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Anecdotally, I kind of agree with the author. I used to spend whole days as a kid just reading books, sometimes staying up very late to finish them. I don't kno

Anecdotally, I kind of agree with the author. I used to spend whole days as a kid just reading books, sometimes staying up very late to finish them. I don't know if its because my life has just gotten busier, my attention span has gotten shorter, or a combination of the two, but I'm finding it much more difficult to first pick up and crack open a book, then read it all the way through. I do this a lot lately: I will hear about a book I on a topic I find very interesting, Ill read about a quarter of it, amd almost always never pick it up again. Fiction, non Fiction, it doesnt matter the subkect nor the interest level, I inevitably stop reading it. I think it comes down to a few factors, though. The only times now where I can really read through a whole book is when I'm on vacation, usually a long ways away from my home and job. So I'm assuming the short attention span is probably stress/exhaustion related, and at the end of a day or on the weekends I just dont feel I have the energy to pick up and finish a book. And this goes on and on until Ive forgotten about the book I was reading. Anyone else feel the same way? (Sorry for any grammatical errors, I'm typing this from my phone.)

nixpulvis 9y ago
Or maybe your "wasted hours" reading a book have turned into "wasted hours" online. Who's to saw which is less wasteful. There is something unique about actually reading a book though, just like there's something unique about it being an actual book, not a ebook. Though these things are hard to classify.
- kerkeslager 9y ago
  > Who's to saw which is less wasteful. Me, based on what I gain from each experience. Although of course in that case I'm only speaking on the wastefulness of what I do with my own time.
khedoros1 9y ago
I usually got through 10-15 novels a year, reading before bed and during my son's naps during the weekend. It's mostly fiction, with some history thrown in. It's been a year or two since I last abandoned a book. I don't like doing it, so I usually muddle through anyhow. But I definitely know the urge to drop it, forget about it, and find something else to do. On my most exhausted nights, I'll halfheartedly read a page or two (if I'm lucky) and put the book down.
watwut 9y ago
Do you read same-length books as you read as a kid? I was recently buying kids books and realized how short they are compared to the ones adults are supposed to read. Less pages, smaller size, bigger font, more space between lines all combine. Also, I read some old novels I downloaded from Guttenberg and generally speaking, they were shorter then more modern stuff. There might be some bias in terms of what I have chosen of course. But yes, it is the same. Long book needs to be read without too much breaks and you need to read long stretches of time at once to really enjoy it. If you are tired from work, which you are unless you are slowly slacking on the job, you have less energy in the evening to absorb something long or difficult.
darepublic 9y ago
I used to read a lot as a kid too, and also into my teenage and college years. But after a certain point in college my reading diminished until the current point at which I won't even open a programming book anymore.
- konschubert 9y ago
  Weirdly, the same thing happened to me with video games.
  - ronjouch 9y ago
    Yes! Which (to me) reaches the article author's bewilderment about "cynical" / "utilitarian" reading: it's now very rare that I get immersed in a game. My now frequent attitude when gaming is more distanced, I'm not in the game but more observant of the game, sometimes judging it and often wanting to finish the game and be done with it, in a similar "utilitarian" way, rather than enjoying the experience. Which utterly defeats the purpose of the time-consuming experiences to be lived that games are, right?! It feels kinda sad. One might say my interest for games may simply have faded, or that I now know what I like and what I don't, and am less tolerant about what I don't like. Maybe.

nixpulvis 9y ago

Or maybe your "wasted hours" reading a book have turned into "wasted hours" online. Who's to saw which is less wasteful. There is something unique about actually reading a book though, just like there's something unique about it being an actual book, not a ebook. Though these things are hard to classify.

kerkeslager 9y ago
> Who's to saw which is less wasteful. Me, based on what I gain from each experience. Although of course in that case I'm only speaking on the wastefulness of what I do with my own time.

khedoros1 9y ago

I usually got through 10-15 novels a year, reading before bed and during my son's naps during the weekend. It's mostly fiction, with some history thrown in. It's been a year or two since I last abandoned a book. I don't like doing it, so I usually muddle through anyhow. But I definitely know the urge to drop it, forget about it, and find something else to do. On my most exhausted nights, I'll halfheartedly read a page or two (if I'm lucky) and put the book down.

watwut 9y ago

Do you read same-length books as you read as a kid? I was recently buying kids books and realized how short they are compared to the ones adults are supposed to read. Less pages, smaller size, bigger font, more space between lines all combine. Also, I read some old novels I downloaded from Guttenberg and generally speaking, they were shorter then more modern stuff. There might be some bias in terms of what I have chosen of course. But yes, it is the same. Long book needs to be read without too much breaks and you need to read long stretches of time at once to really enjoy it. If you are tired from work, which you are unless you are slowly slacking on the job, you have less energy in the evening to absorb something long or difficult.

darepublic 9y ago

I used to read a lot as a kid too, and also into my teenage and college years. But after a certain point in college my reading diminished until the current point at which I won't even open a programming book anymore.

konschubert 9y ago
Weirdly, the same thing happened to me with video games.
- ronjouch 9y ago
  Yes! Which (to me) reaches the article author's bewilderment about "cynical" / "utilitarian" reading: it's now very rare that I get immersed in a game. My now frequent attitude when gaming is more distanced, I'm not in the game but more observant of the game, sometimes judging it and often wanting to finish the game and be done with it, in a similar "utilitarian" way, rather than enjoying the experience. Which utterly defeats the purpose of the time-consuming experiences to be lived that games are, right?! It feels kinda sad. One might say my interest for games may simply have faded, or that I now know what I like and what I don't, and am less tolerant about what I don't like. Maybe.