10 ms·

I'm about to turn 33 and only within the last year have I really discovered the joy of reading books. I went from reading maybe 1 or 2 books a year to reading a

I'm about to turn 33 and only within the last year have I really discovered the joy of reading books. I went from reading maybe 1 or 2 books a year to reading a book a week, and I'm on track to read close to 50 books this year (slowed down quite a bit by reading a textbook as part of auditing a class). If only I had discovered this earlier in my life who knows where I'd be now, but better late than never I suppose.

proee 8y ago
What are the benefits that you're experiencing with increased reading?
- marnett 8y ago
  I'd say a deeper more complex and connected understanding of the world. Truly phenomenal authors were masters of framing so many things I thought of strictly in objective terms in a more subjective light. You begin to realize how the world is filled with very shallow thoughts and ideas. You can really only come to that realization after digesting long form arguments and narratives.
  - kick_in_the_dor 8y ago
    Who are some of your favorite authors?
    - marnett 8y ago
      Steinbeck, Vonnegut, Dostoyevsky, Ursula Le Guin, David Foster Wallace (I could truly go on forever, but I think these authors are phenomenal, with themes and meta-themes different from one another). I think if you watch an interview with DFW you will realize just how much he has thought of just about every facet of modern, entertainment-centric western society - all coming together in Infinite Jest which is the most depressing book I've ever read (he later committed suicide, so it might have been the most depressing contemporary book ever written either). Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness models an entire planetary civilization with no fixed sex (written in 1969, mind you), which I found very eye-opening. Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (as well as Crime and Punishment) are extraordinarily psychological and philosophical - ethics, free will, and God are centric. Both Steinbeck and Vonnegut have multiple books I'd recommend, but East of Eden by Steinbeck is an all-time favorite tackling good and evil (honestly Nietzsche in novel); Slaughterhouse 5 by Vonnegut (just a notch above Heller's Catch-22) is the embodiment of darkness and absurdity. Take an anti-war sentiment and an author willing to tiptoe to the border of sanity and insanity and the result is SH5. It is truly brilliant, and as someone who is fortunate enough to not have ever been impacted greatly by wartime, it is equally eye-opening. Honorable mention (a book I have read more recently) goes to Tom Wolfe with The Bonfire of the Vanities. This book combines the legal system (police and prosecutors), personal greed and ambition (Wall Street bond salesman), racism (Media biases), and class structures and privilege in a hard hitting social critique on 80s New York City. Everything between its covers is key to understanding how the world actually works. This turned out to be a lot longer than I anticipated. Hopefully it is helpful!
  - jamesb93 8y ago
    What books can you recommend?
    - yourbandsucks 8y ago
      Not OP, couple rando suggestions: High concept sci-fi:. Three body problem by Liu cixin, or A deepness in the sky by Vernor vinge Character drama: 11/22/63 Stephen king, or really almost anything by him Don't underestimate lit-trash -- it's worlds better than Twitter -- Lee child jack reacher novels are fun, so were the original Tom Clancy run. Altered carbon on the cuberpunk front. And of course the classics if you're willing to invest -- most of them are worth it, otherwise they wouldn't be classics
      - dorchadas 8y ago
        And even the classics in various genres. Like, you can't necessarily go wrong with reading Douglas Adams, or Arthur C. Clarke or J.R.R. Tolkien, especially as a novice in a genre. That said, I'd recommend reading Les Misérables to everyone. Definitely an amazing book.
        billfruit 8y ago
        And Count of Montecristo.
      - Nition 8y ago
        Funny, if I think of my favorite books I'd probably say the Three Body Problem trilogy, A Deepness In The Sky, and The Stand...maybe because I haven't read 11/22/63 yet. I better read Altered Carbon since you seem to have exactly the same taste as me. I'd add that reading the whole Three Body Problem trilogy is highly recommended since it gets higher concept every book. And personally I enjoyed A Fire Upon The Deep just as much as A Deepness In The Sky.
        yourbandsucks 8y ago
        The Stand is an actual classic, I should have mentioned it if I mentioned King. 11/22/63 is more of a less-epic, mature character work. Cheers to good taste!
  - billfruit 8y ago
    Perhaps being able to read and enjoy poetry, is elevating ones level of understanding to an even higher plane, that reading just prose.
- cheez 8y ago
  I'm in a similar situation. Increased patience is one of the more noticeable outcomes.
- acconrad 8y ago
  The tangible benefits: 1. Increased vocabulary 2. Practice and improvement of skills I'm specifically reading about (as many of the books I'm reading are for acquiring skills related to my job) 3. Simply reading about new topics encourages me to read books further exploring on that peripheral knowledge The intangibles: 1. The momentum for reading begets more reading, which makes me feel good about spending my time reading over watching TV/movies/surfing the net. 2. I feel more knowledgeable and empathetic. In this past year I read stories about impoverished refugees from North Korea, American politics, and stories of overcoming seemingly impossible odds. These are topics I never get to explore in my day job, and it helps me feel more well-rounded.
- coldtea 8y ago
  Getting in the mind and lives of other persons, in ways (or rather, depth) that casual discussion, tv, and film can't even begin to touch, and learning to understand and/or appreciate different perspectives and circumstances.
broken_symlink 8y ago
I've been wanting to get in to reading, but my biggest issue is finding something to read that interests me. How did you start finding things?
- alexkavon 8y ago
  1. What are you interested in? 2. Seek out popular books on indicated interest. 3. Choose book and read. Seriously though, I jumped back into reading by picking a genre I loved, but was very behind on. In my case it was science fiction and started with the rather famous Dune. There have been some books I started and did not like so I stopped. When I find a stack of books for free I try to seek out if anything looks interesting (and check for quality) and grab 1 or 2. Worst case scenario you can just returneth the book from whence it came. There's always Gnod[0]. Finally getting into reading will be like picking up any other activity. You need to fully commit for a while before it becomes something that you really need to do (rather something you only want to do). [0] http://www.gnod.com/ http://www.gnod.com/
- undersuit 8y ago
  I used to walk into the library on my way home and just look at covers and spines until I had 5 or so books that literally looked interesting. I gave each book a chapter of reading before deciding to finish it or not. Don't judge a book by a cover, but do have some curiosity.
  - dorchadas 8y ago
    Definitely. I go to the local bookstore once a week to check new releases/acquisitions. I've found it nice to check the cover/title and, if it catches my eye, read more about it or try a chapter. Found some really good stuff I'd've never read otherwise that way. This mostly works for non-fiction, though I've found it great for fantasy novels as well. I usually take a picture then go see if anyone I trust on Goodreads has read it, or if the library has it.
- hijp 8y ago
  Not OP, but for me the biggest boon to my reading has been the kindle for a variety of reasons: 1. If I'm not into a book, I wont force it, I can just jump to a new one. 2. 1-click downloads, if something sounds good I can just send a sample to the kindle. If it really sounds good I'll just buy it. 3. Portability, it's always in my bag and the charge lasts weeks. I get book recommendations from Hacker News reading lists, podcasts, and friends. Then just download the sample.
eatonphil 8y ago
Similar story, in my 20s though. Went from 1-2 books a year (three years ago) to 48 this year (on track for 55). I too wish I discovered this earlier. There is so much to read about and the density of high-quality information in a book is unmatched.
- wallace_f 8y ago
  >density of high-quality information in a book is unmatched. Do you not get tired from this? Books I read 3 years ago are typically purged from memory by now. What remains are understandings and intuitions on a topic, which have value, but sometimes I wonder if the time is always well spent.
  - theonemind 8y ago
    Paul Graham's thoughts on this, if you haven't seen it: http://www.paulgraham.com/know.html http://www.paulgraham.com/know.html I don't know if I agree. It just seemed relevant.
  - tasty_freeze 8y ago
    I keep a log, just a simple text file, where I spend 5 minutes to 30 minutes after I finish a book to write my thoughts on it. Title + Author + 7/10 (or whatever) overall rating and a few paragraphs. The log might mention how I came to the book, what the big themes were, and for non-fiction, I write down the page number of important points that I might care to reference later.
  - Regardsyjc 8y ago
    I love the physical books in my library because I can easily see the titles and I can turn to them easily when I need to jog my memory. This might be really weird but when I have a tough question, I like to think about what my favorite authors in my library might say, and I'll take the book out and flip through the pages, looking for their thoughts on the subject. When I spend hours reading a book, I internalize that author's voice, beliefs, and thought process. I don't need to remember all the tiny details but I remember their thought process which I consider priceless. I was going through a book called Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger and they have pages of questions to ask in the back and I realized I was automatically asking all of them on a daily basis. I had internalized that thinking.
sv12l 8y ago
How do you pick those books?
- dorchadas 8y ago
  I'm not OP, but I just follow my interests. Thankfully, at least with non-fiction, they're fairly broad, so I've read academic textbooks on religion, textbooks on programming, general science books on physics (to complement my textbook knowledge) as well as anthropology, sociology and more. Just find a topic you're interested in, go to Goodreads (I like it a lot more than Amazon for searching books), and see what you can find. Or Google it, and see what trusted people in fields like/recommend. Or even people with interests that align with yours. As for fiction, I like mostly fantasy, so will browse the shelves and look at hyped books on /r/fantasy, as well as other, lesser-known ones that sound/look interesting (I'm a proponent of looking at covers and titles to see if it seems interesting to look into deeper). I also used to follow some reviewers. For more "literary" fiction, I look mostly at what mainstream reviewers say. I found All the Light we Cannot See that way, and loved it (except for one scene I felt was just completely unnecessary to the novel). Then, perhaps, look for major authors. Umberto Eco is one that comes to mind that I'm fixing to start.
- Kagerjay 8y ago
  Not OP, but I've read a ~200 fiction books and ~50 nonfiction books over my life. Usually I pick books by the following: - If I haven't read a single book for fun, I would pick a popular fiction or nonfiction book. Its a good starting point. Things like "Top 10 books in X category" from goodreads are good examples, or "r/askreddit favorite books" - After reading 5-10 different books, I'll get a feel for what I like and don't like. I'll search "site:reddit.com similar books to X" and grab recommendations. Compare these to amazon's bestsellers and goodreads. - For nonfiction books, I generally am more picky. I usually have a list of people I follow, some write reviews on books they read. I have had a few people I respect read "Ego is the Enemy" so I picked that up recently, and its something I struggle with sometimes so it's ideal for me. Nonfiction books are most powerful when you read it at the right time - For nonfiction more textbook-like books, or something more informational, I usually let reddit / goodreads /hackernews decide what's good and what's not. I started to read less fiction now, I've seen the same plot rehashed too many times. Nonfiction books are interesting to me at the moment. I guess it really depends what you want to get out of your book. Do you want escapism, inspiration, or change?
cgs 8y ago
Buy books at your local bookstore. The one in my town does such a good job with curation that I can pick something on any topic at random and 9/10 times it will be excellent. I think we'll see this more and more as people put less and less stock in Amazon reviews.
- dorchadas 8y ago
  And always check used bookstores. You can find gems there, and often take chances on new things because they're so cheap. And don't forget libraries! I could wax poetic about all those places.
  - rv-de 8y ago
    In Germany we have booklooker.de as a market place for used books. I recently bought an autobiography from there which has out of print for many years. And I found the experience of holding a book in my hand older than myself strangely exciting. That book was printed ten years before I was born. The pages had taken on a yellow shade. Of course I held plenty of really old books in my hand by now. But only then I realized it might become a habit. Especially when there is a choice. You want to read a Mark Twain? Why not by an edition from before the Great War?
    - dorchadas 8y ago
      I'm well aware of booklooker, and it's amazing. There's also bookfinder.com here in America. They're some of the best places to start looking if you want rare/old/niche books.
- craftyguy 8y ago
  Alternatively, go to your local library and check out books for free. If you feel like you need to own them, then buy from the local book store. Supporting the local library is more important since they (almost?) all do great community outreach for literacy (children programs, etc).
  - 8y ago
new12345 8y ago
Can you briefly list what improvements you have observed because of more reading?
- ggregoire 8y ago
  For sure I sleep better when I spend 1 hour reading before sleeping than when I watch a series or play a video game.
virmundi 8y ago
How did you get past the existential crisis that reading a book does nothing but while way time on a task that accomplished little when viewed over a period greater than a month? For example, rather than reading a book, you could have made something. You could have learned a new skill. Gone somewhere and improved someone’s life like taking trash out at the soup kitchen. All the while you know that there is a high likelihood you’ll forget key plot points within that same month.
- greesil 8y ago
  Perhaps you're stuck on a BART train, and there's nothing much better to do?
  - virmundi 8y ago
    That’s fair. I do wonder if just smiling and making eye contact would be a better time. The ability to provide a modicum of human kindness might be refreshing; just a small token of humanity without the selfishness of personal media.
    - twtw 8y ago
      > I do wonder if just smiling and making eye contact would be a better time No, it would not. This is a good way to look extremely creepy and make everyone around you uncomfortable.
      - virmundi 8y ago
        Just looking out the window with the occasional head nod is creepy?
        twtw 8y ago
        Trying to make eye contact with and smile at strangers on BART definitely is.
zdk 8y ago
Similarly, I also discovered the joy of reading books, English in particular, quite late (I'm 36 right now). When I was younger, the only books I read were text books. My reading stats is jumping from 1-2 books a year to become 11 read books so far this year ( Mostly, self-help, business and technical ). And the weird thing is, English not my mother tongue, but still enjoy it more than my native language. Grow up and live in an environment where English is not country's official language. Found out this habit affect my brain organization massively. So, thanks to the internet and Kindle which help me accessing great books easily :D
deleted 8y ago
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deleted 8y ago
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anonu 8y ago
How did you break free from the Twitter/social media/24 hour news cycle reading to actual longer form books and novels? My hardest challenge is getting the same attention span for reading that I had before the current internet.
henryw 8y ago
I started 2 years ago around 32, but I did mostly audiobooks. So far I have finished about 90 books, chosen mostly by Amazon/Goodreads/Audible ratings. I take a few lines of notes for each book while listening to help me remember what the book was about later.

proee 8y ago

What are the benefits that you're experiencing with increased reading?

marnett 8y ago
I'd say a deeper more complex and connected understanding of the world. Truly phenomenal authors were masters of framing so many things I thought of strictly in objective terms in a more subjective light. You begin to realize how the world is filled with very shallow thoughts and ideas. You can really only come to that realization after digesting long form arguments and narratives.
- kick_in_the_dor 8y ago
  Who are some of your favorite authors?
  - marnett 8y ago
    Steinbeck, Vonnegut, Dostoyevsky, Ursula Le Guin, David Foster Wallace (I could truly go on forever, but I think these authors are phenomenal, with themes and meta-themes different from one another). I think if you watch an interview with DFW you will realize just how much he has thought of just about every facet of modern, entertainment-centric western society - all coming together in Infinite Jest which is the most depressing book I've ever read (he later committed suicide, so it might have been the most depressing contemporary book ever written either). Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness models an entire planetary civilization with no fixed sex (written in 1969, mind you), which I found very eye-opening. Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (as well as Crime and Punishment) are extraordinarily psychological and philosophical - ethics, free will, and God are centric. Both Steinbeck and Vonnegut have multiple books I'd recommend, but East of Eden by Steinbeck is an all-time favorite tackling good and evil (honestly Nietzsche in novel); Slaughterhouse 5 by Vonnegut (just a notch above Heller's Catch-22) is the embodiment of darkness and absurdity. Take an anti-war sentiment and an author willing to tiptoe to the border of sanity and insanity and the result is SH5. It is truly brilliant, and as someone who is fortunate enough to not have ever been impacted greatly by wartime, it is equally eye-opening. Honorable mention (a book I have read more recently) goes to Tom Wolfe with The Bonfire of the Vanities. This book combines the legal system (police and prosecutors), personal greed and ambition (Wall Street bond salesman), racism (Media biases), and class structures and privilege in a hard hitting social critique on 80s New York City. Everything between its covers is key to understanding how the world actually works. This turned out to be a lot longer than I anticipated. Hopefully it is helpful!
- jamesb93 8y ago
  What books can you recommend?
  - yourbandsucks 8y ago
    Not OP, couple rando suggestions: High concept sci-fi:. Three body problem by Liu cixin, or A deepness in the sky by Vernor vinge Character drama: 11/22/63 Stephen king, or really almost anything by him Don't underestimate lit-trash -- it's worlds better than Twitter -- Lee child jack reacher novels are fun, so were the original Tom Clancy run. Altered carbon on the cuberpunk front. And of course the classics if you're willing to invest -- most of them are worth it, otherwise they wouldn't be classics
    - dorchadas 8y ago
      And even the classics in various genres. Like, you can't necessarily go wrong with reading Douglas Adams, or Arthur C. Clarke or J.R.R. Tolkien, especially as a novice in a genre. That said, I'd recommend reading Les Misérables to everyone. Definitely an amazing book.
      - billfruit 8y ago
        And Count of Montecristo.
    - Nition 8y ago
      Funny, if I think of my favorite books I'd probably say the Three Body Problem trilogy, A Deepness In The Sky, and The Stand...maybe because I haven't read 11/22/63 yet. I better read Altered Carbon since you seem to have exactly the same taste as me. I'd add that reading the whole Three Body Problem trilogy is highly recommended since it gets higher concept every book. And personally I enjoyed A Fire Upon The Deep just as much as A Deepness In The Sky.
      - yourbandsucks 8y ago
        The Stand is an actual classic, I should have mentioned it if I mentioned King. 11/22/63 is more of a less-epic, mature character work. Cheers to good taste!
- billfruit 8y ago
  Perhaps being able to read and enjoy poetry, is elevating ones level of understanding to an even higher plane, that reading just prose.
cheez 8y ago
I'm in a similar situation. Increased patience is one of the more noticeable outcomes.
acconrad 8y ago
The tangible benefits: 1. Increased vocabulary 2. Practice and improvement of skills I'm specifically reading about (as many of the books I'm reading are for acquiring skills related to my job) 3. Simply reading about new topics encourages me to read books further exploring on that peripheral knowledge The intangibles: 1. The momentum for reading begets more reading, which makes me feel good about spending my time reading over watching TV/movies/surfing the net. 2. I feel more knowledgeable and empathetic. In this past year I read stories about impoverished refugees from North Korea, American politics, and stories of overcoming seemingly impossible odds. These are topics I never get to explore in my day job, and it helps me feel more well-rounded.
coldtea 8y ago
Getting in the mind and lives of other persons, in ways (or rather, depth) that casual discussion, tv, and film can't even begin to touch, and learning to understand and/or appreciate different perspectives and circumstances.

broken_symlink 8y ago

I've been wanting to get in to reading, but my biggest issue is finding something to read that interests me. How did you start finding things?

alexkavon 8y ago
1. What are you interested in? 2. Seek out popular books on indicated interest. 3. Choose book and read. Seriously though, I jumped back into reading by picking a genre I loved, but was very behind on. In my case it was science fiction and started with the rather famous Dune. There have been some books I started and did not like so I stopped. When I find a stack of books for free I try to seek out if anything looks interesting (and check for quality) and grab 1 or 2. Worst case scenario you can just returneth the book from whence it came. There's always Gnod[0]. Finally getting into reading will be like picking up any other activity. You need to fully commit for a while before it becomes something that you really need to do (rather something you only want to do). [0] http://www.gnod.com/ http://www.gnod.com/
undersuit 8y ago
I used to walk into the library on my way home and just look at covers and spines until I had 5 or so books that literally looked interesting. I gave each book a chapter of reading before deciding to finish it or not. Don't judge a book by a cover, but do have some curiosity.
- dorchadas 8y ago
  Definitely. I go to the local bookstore once a week to check new releases/acquisitions. I've found it nice to check the cover/title and, if it catches my eye, read more about it or try a chapter. Found some really good stuff I'd've never read otherwise that way. This mostly works for non-fiction, though I've found it great for fantasy novels as well. I usually take a picture then go see if anyone I trust on Goodreads has read it, or if the library has it.
hijp 8y ago
Not OP, but for me the biggest boon to my reading has been the kindle for a variety of reasons: 1. If I'm not into a book, I wont force it, I can just jump to a new one. 2. 1-click downloads, if something sounds good I can just send a sample to the kindle. If it really sounds good I'll just buy it. 3. Portability, it's always in my bag and the charge lasts weeks. I get book recommendations from Hacker News reading lists, podcasts, and friends. Then just download the sample.

eatonphil 8y ago

Similar story, in my 20s though. Went from 1-2 books a year (three years ago) to 48 this year (on track for 55). I too wish I discovered this earlier. There is so much to read about and the density of high-quality information in a book is unmatched.

wallace_f 8y ago
>density of high-quality information in a book is unmatched. Do you not get tired from this? Books I read 3 years ago are typically purged from memory by now. What remains are understandings and intuitions on a topic, which have value, but sometimes I wonder if the time is always well spent.
- theonemind 8y ago
  Paul Graham's thoughts on this, if you haven't seen it: http://www.paulgraham.com/know.html http://www.paulgraham.com/know.html I don't know if I agree. It just seemed relevant.
- tasty_freeze 8y ago
  I keep a log, just a simple text file, where I spend 5 minutes to 30 minutes after I finish a book to write my thoughts on it. Title + Author + 7/10 (or whatever) overall rating and a few paragraphs. The log might mention how I came to the book, what the big themes were, and for non-fiction, I write down the page number of important points that I might care to reference later.
- Regardsyjc 8y ago
  I love the physical books in my library because I can easily see the titles and I can turn to them easily when I need to jog my memory. This might be really weird but when I have a tough question, I like to think about what my favorite authors in my library might say, and I'll take the book out and flip through the pages, looking for their thoughts on the subject. When I spend hours reading a book, I internalize that author's voice, beliefs, and thought process. I don't need to remember all the tiny details but I remember their thought process which I consider priceless. I was going through a book called Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger and they have pages of questions to ask in the back and I realized I was automatically asking all of them on a daily basis. I had internalized that thinking.

sv12l 8y ago

How do you pick those books?

dorchadas 8y ago
I'm not OP, but I just follow my interests. Thankfully, at least with non-fiction, they're fairly broad, so I've read academic textbooks on religion, textbooks on programming, general science books on physics (to complement my textbook knowledge) as well as anthropology, sociology and more. Just find a topic you're interested in, go to Goodreads (I like it a lot more than Amazon for searching books), and see what you can find. Or Google it, and see what trusted people in fields like/recommend. Or even people with interests that align with yours. As for fiction, I like mostly fantasy, so will browse the shelves and look at hyped books on /r/fantasy, as well as other, lesser-known ones that sound/look interesting (I'm a proponent of looking at covers and titles to see if it seems interesting to look into deeper). I also used to follow some reviewers. For more "literary" fiction, I look mostly at what mainstream reviewers say. I found All the Light we Cannot See that way, and loved it (except for one scene I felt was just completely unnecessary to the novel). Then, perhaps, look for major authors. Umberto Eco is one that comes to mind that I'm fixing to start.
Kagerjay 8y ago
Not OP, but I've read a ~200 fiction books and ~50 nonfiction books over my life. Usually I pick books by the following: - If I haven't read a single book for fun, I would pick a popular fiction or nonfiction book. Its a good starting point. Things like "Top 10 books in X category" from goodreads are good examples, or "r/askreddit favorite books" - After reading 5-10 different books, I'll get a feel for what I like and don't like. I'll search "site:reddit.com similar books to X" and grab recommendations. Compare these to amazon's bestsellers and goodreads. - For nonfiction books, I generally am more picky. I usually have a list of people I follow, some write reviews on books they read. I have had a few people I respect read "Ego is the Enemy" so I picked that up recently, and its something I struggle with sometimes so it's ideal for me. Nonfiction books are most powerful when you read it at the right time - For nonfiction more textbook-like books, or something more informational, I usually let reddit / goodreads /hackernews decide what's good and what's not. I started to read less fiction now, I've seen the same plot rehashed too many times. Nonfiction books are interesting to me at the moment. I guess it really depends what you want to get out of your book. Do you want escapism, inspiration, or change?

cgs 8y ago

Buy books at your local bookstore. The one in my town does such a good job with curation that I can pick something on any topic at random and 9/10 times it will be excellent. I think we'll see this more and more as people put less and less stock in Amazon reviews.

dorchadas 8y ago
And always check used bookstores. You can find gems there, and often take chances on new things because they're so cheap. And don't forget libraries! I could wax poetic about all those places.
- rv-de 8y ago
  In Germany we have booklooker.de as a market place for used books. I recently bought an autobiography from there which has out of print for many years. And I found the experience of holding a book in my hand older than myself strangely exciting. That book was printed ten years before I was born. The pages had taken on a yellow shade. Of course I held plenty of really old books in my hand by now. But only then I realized it might become a habit. Especially when there is a choice. You want to read a Mark Twain? Why not by an edition from before the Great War?
  - dorchadas 8y ago
    I'm well aware of booklooker, and it's amazing. There's also bookfinder.com here in America. They're some of the best places to start looking if you want rare/old/niche books.
craftyguy 8y ago
Alternatively, go to your local library and check out books for free. If you feel like you need to own them, then buy from the local book store. Supporting the local library is more important since they (almost?) all do great community outreach for literacy (children programs, etc).
- 8y ago

new12345 8y ago

Can you briefly list what improvements you have observed because of more reading?

ggregoire 8y ago
For sure I sleep better when I spend 1 hour reading before sleeping than when I watch a series or play a video game.

virmundi 8y ago

How did you get past the existential crisis that reading a book does nothing but while way time on a task that accomplished little when viewed over a period greater than a month? For example, rather than reading a book, you could have made something. You could have learned a new skill. Gone somewhere and improved someone’s life like taking trash out at the soup kitchen. All the while you know that there is a high likelihood you’ll forget key plot points within that same month.

greesil 8y ago
Perhaps you're stuck on a BART train, and there's nothing much better to do?
- virmundi 8y ago
  That’s fair. I do wonder if just smiling and making eye contact would be a better time. The ability to provide a modicum of human kindness might be refreshing; just a small token of humanity without the selfishness of personal media.
  - twtw 8y ago
    > I do wonder if just smiling and making eye contact would be a better time No, it would not. This is a good way to look extremely creepy and make everyone around you uncomfortable.
    - virmundi 8y ago
      Just looking out the window with the occasional head nod is creepy?
      - twtw 8y ago
        Trying to make eye contact with and smile at strangers on BART definitely is.

zdk 8y ago

Similarly, I also discovered the joy of reading books, English in particular, quite late (I'm 36 right now). When I was younger, the only books I read were text books. My reading stats is jumping from 1-2 books a year to become 11 read books so far this year ( Mostly, self-help, business and technical ). And the weird thing is, English not my mother tongue, but still enjoy it more than my native language. Grow up and live in an environment where English is not country's official language. Found out this habit affect my brain organization massively. So, thanks to the internet and Kindle which help me accessing great books easily :D

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

anonu 8y ago

How did you break free from the Twitter/social media/24 hour news cycle reading to actual longer form books and novels? My hardest challenge is getting the same attention span for reading that I had before the current internet.

henryw 8y ago

I started 2 years ago around 32, but I did mostly audiobooks. So far I have finished about 90 books, chosen mostly by Amazon/Goodreads/Audible ratings. I take a few lines of notes for each book while listening to help me remember what the book was about later.