Books & Reading Them

Worldly and otherworldly topics

How many books you reading these days?

More than 20 a year
4
31%
Between 16 to 20 a year
1
8%
Between 11 to 15 a year
1
8%
Between 6 to 10 a year
2
15%
Between 3 to 5 a year
1
8%
One or two a year
2
15%
Fewer than one a year
2
15%
 
Total votes: 13

User avatar
Utisz
Posts: 676
Joined: Fri Nov 22, 2019 4:35 am

Books & Reading Them

Post by Utisz » Sun May 29, 2022 8:51 am

Used to read a lot but cannot remember the last book I read.

How about y'all? Ye read more or less these days? Fiction or non-fiction?

Tags:

User avatar
Ferrus
Posts: 270
Joined: Sun Feb 28, 2021 11:10 pm
Location: Barcelona

Re: Books & Reading Them

Post by Ferrus » Sun May 29, 2022 10:17 am

I still read but a lot less since the New World Order, Illuminati, George Soros, Billy G and Hilary Clinton conspired to create social media and smartphones to destroy my attention span in order to accept a diet of bugs and Soylent Green.

I spent a year doing long train journeys in 2009 pre-smartphone and read a ton of weighty tomes including War and Peace.
Ex falso, quodlibet

User avatar
Senseye
Posts: 270
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2021 10:48 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Books & Reading Them

Post by Senseye » Mon May 30, 2022 6:54 am

I still love to read. Especially, outside in the summer. Mostly just escapist fiction though.

I don't go to the actual library much any more. It's a shame really, as I would always browse the "new releases" section of both fiction and non-fiction, and as such would occasionally read non-friction books about pretty much any subject that would catch my eye in the moment. Broadened my horizons a bit more.

User avatar
Catoptric
Posts: 1413
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2021 3:06 am
Location: 1187 at Hundertwasser
Contact:

Re: Books & Reading Them

Post by Catoptric » Mon May 30, 2022 8:08 pm

Utisz wrote:
Sun May 29, 2022 8:51 am
Used to read a lot but cannot remember the last book I read.

How about y'all? Ye read more or less these days? Fiction or non-fiction?
I used to read dedicated books a lot more and also was motivated to write, but over-time it seemed rather pointless. I would rather use pdf files to skim through a book or use the internet to search for specifics on a topic, rather than read something that may not be all that particularly interesting.

Perhaps one way of thinking of it is that many books people read are not much different from social media, where people subscribe to identity and belief purely on the foundation of what it "represents," to them by either buying the book to be seen with it or to actually understand it. Few people want to debate or prove their point of a topic even when it's glaringly obvious the flaws of subscribing to that belief, that any real incentive to actually read materials that people are refusing to admit the faults of, becomes rather pointless.

So much more material exists on a topic that getting even a slightly rewarding insight is rather unlikely, that it's better off just pretending like any books lying around don't exist. I've probably spent more time reading things on the internet that I undoubtedly could be considered having read many books, but rarely do I actually just read something from start to finish unless I have a damn good reason to, and most of what motivated me to be involved with books was due to books resale shops actually had stuff that was interesting in them, and now I would prefer to just acquire books online which can be equally miserable because of how stupid the book market has become. I refuse to also buy digital copies of books because it just seems like I'm wasting money on something that I more than likely don't even want or need (a bit like realizing I paid for a video game that in 5 years when I actually decide to start playing it, now costs a small fraction of the "sale" price I bought it for 5 years ago.)

Most things don't require immediacy and no conversations that are worthwhile are merited, and most books people buy are just another scam of bullshit material and lies.
Societal egress and ennui
Hello / Goodbye / Just a moment / Nothing / Cosmic / Man / Dream / Civilization / Open / Contact / Tremble / Gas / Memory / Transcend / ^2

User avatar
starjots
Posts: 238
Joined: Fri Feb 26, 2021 5:18 am
Location: New Mexico, USA

Re: Books & Reading Them

Post by starjots » Wed Jun 01, 2022 6:33 am

What to read? What is relevant these days? I'm not sure.

User avatar
Spartan26
Posts: 148
Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2021 9:13 pm

Re: Books & Reading Them

Post by Spartan26 » Thu Jun 02, 2022 3:17 am

I don't know if anyone's gonna look in this thread anymore but there are two books I want to read. Well, more than two but two rather daunting ones, The Brothers Karamazov and The Sound and The Fury. I've read other Faulker stuff and found it smooth like brandy so I might be psyching myself out. It's not that I think it'd be too difficult, I just wonder if I'm going to miss or add things that really aren't there. Like, because it's such a revered classic, will I assign meaning to a rose that's just a rose? I hate it when stuffy film critics do that and I've had plenty of arguments in lit classes w/professors over such things as play interpretations because they fail to recognize the constraints of live theater.

I've tried reading Brothers K several times over the past 20+ years. I've really loved what I read. I don't find it too difficult at all. It is so dense with contemplation and possibilities that it's hard to keep my brain from following a conjecture out to obscurity. I'm a slow reader as it is. I need to set aside time during the early evening or perhaps lunch. I'm more relaxed right before bed or maybe mentally wired that I could use the comedown but I did enjoy its wit. I'd be up to reading either of them for a group but I don't want to be reading just to catch up or feel rushed. Some things I'm sure I'd find worth discussing or getting others' perspective.

User avatar
Utisz
Posts: 676
Joined: Fri Nov 22, 2019 4:35 am

Re: Books & Reading Them

Post by Utisz » Thu Jun 02, 2022 5:43 am

I read every book in the house I grew up in, except for Charles Dickens' "Hard Times".

It was a house built in the sixties I guess, and I combed every crevice of it. Some subset of my older seven siblings borrowed books from the nearest town's library that they never returned, and since that moment, who knows how long before my birth, my mother, from embarrassment, cut us off from the source. The library had this intimidating entryway, that clicked your sins when you walked though.

Well this is not completely true, in that I remember going to the library to read Asterisk and Obelisk in a sunken cove, which I presumed was at the cost of my mother disowning some surplus progeny and their misdeeds and echoed clicks. But that was the exception.

The house had its own library fomented from over two decades of indifference. Some of the books were random shit about interpreting dreams. Many of the books had been assigned to one of my six older siblings for English Lit. Some of those I would also be assigned for English Lit. I read some Steinbeck, Austen, Shakespeare, Orwell and Greene. I like Animal Farm a lot. I also read the cheap encyclopaedia.

But I learnt most from three Cosmopolitans issues that one day mysteriously appeared in an attic.

I weaned myself off with Philip K. DIck books, and now I don't read so more. The availability of books nowadays borders on the vulgar.

User avatar
Madrigal
Posts: 619
Joined: Fri Nov 22, 2019 8:59 am

Re: Books & Reading Them

Post by Madrigal » Sat Jun 04, 2022 3:43 pm

I am actually concerned for my ability to retain anything I read. I've never been one to remember details, or even much of a story plot. It was always a specific scene, emotion, reflection or phrase that would stick; not the work as a whole. But I think this has gotten a lot worse over the years. I think I mentioned there was a book on my shelf I was hoping to read for ages, then I picked it up and saw it was all underlined by myself, who knows when. Pretty alarming. But maybe it's a vicious cycle, and the less I read the less I'll remember from what I read. It's not that I don't do anything to stimulate my brain. I just don't swallow the volumes I used to on a regular basis. I checked 3-5 books a year now.
Ferrus wrote:
Sun May 29, 2022 10:17 am
I still read but a lot less since the New World Order, Illuminati, George Soros, Billy G and Hilary Clinton conspired to create social media and smartphones to destroy my attention span in order to accept a diet of bugs and Soylent Green.

I spent a year doing long train journeys in 2009 pre-smartphone and read a ton of weighty tomes including War and Peace.
Yeah, I think that my online reading probably takes time away from book reading. Growing up, reading a book before bed was just as logical as brushing your teeth or putting on pajamas. I lost that habit long ago. In bed, I now read online newspapers, mostly NYT or Corriere della Sera, but also listen to Le Monde podcasts or Greek newscasts which I can barely make out. I try to use that time of the day, before bed, to read or listen to news, which I really like doing.

It must be a weird Gen X thing because I don't check reddit or any social media for news, just papers. I mean, I'm going to find a lot of the same news as the person reading reddit, right? Just different formats.
Senseye wrote:
Mon May 30, 2022 6:54 am
I still love to read. Especially, outside in the summer. Mostly just escapist fiction though.

I don't go to the actual library much any more. It's a shame really, as I would always browse the "new releases" section of both fiction and non-fiction, and as such would occasionally read non-friction books about pretty much any subject that would catch my eye in the moment. Broadened my horizons a bit more.
I miss a good library. There was one in Bs As with beautiful, high-back wooden chairs and a table in the kind of wood they don't use anymore. Creaking floorboards, dim light, dust floating in the few beams of sunlight that penetrated the room, a lovely smell of old, books up to the ceiling and a little corrider around the walls so you could reach them. And a mysterious backroom with uncatalogued books that they had never gotten round to putting on the shelves. I found some great stuff in there. This was at the Alliance Francaise. Actual public libraries in Bs As are Kafkian hell.
Spartan26 wrote:
Thu Jun 02, 2022 3:17 am
I'd be up to reading either of them for a group but I don't want to be reading just to catch up or feel rushed. Some things I'm sure I'd find worth discussing or getting others' perspective.
You should try a book club. I would not join one because I feel like my years in politics were, in a way, a neverending bookclub, but I bet it could be fun. I do believe they are mostly populated by middle aged women though, could be wrong.
Last edited by Madrigal on Sat Jun 04, 2022 4:00 pm, edited 3 times in total.

User avatar
Madrigal
Posts: 619
Joined: Fri Nov 22, 2019 8:59 am

Re: Books & Reading Them

Post by Madrigal » Sat Jun 04, 2022 3:52 pm

Utisz wrote:
Thu Jun 02, 2022 5:43 am
I read every book in the house I grew up in, except for Charles Dickens' "Hard Times".
What was wrong with Hard Times? You got something against Dickens or just that book?
Some of the books were random shit about interpreting dreams.
How's that random shit. :huh:
I also read the cheap encyclopaedia.
It's an oft-quoted fact(?) about Borges, "He read the Encyclopedia Britannica from A-Z", purportedly having a great influence on his writing. I guess it's probably true since he sounds like an encyclopedia.

User avatar
Utisz
Posts: 676
Joined: Fri Nov 22, 2019 4:35 am

Re: Books & Reading Them

Post by Utisz » Sun Jun 05, 2022 6:55 am

Madrigal wrote:
Sat Jun 04, 2022 3:52 pm
Utisz wrote:
Thu Jun 02, 2022 5:43 am
I read every book in the house I grew up in, except for Charles Dickens' "Hard Times".
What was wrong with Hard Times? You got something against Dickens or just that book?
I think the book smelt bad. I found that one in the garage.
I also read the cheap encyclopaedia.
It's an oft-quoted fact(?) about Borges, "He read the Encyclopedia Britannica from A-Z", purportedly having a great influence on his writing. I guess it's probably true since he sounds like an encyclopedia.
Might also explain why he was racist.

Post Reply