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Comment by RF_Enthusiast | Hacker News Reader

I’m at a loss of what to watch as far as television goes in the US, between the government threatening to intervene in content, corporations that own television networks with little regard for journalistic integrity, and PBS downsizing. I’m pretty much exclusively watching NHK from Japan through a Roku app.

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So, hear me out, books are pretty great!

Lots of people say things like "I know I should read, but it's this whole thing..." and then you find out they've been stuck on page 3 of Wuthering Heights for forty years, because someone convinced them they ought to be reading that, and it's haunted them from their night-stand ever since.

Don't let anyone tell you what to read, pick up something that sounds fun to you, and read it. Choosing to read something is always and in every circumstance better than sitting in front of a screen and passively yielding to whatever evening the advertisers have planned out for you.

AND: you don't have to finish a book. you can skip ahead. you can roll the dice on a better one.

i'm saying: reading is like gambling, it's a lot of fun!

Wow… sounds like you’ve been reading my diary!

If I pick something up and it sucks, I feel bad stopping and force myself to finish it (which will take 8 months because I hate it).

And that stops any reading progress.

Trick: Read more than one book at a time.

Caves of steel by Asimov my favorite recently. Super easy and enjoyable read.

Do not stop here! Keep going the trilogy there is great and all of it within the foundation universe, incredible stuff. I wish I had more people to discuss it with

Reading Hyperion rn, which is wild, but planning to finish the caves after!

I had a copy of Hyperion but didn't read it for years because the scary knife robot on the cover seemed intimidating. I finally read it, and all the sequels, and they were great books, and hell YEAH that was an intimidating knife robot! Sometimes you CAN tell a book by its cover.

Haha the cover I have is rather boring but I just looked up that one and wow it’s epic!

Thank you, I love this reply! I will do this!!

Also be sure to get them sooner rather than later, before the government decides they need to start burning books again.

It is so true. Pick up any well-regarded book even quick short ones and the depth of information, insight, and connection you get put most online things to shame. Like it’s not even close compared to good blogs, podcasts, and videos…books run circles around them.

First they came for the TV shows… I jest, they came for the books first

Cory Doctorow’s “Picks and shovels” got me out of my reading slump. Strong “Halt and catch fire” vibe!

Red Rising caused me a lot of anxiety to help ease me off the media anxiety machine.

I'd like to strongly recommend the "Dungeon Crawler Carl" series as an alternative to television. If you like dark humor and don't hate the idea of a litrpg.

Ironically, I plan on reading Wuthering Heights this October.

Buy a PBS Passport streaming subscription to support your local station.

https://help.pbs.org/support/solutions/articles/5000692392-w...

NHK is also available over the air in some places, if you have an antenna

I get a weak signal of it over the air, but that’s what turned me on to them originally.

You don't need dinosaur US mainstream media PBS, CNN or MSNBCNow. There's: Last Week Tonight, Thom Hartmann, Democracy Now, Keith Olbermann, and many more.

Keith Olbermann? The one who said: "Burn in hell, Sinclair.

Alongside Charlie Kirk."

I like LWT with John Oliver but isn't HBO kinda MSM-y? Like it's a premium network but it's still bound by the whims of Time Warner Discovery or whoever happens to own HBO at the time.

Don't watch TV.

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