People really over exaggerate the importance of reading because they’re repeating memes from back when reading was the only way of getting information. All the people like Voltaire with cool quotes about books would be saying cool things about movies and documentaries if they lived now.
If you’re in a phase of your life where reading appeals to you then do it, if you’re not then don’t beat yourself up about it there’s endless great ways of getting a far richer version of whatever you were looking for - want to get lost in a world of imagination? Good video games are just as good as good books. Want to learn about new perspectives and distant lands? Why not deep dive into some tiktok rabbit holes - real people without that filter of having to be the sort of person to write and get their work published, anywhere in the world you can see every day dramas, struggles, successes, and stories.
I know people will be angry I said it but yes tiktok can be just like a good book when you explore it with an open mind, video games can be wonderfully compelling and really open up your imagination. Personally I wish I had time and the interests to do more of both, I’m still not halfway through bg3 and I brought it on release and haven’t played anything else. I have listened to a few books in that time (mostly from librivox, great free audiobooks with so many classics and wonderful Victorian oddities) but that’s not because I’m better or smarter than people who are drawn to other things but because it’s a form of entrainment which works well for me.
So yeah if you want to read more then maybe get an audio book like the woodlanders by Thomas Hardy from librivox, put it on your headphones and go for a nice walk then when you’re getting into the story you’ll be drawn to keep listening while you do chores like cleaning, and if you’re like me you’ll find chores to do just to keep in the story.
A great thing about Victorian literature is you can listen to the rompiest penny dreadful like the mysteries of London (available on librivox) and it’s got the entrainment of being trash but also it’s a historical document so you’re learning history from primary sources at the same time.
But if you want to learn instead about Tumblr’s sold to one direction trope in a half hour video essay on YouTube then I genuinely think that’s an equally valid use of your time (actually surprisingly interesting too, I think it was a strange aeons video)
Thank you! I knew there are more benefits and that one was on the tip of my tongue. Reading makes your brain better in ways that some types of media probably make worse.
While generally agreeing with you, I would just say that it’s a very unjust and biased point of view to say that other media are richer than books.
They’re just different media and forms of art. For example, while videos show you things with much more detail and games make you immerse in a constructed world, books give you more freedom to your imagination, which is an entirety different experience.
I wouldn’t say that any of these experiences are better than the other, but just different, and different people will enjoy them differently.
Yes you’re right, I really meant rich in other ways.
And yeah I don’t think any are intrinsically better than the other, as the addage goes the best direction to head depends on where you start and where you’re going. What might be best for me could be worst for someone else, that’s one of the real next beauties and complexities of life.
The one thing that has gotten me to read more is the price increase in streaming services along with a decrease in shows that I find interesting.
All that extra time I would be trying to find a show I now just open a book and read. So thank you Netfilx, et. al. for your greed has reintroduced books into my life.
Audiobooks are the solution, not perfect but better than nothing. I “read” my books while cooking, while cleaning, in the bus, while walking around, in the car and at the fitness club.
Audiobooks are also great if distraction keeps you from reading. Similarly, they help if you have trouble staying interested during the boring parts of a book.
Both apply to me, and I’ve gotten through hundreds of audiobooks since I started ~11 years ago. I listen while traveling, cooking, cleaning, doing puzzles, and even while playing some videogames. I often listen alongside my wife or kids, making it a much more shared experience than a regular book. Audiobooks are great.
I’ve tried dozens of times and in many different contexts and settings. For the love of me, if I’m trying to do something else while listening to an AudioBook, not a single word is registered by my brain. I would make it through chapters and suddenly realize I have no clue of what is happening in the plot or who the characters are.
It needs to be an activity I can do on autopilot. I’m not listening to books while cooking a new recipe, driving somewhere I’ve never been, or playing a game that still requires any thought. Even when I can do it on autopilot, I have to pause and/or rewind occasionally (but not terribly often). Regardless, I know not everyone can easily split their attention for this.
No hate for audio books, but I think it’s not comparable to reading. They are fundamentally different ways to get things in your brain, and they are handled differently. It’s a different thing. Granted, if you want to experience a narrative or story, fine. But it’s not reading. If you want to read, you look at words on a page. If you want to listen to an audio book, you do not want to read.
That is why I wrote “it is not perfect”. I agree that reading is different. Not really for the reason you mentioned though. For me it is mostly, that reading is relaxing for me, audiobooks aren’t. But one takes what one can get. Maybe when the children are bigger I start reading again.
Different strokes for different folks. You do what you gotta do to enjoy life, and if you want to read or listen to audiobooks, I wish you all the best! My particular neuosis centers around definitions, and it’s insane, and I know it is. For me, the whole “I want to read more so I listen to audiobooks” statement just hits me like “I want to eat bacon so I eat lettuce”. Sure, they’re both crunchy, but it’s like… A totally different thing. If you want something crunchy (a metaphor for a good story or something), then say that, then the format doesn’t matter! This is a strange hangup to have haha I’m going to bed.
My wife gifted me a kindle 3 or 4 years ago and I’ve read religiously 30mins a night minimum. I upgraded to a waterproof one so I can sit in the pool or at the beach and read too.
I read a lot, for example I just read a four panel web comic and a comment that went “if the words of all the memes i read were added, it would amount to few books worth”.
I read a lot, for example I just read a four panel web comic and a comment that went “I read a lot, for example I just read a four panel web comic and a comment that went “if the words of all the memes i read were added, it would amount to few books worth”.”
I highly recommend everyone look at the many free resources. I use it a lot for fiction, things I can listen to it in a few days.
I also have an audible account and buy a lot of non-fiction. Because those books, I tend to listen multiple times, or listen to a couple minutes over the course of a year.
I see someone down voted you for some reason. In case it’s because of the misconception that audiobooks aren’t as good as reading, several years back there was some research which showed that as far as the brain is concerned, there’s essentially no difference.
“Looking at the brain scans and data analysis, the researchers saw that the stories stimulated the same cognitive and emotional areas, regardless of their medium. It’s adding to our understanding of how our brains give semantic meaning to the squiggly letters and bursts of sound that make up our communication.”
It’s just the same attitude as people who claim it’s not really reading if you’re using an eReader. Some people get weirdly elitist about books and reading
As always, people who just hate change in any form - combined with the depressingly common outlook that if you don’t personally like something, it must be objectively bad
Facebook groups that post old Pickles cartoons and motivational joker quotes, and it doesn’t matter how many of them I block theres always an endless amount of clones doing the same thing.
Getting actual E ink display led to me reading more, since it’s comfortable to hold compared to an actual book but easier on the eyes than a smartphone.
Same, I’m 37 and barely read anything since highschool. My fiance got me a kindle in July and I’m a reading machine. I love me some fantasy and sci Fi.
I’ll check it out, have you read king killer chronicles? Aka name of the wind. That got me back into reading, they’re masterfully done and read very easily.
Yeah, they’re great books with pretty writing, but it’s a shame that the series will never be finished. A lot of his ideas for the second book came from Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. I read all 14 books and enjoyed the journey, but it’s not for everyone. Jordan spends a lot of time describing women’s clothing, and books 10 and 11 are a slog. His health was failing and it shows in the writing. Thankfully he took meticulous notes and passed the project on to Brandon Sanderson who picked the pace back up and really did the story justice with the ending. There’s a whole lot in modern fantasy that is derivative of Robert Jordan’s work. If you can stomach a very long, and very intricate series, then I highly recommend that one too. Amazon recently released a TV show based on the books, but I think it’s terrible. Some people like it, but I strongly disliked it, so much so that I couldn’t even force myself to finish it. Anyways, WoT is a great series, as is almost anything by Sanderson.
I feel dumb saying that books aren’t ergonomic… But they aren’t! I hate holding them open so much. This should be a minor complaint, but it’s a huge benefit of ereaders to me.
people act as if books are the be-all end-all of information, but like… they’re just the best people managed with resources and technology of the time! If you asked an ancient scholar if they prefer a book, or a tablet with MANY books in it, gee i sure do wonder which one they’d choose…
For sure! I mean there are definitely advantages to physical books, like anything that you want to flip through quickly like a textbook is awful on an ereader… but just having hundreds of books on the go is a huge win.
and even that is something we could fix if we decided to, e-ink technology is starting to improve again and we’ll probably have decent refresh speeds in a few years and then you’ll be able to flip through them like a book!
You read faster with eReaders too. The act of turning pages with a paper book becomes a ritual that consumes more time than it needs to, and over thousands of pages that ritual definitely adds up.
I will say, for anyone who feels this way: set yourself a goal of reading for 15 min/day. It’s not even a full episode of that show you’re binging (unless you’re binging Burning Love, which I highly recommend). You will almost always read more than just that 15, but starting is the hardest part.
Just finished the book “4000 Weeks”. It’s written by a guy who was originally obsessed with all the “maximize your time” books like Eat That Frog and 4-hour workweek.
He now changed course, instead focusing on just living.
Big takeaway: time is going to move, with or without you. “Maximizing your time” and completing endless checklists to one day “find time” is a quest for failure. It’ll never arise. Do the thing you wanna do.
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