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I really need to find more time and motivation to read books, but for the last couple of years my reading has been dwindling a lot – far more than I’d like. I used to read easily a couple of books a week, and that predictably enough dropped off a few years ago when I started my law degree and got a semi-healthy social life, but now I’m working 9-5 in a reasonably challenging job, and I feel like when I get home I just never find the time or the concentration to read as much as I want. When I do feel like reading I’ll sit down and plow through a book in one sitting, but most of the time even a relatively unchallenging read (North and South, recently) takes like a month, and I don’t know why. If you'd told me a few years ago that by 2015 I'd be reading a maximum of 10-12 books a year I'd be horrified. I know the answer here is to just set aside an hour or so a night as reading time, but I’ve never been good at that sort of thing. This is stupid and kind of pathetic when I type it out, just wondering if anyone’s done the same thing and how they got their reading back on track.
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Dec 3, 2015 17:25
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:I know the answer here is to just set aside an hour or so a night as reading time, but I’ve never been good at that sort of thing. This is stupid and kind of pathetic when I type it out, just wondering if anyone’s done the same thing and how they got their reading back on track. I made reading part of my daily routine by combining it with other daily routines. Every morning I read for an hour or so while having my coffee and breakfast. At night before bed I read for an hour or two while smoking a joint and drinking whisky. If I'm eating lunch alone I'll read then as well. That works with my current schedule because I work from home part of the year and on the road part of the year (lots of reading time there as well). When I had a 9-5 office job I read during my commutes and would also make it a point to go out to lunch by myself to sit and read at a cafe or restaurant once or twice a week. Some people read at the gym as well while using a bike or treadmill or elliptical but I've tried that and it makes me motion sick :/
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Dec 3, 2015 17:37
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:I really need to find more time and motivation to read books, but for the last couple of years my reading has been dwindling a lot – far more than I’d like. I used to read easily a couple of books a week, and that predictably enough dropped off a few years ago when I started my law degree and got a semi-healthy social life, but now I’m working 9-5 in a reasonably challenging job, and I feel like when I get home I just never find the time or the concentration to read as much as I want. When I do feel like reading I’ll sit down and plow through a book in one sitting, but most of the time even a relatively unchallenging read (North and South, recently) takes like a month, and I don’t know why. If you'd told me a few years ago that by 2015 I'd be reading a maximum of 10-12 books a year I'd be horrified. I know the answer here is to just set aside an hour or so a night as reading time, but I’ve never been good at that sort of thing. This is stupid and kind of pathetic when I type it out, just wondering if anyone’s done the same thing and how they got their reading back on track. Something that helped me was just getting off my computer before I'm completely exhausted and ready to crash. So 30-60 minutes before I'd usually crash, I'll head to bed, and I've got some energy to do some reading. Make sure you've got things set up.. charged ebook reader, or lamp and book already by your bed, so you don't get distracted. Then make sure your phone/tablet/laptop is not within reach when you start to read so that you aren't tempted to check it. I always put my phone on mute at night, so I'd do that so you don't hear any notifications while you read. Also, pick something that you're really excited about reading. Don't pick something that is sort of a chore, or it'll be easy to keep putting it off.
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Dec 3, 2015 19:00
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Earwicker posted:I made reading part of my daily routine by combining it with other daily routines. Every morning I read for an hour or so while having my coffee and breakfast. At night before bed I read for an hour or two while smoking a joint and drinking whisky. I kinda want your life, it sounds very pleasant.
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Dec 3, 2015 22:39
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Dec 4, 2015 00:52
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Can anyone tell me if Stephen Ambrose is a decent historian? I've never read any of his books. I want to grab his "Band of Brothers" book, but I'm looking for a riveting history, not a slobbering hagiography.
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Dec 4, 2015 16:08
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CroatianAlzheimers posted:Can anyone tell me if Stephen Ambrose is a decent historian? I've never read any of his books. I want to grab his "Band of Brothers" book, but I'm looking for a riveting history, not a slobbering hagiography. "Beginning late in his life and continuing after his death, however, evidence and reports have continued to surface documenting longtime patterns of plagiarism and inaccuracies in many of his published writings and other work. In response to one of the early reports, Ambrose said he was not "out there stealing other people's writings." In the wake of his death, a reviewer for the New York Times did not absolve him completely, but opined that "he certainly deserved better from some of his envious peers" and credited the historian with reaching "an important lay audience without endorsing its every prejudice or sacrificing the profession's standards of scholarship."
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Dec 4, 2015 23:22
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I've only read his Band of Brothers book, myself. It's not bad, but it is pretty much just slobbering on Easy Company's knob.
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Dec 4, 2015 23:45
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IMO if you are looking for accessible and well written but also very thorough and thought provoking history, check out Norman Davies' Europe or The Isles
Earwicker fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Dec 5, 2015 |
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Dec 5, 2015 00:04
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Khizan posted:I've only read his Band of Brothers book, myself. It's not bad, but it is pretty much just slobbering on Easy Company's knob. Earwicker posted:IMO if you are looking for accessible and well written but also very thorough and thought provoking history, check out Norman Davies' Europe or The Isles Yeah, you guys and everyone else I've asked today have all had generally the same opinion of him so I'm gonna skip it. I picked up Arsenal of Democracy by A.J. Baime instead.
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Dec 5, 2015 06:18
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Can anyone remember the title of a book that came out in 2014? I believe around the same time as the Goldfinch, it was about a family history told around small porcelain figures passed through the family? it had I think a white rabbit on the cover and it's driving me crazy not being able to remember the title.
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Dec 7, 2015 15:25
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Pound_Coin posted:Can anyone remember the title of a book that came out in 2014? I believe around the same time as the Goldfinch, it was about a family history told around small porcelain figures passed through the family? it had I think a white rabbit on the cover and it's driving me crazy not being able to remember the title.
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Dec 7, 2015 16:33
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Juanito posted:The Hare with the Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance? Is the one! thanks!
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Dec 8, 2015 09:56
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edit: nevermind, I'll ask in the Fantasy thread
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Dec 13, 2015 03:40
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Appearantly I had somehow managed to block out Pterry's death until today when Discworld came up in the Malazan thread and I did an automatic "hey, has he published anything new lately?" search. Got super bummed out all over again, downloaded the audiobook of the The Shepherd's Crown because the release of it passed me by until now. Made it 30 seconds in up to Briggs reading the dedication before bursting into tears.  I stopped being SUPER PSYCHED about every new Discworld book at about Monstrous Regiment but the guy's writing has just been such a constant thing in my life for the last 20 years. Time to reread some of Death's greatest hits after this one, I guess.
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Dec 13, 2015 23:45
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Hey, where is the Hemmingway thread? There IS a Hemmingway thread, right?
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Dec 21, 2015 18:35
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Cartouche posted:Hey, where is the Hemmingway thread? There IS a Hemmingway thread, right? "Stop being a loving child and read some real literature" is the thread you want.
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Dec 21, 2015 19:43
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:"Stop being a loving child and read some real literature" is the thread you want. It's the other one right now
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Dec 21, 2015 20:40
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:"Stop being a loving child and read some real literature" is the thread you want. I love that this forum has a single thread dedicated to all books not found in the Fantasy/Sci-Fi section.
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Jan 4, 2016 08:27
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boom boom boom posted:I love that this forum has a single thread dedicated to all books not found in the Fantasy/Sci-Fi section. there's two other threads, too. russian lit. and nobel prize authors, but they're both on life-support
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Jan 4, 2016 11:12
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boom boom boom posted:I love that this forum has a single thread dedicated to all books not found in the Fantasy/Sci-Fi section. The sad thing is, that's significant progress compared to where things were a few years ago. Technically there are a few other ongoing threads for other specific genres, too, though. There's a historical books thread, a detective fiction thread, etc. edit: The real "problem" is that we're an extremely low traffic forum period because most goons think books only exist to be 1) assigned for summer reading and 2) cleaned out of grandpa's apartment after the mailman finds his corpse. It's a minor miracle we have people here who read anything, wizards or not. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 13:46 on Jan 4, 2016 |
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Jan 4, 2016 13:10
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You guys are allowed to make new posts, you know. You just have to make them interesting enough for people to want to post in them.
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Jan 4, 2016 13:28
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There's a Cormac McCarthy thread! Or at least there used to be. That counts for something, right?
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Jan 4, 2016 15:33
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:The sad thing is, that's significant progress compared to where things were a few years ago. plus goons by and large are a buncha manchildren who prefer to post about something they hate rather than something they love.
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Jan 4, 2016 15:41
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ulvir posted:plus goons by and large are a buncha manchildren who prefer to post about something they hate rather than something they love. yeah i hate that 
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Jan 4, 2016 17:30
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There was also a decent non-fiction thread and a history thread but they seem to have faded away. But also it's stupid to complain about content you want to see without making at least some effort yourself. If you think there should be a Hemingway thread then by all means: start one.
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Jan 4, 2016 18:31
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Earwicker posted:There was also a decent non-fiction thread and a history thread but they seem to have faded away. I can't even be bothered to vote for President and you want me to make a thread???
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Jan 4, 2016 18:34
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blue squares posted:I can't even be bothered to vote for President and you want me to make a thread??? the President is already elected by a small committee well before the election, your vote is purely a waste of time if you start a thread there might be some visibile result, i.e. people posting in it. or there might not. maybe someone needs to do one of those The Sun Also Rises And Zombies mashups.
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Jan 4, 2016 18:45
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Zombies Rise and the Sun Also Rises
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Jan 4, 2016 19:41
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A Farewell to My Arms
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Jan 4, 2016 19:43
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Earwicker posted:A Farewell to My Arms 
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Jan 4, 2016 19:54
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For Whom the Bell Never Tolls
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Jan 4, 2016 20:02
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A moveable feast
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Jan 4, 2016 20:02
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Mel Mudkiper posted:A moveable feast
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Jan 4, 2016 20:45
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Mel Mudkiper posted:A moveable feast Ahaha perfect
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Jan 4, 2016 22:35
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Any goon recommendations for a basic reading lamp for bed?
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Jan 5, 2016 04:59
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monster on a stick posted:Any goon recommendations for a basic reading lamp for bed? This is a very goony/"college dorm" suggestion and I wouldn't blame you for scoffing, but I really like a small string of Christmas lights for nighttime reading. It's bright enough to see clearly, but soft and unfocused enough that it doesn't keep me from getting sleepy.
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Jan 5, 2016 07:28
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Esme posted:This is a very goony/"college dorm" suggestion and I wouldn't blame you for scoffing, but I really like a small string of Christmas lights for nighttime reading. It's bright enough to see clearly, but soft and unfocused enough that it doesn't keep me from getting sleepy. You must have really good eyes or really bright Christmas lights. I love the glow of Christmas lights, but I would really strain my eyes trying to read by it. The amount of light you need to read by slowly increases as you age, though. That said, having a small bright light in an otherwise dark room is really hard on your eyes. When your eyes drift off the page even for half a second (which they do frequently), they will start to dilate because everything else is so dark. Then your eyes flick back to the brightly lit page and your pupils constrict again. It's pretty tiring on the eyes. Sharp contrast between small, bright, focused lighting and darkness is really hard on your eyes, which is why using your phone or computer in the dark is really tiring as well. I don't have any specific lamp recommendations since that would depend on what stores are nearby, but the best kind of reading light is something that sits behind and slightly above you and is filtered in some way by opaque glass or a shade etc (ie not a naked bulb in your line of sight). Really bright light on white pages creates a bit of a glare that also puts a strain on your eyes, so brighter isn't always better. There are ones that you can mount on the wall behind you which shine down soft light, which is the general type I would recommend.
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Jan 5, 2016 11:58
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any old desk lamp can work, as long as the lumens in the lightbulb you're using isn't too high (no higher than 450-ish)
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Jan 5, 2016 12:12
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monster on a stick posted:Any goon recommendations for a basic reading lamp for bed? I got this for Christmas and it's been great. I've seen it go down to at least $20 as well.
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Jan 5, 2016 14:56
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