Reading
I can’t stop noticing that in the last several years I’ve become quite unfocused and lazy when it comes to reading books, both fiction and non-fiction.
University provided me with some sort of mental discipline and a habit to read books, but I graduated in 2000, and since then it seems I’ve been reading much less. Actually, no, I’m wrong. I’ve been reading increasingly higher volumes of text, but not books. On a daily basis I read online and paper magazines, newspapers, news websites, online discussion forums, and, of course, blogs, blogs, blogs… I’m very sure that in terms of absolute volume of “consumed” text I read now much more than I used to read back in 1999 , but not books.
You can already call me an information junkie. And I feel it’s quite unfortunate. I’d like to ask you, what’s better, more satisfying and more useful: to read 50 funny personal blogs or read the whole series of Douglas Adam’s Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy? To read 100 whiny Russian bloggers or read “War and Peace” in original? To read 300 tech blogs or study Donald Knuth’s “Art of Programming”?
To me the answer is quite obvious. But let’s face it: reading a good smart book is much more intellectually challenging than simply hopping over a dozens of blogs. On the other hand, the “returns” are higher. I was very pleased, elated, when I finally read several volumes of Richard Feynmann’s physics lectures back in 11th grade and got this amazing feeling that I already know our physical world quite intimately. On the other hand, if I’d spent that time reading blogs (non-existent back then, the era of early BBS) I probably would’ve felt anger and disappointment that I’ve wasted time doing something pointless.
I can see two reasons why I don’t read “difficult” books anymore. It’s my overall intellectual laziness and shorter attention span (the latter being just one manifestation of the intellectual laziness). It’s much easier to read 100 stupid comments on a discussion forum at slashdot than just one page on, say, new developments in quantum physics theory.
I think I started reading a bit more again when I bought a handheld, a palm pilot (Palm Z22) and downloaded several dozens of e-books via P2P networks and free websites. And, lately, I’ve been thinking that life is too short to waste this amazing human capacity to decipher rows and pages of symbols into concrete knowledge, imagery, ideas…
So from now on I’d like to plan my reading. Any advice and tips are greatly appreciated!
FYI:
My recent reading:
• The Man in the High Castle. Philip K. Dick
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick
• Father Brown stories by G. K. Chesterton
• Lord of the flies by William Golding
My current reading:
• Destructive Emotions : A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama
• The Dalai Lama’s Book of Wisdom
• Investments
• A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
• Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve
I’m quite curious what are you guys reading these days? And I’m looking forward to your recommendations. Thanks.
May 27th, 2006 at 9:19 pm
i’m not sure if it’s to do with university or just internet… i’m now trying to balance out my “book reading” and “internet reading” as well. But i’m still in university, it’s just that internet is a much faster way to get more information, where as you can read 300 pages of a book and still not have a valid info. but reading books is definitely more gratifying :) i must say i haven’t even heard of some of the books you mention, i’m gonna look for them. btw. how do you feel about audio books? they are (again) timesavers (we live in a fast world :) ) and you can walk around the city and listen to them :)
May 27th, 2006 at 10:20 pm
Very true, I pretty much never read books… It takes too much time to digest one book and get the required information. Instead, I read through mebe 5 to 10 websites and do get the information I need. Cannot really say my level went down intellectually… it went up rather, from reading pages on www.mathworld.com for example. Pages like these I need being a developer. It’s sad I never really went to university tho, so understanding complex formulae is a challenge. So… what I read these days… mostly technical documents, programming theory, scientific texts. And of course blogs, forums and such :)
May 27th, 2006 at 11:32 pm
I know what you mean. With the internet, it’s much easier to do a quick search and find what you want, but with books you might learn something that has got nothing to do with what you want to know, but nevertheless might be useful later on. Or vice-versa; sometimes in blogs you read things that you really didn’t need to know about.
Amd about the “funny blogs” or “Hitchhiker’s Guide” thing, sometimes in those personal blogs, the private jokes are the best thing in them, yet sometimes you can’t understand them. But in a book you can do that, can’t you? Both have good sides, anyway.
Anyway, for book recommendations, ever tried to read anything by Neil Gaiman? His books are for everyone, I suppose, and they’re great fun. My mom also bought me “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse, and although I haven’t read it yet, it’s looks like it’s very good.
May 28th, 2006 at 1:43 am
Br23: I think you are right. At the end of the school year, I waved goodbye to a huge pile of books I was reading during the semester. I had to make three runs to carry them back to the library.
But in terms of following the news, skimming blog entries, reading a morning newspaper - that is still there, deeply rooted in my daily routine. But books, hell… I need more time for that and determination. Yet, I’ve got a few titles I am on. Just finished Dan Brown’s “Digital Fortress.” Today I was looking through a chapter on sloth in “Explanation of Catholic Morals” by John H. Stapleton. And I’ve taken a couple of books on Washington, D.C. from a local library to learn more about the city where I happen to reside this summer.
May 28th, 2006 at 7:21 am
Orson Scott Card: Ender’s Game + Speaker for the Dead - and hopefully will read the rest of the series
Larry Wall: Programming Perl - it’s so much more than a regular programming book. It’s a wonderful book in its own right.
War and Peace - in original, no kidding
Lawrence Lessig: Free Culture - an opinionated, but well-referenced book about the problems of copyright in the digital age. It was written by a geek lawyer, but it is very interesting.
Jewish books - Bible (in original!), Talmud. It’s huge and and i’m not sure that i’ll ever finish it, but it’s very interesting.
and …. Winnie the Pooh.
May 28th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
> and …. Winnie the Pooh.
:))
Actually I forgot to mention one more book from my current reading list. Peter Pan. It feels much more serious and sadder than I used to remember it from early childhood. I’m reading it and I have totally different images as opposed to what I experienced when my mom read it to me at the age of 4.
May 29th, 2006 at 2:19 pm
hello,
what a coincidemce; it seems we’re batchmates. i also graduated in 2000. anyway, going back to your post about reading. i have a bachelor’s degree in literature, so u can imagine the reading requirements that went with it. after graduation, i took a breather, but after awhile i found myself heading back to bookstores. i guess im really interested in it. oh, and it helps that i have close friends who like reading books too.
about reading list. the last book i finished reading was “the curious incident of the dog in the night time.” i forgot the author, but it’s really worth checking out. very good. :-)
if you ever find time to read it, let me know what u think of it ok?
May 30th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
ahh… books… I infinitely prefer a good book to news articles and blogs. But I also like to sit down and hold the book in my hand, mark it up and write in it with my questions and observations, to keep me engaged in my reading. I just can’t read a book via computer or palmpilot etc.
I was a Philosophy and History of Math & Science double major, so my reading in college was heavy to say the least. I also took a breather upon graduation. Recently I have been reading lots of literature and theology. Books I’d recommend:
-If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino. A fiction book about the love of reading, incidentally.
-Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper. Quite thought-provoking, in a way that demands an introspection into your own life and lifestyle.
-Faith, Hope, Love by Josef Pieper. Excellent essays and lectures on the theological virtues.
-Mao II by Don DeLillo. An interesting fiction book that deals with the power and role of images in the lives of the individual and in the collective.
War and Peace in the original? I wish! Though I’d be more inclined to read The Brothers Karamazov in the original first. I am currently reading the latter (in translation) for the second time. I also just finished Master and Margarita by Bulgakov.
The guardian featured a list of the top 100 novels of all time.
I’ve read 26 off the list. I hope to eventually read all 100.
May 30th, 2006 at 9:31 pm
Still my favorite kind of reading :) :
bool * * (* ptr) (void *);
Wonder who can figure out what this is lol.
May 30th, 2006 at 9:32 pm
Oops… my bad… bool (* * ptr) (void *);