5 ms·

Alan Kay on how many books you can read in an year

17 points by wowsig 9y ago

EduardoBautista 9y ago
I never understood how people can read so quickly and still comprehend everything. I feel like that is the limiting factor for me reading a book every day.
- cafard 9y ago
  Some can, some can't--I know of someone who maintains a furious pace and seems to get some curious misconceptions of the matter read. It also depends very much on what one is reading. Between commuting and evening time, I can read two or three hundred pages of literary fiction in a week--unless the author is somebody like Henry James. I cannot read two or three hundred pages of philosophy in a week, and probably not that much history. I would imagine that Russell's four hours of philosophical reading covered many fewer pages than his four hours of other reading.
- sgregnt 9y ago
  I think the comparison of hours of reading and hours of training which is made in the article is not a proper one. When you compete or work on your body appearance what matters is the end goal, if you can achieve same result with the less effort it all the better. The amount of work is only reflective of estimating how much work goes into being a professional sportsman or having exceptional physic. With reading it is different, what is the end goal of each of the fierce readers? Is it to be a good investor a successful academic? But then what's the correlation between number of books read and success? I belive that for people who read 20k book by and large the correlation is negative - if their goal is professional sucess they just do not invest their limited time in most optimal way.
- brudgers 9y ago
  For me, comprehending everything in a book is not a goal. A good book goes past my limits at the time. It creates questions and curiosity. Later maybe a read something else and the thing I read earlier suddenly makes sense. Comprehending everything is contrary to another thing I find helpful...no compulsion to finish every book. It took me a long time to stop treating quitting a book as an intellectual failure. It was hard, in part I think, because I had learned to read books as if it was an academic assignment and as if there would be a test on the material next Tuesday. There isn't. The measure of success from reading a book is that it might have value at some point later and that later might be years later. And comprehending a little about the contents of a book means I can comprehend something else in some other book.

17 points by wowsig 9y ago

I never understood how people can read so quickly and still comprehend everything. I feel like that is the limiting factor for me reading a book every day.

cafard 9y ago
Some can, some can't--I know of someone who maintains a furious pace and seems to get some curious misconceptions of the matter read. It also depends very much on what one is reading. Between commuting and evening time, I can read two or three hundred pages of literary fiction in a week--unless the author is somebody like Henry James. I cannot read two or three hundred pages of philosophy in a week, and probably not that much history. I would imagine that Russell's four hours of philosophical reading covered many fewer pages than his four hours of other reading.
sgregnt 9y ago
I think the comparison of hours of reading and hours of training which is made in the article is not a proper one. When you compete or work on your body appearance what matters is the end goal, if you can achieve same result with the less effort it all the better. The amount of work is only reflective of estimating how much work goes into being a professional sportsman or having exceptional physic. With reading it is different, what is the end goal of each of the fierce readers? Is it to be a good investor a successful academic? But then what's the correlation between number of books read and success? I belive that for people who read 20k book by and large the correlation is negative - if their goal is professional sucess they just do not invest their limited time in most optimal way.
brudgers 9y ago
For me, comprehending everything in a book is not a goal. A good book goes past my limits at the time. It creates questions and curiosity. Later maybe a read something else and the thing I read earlier suddenly makes sense. Comprehending everything is contrary to another thing I find helpful...no compulsion to finish every book. It took me a long time to stop treating quitting a book as an intellectual failure. It was hard, in part I think, because I had learned to read books as if it was an academic assignment and as if there would be a test on the material next Tuesday. There isn't. The measure of success from reading a book is that it might have value at some point later and that later might be years later. And comprehending a little about the contents of a book means I can comprehend something else in some other book.