Ask HN: Have you stopped reading books?

Not really, reading feels like a way to go deep into a topic for me, while podcasts, documentaries, and articles scratch the surface and show what topics might be interesting. Compare reading “The Smartest Guys in the Room” with browsing the Enron Wikipedia article or watching the documentary and there’s a massive difference.

The tough part is always finding quality books of course.

I work as a production editor in book publishing, so I'm constantly reading parts of books, and rarely have time to read a whole book. I used to do that for money--copyediting and proofreading, a lot of really terrible stuff, which is partly why I feel kind of burnt out on it now.

I have been reading a lot less than normal since January. In my case, I just got caught up with work and needed to do something more relaxing in my little free time.

My amount of reading has greatly varied from month to month throughout my whole life. I’d say it’s pretty normal to naturally take a break from it every now and then.

No. I have read much more in the last year than before.

Yes

Just all the other stuff plus audiobooks

Not entirely, but I have noticed I do more skimming of books when I read lately. Many popular books in the past decade feel like the authors have taken sparse material and expanded it with unnecessary elaboration until it becomes book-length.

My favorite books are the dense ones, where I feel the need to read cover to cover or even read twice lest I miss something.

> In their place is a mix of podcasts, blogs, other articles, YouTube videos, and HN (a lot of which aren't reading at all but scratch the same itch for me)

I’d suggest a trial of removing some or all of these from your life for a while. Maybe a week out of every month. I’ve noticed that a lot of bite-sized time fillers feel satisfying in the moment but are overall less fulfilling than other tasks they replaced. For example, I’ve found that when I have 10 minutes to spare I’m happier if I go outside and go for a walk than if I click through HN on my phone. However, unless I make a conscious effort to go for the walk, I’ll automatically choose pulling out my phone because it’s convenient and low effort.

The most fulfilling activities are often not the most accessible.

//mix of podcasts, blogs, other articles, YouTube videos, and HN//

Guess where these people find "stuff" talk/write about. They read books or do stuff. Honestly I will cut middle man and go directly to the "source". Already sick of "pundits" everywhere who read 2-3 books and create cocktail and start talking. For example, for technical stuff I rather read documentation or actual book than someone "hacking" blogs/YouTube videos. And also think 90% stuff people posting is garbage anyway. Garbage means "Not relevant to me/Not interested now/just Plain Old Garbage". now days I just read technical books for topic in hand. And for non-technical there are very few with high signal/noise ratio. Honestly instead of consuming other "garbage" information, I would happy to just stare at wall or watch movie or masturbate.

I found myself in a similar position a few years ago and had to deliberately choose to read more books. I had gone from someone who read multiple academic books a week (when I was in a humanities grad school program) to someone who struggled to make it all the way through long form articles.

I think the mind's natural inclination is to "snack" on things like blog posts, news articles, podcasts, etc, and only commit to a long text when it's engrossing or aligns very well with your natural interests. The trouble is that it can often take a substantial amount of text (much more than a blog post typically contains!) to establish that alignment of interests, especially if the writer is an expert in their field and not a master storyteller.

If you are looking to get back into reading books and are having trouble getting over the initial hump, I found that buying a Kindle and Audible version of the same book and switching between formats helps. (Amazon will give you a discount on the audiobook if you already own the ebook and will sync your place between the two.)

I read fiction books.

I skim non-fiction, because many non-fiction books are composed primarily of filler material, presumably to boost a book's perceived value.

I'd pay +$1-2 per book for an official abridged book without the filler.

No. I stopped watching movies, series and videos.

I've been reading more: from classics of nonfiction, i.e., THOTDAFOTRE#, and literature, i.e., magical realism, and just got into fantasy romance novels. Also, I picked-up some books by and about George Carlin, Snowden, Assange, Kiriakou, and Ellsberg.

I stopped paying attention to sources of short-form pieces that lacked depth, signal, or elucidation.

# The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. I-VI

Hacker News discussed an essay, http://www.paulgraham.com/newideas.html

I took footnote five as a book recommendation, and bought a second hand copy of From Galileo to Newton

Fascinating stuff. Right from the start, with the Royal Society being set up in 1660, money was a problem. Gentleman amateurs couldn't afford to keep skilled craftsman in their employ, building air pumps, blowing glass barometers and the like. So they looked for government patronage.

But to return to the question, I experience some synergy, with blogs and HN stimulating my curiosity and prompting me to buy and read books. Online is not entirely distraction and time wasting.

I have a personal rule: Never leave the house without a book.

It works quite well. E.g. for reading on the daily commute.

I prefer non-fiction but I try to read some novels too for good measure.

Once the last local bookstore left the area, I stopped buying books and magazines. The local newspaper is now $3.00 on a weekday, and only about 40 pages, 4 of which are worth reading.

All my news intake is from the internet now, here, and select youtubers, and lots of tangential followup.

Plus, now print is too small for me, I do better with text on my 31" monitor.

Now that my current job isn’t miserably stressful, I find myself happy to wind down with a book. I’ve read over a dozen books so far this year and it’s been quite enjoyable.

When people say they have little time to read, I understand. I’m just super grateful my current circumstances allows for it again.

I read books very rarely because embarrassingly I find it difficult. My job is basically skim reading docs, so when I try to read a book I find myself going into autopilot and read pages upon pages without actually absorbing anything. I find it hard to read anything with a low information density in general.

My last book was Steve Jobs' biography by Walter Isaacson, which I found interesting, but I don't remember a great deal about it because it just isn't really relevant to my life.

I've come to the conclusion that I don't really have a 'need' to read books anyway. If one day I really want to read something then I will, but I'm not going to actively encourage, or force myself.

As long as I have books queued up on my kindle I'll read fiction pretty much every single night before going to sleep, and I really enjoy it. Books feel like they scratch an itch that's unrelated to any of the other mediums that involve reading. At the same time, I won't read anything that's not on my kindle, primarily because I read in the dark before falling asleep and the kindle is backlit.

If I run out of books to read on my Kindle I'll stop reading, sometimes for months until I have time to find books I'm interested in reading, buy/download them, find my now dead Kindle, charge it, and transfer the books to it. I love reading long fiction series in particular because I don't have to figure out what to read next.

I'm reading more than ever - I just never got into ebooks - in fact I think the internet and long form blog posts (from pre-Twitter days, not the Medium-led long form revival) kicked me off on reading books proper. Nothing better than waking up with or relaxing in the evening with a physical book! I often have a non-fiction and fiction book in the rotation. I listen to Podcasts but there are too many that have little substance. I enjoyed Serial but like I enjoy a big bag of crisps. Obviously there are good ones, and many many books that suffer the same thing.

Mostly I hit a point where blogs and online text just didn't go into as much depth as I wanted and I realized the benefits of books (presumably they get compensated more for very long-form format of books?) and I find the physicality of books too comforting to remove from the experience.

Despite all that I dislike about the state of internet culture, I think the importance of text has been revived from suffering in the TV era. And if text isn't your bag, there are plenty of options and a new golden era of TV!

I read much more book content in Japanese, a language I've been learning the past ten years, than English.

It helps that I can finish an English novel in a single day while I can pace myself in a foreign language.

I simply cannot stop myself from reading a story in English and it comes at a severe detriment to productivity and sleep.

Nowadays it definitely takes an effort to restart. Much less or none to keep going.

I recommend time blocking (for this and other things). What works for me now is non fiction with the morning coffee, and fiction at bedtime.

Nope, I still read daily for pleasure. I take my Kindle with me everywhere and fit in as much reading as I can on breaks, lunch, etc.

I still read but mostly fiction. I strongly dislike most non fiction books, YouTube videos, podcasts, and the very idea of an audio book. If I want to learn something , I read a textbook.

Since leaving university, I haven't been able to read books unless I'm on vacation. Fiction or non-fiction.

I read all day long. It's literally all I do, aside from typing, at work. So the prospect of cracking open a book at the end of the day is less appealing than it used to be, when my day was more varied. (Classroom discussion, breaks for socialization or exercise, etc)

When I go on vacation, I typically read 2-3 novels. So while I'm reading less, I don't think I've lost anything per se.

I embraced not finishing a book years ago and have never looked back. I find being open to the idea of letting perfect not be the enemy of good enough, and letting take a walk stand in for going for a run, and reading half a book stand in for reading it in its entirety.

I had mostly stopped reading books for about ten years, but then discovered I could absolutely devour audiobooks. I “read” more books in 2019 than I had in the previous decade.

I think it’s a combination of being able to listen while doing chores or commuting, and if the book is okay but not excellent, I can play a slow paced video game while listening and they add up to a worthwhile activity.

I didn’t read much in 2020 since i had run out of books i wanted to read and the audible subscription wasn’t worth renewing, but i’ve slowly added enough to my wishlist that I’ll re-up once i find one or two more. It’s not that other things are competing, I just find it hard to find true novelty.