I don't know and frankly said, I really don't care how many books I've read in about 50 years, probably a couple thousand. And for most of them I don't even remember the name or the author.
I end up cherishing maybe a dozen or so.
But the best time I had with a book was in 2020.
It's a German book on practical microscopy.
I also bought a microscope and went through that one book.
I learned more from that one book than from hundreds of those I read before, highbrow or lowbrow.
And I read a lot more of the former, a lot more.
Binge reading is just that.
Binging, not reading.
A symptom of a refined form of mental weakness that borders on addiction if not embedded in a broader range of activities.
Well that's exactly what amazes me (and many of "us" who were never into reading before) :)
It's only THIS year that I'm actually LEARNING and getting on terms with the fact that it's not a challenge or whatever, but more about the information and enjoyment. Again, I absolutely understand how stupid this might sound to someone, and I agree - it is stupid; but yet, that's how I honestly feel :)
But this year I've been "allowing" myself to re-read some stuff that I enjoyed in the past, without actually keeping track of it. And so far it's working out.
>> Binging, not reading. A symptom of a refined form of mental weakness that borders on addiction if not embedded in a broader range of activities.
> How did you like the book?” asked a friend who recommended it. “I loved it! It was a real page-turner!”, I answered. “Great! What do you think about ________ and _________ ? How did you like those parts?”. I’ll be honest. I literally had no clue what he was talking about. Are we talking about the same book? Sapiens? It sounded like it for sure. But I have no recollection of even reading that. WTF?
This happens to me all the time, and in my opinion there’s nothing wrong about it. All I care about is to enjoy what I’m reading at the moment. Whether or not I remember later on what I have read is of little importance to me (unless of course we are talking about reading for passing an exam or something like that).
Heh, well, I agree actually. I read somewhere that books are like food -- you enjoy them now and don't care about not remembering them in the future.
But the point that I was trying to make (I'm the author of the article) is that I actually had no clue what I read, even though I read it like days ago. And I think that's crap, honestly :) Especially given the type of the book that I was referring to.
I also find reading multiple books in parallel really helpful. In this way, you can read multiple kinds of books.
For example, I am currently reading a "mathematical book"- Jordan Ellenberg's 'How Not to Be Wrong', a big fat novel in my native language, and Rumi's poetry in English.
It get's tiring to read serious non-fiction for multiple hours but there is still appetite for reading left. You should switch to a fiction then. And read poetry and book like Meditations by Aurelias now and then, maybe not even linearly.
I have found this combination to work for me really well.
It's really helpful because, at least in my case, it actually gives you a "permission" to enjoy whatever the heck you feel like reading at the time, instead of being obligated to wait for being ready to read "that one" book.
So, currently, I actually think I'm reading one book about communication & negotiation, one about habits, one about investing (I'm complete dummy when it comes to it) and depending on the amount of stress at job, I'd re-read some of Seneca's writings.
I also couldn’t get into Crime and Punishment, and I read a lot of books and loved The Brothers Karamazov. The idea of just quitting books that you enjoy is really important... for me at least, I feel like I get more out of the top 10% of books that I read than I get out of the bottom 50%. Sometimes a great book only clicks when you’re 1/4 of the way through it, though.
>> The idea of just quitting books that you enjoy is really important...
Frankly, even though I did mention it in the article, I'm honestly still really struggling with this concept. Like, I literally feel guilty about dropping a book so I always try to push through as much as possible.
But hell, I started reading "Start with WHY" and I just had to drop that crap ... Like, just ... no, LOL.
>> Sometimes a great book only clicks when you’re 1/4 of the way through it, though
Oh yeah! I had this with 11/22/63. Like, first 15% were amazing, then like 70% was pure boredom and holy crap, the last 15% was like ... FUUUUUUUUU. Made everything before that ABSOLUTELY worth it!
So, absolutely agreed - sometimes you just have to preserve!
After 'Surgical Reading'[1] I started loving book indexes. They're like Code Surfing on paper.
One of the most thoroughly organized books I know, I've bought today: "A Table for Friends: The Art of Cooking for Two or Twenty". It has 3 indexes in the back (by season, by time, by alphabet). It uses left margins and page color for grouping by method (no cooking, on stove, in oven), and right margins for grouping by course. It is so rigorously organized. Almost a shame I'll never read it all. But that's the cost of really understanding the contents: cooking, eating, and repeating to get better at the same. Looking at words is auxiliary to living.
Your hangups about not reading two books at once and being contractually obligated to finish a book are interesting but I'm not sure that they're culturally normative, I've certainly never felt this way about books.
Our time on this planet is finite, and I'm not going to push through a slog of a fiction book because the last 20% of it is ostensibly worth it.
It vaguely reminds me of old jrpgs and how you used to have to do a bunch of boring fetch quests and grinding to be able to actually get to the enjoyable aspects of the game.
Well, this is exactly what I found interesting. When you talk to people who are "readers" (as in - have been reading for a while), this seems to be a "normal" for them.
And yet, go and talk to anyone (myself included) who was never into reading, and you'll encounter complete shock once you mention "reading more than one book at a time". It's funny, I know, but it's mind blowing for us who never "learned" how to read :)
I end up cherishing maybe a dozen or so.
But the best time I had with a book was in 2020.
It's a German book on practical microscopy. I also bought a microscope and went through that one book. I learned more from that one book than from hundreds of those I read before, highbrow or lowbrow. And I read a lot more of the former, a lot more.
Binge reading is just that. Binging, not reading. A symptom of a refined form of mental weakness that borders on addiction if not embedded in a broader range of activities.