This is something I really agree with. Both myself and my father read very often, but we read utter schlock. We are no more intellectually improving ourselves t

This is something I really agree with. Both myself and my father read very often, but we read utter schlock. We are no more intellectually improving ourselves than someone watching an action movie. To think otherwise is empty self-flattering of the worst sort. Also, at least for academic subjects, I've found doing problems is much more informative than spending the same amount of time reading the text. You can study as much python as you want, but until you sit down to write a program - you have on idea where you are.