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For related reading, I recommend this Tim Urban piece, "The Tail End": https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-end.html https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-
by Kuiper 9y ago
For related reading, I recommend this Tim Urban piece, "The Tail End": https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-end.html https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-end.html
I read about five books a year, so even though it feels like I’ll read an endless number of books in the future, I actually have to choose only 300 of all the books out there to read and accept that I’ll sign off for eternity without knowing what goes on in all the rest.
...
I’ve been thinking about my parents, who are in their mid-60s. During my first 18 years, I spent some time with my parents during at least 90% of my days. But since heading off to college and then later moving out of Boston, I’ve probably seen them an average of only five times a year each, for an average of maybe two days each time. 10 days a year.
Being in their mid-60s, let’s continue to be super optimistic and say I’m one of the incredibly lucky people to have both parents alive into my 60s. That would give us about 30 more years of coexistence. If the ten days a year thing holds, that’s 300 days left to hang with mom and dad. Less time than I spent with them in any one of my 18 childhood years.
It turns out that when I graduated from high school, I had already used up 93% of my in-person parent time. I’m now enjoying the last 5% of that time. We’re in the tail end.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- lsc 9y ago>I read about five books a year, so even though it feels like I’ll read an endless number of books in the future, I actually have to choose only 300 of all the books out there to read and accept that I’ll sign off for eternity without knowing what goes on in all the rest. makes you want to take some time off and read, doesn't it?
- crowbahr 9y agoI highly recommend audio books. I tallied it up and last year I read 58 books averaging 1.8 hours of reading a day. It's great!
- lsc 9y agoI don't think audiobooks are really the same; Maybe I just need to figure out how to make it read faster, but so far it's just slower and less immersive. Audio is a thing, like I really enjoy history podcasts when I'm doing other things that require attention, but it's different from reading 'cause I'm not immersed in the world of Mike Duncan or Nate DiMeo - I mean, I really enjoy listening to them but it's like watching a movie on a screen; reading a book is like watching a movie on a occulus rift (only, you know, good) I mean, one of them is there in the room with you; the other becomes the room, absorbs all attention.
- colechristensen 9y agoThe Audible client has a speed factor built in to it's client. The problems you describe easily go away at about 1.3x for me, and I can listen considerably faster if I'm not interested in 100% retention (some books are worth skimming, others worth reading, and a select few are worth studying) As an aside I highly recommend reading "How to Read a Book". I don't recommend studying every detail, there is a lot in there I don't think is particularly valuable, but some of it really shifted how I thought about and approached reading.
- baxtr 9y agoI think it’s definitely not the same. I often buy kindle books with the audible bundle included. The I listen to the books while I’m commuting. I often go back though and actually the chapters without the audio. I am always surprised how much new things I find even though I “read” the chapter already.
- ikurei 9y agoYou can speed it up, and I've done that for some books, but I agree it's not the same. Specially for books from which you want to extract actual concrete knowledge, there is nothing like paper. However, for the right books, audiobooks can be even better in my experience; books where you want some "wisdom" and feelings more than concrete stuff, and where a peaceful, somewhat-slow is appropriate. I listened to Lab Girl, an intimate autobiography, read by the author, and it was fantastic. I am now going over a book on buddhism, and because I don't really care about remembering the details of Maharana's life, I love listening instead of reading. With such a book, reading faster doesn't seem to make much sense, I wanna go slow and savior its lessons. In any case, it's been a good complement to my traditional reading; even when it isn't the best way to read a book, it's a fantastic way to make the most of commuting or doing chores.
- Kuiper 9y agoFor many years, my fantasy of retirement was that I would have a house with a large back yard so that I could spend my days reading outside surrounded by trees. At some point I realized that there was no reason I had to wait until retirement to realize this fantasy, and now many of my Saturdays begin with a walk to a local park, followed by several hours of reading. It's just as pleasurable as I had expected, and it's actually been surprisingly easy to make this happen now that I've made it a priority. It doesn't even take a whole day; there are plenty of Saturdays when I go out to read during the morning and still have the rest of the day free for whatever chores or social engagements are vying for my attention. I even find myself doing it on weekday afternoons evenings, especially in summer when the days are long. Another thing that has led to me reading more books is just giving myself permission to read books in increments of 15 minutes or less during random moments of downtime. Moments on/waiting for the tram or between phone meetings that I would have spent checking Twitter on my phone can just as easily be spent reading a book. This isn't so good for certain kinds of content that you might want to devote more attention to, but I've found that I'm perfectly capable of enjoying fiction in 10-minute increments without significantly diminishing my enjoyment of it. And oftentimes, reading bits of a novel throughout the day often gives me a certain amount of momentum that makes me want to continue reading the book during my free time in the evening during time that I might have otherwise spent watching TV, browsing reddit/facebook, etc.
- rmrm 9y agoAs someone with a large property to keep up - you wouldnt be reading, you be performing your 2nd job as part time gardener/ landscaper. Important to know...
- hzhou321 9y agoI was thinking the same thing (I guess) as I read that comment: If one is going to worry about the limited choice of books for the rest of his lifetime, he should simply just read. Similarly, if one is worrying about limited time with their parents, he should simply do it now or schedule his immediate next visit. If we take in the finiteness of lifetime as a factor, most of our decisions will simply stop making sense. Life should be spent with no clear boundary other than it is finite.
- therealdrag0 9y agoOTOH, in my early 20s I had drank the kool-aid of reading is the best thing you can possibly do. I started reading more and more. Once I got up to around 75 books a year, I realized I had passed diminishing returns, and my life was not well-balanced. I'm now down to ~25 books a year and feel like it fits me well.
- lsc 9y agoHmm. I am closer to 50 than 25 a year. My recent thoughts on the matter are mostly after playing progression games or watching YouTube. "i would be happier now if I had spent that time reading"