Becoming a Better Reader
Vložit
- čas přidán 20. 06. 2024
- If you want to support my work, subscribe on Substack: jaredhenderson.substack.com
Join my Discord server: / discord
How can you become a better reader? I tried to answer that question when I started on CZcams, but I've since rethought a few things. So this is me trying to answer that question all over again.
→ Video Gear
Mic: amzn.to/3Uw7ZVw
Recorder: amzn.to/3Tz1uQp
Camera: amzn.to/3Ust3MT
Camera (upgrade): amzn.to/3EFGW4e
Lens: amzn.to/3WXbAhd
Lens (upgrade): amzn.to/3SA49KM
These are affiliate links with Amazon. The channel earns a commission from each purchase - but it doesn't cost you anything.
Just wanted to say that Jared has singlehandedly revived my desire to get back into reading and branching out to different genres of books.
It's slow going because of my low attention span, but hey, at least I am doing it!
In reference to reading deeply vs reading voraciously/ promiscuously, I think the truth is less "somewhere in the middle" and more like there is a season for both. Doing either exclusively could be detrimental, but there is a time to delve deeply into genre/topic/author and a time to explore and go beyond our comfort zone. Just my $0.02 though.
My reading goal is also a project: be a consistent reader. I found that, while I was able to read 40+ books a year, there would be months where I didn't read anything- so my reading goal is one book every month. Can I go higher than that? Yes, and I do read more than one book a month. But I'm still nowhere close to one book every month so far- because the year isn't over yet. That's my project. 12+ books, one each month.
I found a way to be a more consistent reader. Atomic Habits is where I would start, but in my experience I started with a short 5 min walk followed by a 15 min read sesh with a book. Every day after work. I'd set a timer for it and ignore my phone for that time. Wife wanted something to do while I'd be reading so she started reading too and now we do it together as a little date every day after work to start our evening. I've upped the time 5 min a week. We're up to 45 min now.
I jumped from reading 4 books a year to reading almost 40, with a full time mentally draining job in tech. I do believe that having a target of reading X books in a year is helpful when you are trying to build the habit. Once you've become consistent then I guess you can stop tracking.
In my experience, the gamechanger was to stop pursuing the mainstream books that everybody is supposed to like. I stopped trying to complete reading 'Game of Thrones' or stopped aiming for the hard literature classics, and started trying new stuff which I ended up enjoying much more and at the same time feeling more motivated to read. Now it's a habit I've made and I'm never looking back.
Also something that has helped me is to not read just to read, but I read to write a summary afterwards. That helps me engage more with the books I read and also makes reading more purposeful. I can relate to many things you said here, thanks for the video!!!
I love your comment about writing a summary afterwards. Most books I want to read twice, so I think it would be cool on the second read to reference that summary and see what has changed. Thank you for the great idea.
I love viewing the growth of your channel. Since 15k, not too long ago, Ive probably watched 70% of your videos. I am happy with the increased output, I hope this new path fullfils you and your family.
Our reading preferences change over time. I think that's a good thing.
My goal is to make a book journal I can read on the death bed then hand it down to my kids or people who will value it. The journal would have my musings and highlights from the books containing themes that I've toiled with throughout life e.g., rn it's power, resilence, money management and relationship with loved ones. I'm genuinely so happy with this because it's no pressure but my readings are intentional and applicable to that stage of life (currently 24 yrs old). I try to add atleast one entry a month but usually it's more than that, I also use cute stationery cuz my inner kid gets really happy 🤭 I don't force myself to read older classics because English isn't my 1st language so it can be tough but I do try e.g., recently I read Plato's allegory of the cave. Currently reading Chess by stefan Zweig and completed Jaded by Ela lee. I love your fiction recs as well they're on my tbr!
This video was helpful, thank you❤️
10:38 He‘s interested in ethics, he’s got a well defined question, doing his best to answer it, he’s curious - he’s Thoreau. 😮
I like the idea of reading projects. My current project is to read 10 books I already own. I am halfway there and think I will make it. If I don't, that's okay because I made great progress. I used to read anything and everything, but last year I almost completely stopped reading genre fiction. I felt a bit bad about it this year - am I limiting myself? But I'm not; I've actually made room in my life for more nonfiction which I am now really into. I like biographies/memoirs/diaries/essays. I like philosophy, psychology, science, music and art history. Soon I will try out paleoanthropology, and sociology. I still read mostly fiction - classics, literary, and some contemporary. But I've definitely become more well read.
One thing I love to do is go to the library and browse the nonfiction section in order to discover something I never knew I wanted to read - that's how I discovered "The Library - A Fragile History." The problem with the internet is that algorithms keep showing you books similar to what you've already read and if you only rely on that, it can really inhibit you from becoming well read.
Love the idea of not tracking reading. Gives a good reminder to myself to read for enjoyment rather than numbers. Also, I know your channel is a lot about reading and journaling, but would love to see more content around research and writing!!!
Really like the idea of reading projects. I've found that more abstract goals definitely seem to be more beneficial in the long run than numeric types of goals. Great vid
Reading goals can be valuable, but they can also be a deterrent. It seems to me that reading goals can act as a 'roadmap' to initially excite someone into reading. Having said that, one should be docile enough to pivot and adapt to circumstances that may impact the initial goals.
Ultimately, I have reading goals, but I'm not married to my reading goals. I just want to read; fortunately, the reading goals act as a sort of 'catalyst' to building a habit of daily reading and subsequent meditation on the texts being read.
I really don't understand these reading goals by numbers, I see a lot of people talking about them but I'm like 🤷♀
how about one simple goal, "read".
read to understand. read to escape. read because you like it. read because it makes you dream. whatever your reason is, read. simple.
A well thought out and presented advice on reading especially from someone as young as you are. It is encouraging when I hear someone of your age taking such care in finding your path. I think we will all be okay when there are younger individuals doing what you do.
I long ago gave up on reading goals, but do have a stack of diverse, heady reading that I delve into each week. I keep my commonplace notebook with them as a faithful companion. My nightstand will have a novel or anime or sci-fi mag for a little diversion…though frankly, these contain as much philosophical, spiritual, and ethical dilemmas as the more “heady” stack.
Reading is just good for the mind and soul.
Thank you. This is the video I needed at the perfect time. I’m newly retired with time on my hands and have felt aimless in my reading while not really enjoying what I’ve read. This gives me direction and hope. Thank you again.
I really like your channel. You're genuine about sharing your personal experiences, which is why I subscribed.
I stopped giving myself numerical quantitative reading goals this year, and I have barely thought about the quantity of books I've been reading since, and I feel great about it! I am now delving into Kōbō Abe's book with the thrill of wanting to have a great time reading and also to know what's the deal with him and his work, just like you said. I hardly ever set myself upon reading with such a mindset in the past, and, to repeat myself, it feels great.
Something I think is of note here is that, while kind of obvious when you think about it, this attitude can mainly be applied to leisurely activities, or at least certain activities that aren't part of a larger whole which makes accomplishing them compulsory in any way.
One year ago I came across your channel, same video as now, and that motivated me to following my 2023 goal of reading again. I followed your advice, and since I haven’t read anything in 10 years or so, decided to put a goal of just 4 books. I ended reading 9 and this year I’ve read 6. My “reading project” is just to know what I like (science fiction and dystopias at the moment) and I’m excited to read many other things I’m curious about.
Just wanted to thank you for sharing your insights and advice, I’m enjoying reading again mostly thanks to that/this video ❤
My reading project this year is to support a local independent bookstore by buying a book from them each month and read it in that month (where possible). It's not a standard reading project but I've learned a few things by changing my usual buying and borrowing habits.
I don't have other reading goals, but I reframe my goals as targets because sometimes I miss them, or I need to readjust the target midway. It might be semantics, but having a "goal" feels like I'm setting a firm performance standard where a "target" is more fluid.
I’ll never get tired of this topic! I agree with much of what you shared, and I’ll just add that I’ve never been more lost than when I tried to listen to a podcast of some guys discusssing Hegel. I had to give up, but maybe it was still time well spent!
I love how you phrased all these things- I want to reread A song of Ice and Fire one day but I also have some other extremely challenging series (Malazan and Wars of Light and Shadow) that I know I will love and want to tackle headfirst. I also try not to know how many books I read or if I do then I try not to set a goal- I just want to see what I have accomplished rather than what I “need” to do ahead of me.
Great vid! I track my reading on StoryGraph, & it allows you join reading challenges like The Rory Gilmore challenge or the Great Books of the Western World challenge, or you can create your own. There’s no timing of “so many books a year”, you can tackle them however long you want, but it’s very satisfying ticking them off!
Great vid! Love the idea of projects as a way of motivating ones self!
I changed my reading goal this year from a total number to getting my physical TBR down from 65 (yikes) to 30. This might sound like 35 books, except I buy more every once in a while that change the total. This turns my reading into a game I play with myself, prioritising the books I own and helping me curb the books I buy. It’s been really fun, and the only number I’m tracking is my TBR. Highly recommend!
A great video Jared. I think that being conscious about why you read, how you read and how you handle it, is very important to keep the hobby or habit good for yourself. I personally do keep track of pages read and number of books, but I really set no particular goals. Also some books take me an hour for 25-30 pages while others I easily read up to 45-50 an hour. It has to do with layout and format, but also complexity.
I Basicially keep track because I think it is nice to see that I've read, and when I've read what etc and to understand my reading rythm. It all really started when I wanted to be able to estimate which books I could read in the foreseeable future. For my TBR goes the same. If I find something else to read first, or I am not enjoying a book, I pick something else that I planned. And sometimes I see I postpone a book for three months which makes me ask critical questions about my purpose for reading, my enjoyment and what might make me set it aside. So I learn ore about myself as a reader.
So there can be purpose in tracking your reading. But gamification is a risk to avoid!
Interesting vid, thanks Jared. I like the idea of a longer term project, last year for me it was Proust. I also tend to go down rabbit holes- I read David Edmunds biography of Derek Parfit (highly recommended) earlier in the year, and now I am on Reasons and Persons. I’d also discovered in the last few years the value of a re-read. Some of my most satisfying reads recently have been re-reads. I just finished Middlemarch for the second time with my dad which was beautiful. Having a reading partner on a profound novel like that was really lovely.
I saw an Alain de Botton vid a few years ago that talked about the value of reading, say 1000 books in a lifetime, vs. reading 10 books, but knowing them profoundly. That has influenced my thinking on this stuff- I am trying to create a core canon for myself.
I never understood the book counting. What's the point? Who cares if you read 10 or 100 books? Not even you.
I'm happy when I find a good quality book, and I read it for a month although I could do it in a week. I sink into it, find related youtube videos, add my own thoughts, expand on it, and end up with a "book notes essay thing" which could be longer than a book itself.
It’s a subtle way of petting your ego. I’ve never heard of anyone setting personal quotas for movie watching or music listening, I assume because they do it purely for the sake of their own enjoyment.
I was struggling to read up to last year. Things were difficult to digest, and i felt tired doing it. Reading wasn’t fun.
I had my eyes tested and i felt like i was a new person.
This is a great topic for a video. Thanks for creating it!
The reading project idea is genius.
Thanks for the video, really insightful. And now you can make a 10 second video titled "Becoming a Better Writer" where you simply tell us to watch this video here 😅
Ray Bradbury helps me right now to become a better reader or one day to be a better writer perchance.
Dear Jared,
I particularly like your differentiation of reading projects as falling in types. I feel that it's utterly possible to mix-and-match those projects by degrees, perhaps!
I have a reading project right now, trying to develop a philosophy that I can commit to thesis work in. Already I've started "The Philosophy of Information" (titles in quotes) by Luciano Floridi; but I found I'm not near enough the level of symbolic logic and set theory that I would need to be to appreciate his arguments. But I am enjoying a popularly-written book by Stephen Wolfram, in answering the same "point of curiosity" that I had when I picked up "The Philosophy of Information". I can also appreciate-- abstracting from the course of my reading journey-- how the arrogance of Wolfram is like Descartes' (whose self-assurance I find hard to stomach); and yet I know that, because I have been transformed by Descartes, I am more than willing to give Wolfram a chance. And I know, apart from Wolfram's writing style (accessible but redundant), I am committed to comprehension above more immediate enjoyment.
I hope this reflection is interesting to y'all! I feel that I "project" reading over extended and indeterminate periods, which nevertheless I experience as discreet. I wonder what if "periods" and marking discreet periods is itself helpful to one's development as a reader, if not significant to the possibility that reading be enjoyable to oneself. I feel, when I actively consider my reading analytical (first type) and for-the-sake-of-knowledge (third type), I am all the more willing to confront intimidating books.
I also wonder about what faculty it may be that motivates us to encounter a harder book. I feel that it is the virtues of courage and discipline, but an internal locus of control reduces the anxiety that we may be cognizant of, that a really good book shall--irreversibly--change us
Thanks you helped me got into reading, nice advice.
agree with you completely, have had my Goodreads goal on zero and i just focus on reading regularly and widely (i.e. whatever I'm interested in or some new authors/genres once in a while). Also enjoy picking an author and reading multiple works by them one after the other :)
Last year I set the goal of 100 books - I finished at 101 but holy cow was I burnt out by time I reached it. It burnt me out so bad that I didn't pick up a book this year until May and I didn't set a reading goal. I found reading goals were helpful when I first started reading a few years ago but like you said, you end up reading 'garbage' that you're not interested in. Now I prefer to focus solely on just trying to find the books that are really interesting to me without thinking about my 'reading goal'. I also really like to read books that are sources or recommended from within a book I'm currently reading - it's led me to such interesting books I wouldn't have picked up on my own. The Secret of Life Tree's comes to mind which I discovered from Nick Offerman's book - Where the Deer and the Antelope Play
Please mention some books of this subjects :
1.Philosophy of Mind
2.Theory of language
3.Applied philosophy
@rehnumatabassum1577 Try Noam Chomsky esp. linguistics .
What about the other two?@@Vyborne
@@rehnumatabassum1577 I think Chomsky covers them all. He is a renown linguist but also a philosopher. He's an American national treasure; still alive in his 90s and working. Long time professor at MIT. He was required reading when I studied in France.
@@rehnumatabassum1577 But I'm not sure. Hopefully you'll get more replies on this.
Thank you so much❤️@@Vyborne
I always set a number goal and I wouldn't go without it. It works well for my brain, I think (I find tracking my reading on Storygraph extremely satisfying and almost as fun as the reading itself). The approach makes it work for me: I set a goal I know I can hit, without fail, as long as I pick up a book instead of watching a screen at least some of the time. What I want is a high enough number that if I am not being intentional with allocating some specific time to reading, I won't make it, but low enough that if I am simply being intentional about reading regularly, without giving up other hobbies entirely (just reducing time on things that need limits, like Reels), I will hit without difficulty. I figured out that number for me a couple of years ago and stick to it every year. I still have time for my favourite video games, listening to podcasts or music instead of audiobooks as often as I naturally feel like it, and watching series if I am actually really into them. I don't have unlimited time for scrolling on my phone or watching anything I'm not very interested in. With intentionality as the focus I blow past the number every year, so I feel no need to prioritize short books.
Still pissed at Marie Kondo fir making me waste money on kindle. Books are not clutter! It is MY collection!
And unlike with Kindle, they're actually yours!
Wouldn't you just keep the books that spark joy, then?
Idk the books i downloaded and moved to my SSD storage say otherwise. I got over 200+ books abd that isnt counting Manga. Some paid...some 'borrowed' but mine nonetheless @@amw6846
Such a great video. Loved it. And your dog its such a cutie
I came back to reading regularly a couple years ago. My experiences with Reading Challenges have been mostly good, except for last year when I set the goal to read 24 books, and sometimes it made reading feel like a chore, or forced me to read faster so that I could get back on pace.
So, I decided to change for this year, I set the goal for just 15 books, pretty easy, and I will probably read a bunch more, but with this goal there won't be much pressure, I won't be afraid of getting behind schedule, and will still get to see some cool statistics at the end of the year.
Brilliant video! It definitely makes me excited to get back into reading seeing how much can be done in a sense of getting important knowledge and experiences.
I would like to ask, however, how would you advise someone to get back into reading after a long time? You mentioned taking a break from reading for a while. Was there something specific you found that got you back into the groove? Or was it just brute force/building back the habit of reading?
I like the reading project approach outlined here. I got back into reading because I had a friend who really liked Kant and he would talk about it a lot. I told him I wanted to read it and he gave me a laundry list of other philosophy books to read first if I didn’t want to have a really bad time with the COPR. So, I read them all and then read the critique. My goal was quite simple though. Prepare for Kant and then read Kant
really good to listen this thoughts Jared :)
I set the same low book goal. I just like having my annual lists on my app. For me, what’s more important is to read books off my shelf and spend time reading (nearly) everyday, which is why I keep a reading log. But I don’t attach value to it. For example, I had been reading around 10 books a month but during my study abroad month I only read one. No guilt, just joy with the experience.
An honest genuine philosopher… Daniel Dennett would be proud.
I really appreciate how you have reexamined your view point and updated your advice. I was really convinced by your "quality over quantity" philosophy from your older videos, but I now see that I perhaps have taken too strongly to this idea and have gone too far in the direction of reading deeply to the point that I am getting through books too slowly to keep me interested and motivated with my wide range of interests. The solution is definitely somewhere in the middle and I suppose all we can do is keep experimenting and find the right balance for ourselves.
I still think I was mostly correct, but it is easy to take it to an extreme.
@@_jared it was absolutely the most revolutionary advice in my reading "career" as someone with quite bad ADHD who really struggles with being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of directions I find my interests pulled in. Focusing on understanding and appreciating what I read rather than getting through it to move on to the next thing has made an unbelievable difference in what I'm getting out of what I read both in terms of understanding and enjoyment, and I didn't see that until you pointed it out to me so I can only thank you for that! And yes, I still think it is crucial, but I think understanding that we also have varied interests and sometimes need to incorporate variety to maintain both our motivation and the breadth of our learning is important to bare in mind too; and as you discussed the manifestation of that will ultimately be determined by our individual personalities and life circumstances.
@@_jared apologies for the verbose response, just excited to get a reply as your videos have been genuinely life changing for me since I recently discovered them 😊
The last point I think was very cleverly formulated and important. I had this feeling too when I discovered some authors and books, that I wasn't the same person anymore after that particular book. Maybe the best example for me was to discover Dostoevsky. And regarding the reading goals, I would agree too because I always felt the frustration of not only being unable to achieve a particular goal but also to define it properly at the begening. I'm struggling when I think about how can I organize properly the way I'm reading, what I can I choose to read and where should I start, because I'm curious and interested in many fields (litterature, psychology, philosophy, and I basically study geology). So I think, from my personal experience, that the best thing to do is to ask the questions that will help us to search for the appropiate books, and then, trying to organize and set goals/projects according to the books we can find to answer the questions we have. Because it is definetly easier to read a book (even if it is difficult to understand it) when the book is a part of a larger perspective and we know for sure that it is contributing to make us growing and understanding new things.
Thank you for the video, I discovered the channel while searching for advices to take better notes and to read better so I'm very happy because it is one of my favorite channels and I love the way you present and share your ideas/advices !
Just finished today, Joesph Campbell's monumental Hero with A Thousand Faces. A slog through the great mythologies of the world and what they mean to us today, i am happy that I persisted through it, and am rewarded with a great sense of satisfaction. Jonathan Swift had written in The Battle of the Books taking the 18th century debate about the ancients and thr moderns, about the books that are very scholarly and intricate, and the one that give 'sweetness and light' (using the spider and the bee analogy). Campbell is sweetness and light. It will always stay with me.
One of my hard read some 10 years ago was Orhan Pamuk. I shelved him then and just recently thought i might be ready for him. So yeah, i do agree time and some mental growing up could help someone get ready for what seemed initially like difficult book.
Got into this channel and started philosophy. Now I rotate between that, fantasy and thrillers. I was never interested in any of those genres and find I love all of them.
I love my reading goals, reading journals, and the Goodreads reading challenge, but I agree that they have more potential to be discouraging than encouraging for your actual reading.
I think for me, it's that tracking my reading is a different hobby from reading, which I also really love, so I'm okay with it sometimes slightly negatively impacting my reading (like maybe focusing on quantity over quality at the end of the year to reach a goal), because the enjoyment of both hobbies together outweighs the adverse effects.
But that is highly individual, and I still think it's important for me to focus on a balance between the two.
I love your videos! 📖
Thanks, interesting video. I found some of these strategies just by trial and error (which is how things happen often I suppose). My reading project (one among many tbh) involves Poppers philosophy in relation to archaeology and history. But I have two small children so my reading is limited indeed (about 2.5 times as 'bad' as having one kid). Reading strategies change when circumstances do...
Great video Jared!
On the balance of reading deeply vs reading promiscuously, I've found myself doing best when I do a little of both. Right now I do have a reading/learning project relating to issues my kids are having, but holy cow, I also need to read to take my mind off that sort of thing. And in that case, I pick up soothing things or things that strike my fancy. Sometimes that means books pertaining to hobbies, sometimes that means genre books, and sometimes it's even stuff where I end up feeling like I need to go down a rabbit hole to understand references. Sometimes a book is just equivalent to a nice snack, and I've come to the point where I'm okay with that. A pulp romance might just be what I need at the moment, and that's okay. The next book might be much more complicated.
I do agree with you, though, about metrics often being counterproductive. I find I start switching into "hit the goal" mode and then it starts to feel like a job rather than something I'm doing because I want to.
I'm the same with other hobbies. For example, I knit, and will usually have one real project knit and then another on the side that takes less concentration. I find myself flagging if it's all project knitting, but also find myself losing interest if I don't have a more complex project to challenge myself with.
I really like the project idea. Thinking back, the time in my life with the greatest density of reading was when I made the decision to read what reddit seemed to consider to be the big 3 authors in classic scifi. It was a bit of a silly thing to decide to do on a whim, but it sure did get me reading. I read almost everything Clarke, Asimov, and Heinlein ever wrote in about a 2 year period. That's an awful lot of reading for a guy who otherwise might have read like 6 or 7 books in a year... And thats being generous.
You've inspired me. Over the next little while im going to come up with a new project for myself.
Anyone have any suggestions for topics, questions to ask, authors, time periods, etc?
I partly agree with reading goals: I think they can be helpful if someone does not have a reading habit and wants to build one as they allow you to set small goals. I like to set one in January as a guide, but I don’t force myself to achieve it and I even change it later. Life is already a too demanding as to put more pressure on ourselves.
I just started to rekindle my love for reading last month. I’d set a goal of 12 for the year. I thought this was a lot-especially since I was starting in May. Today, I finished my 10th book.
I’m not really chasing the number. I’m being reminded of what I always loved about reading and I’ve been exploring unfamiliar genres to see what else I like. I think the goal set my habit into motion, but the feeling I get from reading has kept me going. I won’t be adjusting my goal when I hit 12, but I am curious to see how I finish this year.
I liked this idea ‘reading project’
Awesome video Jared.
Progress leads to compound gains, progress is enough.
i would love to see a video on your favorite biographies now
I actually went through a long period of not reading. Almost 5 years, averaging 1 or 2 books a year. Setting simple goals helped me a ton with getting back into reading. I read 400 pages a week, and I find that very manageable, and even if I don't make my goal for the week, it isn't an issue. I just start over when the week does. I never find myself gaming it by trying to read books with big print or pictures. Everyone is different, of course, but I find that I respond very well to planning my reading and a highly structured routine, at least until I solidify the habit. I can see how planning your goals around the number of books can backfire, but I think setting smalls goals around number of pages read can be a lot better, but possibly more tedious to keep track of. At the end of the day, whatever gets you deeply involved with a book in your hands, then that's the right thing to do.
Great video man
What I really like about this channel, and why I subscribe and follow, is because I have learned how to have quality relationships with books, and reading in general, instead of jumping on a reading bandwagon.
Great Advice!
Brilliant... I have been on a similiar journey recently.
One of my favorite biographies is 'Underboss' by Sammy "The Bull" Gravano. I love that book.
When i read Moby Dick, i immediately saw the beauty in it, but i struggled so much. I had to reread paragraphs to try to understand it. In the end, though, it is that struggle that helped make Moby Dick my favorite book.
I totally second reading projects!! Thats what got me back into reading. Im working on reading the major classic works of eastern literature and thats been so fun, and for fiction ive never read scifi and have been going through Philip K dick's works. Its become my favorite way of reading
Grad school killed my interest in reading for a decade. Now I have several books going at a time, taking a long time to finish; but at least I'm back into reading again
i slogged through marx's first volume of capital from the first week of my last year of highschool to just a couple days before graduation. i have never felt so accomplished despite not really remembering much. it's three years on and i'm going to reread it soon.
I agree with many of your points...I track my books read, but I don't count them.
I would also say: read more "average" books. I found myself getting into a bad habit of only reading books that had 5 stars on Amazon. But I think it benefits to read books that also are more divisive or less loved.
damn thats a chill dog
I barely read 15 books a year. One reason for it is because I want to think myself ideas expressed by philosophers or literates and trying to see if I can achieve the same conclusion given their premises. I can truly tell now that I put the number of books read in a year, per say, two years ago and noticed just the same feeling you just described; sort of freedom of learning and understanding ideas.
Here’s my two cents haha I read anywhere between 1500 and 1800 pages a month and I like lots of different types of books. I just try to read three novels within that reading time. That way, I can go three medium size books or one huge book and two small ones etc.
I also always read two books at the same time, that way I can switch if I feel that I become less invested in the story. This method is perfect for me, because I realized that I never get bored from reading, but I do get bored from specific books. (Discovered that while binge reading Malazan last year …)
What are your thoughts on audio books? I used to be a voracious reader, but after my daughter was born I found audio books were the only way I could get more than a 3-4 books read in a year. That works for sci-fi and fantasy (I’m finally making good headway on the Wheel of Time series), but I have to read physical books for philosophy, art theory or anything I use for teaching.
Hi Jared, thank you for sharing. IMHO, it is very likely that many of the books are not worth reading for those who claim that they finish 100 books in a year.
Not joking, just watched that older video yesterday.
It’s about building a mind castle book by book
There are a number of really good biographies of Spinoza: Goldstein's "Betraying Spinoza", Stewart's "The Courtier and the Heretic" (about Leibniz and Spinoza's relationship), and Nadler's "Spinoza". Biographies of Socrates are, of course, inevitably very speculative, but I really enjoyed D'Angour's "Socrates in Love". And although it takes a lot of liberties with historical events, Doxiadis and Papadimitriou's "Logicomix" is a great graphic novel about Russell and the other early 20th-century pioneers of mathematical logic and the foundations of mathematics.
❤
for me, its annotating. i did it for the first time and it helped better remember and read
Can you make a video about Utopia
Video suggestion: how to have a reading project. Just suggestions for the reading projects and how to write about them.
i think a video on Hegel would go far. i dont know anything about his work.
Please can you tell me what glasses you are wearing?
For the last 4 years I’ve worn a brand called Yellows Plus. This is my third pair, and I love them.
I hope you’re doing alright, Jared.
@4:30 " I would skip the acknowledgments "
Reading is very good to go to bed. I read for pleasure and for learning English. No goals.
Record pages instead of books; then you can enjoy books of any size and record pages of books you don’t finish.
@_Jared Listened to your vid on getting laid off.. sorry brother. We should chat sometime man. Love to pick your brain about a few things I pickup watching. God bless. Praying for u and your wife and kid u mentioned.
Share your journey with hegel. Preferably, in short and digestible chunks.
Thank you for your insightful video. I read when I feel a natural tendency to do so, and I really enjoy and fully understand it during those times. I recommend Karl Marx's 'Communist Manifesto' to everyone. Thank you!
good content, hope you are able to keep your feet firm on the ground soon.
Like you discovered you loved reading biographies, I discovered a couple of years back now that I like reading (LGBTQ+) rom-coms. Not a genre that ever appealed to me, but at the time I wanted something light and pleasant to read. Some gay rom-com was in my recommended books on Kobo or Storygraph, so I decided to take the chance. And I loved it. By now I have read several, some of which are now widely known and became TV-series, like "Heartstopper" and "Red, White and Royal Blue".
1:43
Whooooooo!