Love this blog, appreciate the author.

> This is probably the most difficult part. I had to remove all social media and streaming apps from my iPhone. I removed Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, etc. When I started, I found myself picking up the phone and immediately noticing that something was missing, since the only things left to do were check the weather, read boring emails, or see my bank account.

These past few months, I have more resolve than ever to cut the chains. Willpower is a practice, and there have been successful steps towards the goal.

First, blocking the real sucks (X, Reddit). Then news (Canadian, won't bore you with the list). And then an innocuous yet sticky set of apps that I would bounce to often, for little benefit or reason: weather, server stats, stocks. A new wrinkle? Inane conversations with LLMs. Blocked!

HN still because, well brothers and the rare sister, it's lonely out there and this place cracks me up. And not much longer.

Now on to entire devices. Desktop, laptop, destined for a locked-down iPad. Lobotomized iPhone, got a watch, and now, slowly, more and more reading.

What pushed me over the edge is the realization that I'm in grief. The Internet which once shaped my identity today, in no defensible way, resembles the silly place which once gave me solace. And yet, like a husk I cling to the teet of these manipulative networks and websites hoping for one last, satisfying drink.

It ain't comin'. Books, then. Like my mother.

I have an almost-four year old child and not a lot of downtime. I used to listen to podcasts when I was doing dishes, cleaning the house, walking the dog, etc. I've mostly abandoned podcasts in favor of audiobooks. It didn't feel like they were benefiting me in any meaningful way—almost like they were just empty calories for my ears.

I finally made it all the way through The Power Broker recently, which I've wanted to read for years, and am now on Jennifer Pahlka's really insightful Recoding America, which features heavily in the chapter "Govern" in Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's Abundance. The three are actually quite interesting to read back to back.

Audiobooks are definitely slower to get through than just reading, but I find that I can stick with them in a way that books just haven't allowed me to do in years.

I read 189 books last year, mostly due an accidental discovery.

I have a lot of trouble reading in noisy places, since I get distracted easily. My habit would be to put on some very minimal / low-information ambient music like Stars of the Lid and it worked well.

Then one day I randomly decided to put the audiobook on while reading and it was a revelation. After adjusting the audio rate to match my reading speed (usually between 2-3x depending on narrator / subject) it allowed me to totally lock in. Both "inputs" seem to reinforce each other. I researched and apparently people call this "immersive reading".

I find I can (just) listen to (easy) non-fiction like biographies, memoirs etc since they don't usually require much deep thought. But for fiction or harder/denser non fiction I read and listen at the same time.

Get a long book, a timeless classic, and read one chapter a night.

I grew up reading all the time. About 20 years ago, I found myself reading less and less. I decided to read "The Count of Monte Cristo" again. I decided I would read one chapter a night, before going to bed, regardless of how late it was, how busy, etc, By the time I finished, reading before going to bed was a habit. I read 30-60 minutes every night before going to bed. (Read plenty of other times, too; but, no matter how the day has been, I read ever night.)

I have gained so much by reading comments on Hacker News, articles, lurking in groups and forums, watching YouTube videos. Reading books is important because they have knowledge that is not accessible in another format. It is an efficient way to condense information and pass it around. At least it used to be, when paper was more scarce. Now books get fluffed up for padding. A lot of people should be writing articles instead of books. Those who are reading a large volume of books are most certainly reading a large volume of garbage. I have gained more from reading comments on here than I would have otherwise by reading junk self-help books, romance novels, and other kinds of YA. You should be reading the right books. The classics, the culturally relevant, the historically significant, the hallmarks of a domain or expertise, etc. The medium of publishing used to be a marker of quality, a filter, a selection mechanism. But as publishing became more accessible, the amount of investment required also plummeted. And just as it allowed many creatives and geniuses access to the medium, it also introduced a large volume of cheap material that can be easily dismissed as irrelevant noise, as you should.

> I also tend to read multiple books at the same time. Sometimes it happens that I get so into a book that I put the rest on pause because the story is grabbing all my attention, but in general I like to have a few books that I read in parallel. Having only a single option can become boring. I generally mix fiction and non-fiction to have a broader choice.

This is actually one of the best ways to reinforce knowledge, if that's what you're reading for. Especially if you are reading about different, but related, topics. The idea is that you do a little bit of forgetting between reading sessions of a book and then have to force some recall of where you were at when you pick up the book a few days later, which reinforces the memory of what you've read.

WRT reading multiple books on different but related topics, you're giving yourself more material to build a working mental model of something, so if you're trying to teach yourself calculus, you'll probably learn it much better when you're reading it along with, say, a book on the history of rocketry, and/or a book on astronomy. The topics reinforce and integrate nicely with one another because of the big overlap with the mental models used -- learning something in rocketry or astronomy gives you a place to tie in something you learn from calculus, for instance. They're also different enough to give your mind a break so you have to practice some recall of what you've already gone over when you pick up your calculus book again.

Also from personal experience, rotating through a few books helps to keep you reading constantly. When I used to focus on a single book I'd put off reading if I was in an especially dry spot. Being able to pick up another book allows me to avoid the dry section for a while, while also preventing me from doing something less worthwhile like look at my phone.

> First of all, you don’t have to make time to read. What you need to do is read every single time you are not doing something else.

Mmh I’m not sure about that. I prefer to read for 1-2 hours rather than read 2 minutes here and 5 minutes there, especially for books that require some concentration to read, like dense stories and/or books not in my native language.

I have a checklist to go _back_ to reading 30-odd books a year, and right now the top 5 items are:

1. Stop messing about with AI

2. Stop doomscrolling/interacting on social networks (HN is within my 15m allocation)

3. Stop watching _any_ Youtube video that doesn't teach me anything

4. Gloss over my 200 RSS feeds, don't be a completionist

5. Put on classical music, not indie or radio

It almost works. Almost.

I do not agree with his take on audio books. I find having a book with me and reading at all times as suggested a bit impractical, however for audio books it is way more feasible. I have long-ish commutes of 5h every couple of weeks and listening to audio books on the drive is great. I also listen to audiobooks when I vacuum, clean, grocery shop. Always unabridged versions and I research quite a bit what I want to listen to. I usually "hybrid" listen/read so I'll continue reading the physical book later in the evening.

I keep notes in a physical notebook but keep it super light. I read mostly fiction so it's usually plot points of each chapter and then when I'm done some quick thoughts. I enjoy this and it satisfies my analytical brain to think about things I really liked that an author did or reappearing structures and so on.

I also enjoy the meta-level of reading. Watching review videos on Youtube, thinking about what to read next and finding "hidden gems", so basically the hobby aspect of it.

Good article! I want to share my story about how I improved my reading, even though I used to dislike reading long passages.

Back then, whenever I read a book, it felt like I was just moving through the words and lines. Nothing happened in my mind. I had no reaction, no reflection, nothing. Because of that, I avoided learning from books and mostly watched videos instead.

While watching videos, I always read the comments. Reading comments from real people felt different. I reacted to them, reflected on them, and stayed engaged. I think it was because comments are short, simple, and easy to read.

After that, I discovered Reddit, forums, and especially Hacker News. In my opinion, Hacker News is one of the best forums on the internet because it's almost entirely text. Reading those discussions helped me get used to longer and more thoughtful writing.

Over time, my reading improved a lot. I can now read long-form, detailed writing with much better focus and reflection. I still want to improve, but I'm in a much better place than before, when I barely read at all.

Final personal note:

Reading should feel reactive and reflective in your brain. When you read short comments on social media, you can feel the full range of emotions, from happiness to anger to sadness. A good book can create the same experience. It's like highly precise commentary that makes you think, reflect, and react.

Two observations: one - return to the library. After years of not visiting, I started going back. My favorite spot are the new books and librarian's choice sections. I'm not into going thru the catalog or the aisles, so I just go to the new/recommended shelves and grab 3. Figure at least one of them will be good.

Two: I think the internet is shortening everyone's attention span. Reading a whole book helps address that. At least for me, its helping.

> I always have a book with me when I go out with my partner, even if I don’t usually end up reading it. If she has to run an errand and I have to wait, I don’t waste my free time with nothing to read. I have become good at walking my dog while reading — I even got complimented for that by a stranger — and I make sure I never go to the bathroom without a book.”

This does not sound an improvement over using a phone. We don't have to occupy ourselves every waking moment. It's okay to not do something for a minute.

> So an effective way is to replace the time you spend in front of a screen... I removed Instagram, YouTube...

Really great advice. Last week I configured my wifi router at home to block youtube entirely. I literally feel like a different person in just a week. I have so much more free time and I am so much less anxious.

> Avoid even audiobooks.

Controversial. I suppose I used to not have an opinion at all on this topic, until I saw an interview with Salman Rushdie after the failed attempt on his life. He said he since the attack, and loosing his right eye, he reads with enormous fonts on an ipad, or yes, he even listens to audio books now.

If audiobooks are good enough for a seven time nominee of the Booker prize, who am I to quibble?

I highly recommend getting a super small eReader you always carry with you. I personally use this one: https://www.xteink.com/products/xteink-x3 (it attaches to the back of my phone using magsafe even) and flashed this custom firmware: https://crosspointreader.com/

The most important habit, like the author of the blog post says, is looking at a book every time you would look at your phone. Its still not great that we arent really bored anymore, but this is already much better than being on twitter.

A lot of things in this article made me go "wait, are you me?", it's fascinating.

The strategy for swapping whatever you do on your phone whenever you have 2 free minutes with reading helped my reading a lot, too. I initially swapped scrolling Reddit with short-form reading https://pokerfacowaty.com/blog/reddit-heroin and then swapped that for my ebook reader, reading books and a weekly newspaper. The latter also helps being less angry at news when you're not reading them in the form of rage bait tweets.

As for highlights, I now have hundreds of handwritten ones on my books, no sensible support for it in open source apps is the only thing keeping my Kobo on its stock firmware (unfortunately).

While I like the idea of using small pockets of time for reading a few pages here and there, the practice I find more difficult. I need these few minutes for my brain to stop braining momentarily. I have tried carrying a book with me, but when I did crack it open I typically read a paragraph, reread that paragraph, and then conceded that I don't recall what I just "read".

Likely it's a me problem, but I'm mentally so tired that I simply cannot maintain an uninterrupted stream of tasks even if the interstitial spaces are filled with something I enjoy like reading.

The chase of more and more books because of my Goodreads friends’ goals is what got me reading 70 books a year, and abhorring the experience. What a joyless hunger to get through books FAST.

I stopped counting, and with a toddler I find bits of time to read about 20 books.

Don’t obsess about reading more. Yeah, get off your phone, but get into books to enjoy them. You don’t remember most of what you read, might as well derive pleasure from it.

One thing that changed reading for me was Readwise. One of my favorite products. Super simple concept, I just highlight quotes I like, then I get a daily email of random things I've highlighted. Great way to retain info from non-fiction books, and to retain the feeling of special parts of fiction ones.

Reading more books is a stupid goal, there were years were I read 40 books but didn't absorb anything. Reading needs multiple passes and some time to think about what you've just read.

Loved this blog, the simplicity with which they explained. I have been meaning to get back to reading but have not been able to. Having read this, I feel motivated enough to get back into the game and start reading a book from tomorrow. Thanks, Elia!

My setup is read a few pages while taking a bath, after walking the dog. I listen to the audio book verision (libravox app) while walking the dog. Since I walk the dog every day for an hour. It adds up. Large earmuff / noise cancelling headphones helps with the voice clarity. I also take my m4/3 camera with 14-140mm lens (28-280mm equivalent) with me. So I managed to get quite nice photos/clips of lots of birds/insects on my trail walks. Have a camera sling bag from national geographic (explorer bag) thats small and swings around so I can open it without taking it off. And have the dog on a leash tied to my belt, to keep my hands free. So can even get some runs / interval training in if I want to. So In one hour, I usually get about 2 miles in, walk the dog, listen to audio book and do some bird photography. I also sometimes take a dji neo 2 drone, can even capture beautiful sunsets. Pretty cheap and efficient setup. Can recommend.

Good advice about not enjoying a book and putting it down isn’t a failure on your part. Same for the part about reading multiple books. This blocked me for a while, if I decided to start a book I HAD to read that book and I HAD to finish it. It’s a great way to kill something you’d otherwise enjoy.

One thing that irked me wrong was the part about audiobooks and attention:

> Listening to audio while cooking or cleaning or whatever you do is not the same thing; you are not 100% concentrated on the content. Also, reading is faster than listening, so use your time wisely.

First of all, sometimes you are not concentrating a 100% on something and that is fine. I listen to podcasts while driving, I often miss sentences or longer bits because there’s more traffic that I focus on. That’s fine. I can either go back or accept it.

Second, this is coming from the person that said:

> I read a book when I cook lunch or dinner, and I read a book when eating breakfast.

> I have become good at walking my dog while reading

Edit: formatting

One of my main takeaways from this article is that the author ADORES Umberto Eco.

Which is understandable.

While I do agree that reading is really important especially when it comes to good books. BUT simply consuming something for the sake of consumption is rarely a good idea.

I know of people that read books and consome them like food everyday, and wont learn anything thing from them. Their content becoming a distant memory as time passes. What is the point of reading something if you forget it 2 weeks later?

You may read something but the katharsis is still missing. I recommend when reading something. Take your time with it. You dont need to fetish saying you read 500 books in the last 5 years. I read "Gödel, Escher, Bach" and "Negative Dialectics" and it will take many many more months maybe years to full graps them.

I read them from beginning to end but still have so much to learn from them! Disregarding a good book for another might be a grave mistake.

I love listening to Audiobooks if I've already read the book. I find it great for rereading, because even if I loose attention in between, it is okay. I know the story, but I still get to enjoy it.

For me, reading books depends a lot on the space - the place, the setting. I can't read anywhere and everywhere.

I can regularly work in noisy places. I can even routinely sleep in such places. At least after adjusting for a while, or when I am too tired, or travelling. But I cannot routinely read if the place isn't calm and doesn't feel cosy. I say "routinely" because when I am travelling, I can read just fine even at the bus and train stations (both are mad noisy where I live) - the brain somehow knows or adjusts. But I just can't in a house that is near a traffic hell, or above a noisy market. I just can't read there. That's one of the reasons I my house hunts become so daunting and stressful in this godforsaken city where "older bachelors" are double-whammied.

Train journeys are very productive for my reading and sleeping.

And as the author notes, abandoning books helped my reading. Though most often I don't truly dump them - I skip-read them, I speed-read them, if I am sure I may never pick them again. Then there are books that I may find they are not worth "my" time (might be great books to others), I don't even bother to speed/skip read them. I just let go of them.

Audiobooks and tracking. I still watch a lot of YouTube and other social media so I haven't had to cut anything out yet I have many audiobooks on my phone loaded up that I listen to at 2x+ speed as well as have a spreadsheet of what I'm reading and how long it takes. Before anyone comments, yes I can understand it just fine as I've acclimated myself over years to do so, it's similar to blind people being able to understand at very high speeds too after years of practice.

Audiobooks is the magic trick.

I listen them in the gym between sets, I listen them in the car, in the plane, in taxi, doing chores at home and in any other place where you cannot do more useful things, and you cannot read as well.

Five minutes here, ten there and it adds quite fast.

[1] I cannot consume every book as audiobook, some are so dense in material, that it requires actual reading.

[2]Not every book exists as audio book and not every book has a good narrator, which is quite important.

but:

[1] Quite often, you can listen them in parallel to other activities. [2] When you are driving with someone, listening audiobook together adds plenty of interesting topics to discussions after the drive + bonding experience (you are doing something together, you are focussing on the same thing together) [3] You can listen with various speeds, and for me, so far it went up to 1.5x on some books, which speeds up the process.

--- I do not have a problem to find books to read or listen as author of the post. My "To Read" list grows much faster than the information I consume.

Also, if you are just getting started then read easy books. You know the 100 classics from highschool. And you after you finish a book, you can find some great analysis of those books online.

One thing I learned is often when you are excited about those easy books, voracious readers are quick to tell you how much the book sucks. "Read this by an obscure author instead". Ignore that until you have read a whole lot of books in your list.

As the author mentions Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, let me point out that the (very pretty) edition by Macmillan Collectors' Library is a very poor translation, and the more mundane-looking one from Pelican Classics is an excellent one, paralleling the original German.

https://www.reddit.com/r/hermannhesse/comments/1uvcfnj/read_...

This is advice from someone who went from 10 books/year to 52 (1 book/week as described).

I think practical tips for someone already a frequent reader are probably different that for someone who reads 'a bit', a few a year at most. I'd be very happy if I got to 10/year consistently. But that would a) be more than 5.2x-ing; b) be a harder initial curve than the 10 to 52 region, I imagine.

Great note about how public transit gives us time back from the commute. When I moved to the city after college I first lived a 12 minute train ride from the office and tried reading but the trip was too short to make much new progress in my books. Now that it's a 40-minute trip I have plenty of time to read, follow up on texts, and do my crossword.

> I removed Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, etc.

I'm always in front of my PC both at work and off the clock. I could set up a proxy/filtering software to block them, but the thing is I need to access them at work as well.

Another thing is, when I "waste" time with websites like HN, sometime I learn something new like this post. Maybe much less often than what books would teach me though.

I am a big Twitter user and recently gave it up for lent as an exercise in "resisting temptation" (for lack of a better term).

I found myself reading a LOT more (mostly via the Kindle app on my phone).

It actually inspired me to get an actual Kindle which does help cut down on the "let me flip to social media" when reading.

I too wanted to read more books by cutting out doom scrolling. But while I always have my phone on me, I don't always have my Boox ereader. I needed a way to handoff between devices.

I searched for a good Android reader that would sync my book progress across devices but couldn't find anything that worked. So I ended up vibe coding my own app that works for me. I'd consider open sourcing it if people are interested.

Lately I've been using RSVP (rapid serial visual presentation) speed reading, where you see a single word at a time, reading at 400-600wpm. You have to pay attention or you miss the words, so the distraction questions are mostly moot. On the downside, it's a lot harder to think about what you're reading, so I'm questioning whether it even counts as having read the book. I haven't loved any books I've read this way, which could be bad luck with the content but may be more about how I'm consuming it.

I always have two books going. An important one I read at home in peace and one I can read on public transport because I don't have to / want to concentrate on it too hard.

Reading in public transport has helped me to read more often at home too

I used to read a lot when I was small but then fell out of the habit. Rekindled it with my first child. With them I spent a lot of time walking around at all hours of the day to get them to sleep. That were perfect reading opportunities, and I have continued to always carry a book. As TFA says, that is key.

I always have a book with me in case I ever need to wait or have some time to spare, but I still manage to read only about 10 books per year, and that's only because I try to read more; before, it was maybe one or two.

My wife and oldest son can read books in a few hours. My son (17) has read Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. I'm a slow reader. I take forever, find it hard to focus, and often my thoughts distract me from the words on the page.

My youngest son (11) has dyslexia and barely reads. I used to read for him before going to bed, but eventually stopped because I figured he was old enough to read by himself, but he doesn't. So I started again. Now I'm reading Lord of the Rings to him before bedtime. The ritual helps us get through it at a steady pace, but I'm still terribly slow at reading my own books.

The most distracting app for me is Telegram with numerous channels, which I find myself doomscrolling too often, and at the same with numerous crucial personal contracts.

Really sad modern phones don't allow to set app's budget for custom interval, like 5 minutes in an hour.

I did a similar thing a few years ago, I deleted reddit, social media, and other time-wasters from my phone, and now I keep a queue of books in an e-reader app. When I have a few idle moments somewhere, my options are to sit and think (sometimes a nice option), or read some book.

I get through about 2 books per month this way. I haven't noticed eye strain issues, but I tend to keep the brightness low and the font size reasonable. If you struggle with eye strain, you might benefit from an e-book phone case (e.g., https://www.inkcase.com/inkcase-for-iphone/) if you don't want to carry a separate device.

I have an old iPad, which doesn't seem to run anything other than the default apps, hence it is distraction free in a sense. The only thing I use it for is to read, works quite well and I have managed to accomplish reading quite a few books.

$0.02: the way to read more books is with a really good pair of earbuds.

The Libby app (with Audible to fill in the blanks) makes it incredibly easy to train up your listening speed dramatically, making it possible to finish several books per week for free, while doing your morning rituals, commuting, washing the dishes.

The thing you have to absorb is that reading more does not come at the cost of doing other things, unless those other things are podcasts or recorded music.

You just have to be somewhat assertive about realizing that if you shave for 3-4 minutes, that's 1% of a novel at 2.5x speed. All of those interstitial moments in your day add up, fast.

I've read 31 novels since January, far more than I'd read in the last 30 years.

Easy: I read 50 pages every night when I go to bed, instead of screens.

I started with short novels, 150 pages or fewer (chatgpt gave me a reading list).

It quickly became a habit, and it's lovely.

I recommend readera. It is a non ugly app with can sync to Google drive which prevents you from losing your ebooks when you delete them which can also happen by accident. I can't describe how other apps on Android is so ugly.

Good arguments against digital distraction, but not a good philosophy of reading.

I’ve been leaning into audiobooks for the past two years and it’s completely revitalized my intellectual life. I feel alive in ways I’d forgotten. And it extends beyond audiobooks too. I started carrying a paperback around with me, reading philosophy and history again. I even got a subscription to the NY Review of Books! Someone I know got me into neo-pragmatism and I fell in love with Richard Rorty. There’s something qualitatively different about sticking with a person who goes really deep into a topic, and benefitting from their years of reflection and research.

I find it so hard to read with two toddlers. But find your tips inspiring tbh.

How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47295304

From when I learned to read up to the end of my 20s I read much more than one book per week. Whoever after 30 or maybe a bit before I started to read less and less, until now where I read vert rarely (usually on plane).

I don't know why. Maybe it's psychological. Maybe it's just ageing. Maybe it's my brain fried first by internet then by the smartphone.

I still buy more books than I read, probably unconsciously hoping that one day the flame that pushed me to devour so many books will get ablaze again

This would not work for me. I cannot read fast so a book a week is not feasible for me. I also do not agree about audio books. It depends how you consume them. I have read a book and listened to the audio, for me audio is quicker; for either I get the same experience.

The above is obviously personal. Also is only related to fiction for me. If I'm learning something I prefer a physical book everytime.

Having books on several devices makes reading more convenient. DRM-Free books make that easy, so you can read whether you have your phone, tablet, or PC. For a list of DRM-free authors and publishers: https://frequal.com/Perspectives/DrmFreeAuthors.html

I've found my reading picked dramatically since I started using LLMs for programming. Waiting for a prompt to finish is a great time to read.

I read 150 books (mostly short and accessible) in a year a while back. It was one of the happiest times of my life after a very dark period.

https://rory.codes/150-books-in-a-year/

I find it very hard to find books worth reading. It’s so difficult to separate Signal from noise - there are just too many books and too few reliable curators. Amazon ratings, goodreads, some book awards, best seller lists - they all are sometimes hit, mostly miss for me.

It's like lifting weight. Start with 10 pages a day every day. And then it will become too easy. Then move to 15 pages a day. Etc.

Read books you enjoy.

coincidently, I too have started to avoid my phone and reach for my kindle instead. I remind myself I don't need to read about the news everyday. I'd prefer to read a novel/non-fiction than other stuff on the internet.

I do love listening to youtube talks about tech so I try to make space for that though.

When I do read a good book - I do try to makes notes of it. But I haven't had much time for it these days with a little one. (This is for non-fiction books). But even for fiction I keep a list and give a one liner of the plot and a rating. Its for my own personal use.

Writing down notes helps with later recall of the information - being handed the notes by others helps less with recall than doing it yourself.

> First of all, you don’t have to make time to read. What you need to do is read every single time you are not doing something else.

(Proceeds to describe how they made time for reading by removing other distractions.)

I'm trying to read more books, but I easily fall into the trap of staying up late reading good books, and I have trouble recovering from sleep deficit these days.

In several countries, you can find Little Free Libraries, a non-profit with a registry of small libraries like the book boxes in front of homes described in the article: https://littlefreelibrary.org/about/

I really enjoyed the article, particularly the admission of leaving the books unfinished. If reading may be seen as a rational activity, the choosing of a book I think, should be mostly istinctive, and so should deciding to abandon it.

I found reading during meals allowed me to dramatically increase the number of books I got through. It gives about 40 minutes per day, that can sometimes extend to a couple hours if the book is good, schedule allowing.

To me, having these blocks of times sound better than trying to read a sentence or two in the white space around other activities.

All I had to do to read more was reserve time specifically for it. On week days that will be late evening, on the weekend I can sneak in extra time in the am. I haven't had to "block" anything, but I don't use my phone for much, just my laptop.

> Another secret is to not be scared of quitting a book. I definitely start way more than I finish. But I don’t consider an uncompleted book a failure or a bad book. I think that sometimes books have a certain time to be fully appreciated. So if I don’t finish a book today, I might try reading it again in the future.

Well said. On a related note, I think the idea of coming back to books later is essential to reading non-fiction, as I've personally found it much more productive to read until I think I've "got it", and then revisit it a few months later with a new (ideally better informed) perspective.

- get books you want to read

- choose a time (in the evening)

1. after that time, screens become forbidden

2. read until you're sleepy

3. sleep

Lots of good advice here. I also read one book a week and wanted to add my POV. I don't put any special effort into reading books during my downtime, as the OP describes here. I just read when I feel like it and before bed.

Good post. Reading when you're not doing something else - this is a good mindset. I've found that the more that I enjoy a book, the more time I have "not doing something else".

The key is getting immersed in a book in the same way that you might get immersed in a movie or a genre of music or some other thing that gets you in a zone. Fall into the rabbit hole. Joining r/bookclub or some other online book discussion group helps me fall deep into the rabbit hole. In lieu of an online book discussion group, chatting with my/your preferred LLM is a good tactic. I recommend finishing a chapter, then going to your LLM and saying "I just finished chapter 1 of Heller's Catch 22" ... that's pretty much enough of a prompt to get it to give you a synopsis with some questions to help you reflect on what you read.

Because success is an end unto itself, my plan to succeed at reading more books will begin by reading zero books.

Obviously the longer I spend reading no books, the greater my success will be. Time to install TikTok to the homescreen.

Zero to One, Baby.

I adore my XTEink 4 with the crosspoint firmware. Best small form factor ereader

I started a habit to read during my lunch/dinner breaks. I wear headphones, put on some lo-fi beats or jazz, and read a chapter or two until I'm done eating.

I really enjoy it and it's a nice reprieve especially at work.

You want to read more? Miss phone calls, meals, breaking news; forego an hour or two of rest; work on your core; replace all clocks indoors with sundials. Print. Scan. Pirate. Dig the crates. Sail the seas. It's not a technological problem. It's not a device problem. It's you. You don't want it enough. You don't want to read.

Maybe you should take up cycling. Maybe you need to write more. Maybe you aren't eating enough fruit. Maybe you need a little caffeine. Maybe it's the air quality. We don't think it's microplastics.

Your friends who read. Maybe it's their fault. They're not printing enough. Or sending enough screenshots. Why haven't you caught them outside on street medians reading out loud? To whoever. They're not setting for you the right example.

Audio books won't cut it. Hey big guy why don't stick one a them foam feet thingies in between ya toes while ya at it huh! And cut some cucumbers to recess the bags under ya eyes so people wont mistake ya for a guy who actually reads his books and will not following the family to their trip to Monaco this summer, no, sorry Donna, I'll be here at home with the books. The dog will have to learn to fend on its own as will the plants, your niece and nephew.

I love this blog, I appreciate the author.

I want to add one thing : Reading for the right purpose is more important than just reading as fast as possible.

For staying motivated to read, I like to set up and read small clusters of books then write about them. Being able to put a bow on a reading project is easier to stick with than reading X books in a year.

Is anybody able to do this using mobile? It's hard to carry books everywhere. Mobile phone is always there.

No discussion of what books and why. It's just taken as granted that it's good to read lots of books, to be a reader.

I'm not necessarily disagreeing. But I also want to think critically about why I read books. I don't want to read books just so I can tell people I read lots of books.

I've concluded that I read for entertainment, to understand other people, and for community - to have something in common with other readers of that book. Three recent books:

The most recent book I read was Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett. Very much in the entertainment category, but also for community: it's nice to have something in common, shared reference points, something to talk about with all the nice people loving these books, including family.

Then a book Norwegian book called "Men who hate local history", which I bought because I was traveling alone with limited other entertainment, and had heard about it and wanted to know what it was about (understanding people). But its entertainment value was questionable, and by god, it has more "serious Norwegian literature" clichés than "genre books" (what these authors absolutely do not want to get associated with) have "genre clichés". It IS a genre, just not a very entertaining one. Put it down, unsure if I will finish this one.

I tried to read Stefan Zweig, "The world of yesterday". That was strictly "understanding people". "Famous Jewish playwrights of the final days Austro-Hungarian empire" are not people I would think I have much in common with, and I don't, and it at times makes it downright alienating reading. Like, I can see he was absolutely starstruck by the art and culture of his time and place, and I can see that this time and place was hugely influential and had profound impacts on our world today (I've seen it claimed you could theoretically meet Hitler, Stalin, Tito, Trotsky etc. on the street in Vienna in these years, as well as Freud and all the art world celebrities Zweig obsessed over). But I just can't say I feel that sense of wonder myself and man, is it bleak reading. I put it down indefinitely.

A big strategy not mentioned is to pick smaller books. If you have a bunch of books that are only 30-50 pages long you can read much more books than full length novels.

Personally: make a reading app the only app icon on your home screen on your phone. When reading is the easiest action, you choose it fairly often.

I'm surprised carrying my kindle in a small day sling gets it more read than pulling out my phone or scrolling.

I did something similar two years ago : I set up MacroDroid such that it opens CoolReader every time I unlock my phone

Replacing phone use with reading is good, but making every waking moment productive by reading is sad (_I don’t waste my free time with nothing to read_), in my opinion. Jesus, even reading while walking. I would suggest anybody reading this to enjoy some time of total idleness, which I think it is much more necessary than reading more in today's hectic world.

I’m not as avid a reader as the author, but I can still offer one piece of advice: remembering what you read is important.

https://world.hey.com/otar/remembering-what-you-read-8b70cf6...

Use reading book to replace reading phone is a good habit or strategy.

Not only read book, but also thinking them is a must thing.

Sometime you want to go outside from your home to see the real world.

Don't forget the real world, reading book lets you absorb the knowledge, but most time they are not right， accurate, or you don't understand them, the real world can tell you the real knowledge.

"Avoid even audiobooks. Big corporations want to grab your attention by trying to market audiobooks as books for busy people, but don’t fall for the trap."

What nonsense. I doubled my number of books by using audiobooks. Audiobooks slow you down as well, so you can enjoy fiction at a slower pace since x3 is the fastest you can go (plus silence trimming for extra speedup). Even at slower speed I more than doubled the number because of how much dead time exists in our lives.

Maybe if you are rich, have servants and can spend any amount of time you want reading then you can stick to paper.

but this is means reads only to read

sometime for books that I choose I nred something like a table and chair pen a paper to really read the text that written

Street Libraries are the best! +1 from Aus

> I have become good at walking my dog while reading — I even got complimented for that by a stranger — and I make sure I never go to the bathroom without a book.

Come on now, what is this Monty Python?

I am curious how it works for people with ADHD.

I mean, I would love to read more books (and I have a very long backlog), but very rarely I find them stimulating enough to sustain attention. And if they do... well, then time flies and other commitments are missed.

Sure, everyone's ADHD is different and I know quite a lot of people, for whom book are go-to. For me there is a narrow bar between not enough stimulated to start, and too stimulated so in my own words of a thousand thoughts.

1. Open book.

2. Point face at page.

3. Wait.

4. Turn page.

5. When last page, close book.

6. Acquire new book.

7. Repeat.

I used to be able to read a lot while commuting. Unfortunately, many other passengers now delight in either yapping loudly on their phone or playing utter shit on its speakers. It takes me out of it...

I'd split this question into a set of parts:

- Why to read?

- How to read (from a literary / skills perspective)?

- What to read: authors, topics, books, etc?

- How to read (practice / technology)?

Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book addresses most of the first three questions, and ... would be a good book to read itself. For an overview of it:

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book> (Wikipedia)

<https://archive.org/details/howtoreadabook1940edition/page/n...> (Fully online copy, 1940 edition).

Adler starts of with the whys: entertainment, information, understanding, and syntopical (mastery). I'd add to his list reading for reading, whether that's to build the habit itself, or to increase your own skills in your first or additional languages. To which I'd only add: understand why you want to read, or are reading, and if you wish to remain with that motivation or seek others.

In how he discusses the different types and levels of reading, from skimming to deep analysis. These both suit different goals (whys), and demand very different levels of intention and attention.

For both these sections I'd strongly recommend you read Adler's own discussion, though there's a good overview in a Farnham Street blog post on the book: <https://fs.blog/how-to-read-a-book/> (itself discussed briefly at HN <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26450303>).

As to what to read, beyond the extent to which that's addressed in the "why" and "how" discussion, Adler includes a list of 300 or so significant works which would make a good starting ground for general background.

For myself, I've used various sets of recommendations, including literary awards and recommendations at websites, as well as starting with a question, looking for books on those topics, and then heavily mining bibliographies and citations (the former: works cited by what I'm reading, the latter citations of the work I've read) for further exploration. Past a point, finding material worth reading actually does become a challenge, despite the tremendous volume of published works (hundreds of thousands to a million or more books through much of the 20th century and beyond).

On how to read: I'm fond of physical books, but a bookreader (e-ink if possible) is an excellent way to carry a large (thousands or more volumes) of books, and audiobooks are quite accessible. I've had mixed experiences with Onyx BOOX --- the displays are wonderful, but as with most e-book readers on device organisation of a large library is ... poorly supported. Physical device reliability and support through the vendor have been more recent frustrations. And I'm increasingly not a fan of Android in any form (the BOOX devices run a de-Googled Android). I'm not aware of anything markedly better, unfortunately. I would recommend the largest device you can comfortably carry, with 8--10" probably being the sweet spot. Smaller devices are more portable, but really don't support written material particularly well.

For audiobooks, Librivox (https://librivox.org/), public library apps such as Libby and Hoopla, and government-supported programmes such as the US Library of Congress National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS/BARD: <https://www.loc.gov/nls/> and <https://www.loc.gov/nls/services-and-resources/catalog-and-b...>) are all excellent options. The NLS/BARD service is free to qualified individuals, and includes not only over 300,000 audiobook titles (plus Braille), but free apps (iOS, Android) and physical e-book readers. If you or someone you know has visual or reading disabilities, and you live in the US or a territory, do check it out. A medical professional (doctor, optometrist, nurse, or other) can provide an eligibility statement. See <https://www.loc.gov/nls/services-and-resources/catalog-and-b...>.

Upshot: figure out why you want to read and what. Adler's a good source on the how (there are other guides, including similarly titled ones). Books are all over, in meatspace, libraries, online, etc. Figure out how you prefer to (or need to) read. And then just get into it.

I don't want to read more books though. I want to gain more skill and knowledge. Reading a book is a vehicle, but aiming for X books read is likely to mean not comprehending everything. I like to mull on ideas. Also some books are meh and you want to skip over chapters.

I really appreciate the writing style. It’s human written. A breath of fresh air in an ocean of AI slop.

I mean, why do people stress a lot about reading more books?

cool

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The question is why? Why do you think reading books is a more valuable use of your time than reading posts or watching video essays. Anybody can look at an immature medium and write it off as a waste of time. In 100 years parents will tell children to scroll tiktok instead of playing on the Zorp, don't you want to be part of that rather than the footnote, 'Oh yeah people were still writing scrolls in the 1700s'. Books are random access, if we apply your structural idea we would say book authors and readers are under the tyrannical rule of indices, chapters, back/forward references and CYOAs

One could make the same fallacious "form affects content" argument against books, but in reality authors rarely write stories for people randomly flipping pages, at most the author will tell them or explain why they might want to turn to a particular page. Similarly most content on the web doesn't assume you are jumping to links and coming back, but instead uses them as an index of references.

There are style problems of course, too much surface area, over-reliance on and under-appreciation of sources. There is nothing pure about text. Any form requires training on the part of the consumer to appreciate the "depth". From what I can see people don't care about the content, they don't even care about comparing the trade-offs from one form to another beyond format prestige and convenience.

Please look at how books actually make money rather than assuming a priori that they optimize for "lifetime value" instead of some platonic ideal book that exists in your head. Now if you're more adept at a particular medium due to practice that's a valid reason to stick with it, but it's not one to spread vile propaganda about a medium and convince its consumers to turn off their brains because the medium's difficulty matrix applied to thought patterns is different.

If you disagree, fine, feel free to write software like this [1] and pray that the problem doesn't naturally require indirection. Code is just another medium, yes the inclusion of abstractions is poison for deep thought, but not every problem is best solved by deep thought. "Study long, study wrong."

[1] https://cbarrete.com/carmack.html