6 ms·
In April 2021 I started to read 4 pages a day from big books I always wanted to read, but never had time for it. 4 pages and stop even if I get into the flow, 4
by kmt-lnh 4y ago
In April 2021 I started to read 4 pages a day from big books I always wanted to read, but never had time for it. 4 pages and stop even if I get into the flow, 4 pages even if I'm falling asleep because it's so boring.
Not even 2 years in, I've already read the Bible, the Elements of Euclid, Zeldovich's Intro to Higher Math, and am in the middle of Das Kapital. The Great Books canon never looked more approachable.
Just 4 pages a day. It really adds up.
- soupfordummies 4y agoTotally! This translates too. I've had a home office conversion project going on the back burner for a while and always put it off because its so "monumental". I've started just working 10mins a day on it and the progress I made in two weeks was really astounding to me. I would say, maybe DON'T stop if you get in the flow but don't feel bad if you can ONLY manage the 4 pages/ten minutes.
- munificent 4y agoMy dumb but astonishingly effective life hack: I leave a big non-fiction book in the bathroom and don't take my phone in there. I've made my way through so many textbooks one bowel movement at a time because even the most boring one is more fun that reading the shampoo bottle.
- wahnfrieden 4y agoHow do you disinfect
- xboxnolifes 4y agoYou don't. People have been reading in the bathroom for decades. You're getting little shit particles in your nose regardless of whether you read in there.
- pmdr 4y agoPlus that's the only way to realize your brother-in-law is actually a drug lord.
- ryloric 4y agoUnderrated comment
- dieselgate 4y agoThanks for the breath of "fresh air" with the philosophy - am all for cleanliness and hygiene but yeah sometimes it's just not possible (just got back from taking dog to vet. for UTI)
- xboxnolifes 4y agoYeah. Maybe you wipe down the book after you finish it and replace it with another book, but in terms of self hygiene you should be washing your hands after using the toilet anyway.
- wahnfrieden 4y agoWould you appreciate a used terdbook as a casual gift?
- dieselgate 4y agoDon't know of anyone who'd truly appreciate it but it'd be basically impossible to know about unless you did a test/asked etc. The Seinfeld episode on the subject is funny but quite dramatized. The point being we all interact with fecal matter way more than anyone would like to know - even just by smelling. It's been a topic for climbing gyms [1] and have heard the same for hand shakes but no link provided [1] https://www.climbing.com/news/study-finds-fecal-veneer-on-gym-holds/ https://www.climbing.com/news/study-finds-fecal-veneer-on-gy...
- xboxnolifes 4y ago
- xeromal 4y agoIf you have a toothbrush in your bathroom, you have much bigger problems.
- wahnfrieden 4y agokeep toilet/bathroom separate yes
- munificent 4y agoI tend to leave the book in the bathroom closet, so it's relatively clean. But, I mean, most people bring their phones into the bathroom with them and then hold that sucker up to their face, use it while eating, etc.
- wahnfrieden 4y agoi wash my phone lol
- sdiupIGPWEfh 4y agoHaving enough time to read a couple pages and move a bookmark forward during bowel movements sounds to me like a sign of constipation and a risk factor for hemorrhoids. Would not recommend. It's really best for those bathroom breaks to be fast and easy. Heed my unsolicited advice and spare yourself the considerable undue suffering that awaits.
- danuker 4y agoSounds like you don't get enough fiber or water. https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/constipation/ https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/constipation/ I eat mostly veggies and whole grains. I barely have time to post a comment on HN before I'm done.
- munificent 4y agoComment makes no indication of the length or constitution of my bowel movements, but thanks for the concern.
- danuker 4y agoThe cumulative duration is "so many" textbookworths.
- munificent 4y agoCumulative over what timespan?
- danuker 4y agoNo idea to be honest. But my own (slow) reading speed probably gave me a bias. Also, I advertise that site any chance I get, and judging by your reaction I may have overstepped, so I apologize. Hopefully someone else seeing it will gain something useful from it, still.
- daredevil_kohai 4y agoYes it was useful for me. Thank you both.
- fitzroy 4y agoI keep thinking of a service that sends famously long books in short chunks. "Infinite Text" or "War 'n Pieces"
- p44v9n 4y agoDracula Daily does this! More because the novel is itself epistolary https://draculadaily.substack.com/about https://draculadaily.substack.com/about
- dieselgate 4y agoAnyone know what copyright or legal issues come with this? Edit: I like the idea though
- david_allison 4y agoTons of classics are public domain, shouldn't be any legal issues. See: https://www.gutenberg.org/ https://www.gutenberg.org/
- e12e 4y agoYou spent most of a year reading the Bible then (King James' is about 1200 pages, old and new?)?
- kmt-lnh 4y agoYep, I checked how many pages I need to read if I want to finish in a year with my printed Bible edition. Then just kept chugging along the canon.
- Balgair 4y agoIf anyone else wants to do a more guided form of this, The Harvard Classics has a 15 minute a day reading guide. This website has the intro and a passable selection of .pdfs to use: Guide: https://www.myharvardclassics.com/categories/20120612_1 https://www.myharvardclassics.com/categories/20120612_1 .pdf downloads: https://www.myharvardclassics.com/categories/20120212 https://www.myharvardclassics.com/categories/20120212 Note that the page numbers are for the book pages, not the .pdf pages. I did it over the pandemic, and yeah, it's really really good. But you do have to get used to older writing styles. The mid 1700s to early 1800s authors really like run-on sentences. Also, Shakespeare takes some getting used to, so pull up a YT video and read along as you listen.