 4:39 AM on December 15 [12 favorites]
Seriously, though, I used to read 100 pages a day and my main motivation was a bad case of depression and a desperate need to escape. Now I feel much better and I read when I want to and I carry my phone everywhere because I like it and I often watch TV.
posted by mmoncur at 4:39 AM on December 15 [12 favorites]
Have you ever considered that maybe "everything in moderation" is a bad idea and you should just go all in on what you like? Read 100 pages a day. Eat nothing but ice cream. Dig a hole to China. It will be fine.
posted by rikschell at 4:43 AM on December 15 [20 favorites]
posted by rikschell at 4:43 AM on December 15 [20 favorites]
I really miss reading more. In grad school, I usually read some fiction over lunch, even if that was just sitting at my desk so I could immediately get back to work. These days, though, my brain is just so tired. I mostly only read for fun when sick or on vacation (i.e., when daily life isn't making my brain too tired to concentrate). It makes me sad. But I guess this is just life under late-stage capitalism. If we should all be reading more, maybe the world should suck less?
posted by hydropsyche at 4:52 AM on December 15 [5 favorites]
posted by hydropsyche at 4:52 AM on December 15 [5 favorites]
I read a lot.
I don't spend most of my day reading.
I don't usually feel like I "spend" any of my day reading; I've got more important things to do like watch tv.
And yet I'm always reading.
Here are some of the occasions that I read (note: a kindle is absolutely key to this process):
- while walking my dogs (book in one hand, leash in the other)
- in the shower (put the Kindle in a quart size ziplock and hang it on the wall)
- while I'm stirring food/waiting for things to cook
- waiting in the gas line at Costco
- any time I'm out of the house and idle for more than 5 minutes (solo eating, waiting for an appointment, etc)
- in a couple minutes once I do my "phone things" but before I get out of bed
I've also been listening to nonfic audiobooks during the workday or doing hands on chores which is a new thing for me this year, and which is NOT the same as reading, at least not for me, more like listening to a podcast. But I've been absorbing book-shaped noise when I can, too.
I have no idea how many pages I day I read or "read" and tracking it like that would stress me out. But I know I'm reading because I'm always a little bit reading. Microdosing reading. It works for me. And I do track what I read each year.
Today I'll be moving onto my 48th eyeball book (38th earball book is in progress) of the year. Looking back, 2023 I read 42, 2022 I read 30, 2021 I read 50, 2020 I read 38, and before that I was tracking on paper but generally reading a lot more because I was commuting daily on transit and reading on the train. Once I started working from home my reading habits had to change, and that's when I started doing my microdosing thing.
✋ panic reading 100 pages a day to meet your quota
👉 take your kindle into the shower with u like a freak
posted by phunniemee at 4:57 AM on December 15 [24 favorites]
I don't spend most of my day reading.
I don't usually feel like I "spend" any of my day reading; I've got more important things to do like watch tv.
And yet I'm always reading.
Here are some of the occasions that I read (note: a kindle is absolutely key to this process):
- while walking my dogs (book in one hand, leash in the other)
- in the shower (put the Kindle in a quart size ziplock and hang it on the wall)
- while I'm stirring food/waiting for things to cook
- waiting in the gas line at Costco
- any time I'm out of the house and idle for more than 5 minutes (solo eating, waiting for an appointment, etc)
- in a couple minutes once I do my "phone things" but before I get out of bed
I've also been listening to nonfic audiobooks during the workday or doing hands on chores which is a new thing for me this year, and which is NOT the same as reading, at least not for me, more like listening to a podcast. But I've been absorbing book-shaped noise when I can, too.
I have no idea how many pages I day I read or "read" and tracking it like that would stress me out. But I know I'm reading because I'm always a little bit reading. Microdosing reading. It works for me. And I do track what I read each year.
Today I'll be moving onto my 48th eyeball book (38th earball book is in progress) of the year. Looking back, 2023 I read 42, 2022 I read 30, 2021 I read 50, 2020 I read 38, and before that I was tracking on paper but generally reading a lot more because I was commuting daily on transit and reading on the train. Once I started working from home my reading habits had to change, and that's when I started doing my microdosing thing.
✋ panic reading 100 pages a day to meet your quota
👉 take your kindle into the shower with u like a freak
posted by phunniemee at 4:57 AM on December 15 [24 favorites]
Speaking of The Lamp... that closing description of reading while walking: I did that for while, before I learned my lesson after getting lamped by a lamp-post.
He kind of lost me with the mention of ploughing through dry biographies of Victorian clergymen, which don't seem worth a hundred daily pages. But the idea is appealing; when I'm spending hours a night binge-watching stuff I can't honestly tell myself I don't have time to read. I want to finish Moby Dick over Christmas, after thoroughly enjoying the first quarter of it in the summer and then getting distracted by social media's parade of shiny things. Maybe this is the self-discipline it needs.
posted by rory at 4:58 AM on December 15 [6 favorites]
He kind of lost me with the mention of ploughing through dry biographies of Victorian clergymen, which don't seem worth a hundred daily pages. But the idea is appealing; when I'm spending hours a night binge-watching stuff I can't honestly tell myself I don't have time to read. I want to finish Moby Dick over Christmas, after thoroughly enjoying the first quarter of it in the summer and then getting distracted by social media's parade of shiny things. Maybe this is the self-discipline it needs.
posted by rory at 4:58 AM on December 15 [6 favorites]
I can't think of an audience that post will speak less to than people who haven't read a book since they finished school. I wonder if it is meant to be parody or if it comes across that way only accidentally.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:02 AM on December 15 [19 favorites]
posted by jacquilynne at 5:02 AM on December 15 [19 favorites]
The author should maybe read a statistics textbook and learn about the median.
posted by Captaintripps at 5:06 AM on December 15 [14 favorites]
posted by Captaintripps at 5:06 AM on December 15 [14 favorites]
It was hard to read this article while my iPhone was in a drawer
posted by sageleaf at 5:15 AM on December 15 [14 favorites]
posted by sageleaf at 5:15 AM on December 15 [14 favorites]
Dig a hole to China.
This will cause trouble with both geology and geopolitics.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:21 AM on December 15 [7 favorites]
This will cause trouble with both geology and geopolitics.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:21 AM on December 15 [7 favorites]
The biggest thing that got me back into a reading habit was joining a book club. Suddenly I had accountability again.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:23 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:23 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
I did this, probably more like 150 pages a day, for about 10 years before kids. Loved it.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 5:26 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 5:26 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
I read more than almost every person I know. But it’s always a slow read. A few dozen pages every other day or so, or some similar amount. I don’t have a quota to meet. I get to it when there’s time to sit and devote my head to it.
I can’t imagine trying to read and comprehend/mull-over/absorb while doing something else. Reading (for me. ymmv, obvs) is a full-attention activity. I exclusively read fiction, though, if that matters.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:29 AM on December 15 [6 favorites]
I can’t imagine trying to read and comprehend/mull-over/absorb while doing something else. Reading (for me. ymmv, obvs) is a full-attention activity. I exclusively read fiction, though, if that matters.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:29 AM on December 15 [6 favorites]
The 12 books a year appears to be old information, a 12-year-old Pew survey on the rise of e-reading. (A more recent survey says "Americans read an average (mean) of roughly 14 books during the previous 12 months and the typical (median) American read five books") In that survey, interestingly, it looks like people who read ebooks read significantly more than people who read print books. I wonder if that's due to the technology being easier to carry around, or if it's due to the type of books, since the early impetus for ereading was self-published romance and erotica?
But you know what? You know his real secret for 100 pages a day? It's there in the seventh paragraph, when he lights up a cigarette. I too read a lot faster when I sacrificed my lungs and coronary arteries for the sake of better attention!
Now my nervous system is sluggish! I'm a really slow reader--I think I'm slower than anyone else I know, far below where I was when I could fly through a novel a day (when I was a kid, and when 'novel' meant 'anything with an elf or dragon on the front'). My personal goal is 24 books a year, and I seem to be able to keep to that pace pretty well. I've been thinking about adding more fiction into my reading (sort of like that CGP Grey idea of themes rather than new year resolutions) because I miss it.
(I was scrolling through my amazon wishlist--which functions as my tbr these days--and had that horrible sinking sensation you get when you realize, there aren't enough days and years left in my life to read all these--a feeling that I used to get from the books in my house, now I'm getting them from books that aren't even mine. I've been trying to actively push that aside in recent years. There are plenty of books I would like to have read, but as I'm finding, a lot of the heavier ones are much more in the "better to have read than to be reading" category. Anyway, if you people would stop recommending books for a month or two, it would help.)
posted by mittens at 5:34 AM on December 15 [4 favorites]
But you know what? You know his real secret for 100 pages a day? It's there in the seventh paragraph, when he lights up a cigarette. I too read a lot faster when I sacrificed my lungs and coronary arteries for the sake of better attention!
Now my nervous system is sluggish! I'm a really slow reader--I think I'm slower than anyone else I know, far below where I was when I could fly through a novel a day (when I was a kid, and when 'novel' meant 'anything with an elf or dragon on the front'). My personal goal is 24 books a year, and I seem to be able to keep to that pace pretty well. I've been thinking about adding more fiction into my reading (sort of like that CGP Grey idea of themes rather than new year resolutions) because I miss it.
(I was scrolling through my amazon wishlist--which functions as my tbr these days--and had that horrible sinking sensation you get when you realize, there aren't enough days and years left in my life to read all these--a feeling that I used to get from the books in my house, now I'm getting them from books that aren't even mine. I've been trying to actively push that aside in recent years. There are plenty of books I would like to have read, but as I'm finding, a lot of the heavier ones are much more in the "better to have read than to be reading" category. Anyway, if you people would stop recommending books for a month or two, it would help.)
posted by mittens at 5:34 AM on December 15 [4 favorites]
There have been times I probably averaged close to 100 pages a day, notably when I was on the Young Adult Books committee at my library, and trying to read as many high-profile and well-reviewed YA books as I could manage; in YA, I read about 100 pages per hour, and I could easily squeeze that in on my bus commute if I didn't have a bus preacher to distract me.
The problem - and I think the reason I eventually reached burnout - is that I kind of only want to read books that astonish me with their beauty and insight. (Somebody out there is saying, "Well, stop reading YA, then!" but I read mostly adult fiction now that I'm not a YA librarian, and the proportion of books that astonish me with their beauty and insight is roughly the same in YA and adult.) If I finish a book and think, "Oh, that was pretty good," I'm sort of annoyed.
Time that I spend reading a mid romcom feels like time I should have spent reading an astonishingly beautiful book, even though (a) you can't predict in advance which books astonish you, no matter how much time you spend reading reviews and best-of-the-year lists, and (b) there are books I expect to astonish me that I continue to put off reading, out of some combination of professional jealousy and the fact that I'd rather anticipate a good book than read it and be disappointed in its failure to fix me.
One of my New Year's Hopes, perhaps, is to make a deliberate attempt to go through my collection of Books I'm Vaguely Interested In and read at least the first 20-25 pages; to give more books a chance to hint, in their first chapters, that they might astonish me with their beauty and insight.
posted by Jeanne at 6:07 AM on December 15 [12 favorites]
The problem - and I think the reason I eventually reached burnout - is that I kind of only want to read books that astonish me with their beauty and insight. (Somebody out there is saying, "Well, stop reading YA, then!" but I read mostly adult fiction now that I'm not a YA librarian, and the proportion of books that astonish me with their beauty and insight is roughly the same in YA and adult.) If I finish a book and think, "Oh, that was pretty good," I'm sort of annoyed.
Time that I spend reading a mid romcom feels like time I should have spent reading an astonishingly beautiful book, even though (a) you can't predict in advance which books astonish you, no matter how much time you spend reading reviews and best-of-the-year lists, and (b) there are books I expect to astonish me that I continue to put off reading, out of some combination of professional jealousy and the fact that I'd rather anticipate a good book than read it and be disappointed in its failure to fix me.
One of my New Year's Hopes, perhaps, is to make a deliberate attempt to go through my collection of Books I'm Vaguely Interested In and read at least the first 20-25 pages; to give more books a chance to hint, in their first chapters, that they might astonish me with their beauty and insight.
posted by Jeanne at 6:07 AM on December 15 [12 favorites]
Reading was/is my first love and sole pleasure. I've been a voracious reader since childhood and it hasn't really stopped, even with owning a smartphone like everyone else.
I read about 30 pages a day, M-F; on weekends, I strive for 60 pages a day. I also have a small stack of books on my nightstand that I read in small bites before sleep. (These are often re-reads, or something involving Tarot or witchcraft.) When I tell people that I am super behind on most popular TV, this is why. I prefer to consume television and movies at my own pace! Also, I get real antsy sitting on a couch for more than two episodes or one movie. I often wonder if this has to do with my ADHD, but I dunno.
I make liberal use of my local library system and am trying to get back in the habit I had my entire life: keeping a book in my bag for boredom. I'm not knocking smartphones because clearly I have one and use it. But I've been lucky to see reading as a pleasure and not a chore. Except school. Talk about sucking the wonder and fun out of fiction.
Anyway, people should read at the pace they like.
posted by Kitteh at 6:08 AM on December 15 [9 favorites]
I read about 30 pages a day, M-F; on weekends, I strive for 60 pages a day. I also have a small stack of books on my nightstand that I read in small bites before sleep. (These are often re-reads, or something involving Tarot or witchcraft.) When I tell people that I am super behind on most popular TV, this is why. I prefer to consume television and movies at my own pace! Also, I get real antsy sitting on a couch for more than two episodes or one movie. I often wonder if this has to do with my ADHD, but I dunno.
I make liberal use of my local library system and am trying to get back in the habit I had my entire life: keeping a book in my bag for boredom. I'm not knocking smartphones because clearly I have one and use it. But I've been lucky to see reading as a pleasure and not a chore. Except school. Talk about sucking the wonder and fun out of fiction.
Anyway, people should read at the pace they like.
posted by Kitteh at 6:08 AM on December 15 [9 favorites]
12 a year is kind of surprising, as the old number I heard a lot in the mid-90s while working at a mall bookstore was 1. One book a year, as the average. 12 seems, honestly, a lot, and while I was making some headway getting back to reading last year, I've really stalled out, and am currently surrounded by unread books while typing on the internet. I'm someone who used to read a couple novels a week (while in junior and senior high), but that was before the internet, and phones. 12 sounds... doable? Maybe that's my goal for next year, as small as it sounds.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:09 AM on December 15 [4 favorites]
posted by Ghidorah at 6:09 AM on December 15 [4 favorites]
I read freakishly fast and often, so counting published books only, I get through about 250 a year and doubling that if you add in fanfic. To read is an absolute pleasure and it has been such a joy to watch my granddaughter beg to go to the library for more books and happily flip through a stack.
Comparatively, I have been to two concerts this year, and I will go days without remembering to listen to music.
I think some of this is the medium and that when and where you lived determined what precious few mediums of art you had available to you. If you lived near a theatre, you learned to love theatre, if you lived in a rural village, you learned to love folk dance. I wonder a hundred years from now, what new artform medium will come out that would have absolutely transfixed me - genetically programmed insect dances?
Books available in the vastness of types and ease of access is startlingly new still, and the thrill of new mediums like serial TV and podcasting/radio are even newer. I expect people who write to complain about not-enough-readers perennially, but they should keep an eye on the people who keep folk dance alive...
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 6:26 AM on December 15 [14 favorites]
Comparatively, I have been to two concerts this year, and I will go days without remembering to listen to music.
I think some of this is the medium and that when and where you lived determined what precious few mediums of art you had available to you. If you lived near a theatre, you learned to love theatre, if you lived in a rural village, you learned to love folk dance. I wonder a hundred years from now, what new artform medium will come out that would have absolutely transfixed me - genetically programmed insect dances?
Books available in the vastness of types and ease of access is startlingly new still, and the thrill of new mediums like serial TV and podcasting/radio are even newer. I expect people who write to complain about not-enough-readers perennially, but they should keep an eye on the people who keep folk dance alive...
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 6:26 AM on December 15 [14 favorites]
This was an annoying article, DNF. It felt preachy and condescending. What works for you does not work for everyone, stop trying to make what you do into a virtue…
I love reading and read more than most people I know. I read every day before bed or I can’t sleep. Everywhere I have a few minutes idle. But having a set number of pages to read per day would make it feel like a chore rather than something fun I do. Some days I read 3 pages, some days 300. And if you don’t count reading books on my Kindle or my phone, I don’t read at all.
Also, I think websites and social media counts as reading. Most people today do more reading on a daily basis than people did before the internet. It’s not books, sure, but who cares? If you want to read more, great - pick up something you might like and give it a go. If you don’t, that’s fine too.
posted by gemmy at 6:37 AM on December 15 [13 favorites]
I love reading and read more than most people I know. I read every day before bed or I can’t sleep. Everywhere I have a few minutes idle. But having a set number of pages to read per day would make it feel like a chore rather than something fun I do. Some days I read 3 pages, some days 300. And if you don’t count reading books on my Kindle or my phone, I don’t read at all.
Also, I think websites and social media counts as reading. Most people today do more reading on a daily basis than people did before the internet. It’s not books, sure, but who cares? If you want to read more, great - pick up something you might like and give it a go. If you don’t, that’s fine too.
posted by gemmy at 6:37 AM on December 15 [13 favorites]
I don't know, I could easily read a hundred pages a day or more, and I definitely often do, and I don't even think this is bad advice for someone who already reads fast and fluently and just isn't getting going on the reading they'd like to do. Which, given that everyone associated with the Lamp seems to have cut their teeth on Chesteron as a child, is probably their audience.
But I guess the critical thing with reading is really: can you read fast and easily enough to enjoy it? It doesn't really matter whether you can easily read a hundred pages a day in your spare time or easily read fifty pages a day in your spare time - are you reading regularly with enjoyment and with some kind of gain, whether that's knowledge, empathy, more skills as a reader, feeling better because you did something fun or whatever else.
Mass literacy and widely available books are two of the greatest achievements of post-agriculture humanity*. Virtually everyone should be able to read with understanding and enjoyment, and there is no real reason why this can't happen. Except of course it doesn't happen, because of constant standardized testing, generations of weak literacy and inequality in general.
People should be able to read well, of course, because you need to be able to read well to understand complex instructions, legal documents and news, but primarily they should be able to read well because it is a great, great pleasure that is virtually free and virtually harmless. If you can read easily and with pleasure, you have an endless source of entertainment and consolation that is deeply customizable - no need to read what Google and Netflix think you should, because if you're a good reader you can use those same reading skills to seek out all kinds of books exactly to your taste.
As a kid I learned so much by reading - general knowledge that has served me incredibly well all my life. And it wasn't like I read anything but exactly what I chose - I just learned stuff by reading kids' books from the last fifty or sixty years, random art books, my mother's old English textbooks, the first part of David Copperfield before it got boring because he was no longer a kid, Readers' Digest at my grandmother's house, etc. And it was fun - are you bored? You read easily so as long as there's a selection of reading material available you can amuse yourself! Everyone should receive the best reading education possible so that they can read with maximum ease and pleasure.
Anyway! My feeling is that if someone wants to read more, they should start by reading exactly what they like and not especially trying difficult or important books (unless that's what they like). Build the habit, boost the ease and more and more books will become easy and accessible.
(Obviously there are books that are difficult because their contents are complex and hard to understand, but ease and speed of reading should not stand in the way of working on the contents.)
~~
I read a lot. About ten years ago I started by keeping a list with the goal of reading a book a week because I really was mostly reading the internet, and a lot of what I read was no good and didn't do me any good. I did that successfully for a few years, and now my reading is such that I know I'll read at least that much and probably more. What I really need to do is set a goal of reading, eg, two non-fiction books a month - that's where I fall down. I just really love fiction and get side-tracked even when I want to read other books.
*Like, we'd probably all be happier if we were hunter gatherers, and in that case we wouldn't need or have reading. But we aren't.
posted by Frowner at 6:45 AM on December 15 [15 favorites]
But I guess the critical thing with reading is really: can you read fast and easily enough to enjoy it? It doesn't really matter whether you can easily read a hundred pages a day in your spare time or easily read fifty pages a day in your spare time - are you reading regularly with enjoyment and with some kind of gain, whether that's knowledge, empathy, more skills as a reader, feeling better because you did something fun or whatever else.
Mass literacy and widely available books are two of the greatest achievements of post-agriculture humanity*. Virtually everyone should be able to read with understanding and enjoyment, and there is no real reason why this can't happen. Except of course it doesn't happen, because of constant standardized testing, generations of weak literacy and inequality in general.
People should be able to read well, of course, because you need to be able to read well to understand complex instructions, legal documents and news, but primarily they should be able to read well because it is a great, great pleasure that is virtually free and virtually harmless. If you can read easily and with pleasure, you have an endless source of entertainment and consolation that is deeply customizable - no need to read what Google and Netflix think you should, because if you're a good reader you can use those same reading skills to seek out all kinds of books exactly to your taste.
As a kid I learned so much by reading - general knowledge that has served me incredibly well all my life. And it wasn't like I read anything but exactly what I chose - I just learned stuff by reading kids' books from the last fifty or sixty years, random art books, my mother's old English textbooks, the first part of David Copperfield before it got boring because he was no longer a kid, Readers' Digest at my grandmother's house, etc. And it was fun - are you bored? You read easily so as long as there's a selection of reading material available you can amuse yourself! Everyone should receive the best reading education possible so that they can read with maximum ease and pleasure.
Anyway! My feeling is that if someone wants to read more, they should start by reading exactly what they like and not especially trying difficult or important books (unless that's what they like). Build the habit, boost the ease and more and more books will become easy and accessible.
(Obviously there are books that are difficult because their contents are complex and hard to understand, but ease and speed of reading should not stand in the way of working on the contents.)
~~
I read a lot. About ten years ago I started by keeping a list with the goal of reading a book a week because I really was mostly reading the internet, and a lot of what I read was no good and didn't do me any good. I did that successfully for a few years, and now my reading is such that I know I'll read at least that much and probably more. What I really need to do is set a goal of reading, eg, two non-fiction books a month - that's where I fall down. I just really love fiction and get side-tracked even when I want to read other books.
*Like, we'd probably all be happier if we were hunter gatherers, and in that case we wouldn't need or have reading. But we aren't.
posted by Frowner at 6:45 AM on December 15 [15 favorites]
(And honestly, books are good because it is good to be able to read sustainedly, to pursue an argument or a story over hundred of pages. The internet is fine, better to read the internet than not to read, but long complex texts do a different kind of teaching. (And fine, like, you don't need to read Middlemarch - read manga! read graphic novels! read all those Salty: A History Of America's Favorite Seasoning books!)
posted by Frowner at 6:49 AM on December 15 [4 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 6:49 AM on December 15 [4 favorites]
Ahhhhhhh! That's the stuff. Great find, chavenet. I've been meaning to take up smoking.
posted by cupcakeninja at 7:05 AM on December 15 [7 favorites]
posted by cupcakeninja at 7:05 AM on December 15 [7 favorites]
A more recent survey says "Americans read an average (mean) of roughly 14 books during the previous 12 months and the typical (median) American read five
That survey includes all formats and in my admittedly anecdotal experience, I'm guessing that audiobooks are pushing that average up, even though they're not the most popular format. I read print (some physical but mostly e-books) but I can't keep up with my wife. She has audiobooks on constantly. The advantage is that she'll listen for 15 minutes doing chores, but i won't crack a book open unless I know I've got a significant chunk of time.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:08 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
That survey includes all formats and in my admittedly anecdotal experience, I'm guessing that audiobooks are pushing that average up, even though they're not the most popular format. I read print (some physical but mostly e-books) but I can't keep up with my wife. She has audiobooks on constantly. The advantage is that she'll listen for 15 minutes doing chores, but i won't crack a book open unless I know I've got a significant chunk of time.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:08 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
read all those Salty: A History Of America's Favorite Seasoning books!
Salt: A World History is actually a pretty interesting book. Currently I'm reading switch hitting Ten Tomatoes that Changed the World (interesting factually, a bit too jokey for my taste) and Glorious Exploits (one of too few allegedly funny books that I'm finding actually funny- thanks to previously for this.)
posted by BWA at 7:13 AM on December 15 [6 favorites]
Salt: A World History is actually a pretty interesting book. Currently I'm reading switch hitting Ten Tomatoes that Changed the World (interesting factually, a bit too jokey for my taste) and Glorious Exploits (one of too few allegedly funny books that I'm finding actually funny- thanks to previously for this.)
posted by BWA at 7:13 AM on December 15 [6 favorites]
My secret to reading more if you want to read more is to just give up on books immediately if you're not feeling it and move on to the next. Read the free sample on Libby or Amazon or whatever and if you are not completely disappointed when it cuts off, forget it, the book is fired. Next! Oh "it takes a while to get into" no sorry don't care. Nothing worse than staring at a book you started and feeling compelled to procrastinate like it's homework because you have slogged to the halfway point and think it's illegal to give up now. I've gone into months long reading slumps that way and it's not worth it to me.
Yes I probably miss out on a lot of acclaimed literature this way, but I also probably read more as a result so it's a wash.
posted by windbox at 7:41 AM on December 15 [20 favorites]
Yes I probably miss out on a lot of acclaimed literature this way, but I also probably read more as a result so it's a wash.
posted by windbox at 7:41 AM on December 15 [20 favorites]
Much of the author's reading seemed to be "professional" in nature; i.e. reading for research. That makes his advice pretty useless for the serious reader who is not an academic.
posted by Vegiemon at 7:42 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
posted by Vegiemon at 7:42 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
(Salt: A World History is actually a pretty interesting book
I think that type of book is often really neat - I was much more reaching for "types of books people think are too pop to count as extended reading". I've got, for instance, a really great pop book about "the Victorian home" (really more "the UK and American Regency home to the Belle Epoque home but people don't periodize like that" and it is absolutely full of fascinating information* while being extremely readable and a little bit wowee-zowie-did-you-know. The way those books tend to work, by estranging a common or generically-understood period or thing, is to me one of the best functions of history(ish) writing.)
*There's a really useful part about pollutants in the home, for instance, and while I was broadly aware of, like, gas lighting and toxins in dyes, I totally did not know how incredibly toxic they actually were. And then there's a big section on the vogue for terrariums, which I had no idea about, and just so much neato material culture. And quite a lot about working class homes and how servants were treated in bourgeois homes - appallingly! No, more appallingly than that! Dickens was not really kidding or exaggerating. Would I stand up and argue with a PhD in the subject based on this book? Of course not, but it really enriches other reading.
posted by Frowner at 7:46 AM on December 15 [7 favorites]
I think that type of book is often really neat - I was much more reaching for "types of books people think are too pop to count as extended reading". I've got, for instance, a really great pop book about "the Victorian home" (really more "the UK and American Regency home to the Belle Epoque home but people don't periodize like that" and it is absolutely full of fascinating information* while being extremely readable and a little bit wowee-zowie-did-you-know. The way those books tend to work, by estranging a common or generically-understood period or thing, is to me one of the best functions of history(ish) writing.)
*There's a really useful part about pollutants in the home, for instance, and while I was broadly aware of, like, gas lighting and toxins in dyes, I totally did not know how incredibly toxic they actually were. And then there's a big section on the vogue for terrariums, which I had no idea about, and just so much neato material culture. And quite a lot about working class homes and how servants were treated in bourgeois homes - appallingly! No, more appallingly than that! Dickens was not really kidding or exaggerating. Would I stand up and argue with a PhD in the subject based on this book? Of course not, but it really enriches other reading.
posted by Frowner at 7:46 AM on December 15 [7 favorites]
How I Do It: voracious reader as a nerdy kid, mainly self-taught for my careers, and I have always read a little every night in bed. I probably read 15 to 20 novels a year, but I also frequently dip into technical or practical books during the day. I do like re-reading favourite novels every few years; I hope that counts.
For me, reading fiction is almost sacred. I need to be somewhere quiet and comfortable, and no distractions (hence the reading in bed). I would read technical books or magazines on public transit, but never a novel there; I didn't want to create any associations between good fiction and the banality of commuting.
I really should use the public library. There's one like 10 min from the house.
posted by Artful Codger at 7:51 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
For me, reading fiction is almost sacred. I need to be somewhere quiet and comfortable, and no distractions (hence the reading in bed). I would read technical books or magazines on public transit, but never a novel there; I didn't want to create any associations between good fiction and the banality of commuting.
I really should use the public library. There's one like 10 min from the house.
posted by Artful Codger at 7:51 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
that's when I started doing my microdosing thing
I know people who can do this. I have someone in my life who literally carries a book pretty much everywhere and will dip into it in almost any context, not even tuning out the world but paying attention to both world and book with half a brain tuned to each. I always wonder how that feels, because it's so alien to how my brain functions. I can't switch or split attention like that. I can't absorb information from snatched seconds or get enjoyment from a few pages here or there. Or read and do anything else at the same time. My eyes might go over the words, but my mind's not really internalizing them.
Reading for me is either something I have to summon vast powers of concentration on to absorb anything from, or something I do fluently and automatically but can't cut myself off from: if I'm reading an even mildly engrossing book and it's midnight, I'm probably not going to sleep until 4 or 5 am.
Some kinds of reading don't work that way for me - marketing copy on household items around me, or conversational internet threads written in short comment spurts, or news articles that aren't too long or complex. I can dip into those, although even there I have a hard time doing anything else simultaneously other than eating. That kind of reading feels like junk food, though. Anything that takes any kind of real attention is something I can't just dip into and out of easily. (Now that I think of it I also have trouble understanding how some people watch movies or TV while doing laundry or crafts and still manage to absorb the contents of what they're watching. If I try to multitask like that, I'm either not going to really get anything from what's on the screen or I'll find myself with my attention captured and my hands entirely idle.)
tl;dr brain chemistry plays a role I think
posted by trig at 7:52 AM on December 15 [5 favorites]
I know people who can do this. I have someone in my life who literally carries a book pretty much everywhere and will dip into it in almost any context, not even tuning out the world but paying attention to both world and book with half a brain tuned to each. I always wonder how that feels, because it's so alien to how my brain functions. I can't switch or split attention like that. I can't absorb information from snatched seconds or get enjoyment from a few pages here or there. Or read and do anything else at the same time. My eyes might go over the words, but my mind's not really internalizing them.
Reading for me is either something I have to summon vast powers of concentration on to absorb anything from, or something I do fluently and automatically but can't cut myself off from: if I'm reading an even mildly engrossing book and it's midnight, I'm probably not going to sleep until 4 or 5 am.
Some kinds of reading don't work that way for me - marketing copy on household items around me, or conversational internet threads written in short comment spurts, or news articles that aren't too long or complex. I can dip into those, although even there I have a hard time doing anything else simultaneously other than eating. That kind of reading feels like junk food, though. Anything that takes any kind of real attention is something I can't just dip into and out of easily. (Now that I think of it I also have trouble understanding how some people watch movies or TV while doing laundry or crafts and still manage to absorb the contents of what they're watching. If I try to multitask like that, I'm either not going to really get anything from what's on the screen or I'll find myself with my attention captured and my hands entirely idle.)
tl;dr brain chemistry plays a role I think
posted by trig at 7:52 AM on December 15 [5 favorites]
I’ve made peace with the fact that the Internet destroyed my ability to read even the least demanding book-length fiction.
Even book-length non-fiction has struggled. I did just read Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario from “cover” to “cover” but it was short, easy to read, and of particular interest to me.
Article-length or shorter, I’m reading almost all day long.
posted by Lemkin at 7:57 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
Even book-length non-fiction has struggled. I did just read Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario from “cover” to “cover” but it was short, easy to read, and of particular interest to me.
Article-length or shorter, I’m reading almost all day long.
posted by Lemkin at 7:57 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
I've got, for instance, a really great pop book about "the Victorian home"
Frowner, you know you can't just mention a book like that in the thread without naming it!
posted by mittens at 8:05 AM on December 15 [1 favorite]
Frowner, you know you can't just mention a book like that in the thread without naming it!
posted by mittens at 8:05 AM on December 15 [1 favorite]
Mod note: One deleted, user's request!
posted by travelingthyme (staff) at 8:06 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
posted by travelingthyme (staff) at 8:06 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
I read at least 60 books this year and those are just the ones I bothered to write down. I'm a working mom with a lot going on. My secret is that I only read ebooks on my phone. It's actually been so great this year as whenever I catch myself starting to doomscroll I'm like "ah-ah-ah! Use your phone to nourish your mind!" and switch over to Libby.
posted by potrzebie at 8:10 AM on December 15 [7 favorites]
posted by potrzebie at 8:10 AM on December 15 [7 favorites]
I’ve made peace with the fact that the Internet destroyed my ability to read even the least demanding book-length fiction.
I blame Trump. For nearly a decade now, the horror show has consumed me: his appalling character, awful campaigns and administration, and the frustrating quest to see him held to accountability by Congress and the courts, as well as voters. For some reason, I feel the need to be a witness, and I hate how much headspace Trump consumes as well as the constant outrage he provokes. It pales compared to what Trump has wrought for the world and his many victims, but among the worst ways he’s affected me personally: sapping my capacity to enjoy fiction.
posted by carmicha at 8:11 AM on December 15 [9 favorites]
I blame Trump. For nearly a decade now, the horror show has consumed me: his appalling character, awful campaigns and administration, and the frustrating quest to see him held to accountability by Congress and the courts, as well as voters. For some reason, I feel the need to be a witness, and I hate how much headspace Trump consumes as well as the constant outrage he provokes. It pales compared to what Trump has wrought for the world and his many victims, but among the worst ways he’s affected me personally: sapping my capacity to enjoy fiction.
posted by carmicha at 8:11 AM on December 15 [9 favorites]
dorothyisunderwood, I almost never say anything in these conversations about how much reading people do, because I worry it comes off as totally snobby and one-upping if I pop in to say that I routinely read between 200 and 300 books a year, but your post didn't come off that way to me and I am glad to meet a kindred spirit.
posted by Well I never at 8:21 AM on December 15 [6 favorites]
posted by Well I never at 8:21 AM on December 15 [6 favorites]
Whenever I have a reading slump, I go back and read old childhood favorites. Drop them judiciously if they suck. Done it enough times to have a rotation of ones that hold up though (Alice in Wonderland, Howl’s Moving Castle, The Princess and the Goblin, The Enchanted Castle, The Wizard of Oz). It retrains my brain in the “how to read regularly” habit gently and in a way that typically guarantees some kind of positive emotion is associated with the habit.
posted by brook horse at 8:40 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
posted by brook horse at 8:40 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
Since I got a Story Graph account, I set myself a goal of 3 books a month. I based it on my average books read in a month and decided to keep at it. Does that mean that sometimes I game the system by reading 3 250-page books? Yes, but it's my system to game. I'm at 34 books for the year so about on track!
posted by fiercekitten at 8:46 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
posted by fiercekitten at 8:46 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
Rereading is such a big part of my reading, does that count? Every new book is either an acquaintance (read 1-2 times, pass on) or a friend (reread when I need to spend time with them). Page counts and daily stats have nothing to do with it. Books of facts I may keep a while but they can get outdated, they're more like tools.
I pass on a lot of books, and I'm skittish around Acclaimed Novels which can be beautiful but leave me cold. My reading time is limited; I use filters like, was it written by a woman/ queer person/ person of color? Non-American/non-British? Then I might try a little harder to connect.
posted by emjaybee at 8:56 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
I pass on a lot of books, and I'm skittish around Acclaimed Novels which can be beautiful but leave me cold. My reading time is limited; I use filters like, was it written by a woman/ queer person/ person of color? Non-American/non-British? Then I might try a little harder to connect.
posted by emjaybee at 8:56 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
Seems like there’s a huge difference in people’s brains, and how they can read. Kind of wild that the guy who wrote the original column has read so much and not understood that people can be different
posted by The River Ivel at 9:00 AM on December 15 [6 favorites]
posted by The River Ivel at 9:00 AM on December 15 [6 favorites]
If rereading didn't count I would have only read 18 books this year.
posted by phunniemee at 9:01 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
posted by phunniemee at 9:01 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
and not understood that people can be different
He keeps his Think Different™ shut in a drawer.
posted by phunniemee at 9:02 AM on December 15 [6 favorites]
He keeps his Think Different™ shut in a drawer.
posted by phunniemee at 9:02 AM on December 15 [6 favorites]
These days I find I don't do a lot of print reading, but I still read a lot on my phone. (Fiction, mostly, for a little escapism.)
I don't know if the decline has corresponded to being heavily on the internet, but it's definitely corresponded to me needing glasses later in life. Being able to adjust the font size and brightness of a text is a real game-changer when it comes to giving my worn-out eyes a rest.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 9:03 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
I don't know if the decline has corresponded to being heavily on the internet, but it's definitely corresponded to me needing glasses later in life. Being able to adjust the font size and brightness of a text is a real game-changer when it comes to giving my worn-out eyes a rest.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 9:03 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
I read more than my non-writer friends, but am left in the dust by almost every writer I know. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I manage about 1 1/2 books/week.
The thing I recommend to friends who want to read as much as I do is to delete social media off their phone and get a reading app (kindle, Kobo, Libby, whatever). I only do social media on my laptop now and when I'm waiting in line or just have a five-minute lull I read a few pages instead of doomscrolling. I'm not reading any more than before, actually, it's just that I wasn't defining reading posts on Facebook or Insta or wherever as reading, right, I have just shifted that reading to books.
posted by joannemerriam at 9:08 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
The thing I recommend to friends who want to read as much as I do is to delete social media off their phone and get a reading app (kindle, Kobo, Libby, whatever). I only do social media on my laptop now and when I'm waiting in line or just have a five-minute lull I read a few pages instead of doomscrolling. I'm not reading any more than before, actually, it's just that I wasn't defining reading posts on Facebook or Insta or wherever as reading, right, I have just shifted that reading to books.
posted by joannemerriam at 9:08 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
I got back into reading a few months ago but only because I went cold turkey on social media/Reddit.
As long as I can scroll short term content, I will never read a book.
posted by EarnestDeer at 9:20 AM on December 15 [5 favorites]
As long as I can scroll short term content, I will never read a book.
posted by EarnestDeer at 9:20 AM on December 15 [5 favorites]
Guess I'll add on to the "my tactics for reading include" pile with the fact that I normally have multiple books going in different formats, genres, or modes. It's helpful to switch from one to the other if I slow down or get bored. Typically that means I'm always reading:
(a) 1 novel on the Kobo
(b) 1 graphic novel or comic
(c) 1 audiobook
(d) 1 print book
(e) one collection of myths, traditional tales, or folklore.
Poetry and plays rotate through in slots (a) or (d)
Nonfiction is mostly work/research, but when I read any of it from cover to cover, it's (b), (c), or (d).
posted by cupcakeninja at 9:22 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
(a) 1 novel on the Kobo
(b) 1 graphic novel or comic
(c) 1 audiobook
(d) 1 print book
(e) one collection of myths, traditional tales, or folklore.
Poetry and plays rotate through in slots (a) or (d)
Nonfiction is mostly work/research, but when I read any of it from cover to cover, it's (b), (c), or (d).
posted by cupcakeninja at 9:22 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
I also love the detail about smoking. I don't smoke but I drink. I like to settle down with a good nonfiction tome and a few cocktails. Takes me forever to get through the book but since I have to read every sentence twice or more I think it counts as two, three books.
Haha seriously, I turn off the computer late afternoon and read every night but the internet still intrudes. I'll come across a fascinating fact or theory and have to make a mental note about looking it up online the next day. Sometimes I can't wait and lunge for my phone. I don't think this adds to the reading experience or my comprehension but try convincing a gemini to stick to one thing at a time.
posted by mygraycatbongo at 9:29 AM on December 15 [4 favorites]
Haha seriously, I turn off the computer late afternoon and read every night but the internet still intrudes. I'll come across a fascinating fact or theory and have to make a mental note about looking it up online the next day. Sometimes I can't wait and lunge for my phone. I don't think this adds to the reading experience or my comprehension but try convincing a gemini to stick to one thing at a time.
posted by mygraycatbongo at 9:29 AM on December 15 [4 favorites]
(or more realistically neglecting) correspondence.
pass
posted by HearHere at 9:32 AM on December 15 [1 favorite]
pass
posted by HearHere at 9:32 AM on December 15 [1 favorite]
huh, I have been an avid reader since I was 6, and that has never flagged, despite school etc.,
I know I read more than most people (in the last few years [only time for which I have precise data] it's about 40-50 books per year, 80-90% fiction, the rest mostly history/history-adjacent). I am very fortunate to work from home for many years now, and only part time, so reading is a dedicated activity for me, not something I stick into the interstices of other activities (no kink shame!). I only spend about 2 hours a day on TV, and at least that much on reading (perhaps 200 pgs per day). Reading is a solace, and an escape but also I want to READ.ALL.THE.BOOKS. I want to KNOW. So it's also a very active interest on my part. I crave books like they are food. (agreed with above a kindle is a game changer, as it Libby/any library app that allows FREE access to MOAR.BOOKS!!!!!)
posted by supermedusa at 9:33 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
I know I read more than most people (in the last few years [only time for which I have precise data] it's about 40-50 books per year, 80-90% fiction, the rest mostly history/history-adjacent). I am very fortunate to work from home for many years now, and only part time, so reading is a dedicated activity for me, not something I stick into the interstices of other activities (no kink shame!). I only spend about 2 hours a day on TV, and at least that much on reading (perhaps 200 pgs per day). Reading is a solace, and an escape but also I want to READ.ALL.THE.BOOKS. I want to KNOW. So it's also a very active interest on my part. I crave books like they are food. (agreed with above a kindle is a game changer, as it Libby/any library app that allows FREE access to MOAR.BOOKS!!!!!)
posted by supermedusa at 9:33 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
> You know his real secret for 100 pages a day? It's there in the seventh paragraph, when he lights up a cigarette
good god, drinking hot coffee, smoking a cigarette, reading bolaño on the patio on a cool florida winter evening, staying up till 3am devouring page after page, cigarette after cigarette, a whole pot of coffee. heavenly. i don’t read hardly as much anymore because i have to work, then cook and clean, then i get a few exhausted hours, 3 at the most but usually more like 2 before starting it all over, and it’s just much easier to lay down and watch tv
posted by dis_integration at 9:40 AM on December 15 [6 favorites]
good god, drinking hot coffee, smoking a cigarette, reading bolaño on the patio on a cool florida winter evening, staying up till 3am devouring page after page, cigarette after cigarette, a whole pot of coffee. heavenly. i don’t read hardly as much anymore because i have to work, then cook and clean, then i get a few exhausted hours, 3 at the most but usually more like 2 before starting it all over, and it’s just much easier to lay down and watch tv
posted by dis_integration at 9:40 AM on December 15 [6 favorites]
For nearly a decade now, the horror show has consumed me
Related, I'm a lifelong reader, can't imagine life without books, but (other than the rare paperback in a day or two) I've always been a slow reader. It can take me a week to meaningfully read what others might breeze through in a day *shrugs* I'll never be a sprinter.
Part of today's challenge is, yes, screen reading and internet brain of the last quarter century.
But lots is definitely a new frazzled vigilance for these present times, always anticipating the next shoe drop, jackboots confiscating the Beatnik books, weird neighbors unveiling their militia, friends gone in the night, missiles launching or whatever. The feeling is that some of them are bound to attempt follow-through on their menace, right?
And so I just don't finish the majority of books I start, because little gives me a sense of comfort or wisdom, a veneer of insight, or even sufficient distraction anymore. So much now seems like whistling past the graveyard.
I know it's mostly irrational and we can't let "them" steal our souls, but goddammit, it's a factor, the zeitgeist. That unsettling thrum of them.
And also aging eyesight.
It's a lot!
Anyways, Kindle Paperwhite, always at the ready, accumulating a humble home library of "essentials", and the good old public library. It all increases opportunity, a dozen pages here and there allow it to be a constant.
posted by Claude Hoeper at 9:41 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
Related, I'm a lifelong reader, can't imagine life without books, but (other than the rare paperback in a day or two) I've always been a slow reader. It can take me a week to meaningfully read what others might breeze through in a day *shrugs* I'll never be a sprinter.
Part of today's challenge is, yes, screen reading and internet brain of the last quarter century.
But lots is definitely a new frazzled vigilance for these present times, always anticipating the next shoe drop, jackboots confiscating the Beatnik books, weird neighbors unveiling their militia, friends gone in the night, missiles launching or whatever. The feeling is that some of them are bound to attempt follow-through on their menace, right?
And so I just don't finish the majority of books I start, because little gives me a sense of comfort or wisdom, a veneer of insight, or even sufficient distraction anymore. So much now seems like whistling past the graveyard.
I know it's mostly irrational and we can't let "them" steal our souls, but goddammit, it's a factor, the zeitgeist. That unsettling thrum of them.
And also aging eyesight.
It's a lot!
Anyways, Kindle Paperwhite, always at the ready, accumulating a humble home library of "essentials", and the good old public library. It all increases opportunity, a dozen pages here and there allow it to be a constant.
posted by Claude Hoeper at 9:41 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
And yes, nicotine facilitated focus in my 20s (that I can no longer tolerate). I'm glad that's mentioned. It's obviously a literally sickening habit, but unfortunately it does have practical application.
posted by Claude Hoeper at 9:45 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
posted by Claude Hoeper at 9:45 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
I'm another person who reads a lot / is always reading and who will quit with a book any time I feel like it. Scandalously, this is even true for book group books. I'm in two in-person book groups and if I'm not enjoying the book I just stop! Done! Back to the library with it!
podcasts, which I have become convinced are the single most pervasive obstacles to adult reading
I agree so long as we're counting audiobooks as reading, which I do. But listening to podcasts and reading (with my eyeballs) are two separate activities that cannot be substituted for each other without a considerable amount of risk, to me or to my fellow drivers or to my sewing project.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:45 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
podcasts, which I have become convinced are the single most pervasive obstacles to adult reading
I agree so long as we're counting audiobooks as reading, which I do. But listening to podcasts and reading (with my eyeballs) are two separate activities that cannot be substituted for each other without a considerable amount of risk, to me or to my fellow drivers or to my sewing project.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:45 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
I have read large numbers of SFF books.
I remember one Sunday afternoon in high school, I went to a store called Jerry's Paperback Exchange and came home with 5 SF novels and some old F&SF magazines. I sat down at one end of the living room couch at 4:00 with the books beside me on a table, and by midnight I'd read all 5 novels (they were only 150-250 pages each in those days, but the print tended to be a bit smaller too) and I only stopped then because I had two papers due the next day, which ended up taking me until 3:30 in the morning to finish.
For some reason a few months before I graduated from high school, I decided to count all the SFF books on the brick and board shelves in my bedroom, and I had more than 2500. I went through the card catalog at the central branch of the library and found about 1500 that I’d read but didn’t own, which was fairly straightforward because I never bought anything I’d already read.
I don’t think reading books is something we should count as an virtuous in and of itself. It can become pathological.
posted by jamjam at 9:47 AM on December 15 [5 favorites]
I remember one Sunday afternoon in high school, I went to a store called Jerry's Paperback Exchange and came home with 5 SF novels and some old F&SF magazines. I sat down at one end of the living room couch at 4:00 with the books beside me on a table, and by midnight I'd read all 5 novels (they were only 150-250 pages each in those days, but the print tended to be a bit smaller too) and I only stopped then because I had two papers due the next day, which ended up taking me until 3:30 in the morning to finish.
For some reason a few months before I graduated from high school, I decided to count all the SFF books on the brick and board shelves in my bedroom, and I had more than 2500. I went through the card catalog at the central branch of the library and found about 1500 that I’d read but didn’t own, which was fairly straightforward because I never bought anything I’d already read.
I don’t think reading books is something we should count as an virtuous in and of itself. It can become pathological.
posted by jamjam at 9:47 AM on December 15 [5 favorites]
also aging eyesight
For me, this is the debate-ender on e-books versus paper.
However much sentimental value the Penguin edition of Nicholas Nickleby tying in to the Mobil presentation of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s televised stage production (the one with the Seymour Chwast art) has, until it can increase its font size by at least 3 points, it’s a non-starter next to the Standard Ebooks edition.
posted by Lemkin at 9:58 AM on December 15 [7 favorites]
For me, this is the debate-ender on e-books versus paper.
However much sentimental value the Penguin edition of Nicholas Nickleby tying in to the Mobil presentation of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s televised stage production (the one with the Seymour Chwast art) has, until it can increase its font size by at least 3 points, it’s a non-starter next to the Standard Ebooks edition.
posted by Lemkin at 9:58 AM on December 15 [7 favorites]
I don’t think reading books is something we should count as an virtuous in and of itself. It can become pathological.
Sven Birkerts - a big fan of reading - imagines a scenario where he’s trapped in a room for a week with nothing to read but the most disposable series romance novel. He wonders if the certainty that he would eventually cave and read it voraciously can be likened to an alcoholic resorting to any old rotgut in a pinch.
posted by Lemkin at 10:01 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
Sven Birkerts - a big fan of reading - imagines a scenario where he’s trapped in a room for a week with nothing to read but the most disposable series romance novel. He wonders if the certainty that he would eventually cave and read it voraciously can be likened to an alcoholic resorting to any old rotgut in a pinch.
posted by Lemkin at 10:01 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
haha I am a little bit of a book snob but I will definitely read airport paperback swill if trapped with no better options, ie staying at someone's house or whatever.
posted by supermedusa at 10:04 AM on December 15 [4 favorites]
posted by supermedusa at 10:04 AM on December 15 [4 favorites]
Ironically, I read SO much more when my kids were small than I do now as an empty-nester. I had a bus commute, so that averaged an hour a day, plus a couple of smoke breaks while at work, and lunch break, and then I'd read in the bath after the kids went to bed.
Then life changed; I moved somewhere without public transit, had a job where I couldn't have smoke breaks, got a smart phone and started reading the internet during lunch, etc. Eventually the only time I read was that hour in the bath at night, So I went from reading 5 books a week to two.
Now I can't use my tub anymore (mobility issues which would also make it near-impossible to read in the shower), and I somehow haven't figured out a new reading routine. I could easily read while watching TV in the evenings, I just have to train myself to keep the laptop closed. My Amazon wishlist is full of books and not much else, so hopefully I'll receive a lot of books for Xmas and get back into it. I miss being that person who always had a book handy.
posted by cinnamonduff at 10:10 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
Then life changed; I moved somewhere without public transit, had a job where I couldn't have smoke breaks, got a smart phone and started reading the internet during lunch, etc. Eventually the only time I read was that hour in the bath at night, So I went from reading 5 books a week to two.
Now I can't use my tub anymore (mobility issues which would also make it near-impossible to read in the shower), and I somehow haven't figured out a new reading routine. I could easily read while watching TV in the evenings, I just have to train myself to keep the laptop closed. My Amazon wishlist is full of books and not much else, so hopefully I'll receive a lot of books for Xmas and get back into it. I miss being that person who always had a book handy.
posted by cinnamonduff at 10:10 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
oh no, not reading romance novels, surely not that, what torture
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:11 AM on December 15 [8 favorites]
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:11 AM on December 15 [8 favorites]
I'll come across a fascinating fact or theory and have to make a mental note about looking it up online the next day. Sometimes I can't wait and lunge for my phone. I don't think this adds to the reading experience or my comprehension
Could it be argued that this is the essence of active reading? The internet then provides limitless distractions, unfortunately, but that active engagement with text is critical. I’m sure plenty here also make margin notes and highlights.
posted by Claude Hoeper at 10:12 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
Could it be argued that this is the essence of active reading? The internet then provides limitless distractions, unfortunately, but that active engagement with text is critical. I’m sure plenty here also make margin notes and highlights.
posted by Claude Hoeper at 10:12 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
Like many here, I’ve been a rabid reader for as long as I can remember and I typically read at least 40 books a year.
However, I have a terrible time reading inside at home. I flip through a few pages before indoor obligations demand my attention. I have a north-facing outdoor porch that I use, and that provides enough distance to focus on reading for an hour or so.
Too cold outside? Then I read bars or coffeehouses or restaurants as it’s a good escape from domestic and professional demands. I know many can’t read under those circumstances, but the hum of activity works for me. (That is, until someone inevtiably asks:“Whatcha reading?”)
While I always carry a book, I also carry a back-up book in case I forget my primary book. I prefer a collection of short stories as I don’t have to recall prior details, and each short provides a (hopefully) satisfying arc.
posted by gturner at 10:15 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
However, I have a terrible time reading inside at home. I flip through a few pages before indoor obligations demand my attention. I have a north-facing outdoor porch that I use, and that provides enough distance to focus on reading for an hour or so.
Too cold outside? Then I read bars or coffeehouses or restaurants as it’s a good escape from domestic and professional demands. I know many can’t read under those circumstances, but the hum of activity works for me. (That is, until someone inevtiably asks:“Whatcha reading?”)
While I always carry a book, I also carry a back-up book in case I forget my primary book. I prefer a collection of short stories as I don’t have to recall prior details, and each short provides a (hopefully) satisfying arc.
posted by gturner at 10:15 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
oh no, not reading romance novels, surely not that, what torture
I think any quickly written genre novel with no artistic ambition would have served for the purpose of this thought experiment.
Feel free to substitute any of the bajillion worthless Wheel of Time knockoffs.
posted by Lemkin at 10:19 AM on December 15 [1 favorite]
I think any quickly written genre novel with no artistic ambition would have served for the purpose of this thought experiment.
Feel free to substitute any of the bajillion worthless Wheel of Time knockoffs.
posted by Lemkin at 10:19 AM on December 15 [1 favorite]
The hundred pages thing doesn't work for me because it sounds too much like a chore. My strategy for reading a lot of books: be permissive about what counts as read.
Audiobooks count. When the book is over I find that I retain the about the same information from an audiobook as I do from a book book.
"Unfinished" books count if you are done with the book. In Godel Escher Bach there is a conversation about books where one character expresses disappointment that the physical nature of a book reveals how far away the end is. He suggests that it might be a good idea to end the story in the middle in order to provide more satisfying surprise endings. My thought is that you can do this yourself by deciding to stop reading. If you are done you are done. There are no book police.
Sometimes I skip to the end and read the last chapter, to see if a book is worth it.
Read comic books and art books. Personally, I like to read them very slowly and spend a lot of time looking at the art. I had a friend who would burn through them only reading the words. He's dead now, so he can't argue when I say he was definitely doing it wrong. But if skipping the art in a book gives you joy and helps you read, it's not like anyone is going to stop you.
posted by surlyben at 10:20 AM on December 15 [5 favorites]
Audiobooks count. When the book is over I find that I retain the about the same information from an audiobook as I do from a book book.
"Unfinished" books count if you are done with the book. In Godel Escher Bach there is a conversation about books where one character expresses disappointment that the physical nature of a book reveals how far away the end is. He suggests that it might be a good idea to end the story in the middle in order to provide more satisfying surprise endings. My thought is that you can do this yourself by deciding to stop reading. If you are done you are done. There are no book police.
Sometimes I skip to the end and read the last chapter, to see if a book is worth it.
Read comic books and art books. Personally, I like to read them very slowly and spend a lot of time looking at the art. I had a friend who would burn through them only reading the words. He's dead now, so he can't argue when I say he was definitely doing it wrong. But if skipping the art in a book gives you joy and helps you read, it's not like anyone is going to stop you.
posted by surlyben at 10:20 AM on December 15 [5 favorites]
Does the comments section on this here website count? Because if so, I read a lot, haha!
No clue how many books a year I read. Several. Usually 1-3 on dharma and (gestures vaguely) 5? 8? 12? Something in there. Anyway, sci-fi, about which I am picky, and often feel as if there are great titles I am missing. But anyway, I've made a concerted effort to read more after hitting a terrifying slump where I wasn't reading hardly at all for awhile.
I think part of it for me is that in terms of science fiction, reality seems to have leapfrogged a lot of authors' imagination, especially communications technology, which (as it exists today, much less the future) just destroys good narrative. People staring at their phones and posts going viral are shit actions, but that's a lot of life these days. And right now, that's just accelerating. It's weird, and depressing, and I find it really hard to identify books that engage with where we are at technologically.
posted by Smedly, Butlerian jihadi at 10:32 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
No clue how many books a year I read. Several. Usually 1-3 on dharma and (gestures vaguely) 5? 8? 12? Something in there. Anyway, sci-fi, about which I am picky, and often feel as if there are great titles I am missing. But anyway, I've made a concerted effort to read more after hitting a terrifying slump where I wasn't reading hardly at all for awhile.
I think part of it for me is that in terms of science fiction, reality seems to have leapfrogged a lot of authors' imagination, especially communications technology, which (as it exists today, much less the future) just destroys good narrative. People staring at their phones and posts going viral are shit actions, but that's a lot of life these days. And right now, that's just accelerating. It's weird, and depressing, and I find it really hard to identify books that engage with where we are at technologically.
posted by Smedly, Butlerian jihadi at 10:32 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
1) divest myself of all ideas that a book has to be worthy or good for me, and choose only books that I hope will absorb me, entertain me, be gripping, make me desperate to know what will happen next. (Ask Metafilter is a good place to find these).
2) Create a block of time I'm not allowed to go online eg "just after waking up" or "while I have lunch" and spend that time reading. (Often I don't actually read, and goof off online, but I'm not allowed to beat myself up for doing that, it's just "shrug, I'll try again next time" over and over again.
3) have a fidget toy handy and listen to nature sounds / ambient music while I'm reading. Works to redirect that" my hands want to play with my phone " energy.
4) dig out all ideas that reading makes me better than people who don't read and pull them up by their roots because a) untrue and b) bites me in the butt when I'm the person not reading.
posted by Zumbador at 10:37 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
2) Create a block of time I'm not allowed to go online eg "just after waking up" or "while I have lunch" and spend that time reading. (Often I don't actually read, and goof off online, but I'm not allowed to beat myself up for doing that, it's just "shrug, I'll try again next time" over and over again.
3) have a fidget toy handy and listen to nature sounds / ambient music while I'm reading. Works to redirect that" my hands want to play with my phone " energy.
4) dig out all ideas that reading makes me better than people who don't read and pull them up by their roots because a) untrue and b) bites me in the butt when I'm the person not reading.
posted by Zumbador at 10:37 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
The Internet/biking to work vs taking the bus really killed my habit but then some years ago I got over my pretension (like the above comment about romance books) and started reading a lot of fiction that I spent a lot of time feeling like I was too good for, often on my phone to replace doomscrolling, yes, and now I’m back at it. I read paper books/more challenging stuff in the morning (I just finished a really wonderful little experimental novel this morning) and then later in the day some kind of fantasy fluff that keeps me entertained and turning pages. I listen to audiobooks in the car or… at the gym (which makes me feel like a real freak). The “audiobooks aren’t reading” discourse bores the hell out of me because I think the idea of a longform book vs shorter articles you may read on the internet is the important distinction. I find myself struggling to remember sometimes if I read a book or listened to it.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 10:43 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
posted by jeweled accumulation at 10:43 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
I start my own reading after I finish looking at the headlines and answering (or more realistically neglecting) correspondence. This is sometimes but not always when I read my heavy book, following my first cup of coffee and my first cigarette of the day. This slot is open until 9:00 A.M. or so, depending upon what time I have risen and what other tasks present themselves.
So his secret is having a lot of leisure time, apparently.
In the morning I am barely awake before I am on my way to work, having taken a quick shower and brushed my teeth. I do not have hours to leisurely look through the morning paper and drink a coffee while neglecting correspondence. My lunch is as long as it takes to eat a sandwich often at my desk... and the only reading I can do throughout the day is on my phone during cough work meetings cough. I mean, it does add up, but... is this what other people's working days look like or is the author just really out of touch?
To be fair, the working day in Poland starts at 8 am or earlier for most office workers, not at 9 am, and my job has a poor work-life balance in general but still.
I still manage to read a lot but yeah found this guy annoying.
I also cannot read fiction when depressed or anxious. After a major sad life event I realized how much of an emotional workout reading fiction really is. I stopped reading fiction entirely for a few years, all while still devouring non-fiction books, professional textbooks and kid lit. I dreaded fiction, getting in touch with unexpected emotions and being punched in the gut.
I'll give him this, I think it's a good idea to use for reading books the time I spend doom scrolling.
Still annoyed and jealous of people able to read in the morning on a work day. Sigh.
posted by M. at 10:43 AM on December 15 [6 favorites]
So his secret is having a lot of leisure time, apparently.
In the morning I am barely awake before I am on my way to work, having taken a quick shower and brushed my teeth. I do not have hours to leisurely look through the morning paper and drink a coffee while neglecting correspondence. My lunch is as long as it takes to eat a sandwich often at my desk... and the only reading I can do throughout the day is on my phone during cough work meetings cough. I mean, it does add up, but... is this what other people's working days look like or is the author just really out of touch?
To be fair, the working day in Poland starts at 8 am or earlier for most office workers, not at 9 am, and my job has a poor work-life balance in general but still.
I still manage to read a lot but yeah found this guy annoying.
I also cannot read fiction when depressed or anxious. After a major sad life event I realized how much of an emotional workout reading fiction really is. I stopped reading fiction entirely for a few years, all while still devouring non-fiction books, professional textbooks and kid lit. I dreaded fiction, getting in touch with unexpected emotions and being punched in the gut.
I'll give him this, I think it's a good idea to use for reading books the time I spend doom scrolling.
Still annoyed and jealous of people able to read in the morning on a work day. Sigh.
posted by M. at 10:43 AM on December 15 [6 favorites]
Feel free to substitute any of the bajillion worthless Wheel of Time knockoffs.
The misogyny of choosing the female coded genre shouldn't just be written out of the thought experiment as if it says nothing at all about the person who had that thought in the first place.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:48 AM on December 15 [13 favorites]
The misogyny of choosing the female coded genre shouldn't just be written out of the thought experiment as if it says nothing at all about the person who had that thought in the first place.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:48 AM on December 15 [13 favorites]
He suggests that it might be a good idea to end the story in the middle in order to provide more satisfying surprise endings
One of my absolute favorite feelings is reading a non-fiction book on the iPad and seeing there are still 300 pages to go and suddenly the end the rest is all notes and index and backmatter
posted by chavenet at 10:50 AM on December 15 [5 favorites]
One of my absolute favorite feelings is reading a non-fiction book on the iPad and seeing there are still 300 pages to go and suddenly the end the rest is all notes and index and backmatter
posted by chavenet at 10:50 AM on December 15 [5 favorites]
In the morning I am barely awake before I am on my way to work, having taken a quick shower and brushed my teeth. I do not have hours to leisurely look through the morning paper and drink a coffee while neglecting correspondence. My lunch is as long as it takes to eat a sandwich often at my desk... and the only reading I can do throughout the day is on my phone during cough work meetings cough. I mean, it does add up, but... is this what other people's working days look like or is the author just really out of touch?
I felt the same. This past semester, on Mondays and Wednesdays, I left the house at 6:30, frantically got some work done 7-9, and then was in class or meetings all day until 4:45. Lunch, if I got to eat it, was 15 minutes between classes, which was barely enough time to eat, let alone read while eating. When I got home in those evenings, often closer to 6:30 due to traffic, I often did such novel things as check my email and talk to my spouse before collapsing into bed. My "neglecting my correspondence" was because my job was trying to kill me, not so I could spend some time reading a nice novel.
posted by hydropsyche at 10:56 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
I felt the same. This past semester, on Mondays and Wednesdays, I left the house at 6:30, frantically got some work done 7-9, and then was in class or meetings all day until 4:45. Lunch, if I got to eat it, was 15 minutes between classes, which was barely enough time to eat, let alone read while eating. When I got home in those evenings, often closer to 6:30 due to traffic, I often did such novel things as check my email and talk to my spouse before collapsing into bed. My "neglecting my correspondence" was because my job was trying to kill me, not so I could spend some time reading a nice novel.
posted by hydropsyche at 10:56 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
I was a voracious reader in childhood, like hiding under the covers to finish a book after my bedtime kind of thing. Somehow, adulthood took that away from me and I went probably 2 decades not reading books at all. Last year only read like 4 books.
But 2024 has been a total difference. What has worked for me:
1. Kindle, so I can take a book with me anywhere, read on my commute, etc.
2. Libby app, because I am too cheap to constantly be buying books at the rate I’d like to read. Books are expensive! Also, reading whichever book from the hold queue becomes available helps with overcoming the executive function block of choosing what to read. And having 21 days to read it helps keep me moving (or deciding to DNF) and not stagnate.
3. BookTok (people on TikTok who post about books) because I don’t know how I would find books to read otherwise
4. StoryGraph app, to maintain my To Read list and give me cool stats and graphs to track my reading which also keeps me motivated.
There are still some challenges, though. The Chicago Public Library is wonderful and amazing but the hold times on e-books are sometimes outrageous. I’ve been in a stretch the last few weeks where none of the books I have on hold have become available, which has been a bummer and meant a lot more doomscrolling than I’d like. It’s also not great for series where you really need to remember a lot of detail and characters between books (looking at you, Locked Tomb series…) if you have a brain like mine that doesn’t do well holding on to that kind of detail with 2-3 months and 4-6 books in between.
But overall I’d say it’s working because so far this year I’ve read 46 books. I’ve got 2 more weeks in the year and am really hoping to hit 50 but even where I am now is a huge win.
posted by misskaz at 10:57 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
But 2024 has been a total difference. What has worked for me:
1. Kindle, so I can take a book with me anywhere, read on my commute, etc.
2. Libby app, because I am too cheap to constantly be buying books at the rate I’d like to read. Books are expensive! Also, reading whichever book from the hold queue becomes available helps with overcoming the executive function block of choosing what to read. And having 21 days to read it helps keep me moving (or deciding to DNF) and not stagnate.
3. BookTok (people on TikTok who post about books) because I don’t know how I would find books to read otherwise
4. StoryGraph app, to maintain my To Read list and give me cool stats and graphs to track my reading which also keeps me motivated.
There are still some challenges, though. The Chicago Public Library is wonderful and amazing but the hold times on e-books are sometimes outrageous. I’ve been in a stretch the last few weeks where none of the books I have on hold have become available, which has been a bummer and meant a lot more doomscrolling than I’d like. It’s also not great for series where you really need to remember a lot of detail and characters between books (looking at you, Locked Tomb series…) if you have a brain like mine that doesn’t do well holding on to that kind of detail with 2-3 months and 4-6 books in between.
But overall I’d say it’s working because so far this year I’ve read 46 books. I’ve got 2 more weeks in the year and am really hoping to hit 50 but even where I am now is a huge win.
posted by misskaz at 10:57 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
John Updike's review of Stanislaw Lem's Return from the Stars:
Hal Bregg recalls that in space flight, as one hung there “seemingly motionless in relation to the stars,” novels came to appear silly: “To read that some Peter nervously puffed his cigarette and was worried about whether or not Lucy would come, and that she walked in and twisted her gloves, well, first you began to laugh at this like an idiot, and then you simply saw red.”posted by Lemkin at 11:03 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
I was a deadtree reader for uni and a decade of gradschool. I don't miss sitting on a stationary bike and reading for course work.
It was quite liberating to switch to farmwork and audio. The real revolution is PDF textbooks and Text-to-speech plus 1.75x speed options on podcasts/youtube. You can live two lives at once, physically vigourus chores that are productive and the life of the mind.
Of course, there is so much druss, but you can just take a season and dent a whole subfield.
posted by No Climate - No Food, No Food - No Future. at 11:05 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
It was quite liberating to switch to farmwork and audio. The real revolution is PDF textbooks and Text-to-speech plus 1.75x speed options on podcasts/youtube. You can live two lives at once, physically vigourus chores that are productive and the life of the mind.
Of course, there is so much druss, but you can just take a season and dent a whole subfield.
posted by No Climate - No Food, No Food - No Future. at 11:05 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
"average person reads 12 books a year" factoid actualy just statistical error. average person reads 0 books per year. You, who live on MetaFilter & read over 100 pages each day, are an outlier adn should not have been counted
posted by automatronic at 11:17 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
posted by automatronic at 11:17 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
One of my absolute favorite feelings is reading a non-fiction book on the iPad and seeing there are still 300 pages to go and suddenly the end the rest is all notes and index and backmatter
I am the exact opposite! I feel disoriented and strange if I don't really know how much longer the book is. (Some of this is because I keep running into books that are a little boring but I get some kind of mortal-sin guilt if I don't finish a book, so I just really really need to know how much longer I'll be reading it...although maybe my theme for next year shouldn't be so much "read some more fiction" as it should be "find books I actually like"?*)
When I was reading print books, I'd often put a post-it or something at the start of the backmatter so I could keep my bearings; these days, I try to do the same on my phone. No surprises allowed!
*(i wish i knew how to find books i like--really like. everybody seems to have guilty pleasure books except me.)
posted by mittens at 11:21 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
I am the exact opposite! I feel disoriented and strange if I don't really know how much longer the book is. (Some of this is because I keep running into books that are a little boring but I get some kind of mortal-sin guilt if I don't finish a book, so I just really really need to know how much longer I'll be reading it...although maybe my theme for next year shouldn't be so much "read some more fiction" as it should be "find books I actually like"?*)
When I was reading print books, I'd often put a post-it or something at the start of the backmatter so I could keep my bearings; these days, I try to do the same on my phone. No surprises allowed!
*(i wish i knew how to find books i like--really like. everybody seems to have guilty pleasure books except me.)
posted by mittens at 11:21 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
One of my absolute favorite feelings is reading a non-fiction book on the iPad and seeing there are still 300 pages to go and suddenly the end the rest is all notes and index and backmatter
....
I am the exact opposite!
Same here. Like, if I'm enjoying the book, why would I want it to end?
When I am suddenly faced with 2000 pages of back matter I feel cheated :-/
posted by M. at 11:32 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
....
I am the exact opposite!
Same here. Like, if I'm enjoying the book, why would I want it to end?
When I am suddenly faced with 2000 pages of back matter I feel cheated :-/
posted by M. at 11:32 AM on December 15 [2 favorites]
[should have been: 200 pages]
posted by M. at 11:33 AM on December 15 [1 favorite]
posted by M. at 11:33 AM on December 15 [1 favorite]
i wish i knew how to find books i like--really like
for me, this is absolutely footnotes & bibliography: hmm...how does this idea mentioned in the book relate to other things? wait, there's an entire book on this?!
*returns to library*
posted by HearHere at 11:35 AM on December 15 [1 favorite]
for me, this is absolutely footnotes & bibliography: hmm...how does this idea mentioned in the book relate to other things? wait, there's an entire book on this?!
*returns to library*
posted by HearHere at 11:35 AM on December 15 [1 favorite]
> Like, if I'm enjoying the book, why would I want it to end?
Because then you get to start the next one!
posted by The corpse in the library at 11:39 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
Because then you get to start the next one!
posted by The corpse in the library at 11:39 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
> Like, if I'm enjoying the book, why would I want it to end?
Because then you get to start the next one!
Hmm, that's like saying I shouldn't mind having my half-finished entree snatched out from me before I am done, because now I can eat dessert.
I want to savor my meal in peace and get every last bit of enjoyment out of that veggie steak.
If it's especially good, I will start over again instead of ruining the pleasure by starting a new one too fast.
You know, like Ron Swanson after a trip to the Mulligan's Steakhouse.
posted by M. at 11:56 AM on December 15 [1 favorite]
Because then you get to start the next one!
Hmm, that's like saying I shouldn't mind having my half-finished entree snatched out from me before I am done, because now I can eat dessert.
I want to savor my meal in peace and get every last bit of enjoyment out of that veggie steak.
If it's especially good, I will start over again instead of ruining the pleasure by starting a new one too fast.
You know, like Ron Swanson after a trip to the Mulligan's Steakhouse.
posted by M. at 11:56 AM on December 15 [1 favorite]
I was much more reaching for "types of books people think are too pop to count as extended reading".
Yeah, I got that, I didn't mean to imply any kind of a rebuke for your more than reasonable comment, my mind just leaped to the salt book and my key fingers got to work. Mea culpa.
The first relatively modern book of the salty genre that I ever saw was a British job in the '80s of four historically important vegetables, can't for the life of me recall the title and my copy is long since lost in a move. Ring any bells?
posted by BWA at 12:01 PM on December 15 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I got that, I didn't mean to imply any kind of a rebuke for your more than reasonable comment, my mind just leaped to the salt book and my key fingers got to work. Mea culpa.
The first relatively modern book of the salty genre that I ever saw was a British job in the '80s of four historically important vegetables, can't for the life of me recall the title and my copy is long since lost in a move. Ring any bells?
posted by BWA at 12:01 PM on December 15 [1 favorite]
I won an ebook reader some 8 years ago (a Kobo), and have come to enjoy it, despite my belief that ebooks are still overpriced.
Adjustable font is great. It's also cool to have a library in such a small package; great for travel or camping. I've become hooked on the built-in dictionary. When I encounter a word that's unfamiliar, I just press on it and up pops the definition. I've caught myself more than once wanting to press new words on a dead-tree book.
posted by Artful Codger at 12:31 PM on December 15 [6 favorites]
Adjustable font is great. It's also cool to have a library in such a small package; great for travel or camping. I've become hooked on the built-in dictionary. When I encounter a word that's unfamiliar, I just press on it and up pops the definition. I've caught myself more than once wanting to press new words on a dead-tree book.
posted by Artful Codger at 12:31 PM on December 15 [6 favorites]
Here are some of the occasions that I read (note: a kindle is absolutely key to this process)
Huh, this comment by phunniemee has made me realize something (which seems absurdly obvious), which is that likely a big part of why I read more pre-smart phone is that back then, I always carried a novel around. Any situation that required waiting (doctor's office, meeting a friend somewhere, public transportation, taking a shit, etc.) I'd have whatever novel I was reading. I'm prone to blaming my decline of reading fiction (I still do, but less) on Netflix and the like, and it's true that the ubiquity of streaming has somewhat eaten into reading before bed. But I think the bigger issue is at a certain point, the phones portability won over the book without me really being aware of it.
posted by coffeecat at 12:37 PM on December 15 [1 favorite]
Huh, this comment by phunniemee has made me realize something (which seems absurdly obvious), which is that likely a big part of why I read more pre-smart phone is that back then, I always carried a novel around. Any situation that required waiting (doctor's office, meeting a friend somewhere, public transportation, taking a shit, etc.) I'd have whatever novel I was reading. I'm prone to blaming my decline of reading fiction (I still do, but less) on Netflix and the like, and it's true that the ubiquity of streaming has somewhat eaten into reading before bed. But I think the bigger issue is at a certain point, the phones portability won over the book without me really being aware of it.
posted by coffeecat at 12:37 PM on December 15 [1 favorite]
You can put books on your phone of course, as mentioned above
posted by chavenet at 12:47 PM on December 15 [1 favorite]
posted by chavenet at 12:47 PM on December 15 [1 favorite]
pages Georg
posted by seanmpuckett at 1:33 PM on December 15 [5 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 1:33 PM on December 15 [5 favorites]
My kids were avid readers, all through school, and read varying amounts as adults, but they DO read.
I have been asked by literally hundreds of people at this point, "how do you get your kids to read?"
It boils down to one simple question, really. Doesn't matter what school the kids attend, the method by which they were taught to read, what books are on offer - nope, it's just this one massively important question that I ask in response.
"When do YOU read?"
Invariably, the answer falls into two groups - either they DON'T read, with a variety of excuses/reasons, or they DON'T READ IN FRONT OF THE KIDS.
And that, my dears, is the entire problem. Kids who read have an adult around them who reads, somewhere, and models it for them. Kids like "Matilda" who catch the reading bug from an adult outside the home are actually a pretty small percentage of those who Read.
posted by stormyteal at 1:40 PM on December 15 [6 favorites]
I have been asked by literally hundreds of people at this point, "how do you get your kids to read?"
It boils down to one simple question, really. Doesn't matter what school the kids attend, the method by which they were taught to read, what books are on offer - nope, it's just this one massively important question that I ask in response.
"When do YOU read?"
Invariably, the answer falls into two groups - either they DON'T read, with a variety of excuses/reasons, or they DON'T READ IN FRONT OF THE KIDS.
And that, my dears, is the entire problem. Kids who read have an adult around them who reads, somewhere, and models it for them. Kids like "Matilda" who catch the reading bug from an adult outside the home are actually a pretty small percentage of those who Read.
posted by stormyteal at 1:40 PM on December 15 [6 favorites]
^^^ This makes so much sense. My Dad always read. Sitting on the couch, enjoying a book... that was his happy place at home.
posted by Artful Codger at 1:59 PM on December 15 [3 favorites]
posted by Artful Codger at 1:59 PM on December 15 [3 favorites]
My mom and I (small family) always read at the dinner table. I think she felt guilty about it - it's not "good manners" - but I also think it did a lot to encourage me to be a reader.
I've read a lot less lately, though. It's just too easy for the hours to just sort of disappear to distractions. What's worked for me the best is not really having a goal of how much I should read, but associating reading with things I'll be doing anyway. For example, while I'm eating dinner or having a bath.
I'm still not reading as much as I'd like but I'm reading a lot more than last year.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 3:37 PM on December 15 [2 favorites]
I've read a lot less lately, though. It's just too easy for the hours to just sort of disappear to distractions. What's worked for me the best is not really having a goal of how much I should read, but associating reading with things I'll be doing anyway. For example, while I'm eating dinner or having a bath.
I'm still not reading as much as I'd like but I'm reading a lot more than last year.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 3:37 PM on December 15 [2 favorites]
at a certain point, the phones portability won over the book without me really being aware of it
I don't know if it solves the eink-is-fragile problem but the phone-shaped form factor of the boox palma is pretty nice.
Kids who read have an adult around them who reads, somewhere, and models it for them.
Yeah. And often those kids grow up in houses with lots of books, and infancies and toddlerhoods where they're read to multiple times a day, and so on. I had way more books than toys growing up, and I didn't lack for toys.
posted by trig at 3:41 PM on December 15 [2 favorites]
I don't know if it solves the eink-is-fragile problem but the phone-shaped form factor of the boox palma is pretty nice.
Kids who read have an adult around them who reads, somewhere, and models it for them.
Yeah. And often those kids grow up in houses with lots of books, and infancies and toddlerhoods where they're read to multiple times a day, and so on. I had way more books than toys growing up, and I didn't lack for toys.
posted by trig at 3:41 PM on December 15 [2 favorites]
I've built myself, over decades, a large physical library of books I want to read. I once worked at a used bookstore, which is where I acquired most of them. I almost never buy new books, preferring used ones for a number of reasons I won't bore you with. And when I'm done with one, more often than not, it goes to a Little Free Library or PaperbackSwap. I will never read e-books, for various reasons, and I do listen to audiobooks when I'm either ready to sleep or doing something crafty with my hands.
I never go anywhere without a book. On any trip, I'm prone to bringing 2-3 in case I finish one. In some sense, I'm always looking around at my personal library and thinking, "I will always have something to do, even if the power goes out and I can never read stuff on the Internet or watch TV again." I call my library our "post-apocalyptic library" because it has all the books I might need if I could never acquire another book again, and the internet has disappeared.
I'm "currently reading" about fifteen books, which means that they're stacked in front of me, and I pick up whatever catches my interest in the moment. I tend to stop at a chapter break and pick up a different one. The books generally fall into this arrangement: one normal ass fiction that tends to be lighter, one classic I have to read slowly, one poetry, one local history, at least one science/nature, one anthology, one biography, one collection of short stories by a single author, an art book, something about mental health, something on mythology... you get the gist. Yeah, it's an ADHD thing, I guess. But mostly it's how I trained myself to read nonfiction. I could never read nonfiction until I was an adult, and being able to switch it up is how I pried that skill and interest open.
I do have a lot of leisure time, being basically retired. I started keeping a reading list in 1995, and I'm up to 1449 books. In my best years, I read about 80 books, including poetry books, art books, children's books and graphic novels. I really just like reading more than just about anything. People who don't read books kind of freak me out. I know that's a judgement, but I've been a book snob my whole life. I just don't understand what I would do without a book always at hand.
posted by RedEmma at 3:45 PM on December 15 [6 favorites]
I never go anywhere without a book. On any trip, I'm prone to bringing 2-3 in case I finish one. In some sense, I'm always looking around at my personal library and thinking, "I will always have something to do, even if the power goes out and I can never read stuff on the Internet or watch TV again." I call my library our "post-apocalyptic library" because it has all the books I might need if I could never acquire another book again, and the internet has disappeared.
I'm "currently reading" about fifteen books, which means that they're stacked in front of me, and I pick up whatever catches my interest in the moment. I tend to stop at a chapter break and pick up a different one. The books generally fall into this arrangement: one normal ass fiction that tends to be lighter, one classic I have to read slowly, one poetry, one local history, at least one science/nature, one anthology, one biography, one collection of short stories by a single author, an art book, something about mental health, something on mythology... you get the gist. Yeah, it's an ADHD thing, I guess. But mostly it's how I trained myself to read nonfiction. I could never read nonfiction until I was an adult, and being able to switch it up is how I pried that skill and interest open.
I do have a lot of leisure time, being basically retired. I started keeping a reading list in 1995, and I'm up to 1449 books. In my best years, I read about 80 books, including poetry books, art books, children's books and graphic novels. I really just like reading more than just about anything. People who don't read books kind of freak me out. I know that's a judgement, but I've been a book snob my whole life. I just don't understand what I would do without a book always at hand.
posted by RedEmma at 3:45 PM on December 15 [6 favorites]
I'm another one of the outliers with about 200 books per year, and they are 95% scifi/fantasy with a handful of humourous ones thrown in for variety. It's definitely escapism, and can feel like an addiction at times when I hit on a series that resonates at the time.
I've just come off a LitRPG binge, first Dungeon Crawler Carl, and then over just a fortnight, the whole 11 He Who Fights With Monsters books at 1,000+ pages each.
That's an outlier though, but I will read for at least an hour before bed on most days and it does help me fall asleep.
posted by Marticus at 3:56 PM on December 15 [2 favorites]
I've just come off a LitRPG binge, first Dungeon Crawler Carl, and then over just a fortnight, the whole 11 He Who Fights With Monsters books at 1,000+ pages each.
That's an outlier though, but I will read for at least an hour before bed on most days and it does help me fall asleep.
posted by Marticus at 3:56 PM on December 15 [2 favorites]
I read constantly, read to my daughter since her birth, took her to libraries, bought her books, but she just isn't a reader. Gets her info other ways. So don't assume that's something you control as a parent!
Anyway, books! Read how you like, or don't. Just don't hassle other people about how or whether they do it.
posted by emjaybee at 4:32 PM on December 15 [3 favorites]
Anyway, books! Read how you like, or don't. Just don't hassle other people about how or whether they do it.
posted by emjaybee at 4:32 PM on December 15 [3 favorites]
My view.
I was just born book-crazy. Back when I was younger, between jobs I would spend days at the library reading constantly. Like Maugham says, not because I'm more erudite, just more escapist. I don't read as much now because I waste more time on reddit, but I read around one or two fiction/non-fiction titles per week and I usually have a full stack on the go, which looks getting kinda low now...
People who don't read much just have other things to do. Maybe more interesting.
posted by ovvl at 5:01 PM on December 15 [3 favorites]
I was just born book-crazy. Back when I was younger, between jobs I would spend days at the library reading constantly. Like Maugham says, not because I'm more erudite, just more escapist. I don't read as much now because I waste more time on reddit, but I read around one or two fiction/non-fiction titles per week and I usually have a full stack on the go, which looks getting kinda low now...
People who don't read much just have other things to do. Maybe more interesting.
posted by ovvl at 5:01 PM on December 15 [3 favorites]
Oh and... I rarely read 100 pages a day. Sounds like when I used to procrastinate in college.
posted by RedEmma at 5:47 PM on December 15 [1 favorite]
posted by RedEmma at 5:47 PM on December 15 [1 favorite]
a university history major can't survive on 100 pages a day.
posted by clavdivs at 6:30 PM on December 15 [2 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 6:30 PM on December 15 [2 favorites]
I used to read 5-6 books a week when I was younger. COVID and all of its attendant anxiety seemed to have break me of that habit, but... thank god for audio books. I absolutely sit there and listen while cooking, doing chores, being busy because otherwise I collapse into bed exhausted at day's end.
Also, to point about better retention - for me I don't know if it's better retention or just different things getting pushed at me because the reader isn't racing along like I do. Listening to LotR right now (Andy Serkis editions) and I don't think I ever really registered how many songs and poems there really are in those books until hearing Mr Serkis work his way through them. :)
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:13 PM on December 15 [1 favorite]
Also, to point about better retention - for me I don't know if it's better retention or just different things getting pushed at me because the reader isn't racing along like I do. Listening to LotR right now (Andy Serkis editions) and I don't think I ever really registered how many songs and poems there really are in those books until hearing Mr Serkis work his way through them. :)
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:13 PM on December 15 [1 favorite]
100 pages a day? Why not 1,000?
posted by snofoam at 3:02 AM on December 16 [2 favorites]
posted by snofoam at 3:02 AM on December 16 [2 favorites]
I sometimes do a habit tracking thing where I try to maintain long streaks of doing things every day, either things that are good for me (going to the gym, drinking enough water) or that I want to do (knitting, writing, reading), and I actually found that the key to maintaining those habits was very specifically not to make the goal a stretch goal like 100 pages a day. That's too many, and I would fail it too early and too often to establish the habit.
Instead my goals were things like knit 100 stitches, write 100 words, read 10 pages. Even 10 pages might be a stretch for some people, but it wasn't a lot for me (I read fast and I mostly read trashy novels that don't require deep thinking)
That was the key -- small goals. They needed to be enough to get me started and then allow me to stop if I didn't want to do the thing or didn't have time to do the thing. Many days, once I had written 100 words, I would write 1000 more, but if my goal was 1000, there would be days I just didn't have time to get there, and I would break my streak and that would mean I didn't bother on other days, either, when I could have gotten in 1000 words.
Having such small goals also allowed me to find the times when I could sneak in a bit of reading or writing or knitting that otherwise would have been phone-scrolling time and still feel like those breaks were productive. You can get 100 words down (messily) while riding the subway, but 1000 is probably out of reach, so the smaller goal is more encouraging of using that time productively.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:15 AM on December 16 [1 favorite]
Instead my goals were things like knit 100 stitches, write 100 words, read 10 pages. Even 10 pages might be a stretch for some people, but it wasn't a lot for me (I read fast and I mostly read trashy novels that don't require deep thinking)
That was the key -- small goals. They needed to be enough to get me started and then allow me to stop if I didn't want to do the thing or didn't have time to do the thing. Many days, once I had written 100 words, I would write 1000 more, but if my goal was 1000, there would be days I just didn't have time to get there, and I would break my streak and that would mean I didn't bother on other days, either, when I could have gotten in 1000 words.
Having such small goals also allowed me to find the times when I could sneak in a bit of reading or writing or knitting that otherwise would have been phone-scrolling time and still feel like those breaks were productive. You can get 100 words down (messily) while riding the subway, but 1000 is probably out of reach, so the smaller goal is more encouraging of using that time productively.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:15 AM on December 16 [1 favorite]
I have a hard time taking seriously the idea of people who write or edit for a living but do not consider daily reading of books within the sphere of their chosen profession.)
Ahh this is only possible if you assume writers and editors all do it because they love it. After I have read eleventy billion (terrible! godawful! barely coherent) words at work each day the last fucking thing I want to do is pick up another thing and read more words.
It is a shame, I do remember loving reading before doing it for a living absolutely strangled it out of me. But the landlord doesn't take payment in "love of reading."
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 8:17 AM on December 16 [1 favorite]
Ahh this is only possible if you assume writers and editors all do it because they love it. After I have read eleventy billion (terrible! godawful! barely coherent) words at work each day the last fucking thing I want to do is pick up another thing and read more words.
It is a shame, I do remember loving reading before doing it for a living absolutely strangled it out of me. But the landlord doesn't take payment in "love of reading."
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 8:17 AM on December 16 [1 favorite]
(I read maybe one book per year, two in a great year. They are almost always graphic novels, though, because again--a page of words just makes me want to scream aloud after 6 pm.)
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 8:18 AM on December 16 [2 favorites]
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 8:18 AM on December 16 [2 favorites]
The article as a whole had lots of funny bits. That the author can read while walking (after a late night McDonald's run) is astounding to me.
posted by bluefly at 8:21 AM on December 16 [2 favorites]
posted by bluefly at 8:21 AM on December 16 [2 favorites]
Both times I have stepped off a curb, turned my ankle, fallen, and broken something, I was not reading, ergo walking and reading is safer than walking and not reading, QED.
posted by joannemerriam at 12:28 PM on December 16 [2 favorites]
posted by joannemerriam at 12:28 PM on December 16 [2 favorites]
I had moved over to team ebook because I was sick of full bookshelves and really liked the ability to carry so many books with me at once but after my kids were born I decided to go back to physical books so that they could see me reading, and not just on a screen. I think it's worked. My older kid is a voracious reader and will always have a stack of books to go through, the younger one needs to find a book they like but then they'll keep on reading it until it's done and then look for the next one in the series. But if there is no next one then they'll go back to re-reading old Peanuts comics. Don't get me wrong, they spend lots of time on screens of various kinds too but they enjoy reading books as well. Hopefully that's a habit they'll keep up.
Personally I find that borrowing books from the library is a great way to get me to read because I have to return them in 3 weeks so that puts in some pressure to find the time to read.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:41 PM on December 16
Personally I find that borrowing books from the library is a great way to get me to read because I have to return them in 3 weeks so that puts in some pressure to find the time to read.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:41 PM on December 16
The article as a whole had lots of funny bits. That the author can read while walking (after a late night McDonald's run) is astounding to me.
Before my vision went I frequently did this. The walking & reading, not the McDonald's. I occasionally still do it with an e-reader but even at larger font sizes it's tough these days.
It's a fun feeling and not one I thought took any particular skill. I'm not sure if the concern is safety but that part was a non-issue.
posted by mark k at 7:39 PM on December 16
Before my vision went I frequently did this. The walking & reading, not the McDonald's. I occasionally still do it with an e-reader but even at larger font sizes it's tough these days.
It's a fun feeling and not one I thought took any particular skill. I'm not sure if the concern is safety but that part was a non-issue.
posted by mark k at 7:39 PM on December 16
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posted by Czjewel at 4:27 AM on December 15 [1 favorite]