3 ms·
The problem with books is that, while there are a lot of good books with good content, 5% of it is good content while 95% is filler material to get the book to
by bloodyplonker22 5y ago
The problem with books is that, while there are a lot of good books with good content, 5% of it is good content while 95% is filler material to get the book to a certain amount of pages in order to sell it.
- bertjk 5y agoI wonder though whether this is a situation where everyone agrees that only 5% of a book is good, but no one agrees on which 5%.
- fenderbluesjr 5y agoWell that's just not true at all
- marcusbuffett 5y agoI read a ton and this is my #1 complaint about nonfiction (and sometimes fiction too). I’ve read two books recently that broke this pattern (replacing guilt by Nate Soared, and hell yeah or no by Derek Sivers). It was a huge breath of fresh air, to not find myself skimming over the 32nd time the author feels the need to restate the premise of the book in only slightly different terms. Most authors just don’t have 200 pages of insight into whatever they’re writing about; I’m not sure why exactly they all feel the need to write 200-300 pages anyway. I’m not sure where the disconnect lies, between the people that view this as a huge problem with nonfiction and the rest. I don’t think it’s book selection, because I’ll often read a book where I felt the last half was 90% rehashing, and in the reviews no one else will mention that the author ran out of interesting things to say halfway through.
- sjtindell 5y agoI find this true for some of the recent horde of nonfiction books with names like “numb: the astounding new science of how your leg falls asleep”. Their topic is usually fascinating, but the content is full of random stories, speculation, and drawn out conclusions.
- goodpoint 5y ago+1. I find non-fiction books infuriating to read due to the endless repetition and pointless anecdotes, typically in books for the US market.