Getting Back Into Reading (Books)

[justbeast]

I was talking with @zaboots a few months ago, about the fact that we've both slowed way down, in terms of reading printed books (ebooks included). Meaning, we weren't reading much lately, or at all, really

Comments

[iterum]

I used to chain-read books for pleasure even through my dissertation days, but it has more or less stopped since I started teaching. Maybe I feel that if I'm reading, I should be reading something academic (so that I end up not reading a book at all)? Maybe I've lost my ability to concentrate? Maybe the habit of procrastination has become so ingrained in me that I procrastinate even fun things?

All I know is that I'm sitting in a cafe right now with 90 minutes of guilt-free time until I have to be somewhere, in my second full week of summer vacation, and instead of reading a novel or something, I am refreshing social network sites in a desultory sort of way.

Accordingly, I have a giant stack of books (metaphorically; literally, there are several smaller stacks) that I want to read but haven't yet. As far as Cat's livelihood is concerned, though, I keep buying her books and putting them in the aforementioned stack(s). So, there's that, at least.

[justbeast]

First of all - I am SO sympathetic to this state of affairs. Believe me.

But. Seems to me like you need to Commit (tm) :)
Do 15 mins of reading a day. See how it treats you.

[iterum]

Not a bad plan at all.

[thewronghands]

Interesting -- I just read "The White Queen" and was unimpressed. (I'm on a campaign to read the Tiptree award winners.) I think it was because there was no character I could really relate to. So it was a little noodly, but none of the ideas were new and none of the characters became beloved, which pretty much made it hard for me to think of it as more than "eh". I doubt I'll read books two and three, so I don't mind spoilers... what was your longer post? [grins, enables]

Also, I'll totally have to try "Souls in the Machine"!

[justbeast]

You know, that's interesting. That's the second time I've heard that recently - "couldn't find a character I could relate to" about a book. (Not that particular one, just in general). And I find it startling - do most people require (or prefer, let's say) characters they can identify with

[thewronghands]

Aaaaah I am in the middle of "Souls in the Great Machine" now and you were totally right, I love it! There will be a book post about it in the next couple of weeks. Thank you so much for recommending it to me; I ordered the second book in the trilogy today.

[justbeast]

Yesss! I'm so glad! :)

[ironed_orchid]

I find with most new to me books I want to read them in a couple of sittings, so I might start them on a night when I don't have to work the next day, and that way I can stay up late, or if I am too tired, I can finished it the next day. Partly I'm able to do this because I can usually read a novel in 3-6 hours, so it is not as big a time investment as it might be if I read slower.

That said, authors like Pynchon and Murakami I tend to read much slower because the text is doing so much work. But still the habit is to start when I have a chunk of time and then continue for about an hour or two every night until I finish it.

I think I may have mentioned to you before that if I start a book on a work night my rule is to re-read, because there isn't the same impulse to keep going and read just one more page with books I have read before. Although some of that depends on the style, and which stage of the plot I am at, if I'm in the last third of a book with a fast moving plot, I'm more likely to keep going until the end.

[justbeast]

Ahh, that's a good approach! (Especially if you read fast.)

[justbeast]

Ha! Yes. I often feel like there should be Required Reading lists for many topics/subgenres. For /writers/ to have to read before writing stuff :)

Hmm, that's interesting. I did think of the two books in the sense of - they deal with MMO type things. But in this particular case, I'm not sure if there's any overlap. Stephenson is -very- familiar with how MMORPGs work, and he dove into the details of how one would go about improving it, of building a WOW-killer, that sort of thing.

Pynchon, on the other hand, does the hand-wavey thing with technology. One gets the feeling that he doesn't really know how online games work, and doesn't really care. And the software in his book isn't -really- a game. More like.. an online shared environment, like an old-school MUSH, very surreal and kind of magical. I really didn't like that part.

So, I don't know about social contact or overlap, between the two.

[justbeast]

Yeah, heh, literally, in Bleeding Edge's case.

[justbeast]

Haha, nice! What other good stuff has he written?

[justbeast]

Gah, the House of Stairs looks terrifying :) I will not be reading that. (And also a bit like 1984, which I hated).

Singularity looks interesting, though.