I have an almost-four year old child and not a lot of downtime. I used to listen to podcasts when I was doing dishes, cleaning the house, walking the dog, etc. I've mostly abandoned podcasts in favor of audiobooks. It didn't feel like they were benefiting me in any meaningful way—almost like they were just empty calories for my ears.
I finally made it all the way through The Power Broker recently, which I've wanted to read for years, and am now on Jennifer Pahlka's really insightful Recoding America, which features heavily in the chapter "Govern" in Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's Abundance. The three are actually quite interesting to read back to back.
Audiobooks are definitely slower to get through than just reading, but I find that I can stick with them in a way that books just haven't allowed me to do in years.
Wow, listening to the Power Broker now, about 1/3 of the way through.
Audiobooks completely changed things for me... in the past 2 years, 'read' about 40 books, almost entirely listened to on my daily runs. The prior 2 years? I think I read 3.
Audiobooks are just a different medium. I don't think people should pretend that an audiobook is a book. You process the two in completely different ways. This doesn't imply one is better than the other either.
For me I don't like audiobooks because its very slow and spoken stories should have a different cadence, velocity, set of dynamics, and diction than a book should (check out "the moth" to see what I'm talking about). I hold nothing against people who don't like to read or people who like audiobooks, or people who like slow things - Suum cuique.
I agree that it’s a pretty different experience for fiction, where the subjective experience is everything and the narrator can color your experience a lot.
For nonfiction, I think the two mediums are virtually the same depending on the density of the book. Most differences come down to the fact that you’re more susceptible to distraction. Most nonfiction books are light and repetitive enough that I don’t think it’s a big deal
Audiobooks are heavily dependent on the reader. In one case, I had an audiobook where the translator was the reader. She is an excellent translator but a poor reader.
Many authors are poor readers of their own work.
They are certainly good while you are on a long drive etc, because they entertain you while doing some another task which you wouldn't be able to do while reading. During lockdown, I could not read due to the constant stress and fear mongering, but I had to walk a lot every day and the audiobooks were a good way to accompany that.
The best audiobook I’ve ever listened to is Stephen Kings On Writing: A memoir of the Craft, read by the author. One of our times best storytellers, both when it comes to writing them and telling them.
I've a soft spot for that book because it saved me from two days of very long and dreary jury service. (They kept us sitting around all that time.) I think I read at least a third of it in there. The only court stuff I heard was for about ten minutes and incredibly unexciting.
For me audiobooks are okay for non fiction but for fiction I need to read it to be able to immerse in the story and imagine the characters.
Also no all non fiction it's okay either, for philosophy that's a little complicated I need to read it too.
There is also another benefit to books, on average they are much better than a random 3 hour podcast.
If you care about what you read, you'd be getting something that the author has spend a lot of time, skill and energy to write, the editor would have spend a lot of time and skill to improve with the author.
I have a measure for all content I consume, quality/hr of reading/listening. If it's just a long video that has 2-3 questions that has caught my attention I'd be listening only those. If it's a long text that I might find something interesting I'll ask the LLM to summarize the main ideas as a filter before I decide to dive in.
Books, and their audiobooks version have on average much more bang per hour than random podcasts, because they're structured, authors had spend more time on them and you can cherry pick from a structure.
I also have caught myself using sloppy content as excuse not working on planned tasks with excuses like "this might be useful", or watching "productivity porn" videos. I think LLMs are good as a pre-filter for that.
This is a frustration for me as well. A few useful tricks, and some areas I'm looking to explore:
- AntennaPod (Android: https://antennapod.org/about/) doesn't specifically block ads, but does make skipping them fairly painless. I'm not familiar with the iOS app space.
- Seek out, and add a classification tag for ad-free podcasts. When you're not in the mood for dealing with ads, play these.
- Protip: if you learn, or want to learn, German, Deutschlandfunk (and a number of other German-language broadcasters) have a set of excellent, ad-free, podcasts. This includes a number of podcasts for learning German (generally through the Goethe Institute or Deutsche Welle).
- If your podcast app permits it, set your forward-skip to 30 or 60 seconds (the length of most ad beds), and backwards to 5 seconds. You'll be able to navigate past most ad blocks more easily. You can also set begin/end skip periods for start/end of episode advertising.
- I've thought of manually editing episodes from a desktop session using audio editing software (Audacity or similar). That's ... a bit of additional overhead, but as with other mise en place techniques, you incur the overhead once and don't have to worry about the interruptions when you're in the middle of listening to an episode. Audacity shows sound signatures and I'm expecting that most ad blocks will be readily apparent. I also suspect AI tools might be able to remove ads fairly reliably, though haven't looked into this yet.
I've definitely noticed that I deliberately avoid listening to podcasts which have ads when I don't have the bandwidth / freedom to deal with them (e.g., doing other tasks, walking etc.). And advertising has become more pervasive, longer, more intrusively inserted, and annoying with time.
Other ad-free English-language pods: Tech Can't Save Us, History of Philosophy (Without Any Gaps), and Philosophy Bites (and several affiliated podcasts). All are highly informative, well-produced, don't fixate on current events and politics (which ... I find maddening). And several of those would appreciate any support as well.
Yeah, I can skip forward 30 sec, then back up, blech. It's just not worth it when you constantly have to interact with the podcast app.
Scott Adams' podcasts were different. He inserted very few commericials, and they were short enough there was no reason to skip forward. I tried many other podcasts after he passed away, and they all were largely long, boring commercials. Yuck. I now listen to Pandora or Soma FM instead.
> Yeah, I can skip forward 30 sec, then back up, blech. It's just not worth it when you constantly have to interact with the podcast app.
Fortunately this can be done much more easily now, with headphone-based controls and smartwatch-based controls. It takes maybe 1-3 seconds for me to get through an ad break and be back to listening.
There are podcasts which are just free-association rambling (or worse), others which are very closely scripted and edited.
I very much prefer the latter, and the best of those approach books in structure and/or value, if they don't directly produce books themselves (e.g., Peter Adamson's History of Philosophy, which is both a podcast and a book series).
After a long reading hiatus, audiobooks helped me pick up speed. I read faster with audiobook than without. For a few books, I combined regular and audiobook, so the audiobook forces me to keep reading, and hearing what I'm reading gives me something to hold on to, and helps a bit to prevent my thoughts from distracting me. But I don't have an audiobook for all the books I want to read.
I would audiobook 24/7 with the open ear headphones (Shokz etc) but I don't think I could afford to pay for that much that was worth listening too / low maintenance.
As others have pointed out, libraries often have Libby access which can have pretty huge selections of audiobooks. There's a discovery feature that lets you search by vibe, which I am finding useful.
I got a Libro.fm sub when my son was born last year and am finding the same.
I actually think this is about quality. Podcasts that take real effort (Hardcore History, Fall of Civilizations, Gastropod) are absolutely worth my time, but they're basically mini-audiobooks in their own right.
Agreed, there's no one medium fits all in all stages of their life and a lot of the takes rooted in such a perspective can lead people to seek convenience (scrolling) instead of engaging.
Reading does force you to slow down to let more enter your brain.
Audiobooks can do the same in a different way.
Either way, longer form content helps the brain unpack and retain bigger/longer picture things which is the kind of focus that many want to improve.
> Avoid even audiobooks. Big corporations want to grab your attention by trying to market audiobooks as books for busy people, but don’t fall for the trap. A book is just boring black text on a white page because that’s how it’s meant to be consumed, and it requires your entire attention. Listening to audio while cooking or cleaning or whatever you do is not the same thing; you are not 100% concentrated on the content. Also, reading is faster than listening, so use your time wisely.
> This is probably the most difficult part. I had to remove all social media and streaming apps from my iPhone. I removed Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, etc. When I started, I found myself picking up the phone and immediately noticing that something was missing, since the only things left to do were check the weather, read boring emails, or see my bank account.
These past few months, I have more resolve than ever to cut the chains. Willpower is a practice, and there have been successful steps towards the goal.
First, blocking the real sucks (X, Reddit). Then news (Canadian, won't bore you with the list). And then an innocuous yet sticky set of apps that I would bounce to often, for little benefit or reason: weather, server stats, stocks. A new wrinkle? Inane conversations with LLMs. Blocked!
HN still because, well brothers and the rare sister, it's lonely out there and this place cracks me up. And not much longer.
Now on to entire devices. Desktop, laptop, destined for a locked-down iPad. Lobotomized iPhone, got a watch, and now, slowly, more and more reading.
What pushed me over the edge is the realization that I'm in grief. The Internet which once shaped my identity today, in no defensible way, resembles the silly place which once gave me solace. And yet, like a husk I cling to the teet of these manipulative networks and websites hoping for one last, satisfying drink.
An easy trick nowadays is to simply log out of the accounts. Most social media websites really want you to log in so they become unusable when you log out. Its a good defense in depth strategy.
For me, as an avid reader of non-fiction books, for learning, i'm starting to question the value of reading them, compared to a good in-depth discussion with an LLM about a subject, together with reading academic papers and long articles/blog posts.
I wouldn't blindly trust a brand new author in 2026, but it's very easy to trust an author that has put out good writing in years past. Not hard to find, there has been plenty of great books written after 2023.
New authors however will certainly have to earn trust for a few years now I think.
It's similar with music, if someone puts out their first album in 2026 and has no singles or EPs, no YouTube presence, etc., it's probably slop. If they have a body of work that goes back a few years, easy to trust.
Why does it matter whether the writing is AI generated or not?
You should always be critical of everything you read. I have stopped reading plenty of books after a few chapters when I realized there was little value in it for me.
Get a long book, a timeless classic, and read one chapter a night.
I grew up reading all the time. About 20 years ago, I found myself reading less and less. I decided to read "The Count of Monte Cristo" again. I decided I would read one chapter a night, before going to bed, regardless of how late it was, how busy, etc, By the time I finished, reading before going to bed was a habit. I read 30-60 minutes every night before going to bed. (Read plenty of other times, too; but, no matter how the day has been, I read ever night.)
I like doing this if I can’t sleep, although there have been occasions where I ended up staying awake to finish the whole thing.
I don’t read in bed unless I’m on my own, or we’re both reading, as I’ve not found any satisfying book lights and I don’t use an e-reader. Also probably better for sleep hygiene and, as I get older, ergonomics to have a cosy spot somewhere else. Younger me could read folded in half, older me doesn’t want the back trouble.
> First of all, you don’t have to make time to read. What you need to do is read every single time you are not doing something else.
Mmh I’m not sure about that. I prefer to read for 1-2 hours rather than read 2 minutes here and 5 minutes there, especially for books that require some concentration to read, like dense stories and/or books not in my native language.
Who asked what you prefer? That has nothing to do with reading more books. Personally I have pages from books projected onto the walls, so that if I ever accidentally look up from the book that I'm reading, I read part of another book. Also I hire a mercenary soldier to watch me at all times, and if I try to stop reading even for a moment he jumps at me with a combat knife and pushes an open book into my face.
In this way I read more books, which is necessary because ... ah, I almost started discussing why to read more books, that's a different question.
This "serious reader" expression makes my skin crawl.
Like if it was something of a sport with olympics where people compete in their own weight and it is measured in the end to the hundredths of seconds in front of spectators in a stadion shaped library cheering READ, READ, READ! Quality is mentioned, remotely, through selection, but still, the mental picture remains the same. The post smells like a training guide from a large gym franchise for readers. It's name is 'Serious Readers!'
I don't think serious reader is a cringe term. Reading is a skill like any other and we use terms like "serious golfer" or "serious painter". The flip side of serious is causal. It's okay to structure your life so that reading is a big part of it.
Good article! I want to share my story about how I improved my reading, even though I used to dislike reading long passages.
Back then, whenever I read a book, it felt like I was just moving through the words and lines. Nothing happened in my mind. I had no reaction, no reflection, nothing. Because of that, I avoided learning from books and mostly watched videos instead.
While watching videos, I always read the comments. Reading comments from real people felt different. I reacted to them, reflected on them, and stayed engaged. I think it was because comments are short, simple, and easy to read.
After that, I discovered Reddit, forums, and especially Hacker News. In my opinion, Hacker News is one of the best forums on the internet because it's almost entirely text. Reading those discussions helped me get used to longer and more thoughtful writing.
Over time, my reading improved a lot. I can now read long-form, detailed writing with much better focus and reflection. I still want to improve, but I'm in a much better place than before, when I barely read at all.
Final personal note:
Reading should feel reactive and reflective in your brain. When you read short comments on social media, you can feel the full range of emotions, from happiness to anger to sadness. A good book can create the same experience. It's like highly precise commentary that makes you think, reflect, and react.
I see a few comments about wasting time with AI. I'm curious what the gist of those conversations is about?
I've found AI to be incredibly useful as a tool to nurture intellectual curiosity.
It even improves my book reading experience. Before, when I didn't fully understand a technical detail the author had glossed over, I usually had to skip it, hoping it wasn't critical for understanding later topics. Now, I can get precise explanations for anything I didn't understand in whatever level or detail I require.
as a consumate obsidian note taker i've found that as asking questions to a quick model and have it challenge me with leading questions has helped me refine my writing to be more useful and driven. when my note is done, i'll pass it through to see if any jargon is a crutch with my prompts are about forcing me to explain it "as simple as possible and no more".
in other situations feed it notes, bookmarked articles, generate syllabuses for something you want to learn more about, and generate create html/css "interactive textbooks". the ability to have an infinitely deep tutor always around feels revolutionary.
well, I created https://github.com/rcarmo/piclaw, and as a result of that I have several permanently running agents and entirely too many projects going at once. That's _my_ "messing with AI"...
I agree with everything this guy said and yet I still have a totally different take. Some of my friends and I started a book dedicated to reading books in the public domain (https://b00k.club). We began with Ancient Greece and it took as a few years but we're almost starting Rome. It's been slow but also incredibly thorough.
The thing is none of it has been difficult or even time consuming, and yet everything adds up as weeks turns into months which turn into years. Then suddenly we've looked back and realized that we've kind of read a lot of things, all primary sources, and we all have pretty educated opinions on these topics. Of course one could always go further, but that's hardly the point. We did this by doing one meeting a week.
The other thing is the result has been immensely positive for all of us--like, actually useful knowledge which we apply in our daily lives--and at least one of us is matriculating in the fall to study Ancient Greek. The total commitment has been a few hours spread throughout the week, but none of it ever really felt like work.
Basically, less focus on the number of books, reading with the idea in mind that you have to explain what you understood to other people (so, slowly), and just forgetting about goals and instead just enjoying the process. Little by little this all adds up, but the main benefit is the knowledge. You only really get that from working through the text, arguing, presenting theories... basically doing it in a social way. At the end of day, knowledge != data, and you really can't download what the book wants to tell you.
> So an effective way is to replace the time you spend in front of a screen... I removed Instagram, YouTube...
Really great advice. Last week I configured my wifi router at home to block youtube entirely. I literally feel like a different person in just a week. I have so much more free time and I am so much less anxious.
> Avoid even audiobooks.
Controversial. I suppose I used to not have an opinion at all on this topic, until I saw an interview with Salman Rushdie after the failed attempt on his life. He said he since the attack, and loosing his right eye, he reads with enormous fonts on an ipad, or yes, he even listens to audio books now.
If audiobooks are good enough for a seven time nominee of the Booker prize, who am I to quibble?
I always have a book with me in case I ever need to wait or have some time to spare, but I still manage to read only about 10 books per year, and that's only because I try to read more; before, it was maybe one or two.
My wife and oldest son can read books in a few hours. My son (17) has read Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. I'm a slow reader. I take forever, find it hard to focus, and often my thoughts distract me from the words on the page.
My youngest son (11) has dyslexia and barely reads. I used to read for him before going to bed, but eventually stopped because I figured he was old enough to read by himself, but he doesn't. So I started again. Now I'm reading Lord of the Rings to him before bedtime. The ritual helps us get through it at a steady pace, but I'm still terribly slow at reading my own books.
The most important habit, like the author of the blog post says, is looking at a book every time you would look at your phone. Its still not great that we arent really bored anymore, but this is already much better than being on twitter.
The most distracting app for me is Telegram with numerous channels, which I find myself doomscrolling too often, and at the same with numerous crucial personal contracts.
Really sad modern phones don't allow to set app's budget for custom interval, like 5 minutes in an hour.
Thanks. Honestly, I am somewhat concerned with all those 3rd party apps obtaining some control of my phone. Personally, would be so much nicer to have the same service provided by system. Vibecoding one is really an option.
While I do agree that reading is really important especially when it comes to good books. BUT simply consuming something for the sake of consumption is rarely a good idea.
I know of people that read books and consome them like food everyday, and wont learn anything thing from them. Their content becoming a distant memory as time passes. What is the point of reading something if you forget it 2 weeks later?
You may read something but the katharsis is still missing. I recommend when reading something. Take your time with it. You dont need to fetish saying you read 500 books in the last 5 years. I read "Gödel, Escher, Bach" and "Negative Dialectics" and it will take many many more months maybe years to full graps them.
I read them from beginning to end but still have so much to learn from them! Disregarding a good book for another might be a grave mistake.
I'm always in front of my PC both at work and off the clock. I could set up a proxy/filtering software to block them, but the thing is I need to access them at work as well.
Another thing is, when I "waste" time with websites like HN, sometime I learn something new like this post. Maybe much less often than what books would teach me though.
Good post. Reading when you're not doing something else - this is a good mindset. I've found that the more that I enjoy a book, the more time I have "not doing something else".
The key is getting immersed in a book in the same way that you might get immersed in a movie or a genre of music or some other thing that gets you in a zone. Fall into the rabbit hole. Joining r/bookclub or some other online book discussion group helps me fall deep into the rabbit hole. In lieu of an online book discussion group, chatting with my/your preferred LLM is a good tactic. I recommend finishing a chapter, then going to your LLM and saying "I just finished chapter 1 of Heller's Catch 22" ... that's pretty much enough of a prompt to get it to give you a synopsis with some questions to help you reflect on what you read.
Loved this blog, the simplicity with which they explained. I have been meaning to get back to reading but have not been able to. Having read this, I feel motivated enough to get back into the game and start reading a book from tomorrow. Thanks, Elia!
One thing that changed reading for me was Readwise. One of my favorite products. Super simple concept, I just highlight quotes I like, then I get a daily email of random things I've highlighted. Great way to retain info from non-fiction books, and to retain the feeling of special parts of fiction ones.
While I like the idea of using small pockets of time for reading a few pages here and there, the practice I find more difficult. I need these few minutes for my brain to stop braining momentarily. I have tried carrying a book with me, but when I did crack it open I typically read a paragraph, reread that paragraph, and then conceded that I don't recall what I just "read".
Likely it's a me problem, but I'm mentally so tired that I simply cannot maintain an uninterrupted stream of tasks even if the interstitial spaces are filled with something I enjoy like reading.
I used to read a lot when I was small but then fell out of the habit. Rekindled it with my first child. With them I spent a lot of time walking around at all hours of the day to get them to sleep. That were perfect reading opportunities, and I have continued to always carry a book. As TFA says, that is key.
Audiobooks and tracking. I still watch a lot of YouTube and other social media so I haven't had to cut anything out yet I have many audiobooks on my phone loaded up that I listen to at 2x+ speed as well as have a spreadsheet of what I'm reading and how long it takes. Before anyone comments, yes I can understand it just fine as I've acclimated myself over years to do so, it's similar to blind people being able to understand at very high speeds too after years of practice.
Audiobooks for me as well. I read voraciously when I was young, but never seemed to be able to when much older.
Simply listening to an audiobook while driving to work let me "read" a lot more than I thought it would. At the time, my commute was only 10 minutes, but I still managed to read a book per month and listen to my favorite podcasts!
Definitely would not recommend higher speed for fiction, though. For fiction, you're listening to a performance. It'd be akin to watching a movie at 2x.
Good advice about not enjoying a book and putting it down isn’t a failure on your part. Same for the part about reading multiple books. This blocked me for a while, if I decided to start a book I HAD to read that book and I HAD to finish it. It’s a great way to kill something you’d otherwise enjoy.
One thing that irked me wrong was the part about audiobooks and attention:
> Listening to audio while cooking or cleaning or whatever you do is not the same thing; you are not 100% concentrated on the content. Also, reading is faster than listening, so use your time wisely.
First of all, sometimes you are not concentrating a 100% on something and that is fine. I listen to podcasts while driving, I often miss sentences or longer bits because there’s more traffic that I focus on. That’s fine. I can either go back or accept it.
Second, this is coming from the person that said:
> I read a book when I cook lunch or dinner, and I read a book when eating breakfast.
> I have become good at walking my dog while reading
I did a similar thing a few years ago, I deleted reddit, social media, and other time-wasters from my phone, and now I keep a queue of books in an e-reader app. When I have a few idle moments somewhere, my options are to sit and think (sometimes a nice option), or read some book.
I get through about 2 books per month this way. I haven't noticed eye strain issues, but I tend to keep the brightness low and the font size reasonable. If you struggle with eye strain, you might benefit from an e-book phone case (e.g., https://www.inkcase.com/inkcase-for-iphone/) if you don't want to carry a separate device.
I have an old iPad, which doesn't seem to run anything other than the default apps, hence it is distraction free in a sense. The only thing I use it for is to read, works quite well and I have managed to accomplish reading quite a few books.
Also, if you are just getting started then read easy books. You know the 100 classics from highschool. And you after you finish a book, you can find some great analysis of those books online.
One thing I learned is often when you are excited about those easy books, voracious readers are quick to tell you how much the book sucks. "Read this by an obscure author instead". Ignore that until you have read a whole lot of books in your list.
From when I learned to read up to the end of my 20s I read much more than one book per week. Whoever after 30 or maybe a bit before I started to read less and less, until now where I read vert rarely (usually on plane).
I don't know why. Maybe it's psychological. Maybe it's just ageing. Maybe it's my brain fried first by internet then by the smartphone.
I still buy more books than I read, probably unconsciously hoping that one day the flame that pushed me to devour so many books will get ablaze again
I’ve been leaning into audiobooks for the past two years and it’s completely revitalized my intellectual life. I feel alive in ways I’d forgotten. And it extends beyond audiobooks too. I started carrying a paperback around with me, reading philosophy and history again. I even got a subscription to the NY Review of Books! Someone I know got me into neo-pragmatism and I fell in love with Richard Rorty. There’s something qualitatively different about sticking with a person who goes really deep into a topic, and benefitting from their years of reflection and research.
I recommend readera. It is a non ugly app with can sync to Google drive which prevents you from losing your ebooks when you delete them which can also happen by accident. I can't describe how other apps on Android is so ugly.
This past year I've been reading more again, and in the past four or five months I've had the goal of reading every day. No fixed number of page or chapters, just read. It's also incredibly depended on the book if you can read 100 pages or just 10. But you're right, it becomes easier and it over time becomes your default entertainment, presumably because you brain sees it as the easy choice.
One thing that have made it easier for be though has been the decline of everything else. As someone pointed out, the internet isn't the internet we grew up with, TV shows mostly suck now and are all designed for binge watching which leaves me feeling physically ill. Same with e.g. YouTube, there are still creators who's content I enjoy, but the YouTube algorithm seems to force me out of a tangent and preferably into Shorts. Much of this algorithmicly pushed content makes me feel ill, so I try to steer clear of it.
So now I buy used books, most happens to be published in the 1970s for some reason. There are so many out there that I'll never run out of things to read and at €1-2 per books, it's cheap.
This is advice from someone who went from 10 books/year to 52 (1 book/week as described).
I think practical tips for someone already a frequent reader are probably different that for someone who reads 'a bit', a few a year at most. I'd be very happy if I got to 10/year consistently. But that would a) be more than 5.2x-ing; b) be a harder initial curve than the 10 to 52 region, I imagine.
> First of all, you don’t have to make time to read. What you need to do is read every single time you are not doing something else.
(Proceeds to describe how they made time for reading by removing other distractions.)
I'm trying to read more books, but I easily fall into the trap of staying up late reading good books, and I have trouble recovering from sleep deficit these days.
I found reading during meals allowed me to dramatically increase the number of books I got through. It gives about 40 minutes per day, that can sometimes extend to a couple hours if the book is good, schedule allowing.
To me, having these blocks of times sound better than trying to read a sentence or two in the white space around other activities.
You want to read more? Miss phone calls, meals, breaking news; forego an hour or two of rest; work on your core; replace all clocks indoors with sundials. Print. Scan. Pirate. Dig the crates. Sail the seas. It's not a technological problem. It's not a device problem. It's you. You don't want it enough. You don't want to read.
Maybe you should take up cycling. Maybe you need to write more. Maybe you aren't eating enough fruit. Maybe you need a little caffeine. Maybe it's the air quality. We don't think it's microplastics.
Your friends who read. Maybe it's their fault. They're not printing enough. Or sending enough screenshots. Why haven't you caught them outside on street medians reading out loud? To whoever. They're not setting for you the right example.
Audio books won't cut it. Hey big guy why don't stick one a them foam feet thingies in between ya toes while ya at it huh! And cut some cucumbers to recess the bags under ya eyes so people wont mistake ya for a guy who actually reads his books and will not following the family to their trip to Monaco this summer, no, sorry Donna, I'll be here at home with the books. The dog will have to learn to fend on its own as will the plants, your niece and nephew.
I started a habit to read during my lunch/dinner breaks. I wear headphones, put on some lo-fi beats or jazz, and read a chapter or two until I'm done eating.
I really enjoy it and it's a nice reprieve especially at work.
Got recommendations for specific songs / groups for Lo-Fi beats & jazz? What I've found is that many lo-fi playlists contain songs that have a lot of distracting noises (voices, distorted guitar twang, rain drops, record crackle, etc) - so I've been slowly-but-surely making playlists of study/reading songs.
> Another secret is to not be scared of quitting a book. I definitely start way more than I finish. But I don’t consider an uncompleted book a failure or a bad book. I think that sometimes books have a certain time to be fully appreciated. So if I don’t finish a book today, I might try reading it again in the future.
Well said. On a related note, I think the idea of coming back to books later is essential to reading non-fiction, as I've personally found it much more productive to read until I think I've "got it", and then revisit it a few months later with a new (ideally better informed) perspective.
For staying motivated to read, I like to set up and read small clusters of books then write about them. Being able to put a bow on a reading project is easier to stick with than reading X books in a year.
Use reading book to replace reading phone is a good habit or strategy.
Not only read book, but also thinking them is a must thing.
Sometime you want to go outside from your home to see the real world.
Don't forget the real world, reading book lets you absorb the knowledge, but most time they are not right， accurate, or you don't understand them, the real world can tell you the real knowledge.
A big strategy not mentioned is to pick smaller books. If you have a bunch of books that are only 30-50 pages long you can read much more books than full length novels.
My setup is read a few pages while taking a bath, after walking the dog. I listen to the audio book verision (libravox app) while walking the dog. Since I walk the dog every day for an hour. It adds up. Large earmuff / noise cancelling headphones helps with the voice clarity. I also take my m4/3 camera with 14-140mm lens (28-280mm equivalent) with me. So I managed to get quite nice photos/clips of lots of birds/insects on my trail walks. Have a camera sling bag from national geographic (explorer bag) thats small and swings around so I can open it without taking it off. And have the dog on a leash tied to my belt, to keep my hands free. So can even get some runs / interval training in if I want to. So In one hour, I usually get about 2 miles in, walk the dog, listen to audio book and do some bird photography. I also sometimes take a dji neo 2 drone, can even capture beautiful sunsets. Pretty cheap and efficient setup. Can recommend.
The question is why? Why do you think reading books is a more valuable use of your time than reading posts or watching video essays. Anybody can look at an immature medium and write it off as a waste of time. In 100 years parents will tell children to scroll tiktok instead of playing on the Zorp, don't you want to be part of that rather than the footnote, 'Oh yeah people were still writing scrolls in the 1700s'. Books are random access, if we apply your structural idea we would say book authors and readers are under the tyrannical rule of indices, chapters, back/forward references and CYOAs
One could make the same fallacious "form affects content" argument against books, but in reality authors rarely write stories for people randomly flipping pages, at most the author will tell them or explain why they might want to turn to a particular page. Similarly most content on the web doesn't assume you are jumping to links and coming back, but instead uses them as an index of references.
There are style problems of course, too much surface area, over-reliance on and under-appreciation of sources. There is nothing pure about text. Any form requires training on the part of the consumer to appreciate the "depth". From what I can see people don't care about the content, they don't even care about comparing the trade-offs from one form to another beyond format prestige and convenience.
Please look at how books actually make money rather than assuming a priori that they optimize for "lifetime value" instead of some platonic ideal book that exists in your head. Now if you're more adept at a particular medium due to practice that's a valid reason to stick with it, but it's not one to spread vile propaganda about a medium and convince its consumers to turn off their brains because the medium's difficulty matrix applied to thought patterns is different.
If you disagree, fine, feel free to write software like this [1] and pray that the problem doesn't naturally require indirection. Code is just another medium, yes the inclusion of abstractions is poison for deep thought, but not every problem is best solved by deep thought. "Study long, study wrong."
I used to be able to read a lot while commuting. Unfortunately, many other passengers now delight in either yapping loudly on their phone or playing utter shit on its speakers. It takes me out of it...
I have an almost-four year old child and not a lot of downtime. I used to listen to podcasts when I was doing dishes, cleaning the house, walking the dog, etc. I've mostly abandoned podcasts in favor of audiobooks. It didn't feel like they were benefiting me in any meaningful way—almost like they were just empty calories for my ears.
I finally made it all the way through The Power Broker recently, which I've wanted to read for years, and am now on Jennifer Pahlka's really insightful Recoding America, which features heavily in the chapter "Govern" in Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's Abundance. The three are actually quite interesting to read back to back.
Audiobooks are definitely slower to get through than just reading, but I find that I can stick with them in a way that books just haven't allowed me to do in years.
Wow, listening to the Power Broker now, about 1/3 of the way through.
Audiobooks completely changed things for me... in the past 2 years, 'read' about 40 books, almost entirely listened to on my daily runs. The prior 2 years? I think I read 3.
Audiobooks are just a different medium. I don't think people should pretend that an audiobook is a book. You process the two in completely different ways. This doesn't imply one is better than the other either.
For me I don't like audiobooks because its very slow and spoken stories should have a different cadence, velocity, set of dynamics, and diction than a book should (check out "the moth" to see what I'm talking about). I hold nothing against people who don't like to read or people who like audiobooks, or people who like slow things - Suum cuique.
I agree that it’s a pretty different experience for fiction, where the subjective experience is everything and the narrator can color your experience a lot.
For nonfiction, I think the two mediums are virtually the same depending on the density of the book. Most differences come down to the fact that you’re more susceptible to distraction. Most nonfiction books are light and repetitive enough that I don’t think it’s a big deal
Audiobooks are heavily dependent on the reader. In one case, I had an audiobook where the translator was the reader. She is an excellent translator but a poor reader.
Many authors are poor readers of their own work.
They are certainly good while you are on a long drive etc, because they entertain you while doing some another task which you wouldn't be able to do while reading. During lockdown, I could not read due to the constant stress and fear mongering, but I had to walk a lot every day and the audiobooks were a good way to accompany that.
[delayed]
+1
The best audiobook I’ve ever listened to is Stephen Kings On Writing: A memoir of the Craft, read by the author. One of our times best storytellers, both when it comes to writing them and telling them.
I've a soft spot for that book because it saved me from two days of very long and dreary jury service. (They kept us sitting around all that time.) I think I read at least a third of it in there. The only court stuff I heard was for about ten minutes and incredibly unexciting.
For me audiobooks are okay for non fiction but for fiction I need to read it to be able to immerse in the story and imagine the characters. Also no all non fiction it's okay either, for philosophy that's a little complicated I need to read it too.
There is also another benefit to books, on average they are much better than a random 3 hour podcast. If you care about what you read, you'd be getting something that the author has spend a lot of time, skill and energy to write, the editor would have spend a lot of time and skill to improve with the author.
I have a measure for all content I consume, quality/hr of reading/listening. If it's just a long video that has 2-3 questions that has caught my attention I'd be listening only those. If it's a long text that I might find something interesting I'll ask the LLM to summarize the main ideas as a filter before I decide to dive in.
Books, and their audiobooks version have on average much more bang per hour than random podcasts, because they're structured, authors had spend more time on them and you can cherry pick from a structure.
I also have caught myself using sloppy content as excuse not working on planned tasks with excuses like "this might be useful", or watching "productivity porn" videos. I think LLMs are good as a pre-filter for that.
I gave up on podcasts because of the excessive insertion of commercials, and the execrable user interface of the iphone podcast app.
This is a frustration for me as well. A few useful tricks, and some areas I'm looking to explore:
- AntennaPod (Android: https://antennapod.org/about/) doesn't specifically block ads, but does make skipping them fairly painless. I'm not familiar with the iOS app space.
- Seek out, and add a classification tag for ad-free podcasts. When you're not in the mood for dealing with ads, play these.
- Protip: if you learn, or want to learn, German, Deutschlandfunk (and a number of other German-language broadcasters) have a set of excellent, ad-free, podcasts. This includes a number of podcasts for learning German (generally through the Goethe Institute or Deutsche Welle).
- If your podcast app permits it, set your forward-skip to 30 or 60 seconds (the length of most ad beds), and backwards to 5 seconds. You'll be able to navigate past most ad blocks more easily. You can also set begin/end skip periods for start/end of episode advertising.
- I've thought of manually editing episodes from a desktop session using audio editing software (Audacity or similar). That's ... a bit of additional overhead, but as with other mise en place techniques, you incur the overhead once and don't have to worry about the interruptions when you're in the middle of listening to an episode. Audacity shows sound signatures and I'm expecting that most ad blocks will be readily apparent. I also suspect AI tools might be able to remove ads fairly reliably, though haven't looked into this yet.
I've definitely noticed that I deliberately avoid listening to podcasts which have ads when I don't have the bandwidth / freedom to deal with them (e.g., doing other tasks, walking etc.). And advertising has become more pervasive, longer, more intrusively inserted, and annoying with time.
Other ad-free English-language pods: Tech Can't Save Us, History of Philosophy (Without Any Gaps), and Philosophy Bites (and several affiliated podcasts). All are highly informative, well-produced, don't fixate on current events and politics (which ... I find maddening). And several of those would appreciate any support as well.
There are other apps too, such as Overcast, and ads on podcasts are really easy to skip.
Yeah, I can skip forward 30 sec, then back up, blech. It's just not worth it when you constantly have to interact with the podcast app.
Scott Adams' podcasts were different. He inserted very few commericials, and they were short enough there was no reason to skip forward. I tried many other podcasts after he passed away, and they all were largely long, boring commercials. Yuck. I now listen to Pandora or Soma FM instead.
> Yeah, I can skip forward 30 sec, then back up, blech. It's just not worth it when you constantly have to interact with the podcast app.
Fortunately this can be done much more easily now, with headphone-based controls and smartwatch-based controls. It takes maybe 1-3 seconds for me to get through an ad break and be back to listening.
Comparing a podcast to a book is like comparing a 30-minute TV episode to a 3 hour Scorsese movie. Similar mediums with completely different goals.
It really depends on the podcast as well.
There are podcasts which are just free-association rambling (or worse), others which are very closely scripted and edited.
I very much prefer the latter, and the best of those approach books in structure and/or value, if they don't directly produce books themselves (e.g., Peter Adamson's History of Philosophy, which is both a podcast and a book series).
After a long reading hiatus, audiobooks helped me pick up speed. I read faster with audiobook than without. For a few books, I combined regular and audiobook, so the audiobook forces me to keep reading, and hearing what I'm reading gives me something to hold on to, and helps a bit to prevent my thoughts from distracting me. But I don't have an audiobook for all the books I want to read.
I would audiobook 24/7 with the open ear headphones (Shokz etc) but I don't think I could afford to pay for that much that was worth listening too / low maintenance.
https://www.openculture.com/freeaudiobooks
As others have pointed out, libraries often have Libby access which can have pretty huge selections of audiobooks. There's a discovery feature that lets you search by vibe, which I am finding useful.
Use the library
Libraries certainly have great apps for borrowing ebooks, audio books and more.
I only even heard about Jennifer Pahlka from Tyler Cowen's podcast, I think there are still some podcasts worth listening to.
Your point is well taken and very reasonable though.
I got a Libro.fm sub when my son was born last year and am finding the same.
I actually think this is about quality. Podcasts that take real effort (Hardcore History, Fall of Civilizations, Gastropod) are absolutely worth my time, but they're basically mini-audiobooks in their own right.
Hardcore History is phenomenal. It’s a bummer the release cadence is so slow, but I understand why
Agreed, there's no one medium fits all in all stages of their life and a lot of the takes rooted in such a perspective can lead people to seek convenience (scrolling) instead of engaging.
Reading does force you to slow down to let more enter your brain.
Audiobooks can do the same in a different way.
Either way, longer form content helps the brain unpack and retain bigger/longer picture things which is the kind of focus that many want to improve.
Reading also helps one be more articulate.
Articulation is a helpful skill in using AI.
> Avoid even audiobooks. Big corporations want to grab your attention by trying to market audiobooks as books for busy people, but don’t fall for the trap. A book is just boring black text on a white page because that’s how it’s meant to be consumed, and it requires your entire attention. Listening to audio while cooking or cleaning or whatever you do is not the same thing; you are not 100% concentrated on the content. Also, reading is faster than listening, so use your time wisely.
Love this blog, appreciate the author.
> This is probably the most difficult part. I had to remove all social media and streaming apps from my iPhone. I removed Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, etc. When I started, I found myself picking up the phone and immediately noticing that something was missing, since the only things left to do were check the weather, read boring emails, or see my bank account.
These past few months, I have more resolve than ever to cut the chains. Willpower is a practice, and there have been successful steps towards the goal.
First, blocking the real sucks (X, Reddit). Then news (Canadian, won't bore you with the list). And then an innocuous yet sticky set of apps that I would bounce to often, for little benefit or reason: weather, server stats, stocks. A new wrinkle? Inane conversations with LLMs. Blocked!
HN still because, well brothers and the rare sister, it's lonely out there and this place cracks me up. And not much longer.
Now on to entire devices. Desktop, laptop, destined for a locked-down iPad. Lobotomized iPhone, got a watch, and now, slowly, more and more reading.
What pushed me over the edge is the realization that I'm in grief. The Internet which once shaped my identity today, in no defensible way, resembles the silly place which once gave me solace. And yet, like a husk I cling to the teet of these manipulative networks and websites hoping for one last, satisfying drink.
It ain't comin'. Books, then. Like my mother.
I wrote about this a few years ago [0]
It's _really_ hard to break the phone habit. I was in a good place for a few years but have recently been spending time on Reddit.
It's not the end of the world. Ultimately I think going back to Reddit is because I recently haven't had the patience to really read, reflect, etc.
[0]: https://sjer.red/blog/2023/screen-time/
An easy trick nowadays is to simply log out of the accounts. Most social media websites really want you to log in so they become unusable when you log out. Its a good defense in depth strategy.
For me, as an avid reader of non-fiction books, for learning, i'm starting to question the value of reading them, compared to a good in-depth discussion with an LLM about a subject, together with reading academic papers and long articles/blog posts.
Pre-2023 books I presume?
I collect books, but have decided to omit the post 2023 ones.
How do you trust anything written after 2023 or so to not be slop? Or even trust the claims that it was written before 2023?
I wouldn't blindly trust a brand new author in 2026, but it's very easy to trust an author that has put out good writing in years past. Not hard to find, there has been plenty of great books written after 2023.
New authors however will certainly have to earn trust for a few years now I think.
It's similar with music, if someone puts out their first album in 2026 and has no singles or EPs, no YouTube presence, etc., it's probably slop. If they have a body of work that goes back a few years, easy to trust.
self-evident quality
Why does it matter whether the writing is AI generated or not?
You should always be critical of everything you read. I have stopped reading plenty of books after a few chapters when I realized there was little value in it for me.
Get a long book, a timeless classic, and read one chapter a night.
I grew up reading all the time. About 20 years ago, I found myself reading less and less. I decided to read "The Count of Monte Cristo" again. I decided I would read one chapter a night, before going to bed, regardless of how late it was, how busy, etc, By the time I finished, reading before going to bed was a habit. I read 30-60 minutes every night before going to bed. (Read plenty of other times, too; but, no matter how the day has been, I read ever night.)
I like doing this if I can’t sleep, although there have been occasions where I ended up staying awake to finish the whole thing.
I don’t read in bed unless I’m on my own, or we’re both reading, as I’ve not found any satisfying book lights and I don’t use an e-reader. Also probably better for sleep hygiene and, as I get older, ergonomics to have a cosy spot somewhere else. Younger me could read folded in half, older me doesn’t want the back trouble.
> First of all, you don’t have to make time to read. What you need to do is read every single time you are not doing something else.
Mmh I’m not sure about that. I prefer to read for 1-2 hours rather than read 2 minutes here and 5 minutes there, especially for books that require some concentration to read, like dense stories and/or books not in my native language.
Who asked what you prefer? That has nothing to do with reading more books. Personally I have pages from books projected onto the walls, so that if I ever accidentally look up from the book that I'm reading, I read part of another book. Also I hire a mercenary soldier to watch me at all times, and if I try to stop reading even for a moment he jumps at me with a combat knife and pushes an open book into my face.
In this way I read more books, which is necessary because ... ah, I almost started discussing why to read more books, that's a different question.
You mean you haven't installed screens to the inside of your eyelids so you can micro-read whenever you blink? Amateur hour...
This "serious reader" expression makes my skin crawl.
Like if it was something of a sport with olympics where people compete in their own weight and it is measured in the end to the hundredths of seconds in front of spectators in a stadion shaped library cheering READ, READ, READ! Quality is mentioned, remotely, through selection, but still, the mental picture remains the same. The post smells like a training guide from a large gym franchise for readers. It's name is 'Serious Readers!'
I don't think serious reader is a cringe term. Reading is a skill like any other and we use terms like "serious golfer" or "serious painter". The flip side of serious is causal. It's okay to structure your life so that reading is a big part of it.
Only one mercenary? Are you even book-maxxing?
If squirrels drank coffee and could read, I imagine they'd read like the author. It sounds horrible to me, but everyone is different I guess.
Good article! I want to share my story about how I improved my reading, even though I used to dislike reading long passages.
Back then, whenever I read a book, it felt like I was just moving through the words and lines. Nothing happened in my mind. I had no reaction, no reflection, nothing. Because of that, I avoided learning from books and mostly watched videos instead.
While watching videos, I always read the comments. Reading comments from real people felt different. I reacted to them, reflected on them, and stayed engaged. I think it was because comments are short, simple, and easy to read.
After that, I discovered Reddit, forums, and especially Hacker News. In my opinion, Hacker News is one of the best forums on the internet because it's almost entirely text. Reading those discussions helped me get used to longer and more thoughtful writing.
Over time, my reading improved a lot. I can now read long-form, detailed writing with much better focus and reflection. I still want to improve, but I'm in a much better place than before, when I barely read at all.
Final personal note:
Reading should feel reactive and reflective in your brain. When you read short comments on social media, you can feel the full range of emotions, from happiness to anger to sadness. A good book can create the same experience. It's like highly precise commentary that makes you think, reflect, and react.
I have a checklist to go _back_ to reading 30-odd books a year, and right now the top 5 items are:
1. Stop messing about with AI
2. Stop doomscrolling/interacting on social networks (HN is within my 15m allocation)
3. Stop watching _any_ Youtube video that doesn't teach me anything
4. Gloss over my 200 RSS feeds, don't be a completionist
5. Put on classical music, not indie or radio
It almost works. Almost.
> Stop messing about with AI
I see a few comments about wasting time with AI. I'm curious what the gist of those conversations is about?
I've found AI to be incredibly useful as a tool to nurture intellectual curiosity.
It even improves my book reading experience. Before, when I didn't fully understand a technical detail the author had glossed over, I usually had to skip it, hoping it wasn't critical for understanding later topics. Now, I can get precise explanations for anything I didn't understand in whatever level or detail I require.
as a consumate obsidian note taker i've found that as asking questions to a quick model and have it challenge me with leading questions has helped me refine my writing to be more useful and driven. when my note is done, i'll pass it through to see if any jargon is a crutch with my prompts are about forcing me to explain it "as simple as possible and no more".
in other situations feed it notes, bookmarked articles, generate syllabuses for something you want to learn more about, and generate create html/css "interactive textbooks". the ability to have an infinitely deep tutor always around feels revolutionary.
well, I created https://github.com/rcarmo/piclaw, and as a result of that I have several permanently running agents and entirely too many projects going at once. That's _my_ "messing with AI"...
I agree with everything this guy said and yet I still have a totally different take. Some of my friends and I started a book dedicated to reading books in the public domain (https://b00k.club). We began with Ancient Greece and it took as a few years but we're almost starting Rome. It's been slow but also incredibly thorough.
The thing is none of it has been difficult or even time consuming, and yet everything adds up as weeks turns into months which turn into years. Then suddenly we've looked back and realized that we've kind of read a lot of things, all primary sources, and we all have pretty educated opinions on these topics. Of course one could always go further, but that's hardly the point. We did this by doing one meeting a week.
The other thing is the result has been immensely positive for all of us--like, actually useful knowledge which we apply in our daily lives--and at least one of us is matriculating in the fall to study Ancient Greek. The total commitment has been a few hours spread throughout the week, but none of it ever really felt like work.
Basically, less focus on the number of books, reading with the idea in mind that you have to explain what you understood to other people (so, slowly), and just forgetting about goals and instead just enjoying the process. Little by little this all adds up, but the main benefit is the knowledge. You only really get that from working through the text, arguing, presenting theories... basically doing it in a social way. At the end of day, knowledge != data, and you really can't download what the book wants to tell you.
> So an effective way is to replace the time you spend in front of a screen... I removed Instagram, YouTube...
Really great advice. Last week I configured my wifi router at home to block youtube entirely. I literally feel like a different person in just a week. I have so much more free time and I am so much less anxious.
> Avoid even audiobooks.
Controversial. I suppose I used to not have an opinion at all on this topic, until I saw an interview with Salman Rushdie after the failed attempt on his life. He said he since the attack, and loosing his right eye, he reads with enormous fonts on an ipad, or yes, he even listens to audio books now.
If audiobooks are good enough for a seven time nominee of the Booker prize, who am I to quibble?
I always have a book with me in case I ever need to wait or have some time to spare, but I still manage to read only about 10 books per year, and that's only because I try to read more; before, it was maybe one or two.
My wife and oldest son can read books in a few hours. My son (17) has read Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. I'm a slow reader. I take forever, find it hard to focus, and often my thoughts distract me from the words on the page.
My youngest son (11) has dyslexia and barely reads. I used to read for him before going to bed, but eventually stopped because I figured he was old enough to read by himself, but he doesn't. So I started again. Now I'm reading Lord of the Rings to him before bedtime. The ritual helps us get through it at a steady pace, but I'm still terribly slow at reading my own books.
I highly recommend getting a super small eReader you always carry with you. I personally use this one: https://www.xteink.com/products/xteink-x3 (it attaches to the back of my phone using magsafe even) and flashed this custom firmware: https://crosspointreader.com/
The most important habit, like the author of the blog post says, is looking at a book every time you would look at your phone. Its still not great that we arent really bored anymore, but this is already much better than being on twitter.
The most distracting app for me is Telegram with numerous channels, which I find myself doomscrolling too often, and at the same with numerous crucial personal contracts.
Really sad modern phones don't allow to set app's budget for custom interval, like 5 minutes in an hour.
I've ditched all Telegram channels and only kept a few I'm quite fond of (they post rarely anyway)
You could try ScreenZen or a similar app that help control nd reduce the time you spend on certain apps.
Nowadays, you can such apps in a few prompts and some minor tweaks :)
Thanks. Honestly, I am somewhat concerned with all those 3rd party apps obtaining some control of my phone. Personally, would be so much nicer to have the same service provided by system. Vibecoding one is really an option.
While I do agree that reading is really important especially when it comes to good books. BUT simply consuming something for the sake of consumption is rarely a good idea.
I know of people that read books and consome them like food everyday, and wont learn anything thing from them. Their content becoming a distant memory as time passes. What is the point of reading something if you forget it 2 weeks later?
You may read something but the katharsis is still missing. I recommend when reading something. Take your time with it. You dont need to fetish saying you read 500 books in the last 5 years. I read "Gödel, Escher, Bach" and "Negative Dialectics" and it will take many many more months maybe years to full graps them.
I read them from beginning to end but still have so much to learn from them! Disregarding a good book for another might be a grave mistake.
Schopenhauer made a similar point in his essay "On Reading and Books".
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_Books_and_Reading
https://fs.blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Arthur-Schopenhau...
> I removed Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, etc.
I'm always in front of my PC both at work and off the clock. I could set up a proxy/filtering software to block them, but the thing is I need to access them at work as well.
Another thing is, when I "waste" time with websites like HN, sometime I learn something new like this post. Maybe much less often than what books would teach me though.
Good post. Reading when you're not doing something else - this is a good mindset. I've found that the more that I enjoy a book, the more time I have "not doing something else".
The key is getting immersed in a book in the same way that you might get immersed in a movie or a genre of music or some other thing that gets you in a zone. Fall into the rabbit hole. Joining r/bookclub or some other online book discussion group helps me fall deep into the rabbit hole. In lieu of an online book discussion group, chatting with my/your preferred LLM is a good tactic. I recommend finishing a chapter, then going to your LLM and saying "I just finished chapter 1 of Heller's Catch 22" ... that's pretty much enough of a prompt to get it to give you a synopsis with some questions to help you reflect on what you read.
Loved this blog, the simplicity with which they explained. I have been meaning to get back to reading but have not been able to. Having read this, I feel motivated enough to get back into the game and start reading a book from tomorrow. Thanks, Elia!
One thing that changed reading for me was Readwise. One of my favorite products. Super simple concept, I just highlight quotes I like, then I get a daily email of random things I've highlighted. Great way to retain info from non-fiction books, and to retain the feeling of special parts of fiction ones.
Good arguments against digital distraction, but not a good philosophy of reading.
While I like the idea of using small pockets of time for reading a few pages here and there, the practice I find more difficult. I need these few minutes for my brain to stop braining momentarily. I have tried carrying a book with me, but when I did crack it open I typically read a paragraph, reread that paragraph, and then conceded that I don't recall what I just "read".
Likely it's a me problem, but I'm mentally so tired that I simply cannot maintain an uninterrupted stream of tasks even if the interstitial spaces are filled with something I enjoy like reading.
Because success is an end unto itself, my plan to succeed at reading more books will begin by reading zero books.
Obviously the longer I spend reading no books, the greater my success will be. Time to install TikTok to the homescreen.
Zero to One, Baby.
I used to read a lot when I was small but then fell out of the habit. Rekindled it with my first child. With them I spent a lot of time walking around at all hours of the day to get them to sleep. That were perfect reading opportunities, and I have continued to always carry a book. As TFA says, that is key.
Audiobooks and tracking. I still watch a lot of YouTube and other social media so I haven't had to cut anything out yet I have many audiobooks on my phone loaded up that I listen to at 2x+ speed as well as have a spreadsheet of what I'm reading and how long it takes. Before anyone comments, yes I can understand it just fine as I've acclimated myself over years to do so, it's similar to blind people being able to understand at very high speeds too after years of practice.
Audiobooks for me as well. I read voraciously when I was young, but never seemed to be able to when much older.
Simply listening to an audiobook while driving to work let me "read" a lot more than I thought it would. At the time, my commute was only 10 minutes, but I still managed to read a book per month and listen to my favorite podcasts!
Definitely would not recommend higher speed for fiction, though. For fiction, you're listening to a performance. It'd be akin to watching a movie at 2x.
I've read 31 novels since January, far more than I'd read in the last 30 years.
Easy: I read 50 pages every night when I go to bed, instead of screens.
I started with short novels, 150 pages or fewer (chatgpt gave me a reading list).
It quickly became a habit, and it's lovely.
That's crazy speed!
Good advice about not enjoying a book and putting it down isn’t a failure on your part. Same for the part about reading multiple books. This blocked me for a while, if I decided to start a book I HAD to read that book and I HAD to finish it. It’s a great way to kill something you’d otherwise enjoy.
One thing that irked me wrong was the part about audiobooks and attention:
> Listening to audio while cooking or cleaning or whatever you do is not the same thing; you are not 100% concentrated on the content. Also, reading is faster than listening, so use your time wisely.
First of all, sometimes you are not concentrating a 100% on something and that is fine. I listen to podcasts while driving, I often miss sentences or longer bits because there’s more traffic that I focus on. That’s fine. I can either go back or accept it.
Second, this is coming from the person that said:
> I read a book when I cook lunch or dinner, and I read a book when eating breakfast.
> I have become good at walking my dog while reading
Edit: formatting
I did a similar thing a few years ago, I deleted reddit, social media, and other time-wasters from my phone, and now I keep a queue of books in an e-reader app. When I have a few idle moments somewhere, my options are to sit and think (sometimes a nice option), or read some book.
I get through about 2 books per month this way. I haven't noticed eye strain issues, but I tend to keep the brightness low and the font size reasonable. If you struggle with eye strain, you might benefit from an e-book phone case (e.g., https://www.inkcase.com/inkcase-for-iphone/) if you don't want to carry a separate device.
I have an old iPad, which doesn't seem to run anything other than the default apps, hence it is distraction free in a sense. The only thing I use it for is to read, works quite well and I have managed to accomplish reading quite a few books.
Also, if you are just getting started then read easy books. You know the 100 classics from highschool. And you after you finish a book, you can find some great analysis of those books online.
One thing I learned is often when you are excited about those easy books, voracious readers are quick to tell you how much the book sucks. "Read this by an obscure author instead". Ignore that until you have read a whole lot of books in your list.
One of my main takeaways from this article is that the author ADORES Umberto Eco.
Which is understandable.
Well, yes ;-)
I'm a bit surprised that the concept of the Antilibrary makes no appearance, however:
<https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/03/24/umberto-eco-antili...>
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antilibrary>
From when I learned to read up to the end of my 20s I read much more than one book per week. Whoever after 30 or maybe a bit before I started to read less and less, until now where I read vert rarely (usually on plane).
I don't know why. Maybe it's psychological. Maybe it's just ageing. Maybe it's my brain fried first by internet then by the smartphone.
I still buy more books than I read, probably unconsciously hoping that one day the flame that pushed me to devour so many books will get ablaze again
Do those time ranges align with the rise of smartphones perhaps?
I’ve been leaning into audiobooks for the past two years and it’s completely revitalized my intellectual life. I feel alive in ways I’d forgotten. And it extends beyond audiobooks too. I started carrying a paperback around with me, reading philosophy and history again. I even got a subscription to the NY Review of Books! Someone I know got me into neo-pragmatism and I fell in love with Richard Rorty. There’s something qualitatively different about sticking with a person who goes really deep into a topic, and benefitting from their years of reflection and research.
I recommend readera. It is a non ugly app with can sync to Google drive which prevents you from losing your ebooks when you delete them which can also happen by accident. I can't describe how other apps on Android is so ugly.
I find it so hard to read with two toddlers. But find your tips inspiring tbh.
It's like lifting weight. Start with 10 pages a day every day. And then it will become too easy. Then move to 15 pages a day. Etc.
Read books you enjoy.
This past year I've been reading more again, and in the past four or five months I've had the goal of reading every day. No fixed number of page or chapters, just read. It's also incredibly depended on the book if you can read 100 pages or just 10. But you're right, it becomes easier and it over time becomes your default entertainment, presumably because you brain sees it as the easy choice.
One thing that have made it easier for be though has been the decline of everything else. As someone pointed out, the internet isn't the internet we grew up with, TV shows mostly suck now and are all designed for binge watching which leaves me feeling physically ill. Same with e.g. YouTube, there are still creators who's content I enjoy, but the YouTube algorithm seems to force me out of a tangent and preferably into Shorts. Much of this algorithmicly pushed content makes me feel ill, so I try to steer clear of it.
So now I buy used books, most happens to be published in the 1970s for some reason. There are so many out there that I'll never run out of things to read and at €1-2 per books, it's cheap.
This is advice from someone who went from 10 books/year to 52 (1 book/week as described).
I think practical tips for someone already a frequent reader are probably different that for someone who reads 'a bit', a few a year at most. I'd be very happy if I got to 10/year consistently. But that would a) be more than 5.2x-ing; b) be a harder initial curve than the 10 to 52 region, I imagine.
> First of all, you don’t have to make time to read. What you need to do is read every single time you are not doing something else.
(Proceeds to describe how they made time for reading by removing other distractions.)
I'm trying to read more books, but I easily fall into the trap of staying up late reading good books, and I have trouble recovering from sleep deficit these days.
I found reading during meals allowed me to dramatically increase the number of books I got through. It gives about 40 minutes per day, that can sometimes extend to a couple hours if the book is good, schedule allowing.
To me, having these blocks of times sound better than trying to read a sentence or two in the white space around other activities.
You want to read more? Miss phone calls, meals, breaking news; forego an hour or two of rest; work on your core; replace all clocks indoors with sundials. Print. Scan. Pirate. Dig the crates. Sail the seas. It's not a technological problem. It's not a device problem. It's you. You don't want it enough. You don't want to read.
Maybe you should take up cycling. Maybe you need to write more. Maybe you aren't eating enough fruit. Maybe you need a little caffeine. Maybe it's the air quality. We don't think it's microplastics.
Your friends who read. Maybe it's their fault. They're not printing enough. Or sending enough screenshots. Why haven't you caught them outside on street medians reading out loud? To whoever. They're not setting for you the right example.
Audio books won't cut it. Hey big guy why don't stick one a them foam feet thingies in between ya toes while ya at it huh! And cut some cucumbers to recess the bags under ya eyes so people wont mistake ya for a guy who actually reads his books and will not following the family to their trip to Monaco this summer, no, sorry Donna, I'll be here at home with the books. The dog will have to learn to fend on its own as will the plants, your niece and nephew.
I started a habit to read during my lunch/dinner breaks. I wear headphones, put on some lo-fi beats or jazz, and read a chapter or two until I'm done eating.
I really enjoy it and it's a nice reprieve especially at work.
Got recommendations for specific songs / groups for Lo-Fi beats & jazz? What I've found is that many lo-fi playlists contain songs that have a lot of distracting noises (voices, distorted guitar twang, rain drops, record crackle, etc) - so I've been slowly-but-surely making playlists of study/reading songs.
Thanks!
> Another secret is to not be scared of quitting a book. I definitely start way more than I finish. But I don’t consider an uncompleted book a failure or a bad book. I think that sometimes books have a certain time to be fully appreciated. So if I don’t finish a book today, I might try reading it again in the future.
Well said. On a related note, I think the idea of coming back to books later is essential to reading non-fiction, as I've personally found it much more productive to read until I think I've "got it", and then revisit it a few months later with a new (ideally better informed) perspective.
For staying motivated to read, I like to set up and read small clusters of books then write about them. Being able to put a bow on a reading project is easier to stick with than reading X books in a year.
but this is means reads only to read
sometime for books that I choose I nred something like a table and chair pen a paper to really read the text that written
I did something similar two years ago : I set up MacroDroid such that it opens CoolReader every time I unlock my phone
I adore my XTEink 4 with the crosspoint firmware. Best small form factor ereader
been thinking about buying one, but the whole debacle with locking down the fw put me off for a bit.
Oh I didn't hear about this. That sucks. The stock firmware is terrible. CrossPoint makes it usable.
they have a partnership with crosspoint now i think its fine now
Use reading book to replace reading phone is a good habit or strategy.
Not only read book, but also thinking them is a must thing.
Sometime you want to go outside from your home to see the real world.
Don't forget the real world, reading book lets you absorb the knowledge, but most time they are not right， accurate, or you don't understand them, the real world can tell you the real knowledge.
Watching TV as well. I find I get more out of books than binge watching series. Books require more active use of your imaginative faculties.
I’m not as avid a reader as the author, but I can still offer one piece of advice: remembering what you read is important.
https://world.hey.com/otar/remembering-what-you-read-8b70cf6...
I've found my reading picked dramatically since I started using LLMs for programming. Waiting for a prompt to finish is a great time to read.
A big strategy not mentioned is to pick smaller books. If you have a bunch of books that are only 30-50 pages long you can read much more books than full length novels.
My setup is read a few pages while taking a bath, after walking the dog. I listen to the audio book verision (libravox app) while walking the dog. Since I walk the dog every day for an hour. It adds up. Large earmuff / noise cancelling headphones helps with the voice clarity. I also take my m4/3 camera with 14-140mm lens (28-280mm equivalent) with me. So I managed to get quite nice photos/clips of lots of birds/insects on my trail walks. Have a camera sling bag from national geographic (explorer bag) thats small and swings around so I can open it without taking it off. And have the dog on a leash tied to my belt, to keep my hands free. So can even get some runs / interval training in if I want to. So In one hour, I usually get about 2 miles in, walk the dog, listen to audio book and do some bird photography. I also sometimes take a dji neo 2 drone, can even capture beautiful sunsets. Pretty cheap and efficient setup. Can recommend.
1. Open book.
2. Point face at page.
3. Wait.
4. Turn page.
5. When last page, close book.
6. Acquire new book.
7. Repeat.
I'm surprised carrying my kindle in a small day sling gets it more read than pulling out my phone or scrolling.
How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47295304
The question is why? Why do you think reading books is a more valuable use of your time than reading posts or watching video essays. Anybody can look at an immature medium and write it off as a waste of time. In 100 years parents will tell children to scroll tiktok instead of playing on the Zorp, don't you want to be part of that rather than the footnote, 'Oh yeah people were still writing scrolls in the 1700s'. Books are random access, if we apply your structural idea we would say book authors and readers are under the tyrannical rule of indices, chapters, back/forward references and CYOAs
One could make the same fallacious "form affects content" argument against books, but in reality authors rarely write stories for people randomly flipping pages, at most the author will tell them or explain why they might want to turn to a particular page. Similarly most content on the web doesn't assume you are jumping to links and coming back, but instead uses them as an index of references.
There are style problems of course, too much surface area, over-reliance on and under-appreciation of sources. There is nothing pure about text. Any form requires training on the part of the consumer to appreciate the "depth". From what I can see people don't care about the content, they don't even care about comparing the trade-offs from one form to another beyond format prestige and convenience.
Please look at how books actually make money rather than assuming a priori that they optimize for "lifetime value" instead of some platonic ideal book that exists in your head. Now if you're more adept at a particular medium due to practice that's a valid reason to stick with it, but it's not one to spread vile propaganda about a medium and convince its consumers to turn off their brains because the medium's difficulty matrix applied to thought patterns is different.
If you disagree, fine, feel free to write software like this [1] and pray that the problem doesn't naturally require indirection. Code is just another medium, yes the inclusion of abstractions is poison for deep thought, but not every problem is best solved by deep thought. "Study long, study wrong."
[1] https://cbarrete.com/carmack.html
I used to be able to read a lot while commuting. Unfortunately, many other passengers now delight in either yapping loudly on their phone or playing utter shit on its speakers. It takes me out of it...