4 ms·

Go to jail. I read over 800 books that way. Still installed TikTok the day I got out, though.

by qingcharles 3y ago

glitchcrab 3y ago
How long were you in for to read that many books?
- bigstrat2003 3y ago
  I used to read 500 books in a single summer as a teenager. I don't know how much free time you have in prison, but I can totally see doing 800 books in just a year or two.
  - glitchcrab 3y ago
    I would have classed myself as a bookworm when I was younger, but there's no way I could have read anywhere near that many books in that timespan. I would say that whilst I believe you, you're also an extreme outlier with that figure.
  - defrost 3y ago
    Five and a half books a day, every day, all summer seems high. What counts as "a book" here (the seven volume À la recherche du temps perdu seems a bit of challenge to rip through in a day) ?
    - qingcharles 3y ago
      Hah, yeah, see my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39331379 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39331379
      - defrost 3y ago
        Heh - confined for the summer gives a bit of an incentive, sorry about that. All the same it's a high number, .. I'm guessing more than a few were light pulps and the best you could find given the library at hand? I read a lot of books, several thousand, from 12 to 17, and kept a log of them - later I worked in (and led) a team that digested a few thousand technical documents a day (with a heavy dose of computer assistence to find|pick out key parts), there's a lot of material you can fly through quickly and not miss much, there are rare books that can take a year or a lifetime to fully digest and finish with.
- qingcharles 3y ago
  10 years. I read a lot of magazines as well, though, otherwise the number would be a bit higher!
jacquesm 3y ago
Your perspective is as always refreshing and unique. Thank you :) I hope to do my reading outside of jail and I still haven't installed TikTok and never will but I think my kids would be happy to agree with your position (probably minus the jail bit too).
- qingcharles 3y ago
  It was once said that the only time in a man's life that he will be able to read Proust's In Search of Lost Time is in jail. So I had someone send it to me and of course I was released the next day. p.s. I exaggerated slightly, it took me 3 days before I installed TikTok. I'd watched silly viral videos that appeared on the news for years and so I was intrigued about it. I've loved it ever since. Just gotta get it set up right so your filter bubble is what you're into. I get half my tech news from HN and the other half from TikTok.

Go to jail. I read over 800 books that way. Still installed TikTok the day I got out, though.

glitchcrab 3y ago

How long were you in for to read that many books?

bigstrat2003 3y ago
I used to read 500 books in a single summer as a teenager. I don't know how much free time you have in prison, but I can totally see doing 800 books in just a year or two.
- glitchcrab 3y ago
  I would have classed myself as a bookworm when I was younger, but there's no way I could have read anywhere near that many books in that timespan. I would say that whilst I believe you, you're also an extreme outlier with that figure.
- defrost 3y ago
  Five and a half books a day, every day, all summer seems high. What counts as "a book" here (the seven volume À la recherche du temps perdu seems a bit of challenge to rip through in a day) ?
  - qingcharles 3y ago
    Hah, yeah, see my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39331379 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39331379
    - defrost 3y ago
      Heh - confined for the summer gives a bit of an incentive, sorry about that. All the same it's a high number, .. I'm guessing more than a few were light pulps and the best you could find given the library at hand? I read a lot of books, several thousand, from 12 to 17, and kept a log of them - later I worked in (and led) a team that digested a few thousand technical documents a day (with a heavy dose of computer assistence to find|pick out key parts), there's a lot of material you can fly through quickly and not miss much, there are rare books that can take a year or a lifetime to fully digest and finish with.
qingcharles 3y ago
10 years. I read a lot of magazines as well, though, otherwise the number would be a bit higher!

jacquesm 3y ago

Your perspective is as always refreshing and unique. Thank you :) I hope to do my reading outside of jail and I still haven't installed TikTok and never will but I think my kids would be happy to agree with your position (probably minus the jail bit too).

qingcharles 3y ago
It was once said that the only time in a man's life that he will be able to read Proust's In Search of Lost Time is in jail. So I had someone send it to me and of course I was released the next day. p.s. I exaggerated slightly, it took me 3 days before I installed TikTok. I'd watched silly viral videos that appeared on the news for years and so I was intrigued about it. I've loved it ever since. Just gotta get it set up right so your filter bubble is what you're into. I get half my tech news from HN and the other half from TikTok.