11 ms·

My Lifetime Reading Plan

83 points by sdht0 3y ago

hiq 3y ago
The author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Gioia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Gioia
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
jahnu 3y ago
> What fool reads all of Finnegans Wake out loud? Well I heard it said from Joyce experts that reading Finnegans Wake and Ulysses, which was intended to be read out loud, is an important part to unlock some of the meanings.
- thenerdhead 3y ago
  May even consider his blogs are also to be read out loud because he himself writes out loud.
- Two9A 3y ago
  I've just been catching up with Corey Olsen's exploration of Lord of the Rings, and he makes the same point regarding Tolkien: the man thought in alliterative prose, and there are some places where it stands out even to the eye, but you can catch a lot more of the alliteration by reading passages out loud. The example that brought it up was towards the end of the attempt to climb the Redhorn: "Soon they all stood once more on the flat shelf at the head of the steep slope where they had felt the first flakes of snow the night before." (The F in 'before' might not line up with the previous F's unless you've been reading out loud.)
SilverBirch 3y ago
To be honest the overwhelming impression I get from this author is that he's just massively up his own arse. I've read plenty of the books he name drops. I've spent an incredibly slow summer reading The Brothers Karazamov. But if you think that reading a few books on a topic has gotten you to the point where you "match up with professors at Harvard or Oxford" you just don't understand the depth of knowledge you get from devoting your life to studying one specific area of study in depth. It's important he lets you know he's amazingly smart and well read, but it's also important that you know he doesn't do this for any lower moral imperatives such as looking smart, no it's important to know that he does it for the pure pleasure. He takes no pride in quoting Ovid in the original latin, that's just a silly side-effect of his pure path. To learn he's an American Jazz critic makes perfect sense, it's almost exactly who you would expect to be this pretentious.
- gjvc 3y ago
  To learn he's an American Jazz critic makes perfect sense, it's almost exactly who you would expect to be this pretentious. Love it!
- dangus 3y ago
  I was about to say the same thing: this just came across as snobbery, especially when he tells you that classroom learning is worthless. So worthless, yet he couldn't miss the opportunity to brag about his top-tier college education. He's just saying that because any pleb can go to class, study, and get an A. Only snobby smartypants people can read an excessive number of books and reach "nirvana."
- thiago_fm 3y ago
  I think you are assuming a lot of things. He seems to care a lot about reading and accumulating knowledge, that's all. But yeah, reading a book about a subject doesn't get you anywhere near the ballpark of professors in that subject from any university at all.
  - thenerdhead 3y ago
    Is that not what college is about? Reading the textbook written by the professor teaching the subject? Am I missing something here?
    - criddell 3y ago
      Textbooks don't usually contain everything a professor knows.
      - thenerdhead 3y ago
        Having a conversation about problems in a subject space or field of work does not require years of specialization. A handful of books does suffice. Our world leaders and billionaires have these conversations everyday. Many are well read. If you're talking about having conversations in the same light as a Solvay Conference, sure. The context I got from the article is that they are talking about the former, not the latter.
deadfece 3y ago
How I do wish the site owner would get rid of that newsletter signup modal. It's right up there with slow site speed in terms of reasons I'll leave a page.
- troupe 3y ago
  If tapping the escape key to say you don't want to be on their mailing list is a major reason to not finish reading an essay, perhaps you aren't the target audience.
  - deadfece 3y ago
    If.
VincentEvans 3y ago
For some time I’ve been consuming a lot of material on certain subjects I am interested in. Daily commentary, regular blogs, every interview a few people that I follow give, various background info related, etc. I’ve been doing it for over a year, often more than 3-4 hours per day. I’ve become quite informed, sure. But I have to admit that I don’t recall the contents of the information that I consumed all that well. Certainly not well enough to debate someone on the topic. Perhaps this is a limitation of my own brain physiology, or deficiencies in the approach I’ve taken to consuming the information, and others would have faired better in my place. But this experience has made me seriously doubt the effectiveness of such consumption if the goal is to learn, as the OP advocates. Thankfully that wasn’t necessarily a goal for me personally, I was just satisfying my interest in the subject I care deeply about.
- vorpalhex 3y ago
  The speed of learning and time spent reviewing all help. I review my highlights on a daily basis.
- in0v8r 3y ago
  You might surprise yourself. The familiarity with a subject and its lingo can do wonders for complete understanding. A deliberate and focused study session on your subject will put a lot of pieces together. Sometimes all you need to know is what questions to ask.
- jacobwilliamroy 3y ago
  Yes your physiology is limited and you need to augment your functionality with some kind of remembering machine. Like a notebook, or like some kind of app on your phone. Or a spreadsheet. Or a SQLite DB. Basically I think if you take notes on important details and then have some system for organizing and looking them up, that might be very helpful. Like I found a part of a book that explains how to do logical synthesis and I bookmarked it, so I can keep going back to reread it every now and then in order to do stuff.
  - cbfrench 3y ago
jacobwilliamroy 3y ago
As a person who reads a lot of books (1 book every 1-3 weeks depending on its length) I can say most of them are crap garbage and I throw them in the garbage when I'm finished with them. A lot of murder mysteries. I don't know why so many authors write murder mysteries. It's so hard to make a mystery compelling in a book format, because I know no matter how opaque or confusing things are in the beginning, if I just keep reading eventually everything will be explained. Even if the explanation doesn't make sense, there will be an explanation, eventually. Maybe I should just stop reading random books. Follow Oprah's book club or the commandant's reading list or something like that.
- lucb1e 3y ago
  Well that seems like a waste. Why not give them to your local second-hand shop, put them up to pick up for free on your local small ads website, donate them to a library, give away to friend, or anything besides throwing them in the garbage?! If you wanted to read it, surely someone else wants to as well. Then they can see for themselves that it's crap, without needing to have a new book produced for that. > Maybe I should just stop reading random books Sounds like a good idea if the trash can is your star rating for a significant fraction of them
  - jacobwilliamroy 3y ago
    I understand there is a market for these books. There has to be for someone to bother writing hundreds of pages and then for someone else to invest in editing and publishing and making cover art. That's why I'm not naming specific names, because I know there are a lot of people involved in making these things and I'm genuinely happy for them. I already buy these books from goodwill but I guess I should just give them back on the off chance that this stuff actually connects with someone.
    - roywiggins 3y ago
      Avid mystery (and romance) readers just burn through books. A lot of them aren't that great, but they're designed to pass the time, not stand out as works of art. So that's why there are so many of them, and why they're often kind of crap. Like sitcoms, or TV police procedurals. The standards aren't that high because people just want something that's pretty okay in a familiar style. Of course there are writers who write in any genre and produce really great stuff, but you're not likely to find them by picking books at random from Goodwill, by Sturgeon's law (90% of everything is crap) alone.
wnolens 3y ago
How do people physically read this much? How comfortable/supportive is that chair? The only way I've been able to sustain reading for more than a half hour without adverse postural effects is to lie on my side with an e-reader (+ pop-socket). In fact it's the primary reason I read mostly on Kindle - to assume this posture. I've even gone as far as building a contraption which lets me lie flat underneath it, and read hand-free. The issue with both methods of lying down to read is of course that I fall asleep :) (so much so that I keep a book on my nightstand as a sleep aid). Otherwise, reading feels worse than working at a computer. I'm hunched over, similar to using a phone. Or I'm holding the book up a little higher and hold that tension in my arms/shoulders/neck.
- ycombinete 3y ago
  If I’m really into a book I have to change posture often, from sitting, to standing up, and even pacing while reading.
- rmellow 3y ago
  Serious advice: strengthen your core & hips. Your posture is largely affected by your muscles. This makes even sitting at your computer for hours on end more bearable and you'll have less back/neck pain overall - nevermind all the other positive effects of working out
- makeitdouble 3y ago
  For many, long books are not read in comfortable/perfect environments, they just read wherever they are for whatever time they have. In the train, at the doctor, while waiting for your meal to cook etc. In that respect having a commute helps tremendously. If you feel staying still doesn't help, moving around (or even walking around) should be fine.
- hombre_fatal 3y ago
  What about a position or chair that lets you lean back a little (convex) instead of slouch forward (concave)? I've always felt much better in that position than slouching forward. Though my ideal position is laying belly down on the floor (insane). I've also been known to pace circles on my patio while reading. I personally moved to audiobooks. It's slower, but made up for the fact that I can go for a walk, cook, clean the house, so it's much more time effective than sitting down to read for extended periods.
amelius 3y ago
Ok, so reading a lot does not automatically make one a stellar writer. (though not a bad one either)
zero_shift 3y ago
I don't believe sheer reading volume is the key here. I speak from some experience. A long, long time ago, I did a degree in English literature. This was a bad name for it as a lot of it wasn't English. Or literature for that matter. But over the course of three years I must have read in the order of 300 seriously sized books / texts and a bunch of other secondary material. Only a handful of memories stand out, out of a small swimming pool of ink. The Greek tragedies, some 20th century drama, and Chaucer. What I really memorised though was what I _wrote_. My _essays_ are still easy to recall: parentheses in Thomas More; control of space in Ben Jonson; body integrity in Greek tragedy. I can still remember them 15 years on. I didn't really like my English degree, and I probably shouldn't have done it, but I did gain a lot through the process of writing. I synthesised knowledge and developed my skill for spotting patterns. I forced myself to write original observations week in week out. I made myself start with an intimidating blank page and end with an artefact I could call my own. (These things became part of my make-up as a software engineer, which is a job that rewards those willing to start from blank pages) My advice is to match time spent reading with time spent writing. There's a reason why traditional pedagogy entails writing essays, not just sheer volume of reading. You are as smart as what you can write, not what books are on your shelf.
- guhidalg 3y ago
  > There's a reason why traditional pedagogy entails writing essays, not just sheer volume of reading. I shudder to think what AI is doing for today’s students. They don’t have to struggle thinking about _what_ to write anymore, and that struggle is where the growth and learning happen. To second your path, the best software engineers are also good writers who can communicate their plans over writing. Your English degree probably helped you as much as any computer science degree.
- pm215 3y ago
  Just a tangent, but there are also a lot of niches in software engineering that reward those willing to start from pages filled with millions of lines of code written by other people ;-)
  - zero_shift 3y ago
redkabbage 3y ago
Even for a blogger, this guy uses the pronoun "I" way too much and his sentence structure is too simplistic to be as well read as he claims. Ever hear of a semicolon? Also, who reads Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, Heidegger's Being & Time, and the Egyptian Book of the Dead and doesn't take any notes?
- stcg 3y ago
  Good writers simplify. Because the reader will be lost if they don't.
- racktash 3y ago
  I didn't take notes when reading Meditations. I tried a programme of taking notes every time I read a "serious" nonfiction book a few years ago and for me it sucked all the joy out of it. Even when reading programming books I tend not to take notes – though I'll do practical exercises so that the skills stick.
ojbyrne 3y ago
So many people making reading like an endless chore, rather than a lifetime love affair.
menssen 3y ago
Ted's booklist/review websites have been my go-to for "I need something to read" for years now. He appears to not be maintaining them and some of the domains have expired, but here's "The New Canon" (fiction since 1985): https://www.thenewcanon.com https://www.thenewcanon.com And here's an archive snapshot of the Conceptual Fiction (sci fi) one, which is now dead: https://web.archive.org/web/20160305124258/http://conceptualfiction.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20160305124258/http://conceptual... The top comment here is about him giving the impression of being "massively up his own arse." Maybe -- but I think his attempts to create something useful for others, which I have found genuinely useful, outweighs that. What does it say that he's letting those attempts link-rot and writing on substack instead now? I don't know. I just know he has good taste in literature.
mahathu 3y ago
Cringe
tristor 3y ago
A lot of commenters are saying this is cringe or pretentious, and sure, it is a bit, but the advice provided here is also truthful. I don't write or talk about my reading habits when I was younger, nor am I as dedicated to it at my current age as the OP is, but the idea of taking your time, reading old classics, and giving deep thought (really time to have deep thought) to the ideas within helping to expand your mind and your conception of the universe is definitely true. I used to read so obsessively that one of the punishments used for me was to take away my books, similar to how people take away phones from teenagers now. If I look at my own life and career, as a college dropout who nevertheless attended for four years, both in my professional and my personal life most of what I know I either learned from books or from other people directly (or sometimes via YouTube). I don't see it as elitist for the OP to point out his prestigious education when making this point as some other commenters do, but rather intended to reinforce that even if you have the world's best college education it pales in comparison to what you can learn by simply giving yourself the space and time to think and reading through the source material upon which such an education would be based in some way, anyhow. To a large degree, what he's describing trying to attempt was the entire point of a classical liberal arts education, but our current institutions largely fail to actually provide such an education anymore. What's so pretentious, ultimately, about sharing a methodology and the benefits of that methodology, when the source material is largely available to anyone for free or minimal cost via the Internet and their local library? I feel like it should be refreshing to know that there is still deep value in exploring the world through the written word without needing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on schooling. It's essentially the same thing that was said in the famous quote from Good Will Hunting: “You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library.” So much of the writing about reading encourages people to use reading as a social activity, reading only what's new and popular, or to read quickly thinking that it's the volumes on your shelf that matter, this article is a somewhat refreshing take by making the very truthful point that you should take your time, read things that are old but important enough that people still remember them, and write about what you read and your observations.
- MrJohz 3y ago
  For me, at least, it's less about the reading. I always used to be a big reader like you describe - I had exactly the same experiences having my books being taken away from me for misbehaving, or even just reading too late at night - so I'm fully on board with the idea that people should read more, and challenge themselves to read new and different things. For me, it's more the idea that reading is going to turn your life around somehow, or that just by reading the right classics you can make yourself a better person. That feels like a self-justification for pretention more than anything else - the literary equivalent of the "holds up spork" meme where you make something you're interested in into an entire character trait. I think the idea of reading replacing an entire liberal arts education is also kind of laughable. I've done a lot of reading, and although my own formal education veered more towards engineering, I had friends who did the liberal arts properly. There's no real comparison between my casual reading of Dostoevsky ("a bit morose, wouldn't recommend") and someone who understands enough of his literary context that they can take his books apart and show you why everything is like it is. (That's not to say you can't learn these things as a lay person, just that there's a lot more to literary criticism and the wider liberal arts than just "go away and read".)
tpoacher 3y ago
(fortunes) % You'll never see all the places, or read all the books. But fortunately, not all are recommended.
f0ld 3y ago
Why are people so mean here? according to his bio he’s an author in his late 60s. It’s his job. And he’s telling us not to follow this yourself right at the start.
Rant423 3y ago
"Great Books" Lists: http://sonic.net/~rteeter/greatbks.html http://sonic.net/~rteeter/greatbks.html

83 points by sdht0 3y ago

hiq 3y ago

The author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Gioia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Gioia

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

jahnu 3y ago

> What fool reads all of Finnegans Wake out loud? Well I heard it said from Joyce experts that reading Finnegans Wake and Ulysses, which was intended to be read out loud, is an important part to unlock some of the meanings.

thenerdhead 3y ago
May even consider his blogs are also to be read out loud because he himself writes out loud.
Two9A 3y ago
I've just been catching up with Corey Olsen's exploration of Lord of the Rings, and he makes the same point regarding Tolkien: the man thought in alliterative prose, and there are some places where it stands out even to the eye, but you can catch a lot more of the alliteration by reading passages out loud. The example that brought it up was towards the end of the attempt to climb the Redhorn: "Soon they all stood once more on the flat shelf at the head of the steep slope where they had felt the first flakes of snow the night before." (The F in 'before' might not line up with the previous F's unless you've been reading out loud.)

SilverBirch 3y ago

To be honest the overwhelming impression I get from this author is that he's just massively up his own arse. I've read plenty of the books he name drops. I've spent an incredibly slow summer reading The Brothers Karazamov. But if you think that reading a few books on a topic has gotten you to the point where you "match up with professors at Harvard or Oxford" you just don't understand the depth of knowledge you get from devoting your life to studying one specific area of study in depth. It's important he lets you know he's amazingly smart and well read, but it's also important that you know he doesn't do this for any lower moral imperatives such as looking smart, no it's important to know that he does it for the pure pleasure. He takes no pride in quoting Ovid in the original latin, that's just a silly side-effect of his pure path. To learn he's an American Jazz critic makes perfect sense, it's almost exactly who you would expect to be this pretentious.

gjvc 3y ago
To learn he's an American Jazz critic makes perfect sense, it's almost exactly who you would expect to be this pretentious. Love it!
dangus 3y ago
I was about to say the same thing: this just came across as snobbery, especially when he tells you that classroom learning is worthless. So worthless, yet he couldn't miss the opportunity to brag about his top-tier college education. He's just saying that because any pleb can go to class, study, and get an A. Only snobby smartypants people can read an excessive number of books and reach "nirvana."
thiago_fm 3y ago
I think you are assuming a lot of things. He seems to care a lot about reading and accumulating knowledge, that's all. But yeah, reading a book about a subject doesn't get you anywhere near the ballpark of professors in that subject from any university at all.
- thenerdhead 3y ago
  Is that not what college is about? Reading the textbook written by the professor teaching the subject? Am I missing something here?
  - criddell 3y ago
    Textbooks don't usually contain everything a professor knows.
    - thenerdhead 3y ago
      Having a conversation about problems in a subject space or field of work does not require years of specialization. A handful of books does suffice. Our world leaders and billionaires have these conversations everyday. Many are well read. If you're talking about having conversations in the same light as a Solvay Conference, sure. The context I got from the article is that they are talking about the former, not the latter.

deadfece 3y ago

How I do wish the site owner would get rid of that newsletter signup modal. It's right up there with slow site speed in terms of reasons I'll leave a page.

troupe 3y ago
If tapping the escape key to say you don't want to be on their mailing list is a major reason to not finish reading an essay, perhaps you aren't the target audience.
- deadfece 3y ago
  If.

VincentEvans 3y ago

For some time I’ve been consuming a lot of material on certain subjects I am interested in. Daily commentary, regular blogs, every interview a few people that I follow give, various background info related, etc. I’ve been doing it for over a year, often more than 3-4 hours per day. I’ve become quite informed, sure. But I have to admit that I don’t recall the contents of the information that I consumed all that well. Certainly not well enough to debate someone on the topic. Perhaps this is a limitation of my own brain physiology, or deficiencies in the approach I’ve taken to consuming the information, and others would have faired better in my place. But this experience has made me seriously doubt the effectiveness of such consumption if the goal is to learn, as the OP advocates. Thankfully that wasn’t necessarily a goal for me personally, I was just satisfying my interest in the subject I care deeply about.

vorpalhex 3y ago
The speed of learning and time spent reviewing all help. I review my highlights on a daily basis.
in0v8r 3y ago
You might surprise yourself. The familiarity with a subject and its lingo can do wonders for complete understanding. A deliberate and focused study session on your subject will put a lot of pieces together. Sometimes all you need to know is what questions to ask.
jacobwilliamroy 3y ago
Yes your physiology is limited and you need to augment your functionality with some kind of remembering machine. Like a notebook, or like some kind of app on your phone. Or a spreadsheet. Or a SQLite DB. Basically I think if you take notes on important details and then have some system for organizing and looking them up, that might be very helpful. Like I found a part of a book that explains how to do logical synthesis and I bookmarked it, so I can keep going back to reread it every now and then in order to do stuff.
- cbfrench 3y ago

jacobwilliamroy 3y ago

As a person who reads a lot of books (1 book every 1-3 weeks depending on its length) I can say most of them are crap garbage and I throw them in the garbage when I'm finished with them. A lot of murder mysteries. I don't know why so many authors write murder mysteries. It's so hard to make a mystery compelling in a book format, because I know no matter how opaque or confusing things are in the beginning, if I just keep reading eventually everything will be explained. Even if the explanation doesn't make sense, there will be an explanation, eventually. Maybe I should just stop reading random books. Follow Oprah's book club or the commandant's reading list or something like that.

lucb1e 3y ago
Well that seems like a waste. Why not give them to your local second-hand shop, put them up to pick up for free on your local small ads website, donate them to a library, give away to friend, or anything besides throwing them in the garbage?! If you wanted to read it, surely someone else wants to as well. Then they can see for themselves that it's crap, without needing to have a new book produced for that. > Maybe I should just stop reading random books Sounds like a good idea if the trash can is your star rating for a significant fraction of them
- jacobwilliamroy 3y ago
  I understand there is a market for these books. There has to be for someone to bother writing hundreds of pages and then for someone else to invest in editing and publishing and making cover art. That's why I'm not naming specific names, because I know there are a lot of people involved in making these things and I'm genuinely happy for them. I already buy these books from goodwill but I guess I should just give them back on the off chance that this stuff actually connects with someone.
  - roywiggins 3y ago
    Avid mystery (and romance) readers just burn through books. A lot of them aren't that great, but they're designed to pass the time, not stand out as works of art. So that's why there are so many of them, and why they're often kind of crap. Like sitcoms, or TV police procedurals. The standards aren't that high because people just want something that's pretty okay in a familiar style. Of course there are writers who write in any genre and produce really great stuff, but you're not likely to find them by picking books at random from Goodwill, by Sturgeon's law (90% of everything is crap) alone.

wnolens 3y ago

How do people physically read this much? How comfortable/supportive is that chair? The only way I've been able to sustain reading for more than a half hour without adverse postural effects is to lie on my side with an e-reader (+ pop-socket). In fact it's the primary reason I read mostly on Kindle - to assume this posture. I've even gone as far as building a contraption which lets me lie flat underneath it, and read hand-free. The issue with both methods of lying down to read is of course that I fall asleep :) (so much so that I keep a book on my nightstand as a sleep aid). Otherwise, reading feels worse than working at a computer. I'm hunched over, similar to using a phone. Or I'm holding the book up a little higher and hold that tension in my arms/shoulders/neck.

ycombinete 3y ago
If I’m really into a book I have to change posture often, from sitting, to standing up, and even pacing while reading.
rmellow 3y ago
Serious advice: strengthen your core & hips. Your posture is largely affected by your muscles. This makes even sitting at your computer for hours on end more bearable and you'll have less back/neck pain overall - nevermind all the other positive effects of working out
makeitdouble 3y ago
For many, long books are not read in comfortable/perfect environments, they just read wherever they are for whatever time they have. In the train, at the doctor, while waiting for your meal to cook etc. In that respect having a commute helps tremendously. If you feel staying still doesn't help, moving around (or even walking around) should be fine.
hombre_fatal 3y ago
What about a position or chair that lets you lean back a little (convex) instead of slouch forward (concave)? I've always felt much better in that position than slouching forward. Though my ideal position is laying belly down on the floor (insane). I've also been known to pace circles on my patio while reading. I personally moved to audiobooks. It's slower, but made up for the fact that I can go for a walk, cook, clean the house, so it's much more time effective than sitting down to read for extended periods.

amelius 3y ago

Ok, so reading a lot does not automatically make one a stellar writer. (though not a bad one either)

zero_shift 3y ago

I don't believe sheer reading volume is the key here. I speak from some experience. A long, long time ago, I did a degree in English literature. This was a bad name for it as a lot of it wasn't English. Or literature for that matter. But over the course of three years I must have read in the order of 300 seriously sized books / texts and a bunch of other secondary material. Only a handful of memories stand out, out of a small swimming pool of ink. The Greek tragedies, some 20th century drama, and Chaucer. What I really memorised though was what I _wrote_. My _essays_ are still easy to recall: parentheses in Thomas More; control of space in Ben Jonson; body integrity in Greek tragedy. I can still remember them 15 years on. I didn't really like my English degree, and I probably shouldn't have done it, but I did gain a lot through the process of writing. I synthesised knowledge and developed my skill for spotting patterns. I forced myself to write original observations week in week out. I made myself start with an intimidating blank page and end with an artefact I could call my own. (These things became part of my make-up as a software engineer, which is a job that rewards those willing to start from blank pages) My advice is to match time spent reading with time spent writing. There's a reason why traditional pedagogy entails writing essays, not just sheer volume of reading. You are as smart as what you can write, not what books are on your shelf.

guhidalg 3y ago
> There's a reason why traditional pedagogy entails writing essays, not just sheer volume of reading. I shudder to think what AI is doing for today’s students. They don’t have to struggle thinking about _what_ to write anymore, and that struggle is where the growth and learning happen. To second your path, the best software engineers are also good writers who can communicate their plans over writing. Your English degree probably helped you as much as any computer science degree.
pm215 3y ago
Just a tangent, but there are also a lot of niches in software engineering that reward those willing to start from pages filled with millions of lines of code written by other people ;-)
- zero_shift 3y ago

redkabbage 3y ago

Even for a blogger, this guy uses the pronoun "I" way too much and his sentence structure is too simplistic to be as well read as he claims. Ever hear of a semicolon? Also, who reads Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, Heidegger's Being & Time, and the Egyptian Book of the Dead and doesn't take any notes?

stcg 3y ago
Good writers simplify. Because the reader will be lost if they don't.
racktash 3y ago
I didn't take notes when reading Meditations. I tried a programme of taking notes every time I read a "serious" nonfiction book a few years ago and for me it sucked all the joy out of it. Even when reading programming books I tend not to take notes – though I'll do practical exercises so that the skills stick.

ojbyrne 3y ago

So many people making reading like an endless chore, rather than a lifetime love affair.

menssen 3y ago

Ted's booklist/review websites have been my go-to for "I need something to read" for years now. He appears to not be maintaining them and some of the domains have expired, but here's "The New Canon" (fiction since 1985): https://www.thenewcanon.com https://www.thenewcanon.com And here's an archive snapshot of the Conceptual Fiction (sci fi) one, which is now dead: https://web.archive.org/web/20160305124258/http://conceptualfiction.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20160305124258/http://conceptual... The top comment here is about him giving the impression of being "massively up his own arse." Maybe -- but I think his attempts to create something useful for others, which I have found genuinely useful, outweighs that. What does it say that he's letting those attempts link-rot and writing on substack instead now? I don't know. I just know he has good taste in literature.

mahathu 3y ago

Cringe

tristor 3y ago

A lot of commenters are saying this is cringe or pretentious, and sure, it is a bit, but the advice provided here is also truthful. I don't write or talk about my reading habits when I was younger, nor am I as dedicated to it at my current age as the OP is, but the idea of taking your time, reading old classics, and giving deep thought (really time to have deep thought) to the ideas within helping to expand your mind and your conception of the universe is definitely true. I used to read so obsessively that one of the punishments used for me was to take away my books, similar to how people take away phones from teenagers now. If I look at my own life and career, as a college dropout who nevertheless attended for four years, both in my professional and my personal life most of what I know I either learned from books or from other people directly (or sometimes via YouTube). I don't see it as elitist for the OP to point out his prestigious education when making this point as some other commenters do, but rather intended to reinforce that even if you have the world's best college education it pales in comparison to what you can learn by simply giving yourself the space and time to think and reading through the source material upon which such an education would be based in some way, anyhow. To a large degree, what he's describing trying to attempt was the entire point of a classical liberal arts education, but our current institutions largely fail to actually provide such an education anymore. What's so pretentious, ultimately, about sharing a methodology and the benefits of that methodology, when the source material is largely available to anyone for free or minimal cost via the Internet and their local library? I feel like it should be refreshing to know that there is still deep value in exploring the world through the written word without needing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on schooling. It's essentially the same thing that was said in the famous quote from Good Will Hunting: “You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library.” So much of the writing about reading encourages people to use reading as a social activity, reading only what's new and popular, or to read quickly thinking that it's the volumes on your shelf that matter, this article is a somewhat refreshing take by making the very truthful point that you should take your time, read things that are old but important enough that people still remember them, and write about what you read and your observations.

MrJohz 3y ago
For me, at least, it's less about the reading. I always used to be a big reader like you describe - I had exactly the same experiences having my books being taken away from me for misbehaving, or even just reading too late at night - so I'm fully on board with the idea that people should read more, and challenge themselves to read new and different things. For me, it's more the idea that reading is going to turn your life around somehow, or that just by reading the right classics you can make yourself a better person. That feels like a self-justification for pretention more than anything else - the literary equivalent of the "holds up spork" meme where you make something you're interested in into an entire character trait. I think the idea of reading replacing an entire liberal arts education is also kind of laughable. I've done a lot of reading, and although my own formal education veered more towards engineering, I had friends who did the liberal arts properly. There's no real comparison between my casual reading of Dostoevsky ("a bit morose, wouldn't recommend") and someone who understands enough of his literary context that they can take his books apart and show you why everything is like it is. (That's not to say you can't learn these things as a lay person, just that there's a lot more to literary criticism and the wider liberal arts than just "go away and read".)

tpoacher 3y ago

(fortunes) % You'll never see all the places, or read all the books. But fortunately, not all are recommended.

f0ld 3y ago

Why are people so mean here? according to his bio he’s an author in his late 60s. It’s his job. And he’s telling us not to follow this yourself right at the start.

Rant423 3y ago

"Great Books" Lists: http://sonic.net/~rteeter/greatbks.html http://sonic.net/~rteeter/greatbks.html