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Do you read?
65 points by Ardit20 on Nov 4, 2008 | hide | past | favorite | 102 comments
I enjoy reading. I have actually devised a time table to organise all of my activities and reading takes most of the time (although not easy to stick to it).

I was wondering though if you read and by read I mean books. If so what are you currently reading and why? What is your most favourite book and why? How many books would you estimate you read a month and finally do you think all this reading is worth it, would it not be better if you spent your time doing something else and why?

Now I know that's a lot of question, I am not doing a study or anything, I am just curious to know what you guys (I assume slightly more intellectually curious that most) think about engaging in reading.



I read and I read fiction for the most part. I want to make the case though that fiction is not necessarily non-educational and is rather uniquely educational or educates in a unique way.

One common excuse for fiction reading is to suggest you learn passive facts about the setting as you progress pleasantly through the story, but that's not a particularly strong argument in favor or reading fiction. Sure I could pick up a book about Austen-era England or I could read an Austen novel and get a slightly inferior product education wise with a nice romantic chaser.

That's not what I'm talking about. Specifically I think fiction is a way to learn though experience vicariously, and I think there are some things learned best and perhaps only that way.

For example I could read a terse description of objectivism or I could read a Rand novel and walk a moment in the shoes of her characters. I would argue that the chance of fundamentally understanding what her philosophy is about through channel one is very low, although it takes a lot less time.

Another example: I could say "Sentience is not mutually inclusive or exclusive of understanding" or alternatively read Speaker for the Dead. "Morality resides entirely with intent rather than result" or read Ender's Game. "What is self?" or read Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.

The deepest and perhaps most important topics can best be addressed this way. Regardless of how you feel about the historical accuracy of the Bible or Qur'an, certainly someone found it valuable to tell stories and parables to covey abstract concepts.


Here's the problem with learning through fiction: the only thing you can learn about through fiction is the mind of the author. When you read a Rand novel, you don't learn anything about how objectivism works, you only learn about Rand's imagination of how it works. Similarly, sentience may in fact be mutually inclusive or exclusive of understanding; just because you can describe a circumstance in which something is true doesn't mean it can ever be true.

This doesn't mean that fiction is useless for learning about the world. It just means that fiction does not contain the tools necessary to decide if something is true (or accurate, or possible). Fiction may spark an idea or make an argument, but you must go outside of fiction to see if those ideas have merit.


Granted most fiction wont provide an objective audit of views on any subject, but to say that the only thing you can learn is the mind of the author oversimplifies the cognitive process that takes place during reading, as well as the issues addressed by fiction. Reading in any non-topical sense forces you to evaluate what you are reading and helps create those new connections in your brain. At the same time, many of the deep issues addressed in fiction are completely outside the realm of factual verification.


There are two main pieces to our perception of the world - the bare facts and the larger picture you get from combining the facts. The larger picture is more universal than the bare facts, so it is more useful than a use case.

Plus, and this is often ignored today, big pictures are not entirely mutually exclusive. To use a comp sci analogy let's look at search algorithms:

Use cases are more similar to deterministic partial solution searches (backtracking depth first search, breadth first search) for which the more interesting problems are intractable. Additionally, such search algorithms are very self contained, and it is usually quite difficult to combine them, making these algorithms a one time tool.

On the other hand, big pictures are more similar to stochastic solution spaces searches, which won't get you the best solution, but they'll get you a pretty good one much, much more quickly. And since solution space searches all interface with the same space, they can be mixed and matched depending on what is most useful for the problem domain. For example, with genetic algorithms, once you can make your problem domain fit a standard GA representation, the whole of GA theory can be applied.


But that's also the beauty of fiction in some contexts is that it allows one to explore ideas outside of their usual context and often within the realm of suspended disbelief.

Aldous Huxley, for instance, both in his fiction and non-fiction, and I see no great gap between them other than the mechanisms employed, has profoundly shaped my thought with his writing.


What about fiction that simply describes how people feel, act and behave? Not every story has to be a metaphorical attempt to explain some philosophical concept.


Most good fiction is written with some message. It's not "just a story", but an illustration of a thought, experience, or feeling.

To top it off, I read because it's fun. Why does everything have to have some Franklinesque color of self-improvement?


Yes I've found reading a story and learning through vicarious living to be effective.

That's why my two favorite startup books are High Stakes No Prisoners and Founders at Work.


I personally tend to look down on people who read only non-fiction (though obviously not as much as people who don't read at all). It suggests a lack of imagination. And I think perhaps that's the self-improvement aspect of fiction - it exercises the imagination.


Right, because reading _Godel Escher Bach_, _Shock of the New_, and _Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain_ (my current reading list) obviously doesn't exercise the imagination.


I said "only." And just for the record, I've read all of Hofstader's books, not just the popular/mainstream one.

EDIT: Ok, not all, just the ones in English. ;-)

And a further EDIT: all three of those books are about "Art" more or less. I can't see how someone who read those books can't read fiction. So I'm guessing you missed "only."


No, I didn't miss the "only". I don't read fiction anymore. No time. I pretty much want everything I read to be full of new knowledge for me.


I think so, it teaches us to form complete views of the world in our head - which allows us to see the world as it is, and as it could be, much more comprehensively.


I read non-fiction books exclusively. I find them to be a nice break from my imagination. I tend to look down upon people who look down upon people.


> I tend to look down upon people who look down upon people.

nice quip, until followed to its logical conclusion ;-)


What can I say? I hate myself. ;)


I think the nature of this site is that we are somewhat critical of the mainstream (digg, etc). I.e. we look down on them. I didn't mean my comment to be taken personally, it is just my opinion, and it may be flawed. But I don't think so.


I love books and reading, although I'm finding as I get older I'm much more willing to "bail out" of a book. I also find myself in multiple books. Quite honestly I think this is due to a decreasing attention span.

I think there are two types of reading. The first type is conversational or fun reading. It's like having a dialog with the author. The second is structured reading, where the goal is information transfer at the expense of readability. It's great when you can get a book that does both, but the trick is to be able to make yourself read the second type when the information is worth getting.

So the books I have open right now are "Expert F#", "Getting past Ok" (recommended by another HN'er). "Practical ML", and "When Genius Failed"

I'm also watching a series of college lectures on the history and evolution of spoken language -- very interesting!

I read 2-4 books a month. It's definitely worth it to me. Many times consulting is just being able to consume and process information that most people don't have time for. That means a lot of reading. So while everybody else is watching football or dancing with the stars, I'm either working on startup stuff or learning.


"...as I get older I'm much more willing to "bail out" of a book."

I used to feel honor-bound to finish any book I started, but now I'm smarter than that. Life is too short to keep slogging through something that doesn't interest me.


"Another way to read quickly is to cut bait on the losers. I start ten or so books for every one I finish. I don't mind disliking a book, and I never regret having picked it up and started it. I am ruthless in my discards."

Tyler Cowen http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2006/12...


I'm a lot more selective these days. Since time is valuable, it's worth doing a little research on the book before I begin.

The book gets added to my to-read list if:

* it has received a a good recommendation from someone I respect

* the author has a good interview on a program such as KQED's Forum or NPR's To the Best of Our Knowledge

* has generally good reviews on amazon.com

The more criteria it matches, the higher it sits in my list.


Are these lectures online somewhere?


Watched this one last year, which is the history of spoken English http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/CourseDescLong2.aspx?cid=2250

The current one is the evolution of language in general, but, of course, the audience is assumed to be English-speaking (he does use many other languages as examples however) http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/CourseDescLong2.aspx?cid=1600

Enjoy!


I'm a book collector, if that counts! Some months I only buy a few books, some months I will buy 30. Very few are technical. Most are non-fictional on topics such as marketing, PR, design, information theory, grammar and language, anthropology, social sciences, and art. I am not particularly good at finishing books but I read dozens of books each month in terms of pecking out chapters here and there where it seems appropriate.

I find it necessary to have books covering a wide range of topics - even those I have no practical use for - to act as a sort of "mental compost" to inspire me in my usual pursuits. I find that books on art, architecture, graphic design, medicine, and fashion all help me be more creative in other disciplines. This also goes for magazines. I'm no yuppie, but I subscribe to both Wallpaper and Monocle, simply for the inspiration.


I love reading; to the point that I avoid buying books when I am in middle of any important projects, just get too obsessive about it. In fact I remm as a teenager I used to have "reading marathons", would finish entire book in one go sitting on my window for 12-15 hours. I used to be a fiction guy and only recently have started to heavily dabble into non-fic also.

At the moment I am reading The Black Swan by Nasim Nicholas Taleb. In the fiction category I last read Haruka Murakami's (hope I spelled it right) After Dark.


Is the black swan worth reading? The first couple pages were fairly interesting in b&n


I have completed 2/3rd of the book and so far have found the content quite interesting. It does give a new perspective to think about. Though not a big fan of NNT's smart-alec style of writing; but then again, it is his book. :)


Absolutely. Some people have trouble with the style, I found it amusing. If you're willing to accept its message, it's definitely a book that can change your approach to life.

Also, anything by Murakami is worth reading.


So I bailed out of Swan. I got about 150-200 pages in and it seemed like he was saying the same thing over and over again, as if it got more profound with re-telling.

I must have missed something. To me the premise seems like something you could communicate and grasp in like 5 minutes or so.


I find Black Swan and its ilk perfect audio-book material. Not important or complicated enough that I care if I miss some details in one pass, but with enough ideas in them to merit passive attention while doing something else requiring my eyesight.


Black Swan is definitely worth reading. It is somewhat repetitive and you may find it dull if you don't have a taste for philosophy, but I think it's an extremely important book -- its an overview of the cutting edge of human thinking and illustrates the mistakes of past thinkers that continue to trouble us.


I'm currently re-reading Joseph and His Brothers, a 1200-page heavy-weight monster of a book by Thomas Mann (himself a heavy-weight monster of an author).

Do I recommend it? Yes, but not for everyone. The preface itself is one of the heaviest essays on theology/philosophy out there, but the whole book is crammed with brilliant ideas/wisdom and is a masterpiece of literature (but it's heavy and the story moves fairly slowly).

Something lighter along those lines would be Narziss & Goldmund, by Herman Hesse - also heavy-weight, contemporary and compatriot to Thomas Mann, but capable of a lighter style!

But yeah, I love to read (and not just German literature... those are just the examples that spring to mind right now out of the countless ocean).

To answer your other questions...

What is your most favourite book and why?

What's your favourite movie? If you read any significant number of books, naming a single favourite is impossible - unthinkable, even.

How many books would you estimate you read a month?

It really depends on the books and the time of my life... sometimes I've finished a book in 3 days, but other times it's taken me months to get through a single book (such as the Thomas Mann brick I'm currently reading).

do you think all this reading is worth it?

I think life would be pointless without it. At the very least, it would reduce my mental freedom to not read books. I made an argument for that on my blog: http://inter-sections.net/2007/12/13/sapir-whorf-books-and-y...

would it not be better if you spent your time doing something else and why?

It really depends on what you're reading. If you spend your time reading Dragonlance novels (I've done that, it's nothing to be ashamed of, so long as it's a phase that passes), then yeah, you could probably do something better with your time. But books are still far and away the deepest and most fruitful repository of human wisdom that we have available to us. Sure, you can learn all you can learn from books, from your own life. But you'd be a fool not to climb on the shoulders of those giants who have come before us if all it takes is a few hours of comfortable, enjoyable time with a good book.


I read Mann's "Doctor Faustus" and it was SO rich...every sentence needs to be read 2x to be internalized. 2400 pages of Mann sounds insane!

;-)

(thanks for the tip, I'll try and peep the preface at least)


Make sure you take a peep at Hesse too. Narziss and Goldmund is a must-read - the kind of book that changes your perspective on life. He's Thomas Mann's intellectual equal, I would say.

As for Joseph, a word of encouragement: the further you get into it, the more the story starts to come together and pick up pace. The first 300 pages or so, it feels like you're reading random shreds of a story... but keep faith, it's all packed with mental wealth and well worth it!


Narziss... looks good, I put it on my list. It's going to be a good while before I get back into classic fiction though ;-)

You might like Eco's "The Name of the Rose" since you seem to be into really good fiction set in Medieval Europe ;-)


Read it, of course :-)

I still need to read his other book, the Pendulum...


In the "huge book filled with brilliant stuff but not for everybody" genre, I recommend ADA by Vladimir Nabokov. Great stuff.


I don't just read books; I wallow in them. I remember well the acute pain of not knowing how to read and the relief when my mother taught me. I was five, and I just haven't stopped reading since. I'll be 38 in a couple of months.

I'm reading Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor, because O'Connor is wicked and funny. Favorite book? As others have pointed out, this is a ridiculous question -- my favorite kind! Some books I love: Lolita, As I Lay Dying, The Ghost Writer, Goodbye, Columbus, Blood Meridian, Anna Karenina, Where I'm Calling From, Huck Finn, Dubliners and on and on. I read mostly literary novels, but I read fairly widely -- genre stuff (skiffy, crime), history, philosophy, pop science, whatever's good. I average around 1 book per week, but I read in jags and sometimes go a couple of weeks without reading anything but blogs and news.

I'm sure there are any number of studies that will show the benefit of reading, but I much prefer to classify books with whiskey and cigarettes. How do you measure the utility of whiskey and cigarettes? I like the Romantic idea that books are bad for you. You know, the kind of thing that destroyed Emma Bovary and robbed Señor Quixote of his sanity. Maybe I just need to manufacture a vice. I don't like cigarettes, and a beer (and a book) after the kids are in bed is about all I can handle these days.


I read non-fiction related to business strategy, sociology, economics, and technology constantly. In fact I went down the the LA public library and picked up 10 stellar titles just this weekend, I highly recommend all of these:

- Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software [MIT] - Prisoner's Dilemma [William Poundstone] - Thinking Strategically [Nalebuff] - Co-opetition [Nalebuff] - Cluetrain Manifesto [Searls] - Open Sources 2.0 [O'Reilly] - Innovator's Dilemma [Christensen] - Net Worth [Hagel] - Democratizing Innovation [von Hippel] - Fooled by Randomness [Taleb]

Other books I always keep around are "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" (a history of DJ's and electronic music), The Singularity is Near, and some Calvin and Hobbes ;-)

All the reading is most definitely worth it, if you don't feel that way you're not reading the right stuff.

The best book I've ever read is probably Anna Karenina (Magarshack translation, not the Oprah version, which is ironically much drier). Other very influential books on me include The Wealth of Networks, Shaping Things, and Free Culture. In fact, all 3 of those were given to me at different times in my life by the smartest person I know (a family friend of my parents)

Maybe the key to the non-fiction reading is having an agenda. I always feel like I'm downloading knowledge that is going to help me make bank and/or help people so that keeps me riveted (beyond the intellectual stimulation, which I'm a total whore for, too ;-)


I'm trying to read more as of late. Sure, I read a lot online but it's usually smaller articles and quick tidbits from my RSS reader. My girlfriend has even urged me to read atleast 20-30 minutes before bed but most of the time mental, and sometimes physical exhaustion just kicks in and .. oh god bed is so comfy :)

I always find a lot of great PDF books but it's hard to read them on the PC. I really want a Kindle, but its price range is too much for me just yet.


AirSharing + http://www.pdfsam.org/ makes an iPhone/Touch a pretty good lay-in-bed reading platform. I have SICP, Patterns of Software and other books split into chapters and I can read them a little at a time.


Probably too much (in that the expected utility of reading more books significantly drops off after a certain point). I own way too many books. about 1/3rd literature and non-fiction and 2/3rds science fiction. I can't bear to part with the really good ones. But the problem is that at 4-8 books a month my collection grows on average 50-60 books a year. Since i started when i was 8 or 9 I'm up to about 600 books (a couple reductions here and there) that i don't want to get rid of. this is a hassle for moving and for space planning.

But it is worth it. Science fiction authors and computer scientists (lots of overlap there) seem to be only people on Earth that have zero respect for bullshit. Ideologically, those are the people who raised me. One of the ways in which I've been very lucky is that I have pursued very few blind alleys compared to most people. I can go back to the material I consumed at a young age and not shake my head in disapproval at my younger self as many other people seem to do. My life has largely been a continuous iterative process of ever better approximations of reality with no restarts (so far, i might still decide to live in the mountains and contemplate the pebble).


Science fiction authors and computer scientists (lots of overlap there) seem to be only people on Earth that have zero respect for bullshit

I call bullshit on that statement and point you in the direction of a certain L Ron Hubbard.


What's wrong with L. Ron Hubbard? He made a bet with a friend that he could start a religion. so he did, and got rich. You wouldn't do the same? I would.


No, I don't think I would. I don't think starting a nefarious organisation of religious nuts is an achievement that anyone should be proud of. It's easy to cause more grief - what's hard is to build something better.


I think he was too pilled up in the end to care. an easy vice to fall prey to. But given the chance, yes, I would start a cult and take money from morons for my own luxury.


since there are a lot of science fiction fans on HN here is an easy way to find quality sci-fi: http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/topscifi/lists_books...


i'll add http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/Locus.html


Startup Idea: Hacker News reading recs.

I use Goodreads now, but it doesn't really solve the problem recommending books to me that people like myself enjoy. It shows me what my mom and other people I know read, which is interesting, but most of the time not particularly relevant to my interests/career.

If there was a review site that essentially did what this thread does--let people with common interests recommend books to each other, I'd look there first when I was choosing what to read next.


I read about 5 books a month.

Math books: always worth reading.

Programming books: never worth reading.

Fiction: a pleasant way to spend time, but rarely pays off.

History: mostly crap, but personal memoirs are often insightful.

Books that changed me: Orwell's "1984" (role of words), Hunter Thompson (personal courage), Henry Ford's "My Life and Work" (work attitude).

Good stuff that should be better known: Eric Hoffer's "True Believer", Jerome K. Jerome's "Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow", Marcus Aurelius.


Anywhere between a book a day and a book a month (with occasional extreme outliers in either direction), depending on work pressure, nuisance from small child, etc. The ready availability of reading matter on the internet -- interesting but mostly unimportant, coming in small digestible chunks, the reading equivalent of fast food -- has a pernicious effect on the amount of real reading I do.

Definitely worth it. Probably worth it even in purely financial terms since some of what I read is job-related, but the main reason is that I (1) enjoy reading and (2) have omniscience as a primary goal in life.

I usually have several books on the go at once. The two I had open most recently are Chris McManus's "Left hand, right hand" (a book about asymmetry, especially in human beings; recommended) and Peter Winkler's "Mathematical mind-benders" (a selection of mathematical puzzles ranging from tricky high-school level to harder-than-IMO; highly recommended to those who like such things).


I’m currently reading ‘The 4 hour work week’ and I just purchased ‘God created the integers’. I tend to read most of my non-fiction in bits and pieces when i have spare chunks of time. I tend to do most of my light reading on holiday and go cover to cover in a couple of days. I’ve followed Grisham for what seems like forever, and while its a bit hit and miss i’ve liked alot of the short stories by stephen king / richard bachman. Over the past couple of years I’ve enjoyed ‘making money’ - Pratchett, ‘The Godfather’ - Puzo, ‘grapes of wrath’ - Steinbeck, ‘vernon god little’ - Pierre & ‘shogun’ - Clavell. Whenever I travel I’ll try and read a book set in the country I’m traveling to.

As a child I just couldn’t put down the Macdonald Hall series of books by Gordon Korman - they were side splittingly funny. Highly recommend Christmas present for any child you know.


I'm either crawling or racing through Infinite Jest at the moment. Comments on the book are withheld until I've both finished it and have had about a year to digest.

I'm also reading GEB, The Interpreter of Maladies, and Confederacy of Dunces, but, really, I'm reading IJ.


I try to read at least two books per month, and I force place into my schedule to read. I just finished "Circles in a Forest", a foreign book from South Africa, and I'm about half-way through "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". (Lots of parallels to coding in this one). I've read and reread the Tolkien books as well as Ayn Rand's works multiple times, and they're on the top of my favorite list.

I can't think of any better activity to spend my time on than reading. Eloquence in writing and speaking is built partially from reading, reading can make great practice for formal reasoning, it helps me think of creative solutions. So much so that often, when I'm stuck, I will sit down and read a couple of pages, maybe a chapter, before going back to what I was working on.


I read, and as Daniel noted above, I tend to read several at a time. Generally, I read philosophy and theology (my undergraduate degree is in philosophy), though most recently I've been picking up some of the collections of essays my wife is reading for her graduate work. I'm also a huge fan of anything about the history of Pittsburgh.

Current reading list: Christianity and Anarchy Jacques Ellul The Gulag Archipelago Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Third Ways Allan Carlson

My reading time seems to come in fits. Some days I won't pick up a book, and others I'll read for several hours. As for my favorites:

The Town and the City Jack Kerouac The Death of Adam Marilynne Robinson The Presence of the Kingdom Jacques Ellul


I too enjoy reading. I commute and read books on the train. I also read a bit before going to bed and otherwise opportunistically. I read multiple books at once, and this can be a problem. I have sworn not to buy any more books from Amazon this year. I borrow books from my local library.

My favorite book this year is The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris, because it made me think about people and their behavior from a new (to me) perspective. His autobiography is also good fun.

Why do I read? Reading properly is like entering into a fully immersive virtual world, where your imagination paints the pictures, sounds, etc. You also get to learn new stuff and when reading fiction or autobiography experience many worlds vicariously.


I read. I tend to reread older books nowadays: you get to the point where new books really stop seeming interesting.

I have Anathem, for instance, and it's not a very pleasurable book for me to read. Stephenson is not deft enough with words, I feel: he lacks a certain subtlety. I'll end up reading Anathem, but it's taking me a while. And I find much value in rereading books that I'm certain I don't fully comprehend. I read Joyce and Beckett a lot.

I also put lots of books on my Kindle. That's where I get new books, mainly, unless the new book is special to me in some way.

But yes, I read. I read a lot. I love reading. I devour novels. I also like nonfiction, though there are fewer nonfiction authors that I enjoy.


I don't read nearly as many books as I used to, but that's because I now look after two kids. I used to read on the way to work on the Tube every day.

I am reading two books at the moment though - Iain M Bank's latest - Matter, and Dennet's Darwin's Dangerous Idea


Nope!

I really wish I could bring myself to sit down and read, but if its not in my feed reader (or Hacker News), then I'm probably not going to read it.

I've always had quite a short attention span and when I sit down, open a book and start reading, within five minutes I'm thinking of everything else I could be doing instead of sitting there doing virtually nothing.

Don't get me wrong -- I don't consider reading to be doing nothing, but it just feels that way while I'm doing it... so I have to stop and go do something else.

I have countless programming books and a lot of Terry Pratchett Discworld novels... and when I can get over my attention span, I'll hopefully sit down and read.


Love to read - I used to read a lot more fiction, but as of late, have been reading a lot of non-fic to include magazines like Scientific American, The Economist and Harvard Business Review. My current reading list includes the following books, currently on my desk at the office:

Good in room by Stephanie Palmer About giving good presentations and pitches

The design of future things by Donald Norman Many of you have probably read or heard about his previous book, 'design of everyday things'

A class with Drucker by William Cohen Lessons learned by a former student of the renowned business/management professor Peter Drucker


I am currently finishing Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand for the first time and it is has become my favorite book by far. I began reading it after someone referred it on here.

Next up is Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky.


Check out www.bookhuddle.com, a site where you can track the books you want to read, are reading, your favorite books, etc. Find out what books are newly released, top selling, in most users' lists, and more, by book category.

Here are the books I want to read: http://www.bookhuddle.com/list/4/Books-I-want-to-read Here are some of the books I've read: http://www.bookhuddle.com/list/2/Books-I-ve-read


I love reading.

I usually read something to help me further my knowledge base, right now that means a lot of teamwork and business books. I usually read on the Kindle, highly recommended, it makes airplane travel a godsend.

My favorite book is definitely Ender's Game. The psychological twists and turns in that book (plus a very cool concept and game) makes it mesmerizing. Once I start it, I can never put it down until I finish.

I read about 2 books a month, all books are worth reading, everyone has something valuable to share. You just need to skim through the fluff.


I read about a book a week, more if I'm traveling.

Currently, I read while working out on the elliptical for an hour every weekday. This has me going through a lot of books (I have a Kindle, and many friends who are avid readers as well, so I get new books that way).

Favorite book, if I had to pick one: Guns, Germs & Steel or Omnivore's Dilemma.

Is it worth it? Yes and no. I think it definitely has expanded my knowledge and given me interesting perspective, but I've definitely had diminishing returns quickly (did I really need that fifth book on linguistics?)


I read all the time, no matter what my schedule is. It is an anchor in my life. Mostly sf and time-tested classics.

I'm starting to read Aubrey-Maturin by Patrick O'Brian. I finished Master and Commander and I'm on the next one, Post Captain.

I'm reading Bad Money by Kevin Phillips, which basically called the market failures early this year.

I've got A Canticle for Leibowitz and Anathem, which I'm doing as a pair.

I started reading Stephen King in chronological order a while back, and I'm up to Pet Sematary (early 80s).

Also, Crockford's JavaScript book.


Definitely. Aside from reading anything I can online, and coding-related stuff, neither of which I really count as legit reading, I always have a book on the go.

I never know where to start with new books, so I just stick mainly to classics and lately non-fiction as well. My problem lately is I don't find enough time to read, so I only get through a few pages a day and then "catch up" in spurts here and there, as opposed to having a set time to sit and really dig in...


As a kid I probably read 20+ hours a week, half fiction half non-fiction. I even worked at a library when I was younger.

That dramatically slowed during late high school and university, probably only a few hours of reading a week (other than coursework).

I am back to reading 10+ hours a week, but all non-fiction. I have basically stopped reading fiction. I just have too many books I want to get through to have time for fiction these days.


A read I found both insightful and interesting:

"How to talk about books you haven't read" by Pierre Bayard

Not only as a result of this book, but during the time of its reading (in my first year of college) I progressed to a 'style of schooling' in which I no longer read assigned texts for classes. Call it what you will, but I find myself learning a lot more, and having many more interesting things to say when I skip reading the textbook.


Not really. Not proud of it, but I just don't see that much value in reading. It seems like a waste of time to me. I'd rather use that time to get more done.

I might start reading about web design and related topics, since that's what I do and I could probably learn a lot from this kind of books, but honestly I'm not interested in reading fiction at all.

Maybe it because of all those boring books I was forced to read as a kid at school.


Interesting question, but what's so great about "getting things done."? I'm guessing it's just a matter of personality, but contemplation is at least as important to me as any accomplishment.


I pretty much exclusively read technical books. Most recently, Hacking Vim and Programming Collective Intelligence. I own all the classic tomes; GoF, Refactoring, Code Complete and so on which I re-read occasionally. I haven't read a piece of fiction in quite a while.

Although, when I did read fiction, I enjoyed Chuck Palahniuk, Orson Scott Card and for pure entertainment, Clive Cussler.


I try to read a novel a week. All fiction writers should strive for at least this much, and many times I feel like I should be reading more. I also try to read books about my career field and personal growth material. I used to have three books going at a time (one of each), but have reduced it to two. It's much more manageable that way.


I always avoid reading fiction. When there are non-fiction books which are as gripping as the fiction ones, why read the latter as you get knowledge plus pleasure reading the former.

Examples of the books I am talking about are: The Black Swan, Brief History of Time, God Delusion, Selfish Gene, Predictibly Irrational, etc. etc.


What difference does it make if the events really happened? It's all in the past anyway, so fiction is just as "real" as non-fiction. What matters is the insights gained, which are often just as common in good fiction and often more eloquently presented.


I am an avid reader myself, but it is hard to find free time. I mostly read technical books these days, currently Cocoa Programmers for Mac OS X by Aaron Hillegass, excellent book. Other days when I do have a spear 5 mins I usually go the www.slapastory.com (sorry for the plug). Its one of my little startups.


Before reading pg's essays, I believed that any problem that can be solved using C, must be solved using C. However, after reading pg's arguments in his essays, I decided to study language design and functional programming. So currently, I am reading "The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs".


I love to read. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time to read right now. I'm working my way through the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy series for my first time. I'm listening to the Now Habit right now. Probably my favorite non-fiction book is Godel Eshcer Bach. Catch-22 is my favorite fiction book.


I'm an avid reader, I read as much as I can, including computer related books, economics, fiction and non-fiction.... here's the library link: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/zemariamm


I wish I could read like I used to, but I have a full time job and I'm building a prototype for a startup simultaneously. I usually get through every month or two reading in the same spare moments a lot of people take for reading (:


Yup, who doesn't?

"Expert F#", "Founders at Work", "Walden", and "On Intelligence" are all part-finished right now. I read a lot of fiction in high school, but I don't much anymore.

"The New Yorker" every week. "The Walrus" and "The Economist" occasionally.


I'm currently reading:

The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

It varies, but I probably read 2 to 6 books a month (really depends on length).

Two of my recent favorites are Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadster and The Moral Animal by Robert Wright.


Yes, and a lot. You can read too much about my reading habits here: http://jseliger.wordpress.com if you're curious.


I read a lot. Everyday. I mostly enjoy fantasy books -- My girlfriend forced me to read "The Magician" and it's probably the best book I've ever had the pleasure of reading.


My favourite ever book as a film buff: High Concept by Charles Fleming. He mercilessly ribs high-charged, deceased producer Don Simpson and I couldn't stop laughing.


My reading list is on my web site: http://www.jgc.org/writing.html


I just finished a 1,000 page novel. It took me 2 weeks. A nice break after reading 2 or more business books a month.


I sometimes get depressed knowing that I won't be able to read everything, or even a sliver of a fraction of it.


I love to read, in fact I think reading is the reason I love writing too and keep looking up jobs in the writing business ever since I left one (money reasons).

Currently I'm reading New Moon from the Twilight series, my girlfriend got me to read the first book because of the movie coming out and it's a seriously great read, hence why I'm reading the second book about 2 years before she forces me to because of the 2nd movie.

I'm also reading 'What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character', it's the sequel to 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!'. It's based on transcripts from Richard Feynman's conversations and is a funny but thought-provoking read (both should be read). It's probably the only book illustrating how a true genius was shaped through his life. He developed a serious lack of respect to authority, which is why he became such a monumental figure in science and probably the reason he was the only one on the Rogers Commission into the Challenge disaster that didn't trust NASA's engineers.

I'll explain his key point in the Rogers Commission. NASA engineers figured a rubber O-ring in the SRB's had a less than 1/50 chance of failing. So to avoid this they installed three O-rings, assuming that 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 = 1/125,000 chance of failure, or something equally ridiculous. In reality the rocket still had a 1/50 chance of failing because 1 O-ring failing would mean all would fail. He then showed that under the conditions of the Challenger launch the O-ring had a 1/1 failure rate; the NASA engineers ignored the fact that material strengths change below freezing, the O-rings shrank and allowed hot gases on ignition to burn through all 3 O-rings well below the temperature they were rated for.

I also have Jared Diamonds 'Collapse' on the go. Ender's Game and probably whatever else is on my bookshelf when it grabs my attention.

The most important book I've read was The Strange Life of Ivan Osokin. I was around 15 when I first read it. The story starts near the end of his life when the woman who's been trying to date him for years finally gives up and leaves. He progresses to the point where he's suicidal, but then he crosses a magicians house who he knows and goes in. The magician tells him, you can relive your life and try to make changes or you can work for me and actually change it. The rest of the book follows his life as a relives it with the knowledge of what's going to happen, but as he lives it (as the magician warns him) he gets so engrossed again that he makes the exact same mistakes and only realizes he knew what he did wrong moments later when he remembers. In the end he finds himself back at the Magician who basically says 'I told you so' and says if he keeps going back in time to try to fix things the universe will eventually overwrite him with someone who'll act. The magician then tells him he can either serve him for a hundred years (in a very devil-esque scene) or he can relive his life again and he won't intervene. He takes the deal with the devil and then the story ends.

This book made me realize that there were no second chances, and that just doing nothing wasn't an option. That summer (at 16) I got a job as a reviewer, I decided that I wanted to move to Canada and that I didn't have time to waste with the 'friends' I had. Now at 20, I've worked as a reviewer for 2 years, I've had a couple of short stories published and I'm currently writing my first novel while I can't work because I'm immigrating to Canada.

So for the last part of your question, I definitely think my life would be a lot worse if I didn't read. In fact, I don't think I'd ever have got the motivation to actually -DO- something. I'd probably be in university getting into debt and would have got stuck in the town where I grew up in England.


Well, that was a bit all over the place, and I would have appreciated a spoilers warning, but thanks for sharing.

Where in Canada are you going to?


Yes. Good books are full of ideas. And that is never a waste of time.


skim one, once in a while - mostly directly in the book store and only non fiction. Severe ADD for fiction - can't stand long prose.


reading "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

just in time to get a kick out of the "brave new obamian world" video


Yes


I read lots, mostly randomly what falls in my hands, catches my attention, or I can pull out of the internet.

Privately, I call it procrastination. It has plenty of good side effects. Without reading, I would never come up with the list of silly ideas I have per day; some of which pay off for the rest in excess.

If I was to buy every book I read, I'd be broke. "Public libraries"--in its most extended meaning--are the best idea ever.


When I was in Phoenix,AZ I used to spend 8 am to 5 pm reading books at Barnes and Noble every Saturday and Sunday.


I love bookshops that let you do that. Many near me even have in-store cafes, but I do wonder if this is effective in increasing sales or if the coffees subsidise those people who read the book but not buy.


Right now, I am chewing through The God Delusion.

I both read and buy a lot of books. Infact, most of my funny money goes on books, as I go through them fast. I have a reading speed of around 6 ppm for fiction and 3-4ppm for non-fiction.

$100 of books barely lasts a few days :(


you read 6 ppm reading fiction! Holy shit! I don't think I read even half that.

You should get your books at the library. Its much cheaper and then you give it back and somebody else gets to read it. Far fewer dead trees and moving is infinitely easier.


And even faster if it's a good day and I really get into it.

I tend to read a sentence or paragraph at a time.


God Delusion's pretty great. Hitchens' book is good too, and covers a lot of the same stuff from different angles (plus, Hitchens has a great pen).


do they have second hand book shops where you live? :)


They have buy-it-used-from-Amazon pretty much everywhere. Although at some point, the cost of the space to store your books exceeds the cost of the books themselves, so you need a way to get rid of them without feeling guilty. I recommend BookMooch....




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