if you read 150 books a year you are well ahead of the crowd. However it would be tough to apply all 150 books contents to real life. If you enjoy reading keep doing it. I would love to be able to read 150 books or let alone make the time for it.
They're only well ahead of the crowd if someone's measuring for some reason, otherwise they just have a number and other people might have their own numbers, but regardless it's just as arbitrary as having a number for how many video games you played or tv shows watched.
I read probably 6 books last year, all of them left me with some little useful takeaway. I didn't watch any shows, and none of the movies seemed remotely compelling. These numbers and whether I come away feeling good or not are basically a series of dice rolls from year to year, and I'm never desiring to do arbitrarily more of any of them; the time comes when the time comes.
I only ever want to do more when something else is diverting my attention in a way I dislike. For example, I love hiking and I love video games, but one has an endless viable season and the other doesn't.
I used to feel differently though. I used to want to persistently clear my Pocket list, but now I just let the things that really seem compelling draw me in, and the rest can sit there waiting.
"it would be tough to apply all 150 books contents to real life."
Why the hell would anybody want to do that?
Do you feel some need to "apply every meal you eat to real life"? or to "apply every movie you watch"? Or every concert you hear, or every ballet you see?
(I usually read books as a way to avoid "real life" for a while...)
Especially considering this "shitlit" label (which I love and immediately understand, because I read somewhere between 70 and 80 shitlit books last year). The shitlit that I read is totally inconsequential fiction that has no material bearing on life whatsoever. It's a form of entertainment that's analog, that's why I do it.
I think this comment encapsulates quite exactly the point of the article: reading as a gamified chore that puts you "well ahead of the crowd" and somehow measures (or influences, even?) how successful, smart, rich, interesting, etc. you are.
Ahead in what way? Reading more shitlit than anyone? I guess. It's clearly a time tradeoff, and you are probably "ahead" on something else besides book reading that you don't even think about.
I think even if you did find the time to read 150 books a year, you'd quickly be disappointed.
You know, this whole idea of applying what you read to your own life, even if it's good literature is really funny. I've been rereading a lot of southern gothic lit, and thinking about applying Wise Blood or Confederacy of Dunces to guide my life actually seems kind of hilarious (even though O'Connor especially has some interesting commentary packed in her works).
