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Comment by meifun | Hacker News Reader

I have about 500 physical books right now ranging from learning Chinese to advanced c++ to quantitative finance to Seeet Chi.

My wife hates it. I buy books because I want to. I hope to read them. Someday I will, I know this. I read a lot already but the implementing what I have read and practicing takes time away from reading new subject matter. Example learning Chinese..it’s been 3 years and I still practice daily. Quant stuff.. I’ve been implementing and refining my code but this all takes time away from th piles of books I have accumulated.

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Is your rate of accumulating books higher than your rate of reading them?

I thought that was the normal way of life for anyone who buys books. It is for me....

I wouldn't say so. I have a queue of books I want to read, but the ones I actually acquire are just a small subset of that.

And very reasonably so. What you want, right, is a two-tier system: a kind of limbo state for the partially-read, a liberal scattering of them about the house, where they will healthily compete for your time - some will prove themselves under these conditions, others will recede into a shameful cupboard or the basement or wherever - and then a glamorous on-display shelf where your approved, appreciated selection sits, guilt-free and proud, having floated upwards due to their superior quality.

If the book churn is too low, any old rubbish makes it to the top.

For the last 5 years, yes. I accumulate faster than reading. At other times in life I read a book before accumulating another one.

Last month I finished reading Truth and Method, a book purchased from somebody moving out of town about 1981. Last fall I finished reading The World as Will and Imagination, which was part of the same purchase.

Those are outliers for my advance purchases. Truth be told, though, lack of shelf space does a lot for my self-discipline.

I ran out of shelf space a long time ago. I have stacks of books in a room plus boxes in storage.

Ive bought 30 computer books. I have never read a single one. Yet I now know the materials reasonably well, though admittedly nowhere near as well as I would had I actually opened their covers.

I still keep buying them too... because I feel this time it would be different. And of course it never is. Am I the only one who does this?

I do currently but more books than I can read because I implement what I read or try to.

Maybe try and find free books online?

Are you learning new ways to implement existing strategies or learning new strategies to implement?

Both, topic depending.

I can’t edit my original comment now but some things are weird.

For example: I have 4 books about Gordon Ramsay. I have maybe 80 Chinese books. I have 60-70 c++ books. Maybe 40 books on game design. Many books about Apple and related dating back from the early 90’s. I have a set of weird books that are dated 1810. The English is old and hard to understand but one of them discusses Puritan religion and beliefs. So many topics...

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