5 ms·

The allure of the Internet is strong...agreed... I waste more time than I should with the excuse that I'm keeping abreast of current events... I'll share this

The allure of the Internet is strong...agreed... I waste more time than I should with the excuse that I'm keeping abreast of current events... I'll share this with you...if you read a good book, a really good one--you pick the subject--you'll benefit from the raw truth that someone really bright spent a long time organizing their thoughts and presenting the knowledge they're sharing... I cannot always say the same about what I stumble upon on the internet...

colmvp 11y ago
Buying a kindle and setting boundaries and goals (1-2 books per week, save interesting long form articles to kindle, no computer an hour before bed, no addictive games/apps on my phone or computer) really set my mind back on track after years of Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. Since making this change in late December I've read a dozen books, countless interesting long form articles, and significantly cut down my time on gaming and social media. It's also resulted in fascinating personal discoveries and helped improved my performance at work and music. Most importantly it doesn't feel like work. I love discussing various findings from what I read with friends. And when you read an edifying book, it stays with you for a long time and helps form a foundation to keep building upon.
- markism 11y ago
  I like this. I keep an ebook on my phone, so in little gaps I can read a book instead of ending up on social media. This doesn't lend itself to many books, but I end up reading around one a week this way. I also keep Reddit and Facebook blocked on my computer, and don't have the apps on my phone. It keeps me from habitually typing in the URL or tapping the app and derailing myself from anything productive I was doing. A problem I have is finding good long form content. Usually I find things through HN and Reddit, but that lends itself to mindless browsing. How do you usually find long form content?
  - wallacoloo 11y ago
    The most conventional way to find long-form content (i.e. novels) is probably to use a digital library. I can recommend https://openlibrary.org/ https://openlibrary.org/ which is just an unbelievably awesome project that makes over 1 million books available free-to-download in a searchable catalog (most are public domain). Depending on where you live, it's quite likely that your city's physical libraries also have an online presence. This gives you access to more recent popular releases, but at the cost that most of them have some archaic system wherein they simulate a limited number of "copies" that can be in circulation at any time and they mostly come in some format that requires a special device to read (e.g. a kindle, or perhaps a kindle phone app). There's also Amazon.com, but with the same limitation as above. You're not going to find .pdf or .txt book formats in large stores or region-based libraries. The author also mentioned fanfiction communities as a place where people tend to be especially friendly/supportive on the internet. From my experience, there are actually some really great self-published works out there (fan-based and wholly original) by hobbyist writers. And this avenue is unique in that it's especially easy to discuss the book with the author and with other readers online. You can probably find something of interest at http://nanowrimo.org/forums http://nanowrimo.org/forums (National Novel Writing Month forums) or, if you identify with some fandom, you can consult http://fanfiction.net http://fanfiction.net, though I've heard mixed things about the quality of the latter. Ironically for you, I find most of my long-form literature via some specific reddit book-sharing threads. It's actually the primary reason I even have a reddit account.

colmvp 11y ago

Buying a kindle and setting boundaries and goals (1-2 books per week, save interesting long form articles to kindle, no computer an hour before bed, no addictive games/apps on my phone or computer) really set my mind back on track after years of Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. Since making this change in late December I've read a dozen books, countless interesting long form articles, and significantly cut down my time on gaming and social media. It's also resulted in fascinating personal discoveries and helped improved my performance at work and music. Most importantly it doesn't feel like work. I love discussing various findings from what I read with friends. And when you read an edifying book, it stays with you for a long time and helps form a foundation to keep building upon.

markism 11y ago
I like this. I keep an ebook on my phone, so in little gaps I can read a book instead of ending up on social media. This doesn't lend itself to many books, but I end up reading around one a week this way. I also keep Reddit and Facebook blocked on my computer, and don't have the apps on my phone. It keeps me from habitually typing in the URL or tapping the app and derailing myself from anything productive I was doing. A problem I have is finding good long form content. Usually I find things through HN and Reddit, but that lends itself to mindless browsing. How do you usually find long form content?
- wallacoloo 11y ago
  The most conventional way to find long-form content (i.e. novels) is probably to use a digital library. I can recommend https://openlibrary.org/ https://openlibrary.org/ which is just an unbelievably awesome project that makes over 1 million books available free-to-download in a searchable catalog (most are public domain). Depending on where you live, it's quite likely that your city's physical libraries also have an online presence. This gives you access to more recent popular releases, but at the cost that most of them have some archaic system wherein they simulate a limited number of "copies" that can be in circulation at any time and they mostly come in some format that requires a special device to read (e.g. a kindle, or perhaps a kindle phone app). There's also Amazon.com, but with the same limitation as above. You're not going to find .pdf or .txt book formats in large stores or region-based libraries. The author also mentioned fanfiction communities as a place where people tend to be especially friendly/supportive on the internet. From my experience, there are actually some really great self-published works out there (fan-based and wholly original) by hobbyist writers. And this avenue is unique in that it's especially easy to discuss the book with the author and with other readers online. You can probably find something of interest at http://nanowrimo.org/forums http://nanowrimo.org/forums (National Novel Writing Month forums) or, if you identify with some fandom, you can consult http://fanfiction.net http://fanfiction.net, though I've heard mixed things about the quality of the latter. Ironically for you, I find most of my long-form literature via some specific reddit book-sharing threads. It's actually the primary reason I even have a reddit account.