Personally, I spend a whole lot of time reading books, but only fiction. I particularly like science fiction and high fantasy.
I'd expect that HN mostly reads nonfiction, but I saw a Stormlight Archives reference here recently so I'm curious.
I usually read for about 30-60 minutes a day before bed, I find it helps me switch off and sleep well. I've recently been working my way through some classics which have been reissued, properly typeset etc., by Amazon on Kindle for free: https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=18660703011. The best one I've read so far is Count of Monte Cristo - it's long but it's one of those books where you get really engrossed in its world and you're really sad when it is over!
This is definitely where I'm at. The only two technical books I can say I've really read are The Rust Book and Crafting Interpreters, both of which I kind of skimmed, wrote some code, and read more in detail to fill in the gaps.
Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorites.
What did I miss in this book?
In the end Monte Christo profited from being locked up. This doesn't justify the act of his opponents but what he does is basically the same and no one notices him or is a serious threat to him. Well as far as I read.
I recently finished the whole lot of Foundation from Asimov, Zero to sold from Arvid Kahl and I'm currently reading "The wealth of Nations" from Adam Smith (Gotta admit, it hurts).
The motivation behind alternating between pleasure and technical is to try to increase my knowledge (even though I feel like I retain 1% of what I read), and to enjoy reading too (with the pleasure book)
On my to read next list, I have:
- High growth Handbook (Elad Gil) (Pleaure book) - Utopia - Thomas More (Technical) - Beyond the rift - Peter Watts (Pleasure) - Manufacturing consent (Noam Chomsky) (Technical) - Children of time - Adrian Tchaikovsky
Reading in the morning is impossible for me, I have to manage three young children go to school and I go to work right after that.
I'm not an early bird too so it doesn't help ;)
But I do believe that, in summer, going out early, reading a book outside when the sun has just started to get up, might be something amazing :)
OTOH, I really need to get back into a habit of reading books, every day. I used to go through a goodly number of non-fiction books on a regular basis (another good book, "The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master" says you should read at least one non-fiction book in your field a quarter), but recently I've just lacked the discipline and habit to do so. I find myself reading a lot online, but so much of it is so low information and not in-depth enough.
That said, I also try to partake of fiction, although in that regard I'm not doing great either, as I opt for a lot of passive fiction in the form of video. Fiction can be just as good for expanding the mind, even exercising empathy. Just reading speculative fiction (to give a broader term to science fiction) can exercise one's mind in visualizing things or give one new ideas. Heck, Google Earth was supposedly inspired by a technology in "Snow Crash".
ETA: There's some great "forgotten" fiction out there, which hasn't been turned into other formats yet. "The Stars my Destination" and "Lord of Light" are excellent. Which reminds me, another good source I've found for books is /usr/games/fortune
Since the start of COVID and not needing to commute, I found myself with time to exercise for the first time in many years. In order to use that time efficiently and avoid injuries that would inevitably come from someone in his late 30's pretending he's in his early 20's, I read a bunch of books around running, biking, strength training and nutrition over the summer.
I try to make myself read some fiction, but I don't feel compelled too often enough, so it doesn't happen much. I end up re-reading Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia every 2-3 years.
I've been listening to a few Audible books lately about Roman History. A finished a biography of Caesar and a book offering (yet another) set of theories on the fall of the Roman Empire. I'm currently listening to a book about Cicero's life.
For sorta-related-to-work I have a few really niche books I'm reading on Telecom OSS/BSS, network planning and telecom regulation.
I think my favorite author remains GK Chesterton, he has a couple books I try to re-read every so often. It's fascinating how he was writing around 100 years ago, and how around 25% is super old-timey cultural references or things that no one would think today, but how much of it is still pretty relevant. Also, I haven't read anyone better at turning a phrase.
Perspectives from the past are super interesting. In "Teton Tales" by Paul Petzoldt, he describes chopping down a tree and tying it with rope to a car to use it as a brake going downhill, back in the early days of cars where brakes weren't so good. Crazy stuff! I need to finish that book someday.
Years ago, on a whim, I picked up a copy of Lapham's Quarterly in a Barnes & Noble. After that I started picking them up less-than-quarterly (two or three times a year, typically) and finally subscribed last year. It's fantastic to read the themed content (Scandal, Democracy, Trade, etc.) drawn from cultures around the world and throughout history. There's a surprising amount of content ("surprising", not to me I got over my shock regarding this a long time ago through a "world literature" course in college that drew from, mostly, BCE writings and a later Old English course) that, with small modifications, would easily read as contemporary (to us) writing.
Long way to say, if you enjoy Chesterton and have an interest in reading more broadly through history and cultures, but don't know what to read, pick up a copy. You'll probably enjoy it.
I read a lot of blog content but the majority of books I read is fiction (wast majority is SF or fantasy).
One reason is that if I want to read a non-fiction book it's usually to make a real deep dive into a technical subject (control theory for instance) which does not lend itself to quick things. One issue is that I usually don't have the time for that, another is that due to me following so many blogs and having RSS feeds to keep me busy my ability to focus has essentially vanished.
(edit: I also used to read interesting research papers but, again, have lost the focus factor there)
Mostly SciFi, the harder the better. Entertainment value aside it's where I draw inspiration from, I'm basically an engineer because I watched/read a lot of sci-fi as a kid and thought it would be awesome if we could build all the stuff shown. In 5th grade when asked to "come up with an invention" I drew my best 5th grader blueprints of a probe to explore under the ice of Europa :P
Turns out there are a few pesky laws of physics in the way of some of the cooler stuff, but just because we can't build it directly doesn't mean we can't move the ball closer, and new physics is always a possibility. In the meantime there's plenty of awesome things we can do with the tech we have.
When I do read non-fiction it's almost always history, particularly military history. Aside from simply finding it more engaging I find the strategic aspects of war to be highly applicable to daily life and decision-making. Much like engineering, dishonesty about one's capabilities is not rewarded for long. If you can't code effectively your program won't run, if you can't fight effectively you lose the war, and more things are decided by superior logistics than superior warriors, among many other lessons that can be drawn.
I probably differ from a lot of the HN crowd in that I don't spend much time reading about abstract theoretical science. For instance, for all the talk about "mental models" I've yet to see any way of productively integrating such things into my life, or found one that would lead me to make superior decisions when applied to real-world circumstances. Clearly others have and that's fine, I just don't personally find it a useful/enjoyable way to spend my time. Likewise I once read about "Optimal Stopping Theory" as applied to relationships, the idea being using mathematics/statistics to maximize one's odds of a successful marriage. The methodology was actually impressively in-depth, I forget the precise numbers, but it was something like you should skip the first few people you seriously date, then pick number 4-7 or something, and that gave you like a 40-something percent chance of success, which was the maximum. Well my wife is the first person I ever dated more than once and I have no regrets there, so if I strictly followed that formula it would have been a huge mistake.
Lots of squeeze, not much juice in the theoretical stuff for me.
I’ve found that this approach keeps things fresh, and allows me “cooldown” and let my imagination flow periodically. I used to read even more books in parallel (3-5), but 2 books has been the sweet spot for me.
Right now, I’m switching between “Oathbringer” (Stormlight Archive series) and “Capital in the 21st Century”.
I also used to listen to a lot of audiobooks and I’m trying to get back into that.
Oathbringer is really great.
I'm trying to read again as much as I once did but I'm overwhelming myself with all the options; I end up not reading anything because of choice paralysis. I also end up not even reading non-technical books because reading the technical ones is more "important" to me (which it might/should not even be the case)
I'd be happy to hear any advice from anyone who had the same issue.
I'd be interested in seeing other people's reading lists if they are tracking them some how, so I'll try sharing mine in hope others do the same.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/75821997-george-antoni...
I do not have a list, but want to say that somehow i can only read science fiction for leisure and everything else looses me.
Last year I read The Anunnaki Connection: Sumerian Gods, Alien DNA, and the Fate of Humanity, and the author has a PhD next to her name, so she caught me off guard. It's not a bad book, she basically tries to make sense of it proposing her own theory (I don't want to spoil you the pleasure of finding out in case there are other Anunnaki (or panspermia in general) fans here). Unfortunately at some point she wrote we're using 10% of our brain which was a big letdown.
So I was very positively surprised by Reign of the Anunnaki by Jan Erik Sigdell. The guy uses proper references! It's invaluable in these kinds of books where you need to check almost every sentence because the authors have a tendency to colorize facts or sometimes simply fantasize or repeat gossip.
I'm currently reading fiction and essays written by Mia Couto (portuguese is my mother tongue). It's been a long time I don't read a book which thrills me right at the first page. Highly recommended.
English translations may be also very good, although you may loose a bit of the delighment of his beautiful use of the language.
I read a book about the formation of Brazilian peoples and I'm about to begin one on the history of the United States. When it comes to non-fiction, I've recently started the habit of taking notes. Now I go through the book fairly slower, but the experience gets more pleasurable and constructive overall.
I've already read a lot of books on Kindle but since some years ago I've focused on traditional, paper books. It's been a great way of getting offline and the smell of a new book is priceless. It's like the smell of coffee to me, it immediately makes me feel that I have a good couple of hours ahead.
10% - non fiction, but never self-help or pop-science, preferably nothing written in the last 100 years.
I need to read some sword n' spells stuff to cleanse my palate after harrowing history books like Bloodlands[1]
Audible has become pretty expensive, with hundreds of books. I started using Librivox, but the time listening to professional narrators has made me spoiled with Audie winners like Derek Perkins. Some of Librivox narrators are pretty good, though.
I even investigated how much it'd cost to commission a well-known narrator to read a book that doesn't exist in audiobook form – it's a few thousand dollars.
Otherwise I don't think the audiobook model really scales. (What's the point in investing x thousands of dollars for a book that isn't/won't sell.)
I read a few times a week tops.
8 years later I have read over 100 books (at 2X speed), mostly nonfiction business and self help books and I have retained a ton and applied lessons from those books in my business and everyday life.
Since the pandemic, I've lost my commute reading time so it's slowed way down, but I'm currently enjoying President Obama's book. I typically give myself 1 fiction book as a treat for every 3-4 nonfiction books I read.
Currently reading nonfiction: Stewart Brand’s Whole Earth Catalog.
Currently reading fiction: The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien.
Finished Tolstoy’s War and Peace in 2020 (pandemic silver lining). Life changing book.
If I need some time to refocus during a busy workday, I’ll open it up to a random page and read for a few minutes.
I have periods when I binge read some history topic through. Modern history can engage me much more then fiction. But my interest in it is not regular.
Every couple months I try to read a fiction book but never seem to be able to finish. If any other non-fiction snobs have advice on how to broaden my horizons, I'm all ears. As a kid I'd devour encyclopedias so starting to think I'm just wired this way.
I have noticed that I gained a lot of speed through Kindle's WhisperSync Feature. You buy the book + audiobook as combo. Thus you can listen to the book while walking for example and then re-read important passages. Highly recommended.
Reading is my main hobby for pleasure, so I'm averse to the popular nonfiction "productivity" books.
But I can listen to a book while exercising, walking the dog, making dinner, cleaning up, and even while doing certain types of work. PCB layout seems to use a non-verbal part of my brain so that's compatible.
On Deck, I have Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.
The articles are 98% Non-fiction, the books are whatever I'm into at the time. This has been more Non-fiction over the last 10 years because I binged the classics ages 14-22 (probably ~500 books or so, even those nasty thick Russian novels)
Almost exclusively fiction. I like the Harry Dresden novels, and lots of older science fiction and horror.
Reading on a Kindle really improves the experience vs on a LCD/OLED screen.
Depends on the state. In Virginia, California, Vermont, and Washington you can take the bar exam without going to law school. It requires an "apprenticeship" with a licensed attorney.
In Virginia, this is a news story once a year or so. As I recall, it takes three years X number of hours per week. And you're doing it for free -- you can't be paid. (This is the path Kim Kardashian is taking in California, too, to become a lawyer.)
Thanks
I read less fiction than I did years ago and mostly read study books on fields I am interested in. I do read a bit of "self-help" too.
I've had better luck with some non-fiction books, but mostly I read various material on the web.
I like to believe that this shift has led me to understand the world better than before. It is also worth reading for the beauty of the language alone.
Exactly the same goes for me
How could you EVEN read non fiction after browsing hacker news all day ?
1. Get book recommendations and research topics from being online (expand your "surface area").
2. Step away from the computer.
3. Read books from step one.
Granted, I need to take this advice myself, but the problem is I've been conditioned by variable rewards (akin to gambling) to keep scouring online for "more content", but it really pays to do deep dives on a regular basis, it's just the reward is usually far off and spread out over time.
It’s a little irritating that language education focuses solely on fiction. I believe I would have had a better appreciation of language, if the school had noticed that some students just don’t like fiction that much.