The books thread made me realise, shamefacedly, that I think I’ve only read two books published in 2017 this year.
I recently all but gave up Twitter because it was making me angry and sad, but most importantly because I feel like it’s made me stupid. My attention span is insanely shit these days, and I mostly blame Twitter: hit after hit after hit after short frothy hit. And my book consumption, which used to be pretty voracious, has become really bad. I don’t want to be that bloke who reads 4 books a year or whatever.
Now, I love my phone, and I’m not getting rid, but since I deleted the Twitter app, I’m looking at it way less. Which feels like it’s making me some headspace for books again. Now I just need to find time and energy.
When do you do your reading? I’m too tired and stupid of an evening.
Ah I do read in the evening – 20/30 pages just before lights out clears out the day and I can feel my eyelids drooping at the end. But trains are the best. I have been from Birmingham to Chelmsford and back on public transport and have got through almost all of Neville Shute’s On the Beach, one of a diminishing list of dystopian end-of-the-world books left unread. LCD Soundsystem on the headphones, a book and a train and I’m a happy man.
I used to read a lot more when I commuted by train. Really miss that.
Me too. Up to 2 hours each way every day, so I used to get through loads of books. And now I’ve stopped working I don’t get through any. I am trying to get myself into a routine where I catch up on all the stuff I’ve carried on buying, despite rarely reading (my wife goes potty about it!).
I have something in the region of 600 books, 200 magazines and thousands of comics to read. Actually, I have listed them, so I know exactly what I’ve got on the ‘to read’ lists [goes off to check], 596 books, 246 magazines (84 of which are on the Readly app, so way behind there) and the rest are mainly special edition magazines, 866 Batman stories (could be a single issue comic, a 12 issue story, graphic novel, etc – I’ve basically, and quite painstakingly, written out a reading list of Batman stories in chronological order from Year One in 1984, acoss all comics and standalone books and I’m a few hundred in) and 378 other comics to read, although again this could be single stories or full volumes of a comic (i.e. the actual amount of comics will run into the thousands). Apart from the Batman ones, whereby I have most of them as physical comics/books, most of the comics I have are electronic, of which I have an absolutely ridiculous amount.
It’s the Readly app that has done for me, as well as the iPad, where I waste so much of my time. Every issue of Q, Mojo, Uncut, Rolling Stone, Electronic Sound, Empire, Total Film, Little White Lies, Late Tackle, FourFourTwo, SFX and SciFiNow, not to mention loads of special editions and other magazines that may look interesting, and the Football League Paper and Non-League Paper. So no chance of reading all that as well as everything else.
Just got to try to stop the time wasting. Actually, I’ve got this big music project going and I’m trying to get through several hundred films and several hundred film commentaries, not to mention dozens of music DVDs. It’s hard work being poorly and trying to cram everything in!
I would suggest you stop trying to cram it all in and just enjoy whatever you are doing at the time. When it becomes an irksome task to do something then move on to something else. I have reduced stuff I *need* to watch (especially) and listen to. Makes my life more fun.
So hopefully I can read more than the 4 or 5 books I managed this year (nearly all music related).
1) In the bath, with a good whisky at hand.
2) Lying in bed on a weekend morning before the dogs jump on my head and DEMAND to go out.
3) On the bog, if it’s a real page turner, sometimes in between 1 and 2 or between 2 and 1.
4) Sprawled on the sofa at any time I can get away with it.
5) Yes, last thing before I conk out, though I have to make sure the last two pages or so don’t just wash over my eyeballs, so I stop as soon as I realise I’m dropping off.
Re 2): You’re awake before 05:30 on a weekend morning?
Not far off.
I read so much more in the summer than the winter. I have a lovely veranda overlooking wonderful olive tree dominated countryside (ooh… me, me, me, me, me) and sitting there reading as the sun slowly sets is one of my absolute favourite pastimes. And, of course, at the beach.
This is a good question! I love reading but I never get round to it, except on holiday. I blame this site, as, whenever I settle down, usually in bed, for a good read, I get distracted here and elsewhere. I buy the buggers and they accumulate on the bedside, glowerring at me. (Mind you, at any time I am about 20-30 CDs in waiting too…….)
Yeah, this place is a definite book-quasher.
I really don’t like the internet sometimes!
In bed for half an hour at least.
On the train on the odd occasion I use it.
On the sofa at weekends if I’m not refereeing or doing stuff around the house.
I make it a priority. But I read all sorts – non fiction, fiction, and I have a standing subscription to 2000AD – that counts right?
1. When travelling.
2. If it’s an audiobook, I listen when exercising or doing housework.
3. In bed if I’m not dealing with The Child (I go to bed ridiculously early).
Remember though I volunteer now rather than doing a ‘proper’ 9-5 job so I have more time, hence the voracious reading. (Reading has pushed out music this year.)
For the first three years of my son’s life I hardly read anything, so it’s a genuine pleasure to be able to do so.
I think the year when I had a 3- 3 1/2 hour round trip commute was the most I read in any one year- possibly 100 books?
I think it’s hard. What with Facebook , Twitter, blogs etc. etc. it’s very difficult to make yourself read, and there’s always something new and shiny being posted somewhere, like, NOW. I do read a lot but I have the luxury of a certain amount of ring-fenced time. I also rarely go out. 😀
I used to only find time to read on holiday. Big, chunky paperbacks – mainly modern classics and music biographies. My recent enforced leisure means that I’ve been able to settle down of an evening without worrying that there’s stuff I should be doing instead. The Works are usually good for a discount memoir, although anything by El Heppo remains obstinate in its absence.
In any spare space that life permits. On my commute (which guarantees a couple of hours a day), on the sofa, in bed, in the five minutes I’m left alone in a room. Last night, crouched awkwardly on the floor while my parents and in laws chatted away merrily in the background.
Life is busy, so you just have to squeeze it in there – it’s such a fantastic distraction. The key is to just have books everywhere – I basically never leave home without one, because you never know when you might suddenly find yourself with a bit of extra time (people being late is a big fave).
I’ve been off social media for a few years now. I have no desire to go back (although I do Whatsapp, if that counts). I think we’re going to realise in the near future that all that stuff is incredibly harmful, on both an individual and societal level. Well done for getting off Twitter. Twitter sucks donkey balls.
On the “incredibly harmful” thing – it really is, isn’t it? All that rage, all that eyeblink attention. I think we’ve got the internet so wrong in these early years of it – and entirely swallowed the tech boys’ assurances that what they’re doing is The Good Thing That We All Want. People like Zuckerberg seem genuinely affronted that there might be any responsibility on them to do anything to stop the spread of all kinds of vileness and harm on what they insist isn’t a media channel but a “neutral platform”.
It’s almost worth a thread in itself: Would The World Be Better If We Turned The Internet Off?
I really don’t buy this.
The internet , including social media, is all about how you use it. I think it’s perfectly possible to use social media with few negative effects.
The key issue is to make sure we education children (and parents) to use it well; and bolster children’s self-esteem so that they don’t need to get validation from Instagram.
On the issue of children -I know you weren’t directly discussing this, but- I think we might have the causal chain wrong. I suspect people/children with mental health issues use social media negatively rather than social media being the cause of problems. (Could be a bit of both, of course.)
We’re getting dangerously into moral panic territory here.
Mmm. I’m not at all sure about this. The trouble with moral panics of the past is the whole Boy Who Cried Wolf thing, surely? What if something has come along which really *is* worth being that concerned about, and really *is* that dangerous? I don’t think we have the faintest idea what we’ve done, allowing this entirely anarchic force loose in the world.
And the “it’s how you use it” argument is the same one that the NRA use to defend the absolute right to have a bazooka and three assault rifles in your home. Guns don’t kill people: rappers do. 😉
Yes but we don’t know it *is* *that* dangerous. Some aspects maybe; some aspects are entirely benign and indeed, positive. I don’t think you can talk about ‘social media’ and certainly not ‘the internet’ in a sweeping way.
Twitter doesn’t kill people; a complex mixture of socioeconomic and social-psychological factors do. 😉
We don’t *know* it’s that dangerous yet, but we seem to have decided that our best course is to just make it a reckless free-for-all and see what happens. Surely that can’t be wise? Humans need society, and boundaries. The internet removes them. It’s all a bit Lord of the Flies.And maybe that’s who we are, deep down – but surely that means we need more regulation and aspiration to something better, not less?
I’m not really talking so much about the psychological harms, but there’s surely no doubt that apart from anything else, Trump couldn’t have happened without social media. Brexit couldn’t have happened without it. The resurgence of the far right couldn’t have happened without it in quite this way. The sheer, upsettingly obvious reality that a lie is halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on, and all that.
Plus everything Bingo says below about Twitter specifically.
And once you ask the old cui bono question, I get even more down on the whole thing. Look who’s coining it in. The tech bros are all, to a man, appalling.
But most importantly it’s distracting and stops me reading books. 😉
Yes, that’s true- those specific harms are very bad, if you’re not of the Trump/Brexit political persuasion. (And the intervention of Russia is bad for everyone, of course.) I might quibble with how much ‘the far right’ as I understand it HAS had a resurgence, in the UK at least, but that’s for another day.
If I had time I would argue that both Trump and Brexit are symptoms of wider issues which social media has certainly enabled to latch on to.
But my argument still holds- it is only aspects* of social media that are bad. It has been used for much good i.e.
selfiesthe spread of progressive political ideas, social communication of a different nature, positive social communities….I could go on.We are new at this; we will get better.
Now go read a book.
*Yes these might be pretty bad aspects but I would question that social media is the cause. Amplification, sure, but those tendencies exist anyway. THAT’S the problem (if you are a centrist or lefty).
I must go and do tea.
Last thing (for now):
‘Humans need society, and boundaries.’
Yes, they do- arguably you can also create them online; not as a substitute for, but as an addition to ‘real’ life (whatever that is).
Look at where we are posting.
We can and should aim for better- my argument is that we already are, in some places.
I’m just pretty pessimistic about government or tech’s appetite to do better. And unfortunately the internet appears to be killing actual news reporting on a number of fronts, so the chances of the old Fourth Estate stepping up to challenge it in a major way any time soon seem remote as well.
Well, if those tendencies exist but are amplified by social media, then surely turning the amplifier off isn’t the worst idea in the world? Anarchy has never been a backdrop to genuine social progress; why would it be now?
I think Twitter and Facebook should have the same legal responsibilities around hate speech, and the false equivalence of truth and lies, as a broadcaster does. (And while we’re at it, somebody needs to take the BBC’s news editors into a room and beat them around the head with a baseball bat inscribed with the words “impartiality does not mean all ideas are equally valid” until they holler uncle.)
So yeah. I really question the extent to which the benefits you mention are a) significant and b) even close to competing with the harms. On a pure cost/benefit basis, I genuinely struggle to see how the positives come out on top.
They do have a responsibility re: hate speech. If they don’t implement those then yes, this is a case for regulation (as is being discussed recently re: ‘fake news’ as well).
I think we’ll have to agree to disagree on the last point. It may reflect how both of us use social media, maybe? I dn’t use Twitter at all apart from looking at funny shit friends send me.
I suspect we are writing from slightly different experiences.
One final question- do you really, and come on, I mean really think the negatives outweigh the positives? Really?
Our lives have been transformed, laregly for the good. Well, mine has.
And the resistance to the negative aspects will come from–social media.
Finally, finally (I mean it) there is no turning the internet off. The internet, including social media, is here to stay.
The questions now are:
i. How do we use it better*, including how we critically engage in it;
ii. How do we teach children to use it better; and
iii. How do we regulate it.
Of course all three of those are complex and difficult things to do.
*(and define ‘use it better’, of course.)
*breathes* And , AND, this argument is predicated on the assumption that everyone uses social media, which of course, they don’t. (And mere ownership of a FB/Twitter/Instagram account does not equal ‘use’).
So, the positives:
Some good political stuff. I’ve met some lovely people. I wouldn’t be in the band that I’m in without it. I can shop and bank incredibly easily. Telly.
The down sides: I really do think it rewards narcissism and meaningless competition. Makes people far more vulnerable to targeted harassment. Porn. Connects awful shits with other awful shits who would otherwise have been isolated. Has the proven potential to bring lies and appalling views out of the shadows and into the mainstream, which exposes more people to them. It’s a huge time hole. Rewards short attention spans. Is almost entirely unscrutinised, such that we mostly don’t even know the names of half the people who have most executive power over the direction of our societies. Appears to be replacing the old Establishment with a largely sociopathic oligarchy. I’m sure more will occur to me. 😉
Some people (among my friends, and also here) seem to have a very intense relationship with social media that I can’t relate to at all in the slightest. I’ve seen friends who make a big thing of announcing they’re leaving twitter/facebook (they always seem to come back – much like flounces here). I read twitter (can’t be arsed to tweet) and facebook pretty much every day. For me it’s exactly the same as the old concept of telephone. Like checking my answerphone messages. No different. Except I get a wider range of messages from a wider range of people. I don’t understand these intense relationships with it.
Social media is taking on all the hallmarks of a Class A narcotic. It’s addictive, obviously; it steals time and concentration, it expels other interests, it closes our relationships down to only others who are enslaved to it; it encourages us to cast out friends and relatives who don’t ‘get it’ and successive hits become less effective, so we need to do more, go deeper, to get that shot of love.
Our usual response to substances that do that is to regulate and denormalise them, and prosecute the people who supply them.
I really do think it rewards narcissism and meaningless competition. And allows people to take pleasure in appearance and have fun, and coiunter dominant narratives; creates communities around such things. Helps forge positive identities around the same.
Makes people far more vulnerable to targeted harassment. And enables people to fight harrassment on an individual and group level e.g. ACLU , femisnist groups etc.
Porn. Agreed. I could make a libertarian argument but…no.
Connects awful shits with other awful shits who would otherwise have been isolated. Connects lovely people with other lovely people who might otherwise have been isolated.
Has the proven potential to bring lies and appalling views out of the shadows and into the mainstream, which exposes more people to them. Lies have always existed in different media; they can also be countered.
It’s a huge time hole. Doesnt have to be. That’s on you. (The generalised ‘you’. )
Rewards short attention spans. So do magazines. And TV. And short stories. And the set-up of many school lessons.
Is almost entirely unscrutinised, such that we mostly don’t even know the names of half the people who have most executive power over the direction of our societies. Agreed- lots to be done here.
Appears to be replacing the old Establishment with a largely sociopathic oligarchy. Hmmm I want to think about this more.
OK I’m off to watch ‘The Crown’ and drink tea. 🙂
You can bet your boots that if it’s decided that social media needs controlling, it will be our shower-of-shit politicians who decide how it will be done and the control will get progressively tighter once it starts. Before you know it the likes of Dacre, Murdoch and the Barclays will be the ones wholly owning and running it and anything that doesn’t fit in with their ideas will be squeezed out.
That’s the slippery slope which we are already approaching. Once Net Neutrality has gone the people who own the web’s infrastructure will be able to effectively shut down anything that they take a dislike to by denying it bandwidth.
If they also become the enforcers of the state’s net censorship then it’ll probably end up as a purely commercial service, like a vast online superstore, where unless you’re there to buy something from them or someone who’s paying them a fee, you’re not gonna be welcome.
Anything the commercial interests can’t monetise or control will simply not be allowed on the net and any criticism of how they’re operating will simply not be heard.
Twitter promotes the bullshit philosophy that all ideas are equal. By its very design, it pushes people to the extremes of arguments, and erases the middle ground. It discourages nuanced communication in favour of bullhorn-blaring. It promotes the hot take over the considered opinion. It spreads literal fake news without restraint. It suggests that what really counts in life is how much attention you can get. It provides a platform for people to be tediously self righteous while also sharing the facilities with literal Nazis. It continues to empower and facilitate Trump, because Trump helps its bottom line – which tells you all you need to know. It’s a great platform for witch-hunts, angry mobs and groupthink.
It’s a completely amoral and narcissistic entity that provides almost nothing of worth, and escapes major criticism or public scrutiny because it makes life easier for journalists. It’s also constantly used as the basis for nonsense argument and claiming of the moral high ground – “I said X and got terrible abuse on Twitter”. Of course you bloody did, it’s Twitter and it’s full of horrible, undermoderated assholes.
I would happily shut it off tomorrow. I think it would do wonders for everyone’s powers of communication and critical thinking.
If someone opened a pub with a character limit, established incentives for anyone who could grab the limelight and an extremely hands-off approach to any asshole who wanted to walk in and start chucking racist/sexist/homophobic insults around, I wouldn’t drink there. So fuck Twitter. There are a million better places to spend your time.
This is one aspect of Twitter, certainly. See comments above re: generalisations.
Also- devil’s avocado- does Twitter merely reflect the fact that we are ‘horrible, unmoderated , assholes’ at heart?* Twitter didn’t cause that; that’s who (a lot, most? ) of us are and Twitter just gives voice to that (and amplifies it, sure).
I’m kinda playing wid ya now coz I know you will fundamentally disagree with my characterisation of the human race 😉 but there is some truth in the above.
*See Hobbes.
You’re clearly hanging with the wrong crowd, Ruby 😉
“It’s a great platform for witch-hunts, angry mobs and groupthink.” True. And these days the online Daily Mail is composed almost exclusively of tweets. But it’s also a great place for clever, wise, funny people with something to say and good jokes to make.
I follow: Robert MacFarlane, Archie Valparaiso (yes!), Simon Blackwell, Sam Neill, Rosanne Cash, Marina Hyde, Frankie Boyle, my daughter, my son, my son-in-law, Rob Baker, Ry Cooder, Van Dyke Parks and Bill Bailey among others. Also various special-interest feeds like Weird History, Postcard from the Past and Pulp Librarian. It’s a rare day when I don’t find something in there to amuse or entrance me.
I also follow the Trumpkin, Nigel Farage and Rupert Murdoch (although he seems to have given up tweeting in favour of basking in married bliss). Not healthy, but I enjoy insulting them.
So there’s plenty of scummy bathwater. But there’s definitely a baby in there somewhere.
Train travel is certainly my ideal time. My commute is only 30 minutes, which is a nice journey time but doesn’t allow for any substantial reading. I’ve surprised myself this year by getting into audio books, which certainly helps with eye strain issues if like me you are sat at a computer for most of the day.
We are looking to move house out into the sticks soon, so my commute time will quite likely double (and treble in price unfortunately).
It really depends on the book. If it’s good-good then at every available opportunity. Anything below that, then mainly at bedtime, when it competes with tiredness, alcohol intake, word-fatigue etc.
I read less than I used to and I blame it on a combination of the distractions of an iPad at my elbow and tinnitus, which means reading in silence isn’t an option any more. Lunch breaks involve 20 minutes or so reading, often on an ebook to save weight on the walk to and from work. When I read in the evenings it’s on the sofa, music or telly playing quietly, and always paper books. When I’m ready for bed I’m ready for sleep. None of this stops me acquiring far more books than I can possibly read though.
Planes and trains are good when you can get them. I listen to music on headphones at the same time. Kindles are great for planes’n’trains.
At home I sit in an armchair with a cat on my lap. I can’t read in bed for more than five minutes without falling asleep. I used to drop off when reading bedtime stories too. I can read very fast when engrossed – The Goldfinch took me five days for example, but if a book is dragging it will take me weeks. I have retired now but I used to read during every break and lunch time when working.
I’m retired now and my body clock is a bit haywire lately.
I tend to sleep a few hours in the very early morning and again in the afternoon.
My best reading time seems to be between midnight and about 3am. I find it hard to concentrate when reading in the evenings, for some reason.
Disjointedly. It’s becoming a concern.
I developed a habit very early on to have at least 3 books on the go at any one time. This seems to suit my lazy and easily distracted personality. If a passage seems to be bogging down for any reason I skip across and pick up from where I left off in another.
I get through them but rarely read one at a time.
Buying a Kindle has increased this habit a thousand-fold. In a swipe and a press I can be in another book in less than 10 seconds. I dizzy myself sometimes, keeping up with matters of plot and mood so I’m sure I must lose out eventually. I can’t seem to change this habit.
As to when, it’s normally during the commute in and out of town and late at night in bed. At weekends it’s whenever I have the time if at all during the day, but I try and read in bed in the morning for as long as possible before my bladder or stomach (breakfast) kicks me out.
Oh I had to junk the Kindle thing. I have a strict rule now that any book I actually want to read has to be bought in hard copy. Kindle is purely for junk bollocks and – occasionally – work.
Noooo! I love my Kindle Thing! It’s a thing you can press and things appear!
‘Bubbles! My bubbles….’ (Finding Nemo)
I approach the Kindle thing a bit differently. Kindle is for things I want to read but not keep, hard copies are for things I want to keep but not necessarily read. The line between the two gets a bit fuzzy, but mostly it works for me.
My kindle is how I read novels. It allows me to snatch some time on a train or plane. I buy books for recipes or pictures or if the object is lovely. But that’s rare to be honest.
I think a kindle is marvellous for reading novels. Especially when I wake up in the middle of the night as the low glow from the screen doesn’t wake Mrs LB so I don’t have to leave the warmth of the duvet. These things are important!
I’m mostly Kindle. If I’m browsing in a bookshop while killing time at an airport or train station I may buy a few books but that’s all. I sometimes think it’s nice to have a hard copy but then once I’ve finished a novel I realise the paper version has no particular value for me any more.
I can count the number of books I have read twice or more on the fingers of one hand.
Whaaaat? Going back to old books is one of the best bits!
There are probably a dozen or so books (off the top of my head, these would include Huck Finn, God Bless You Mr Rosewater, the Psmith series, Letters To A Young Contrarian, the biography of Chuck Yeager) I go back to every couple of years, and they generally seem to change a bit each time. I take new things from them, or they catch me from a different angle, which gives an opportunity for a bit of self reflection.
I’m not a great repeater of things. Probably have a similar number of films I have actively watched more than once (rather than watched it when flicking through the TV channels).
I annoy myself when I know the ending because it taints the way that the story unfolds and that’s a key part of it for me. I will get cross with the character for making the same mistake again for example.
Ah, this is probably a personality thing. There are films I’ve watched literally dozens of times, and will probably watch dozens more times yet (god willing).
One of these days, Bingo, you’re going to have to give the board a lesson in time management, cos, honestly I would love to know how you fit everything in.
I swear by innate restlessness and hardcore multi-tasking. I’m also a terribly neglectful parent, which helps.
Hurrrr
I’m going have to try that, the neglectful thing.
It’s so easy, I’m always surprised more people don’t do it.
My reading slot is only on trains, which is about four or five hours a week, and that includes papers and magazines that take my fancy, so not much time for books really. I don’t do social media other than Facebook once a day or so to see what friends are up to. I dumped my personal Twitter account a couple of years ago and haven’t looked back at all. It made me dislike people I thought I liked.
That damn phone in my pocket is always calling even when it’s not ringing. There’s emails, documents and various political blogs and discussion group that I need to monitor for work, I’ve got a work Twitter account that requires constant attention, a work Linkedin group, and a couple of writing groups that I’m supposed to produce stuff for. I even use my phone to talk to people, sometimes. And here, of course, I’ve lost a lot of time here.
So, yeah, books have to fit into that somehow, and they don’t get much of a look in. I try reading in bed at night but it’s generally two pages then I flake out with a thumb trapped in the fallen leaves.
I read daily. It’s honestly such an ingrained habit with me. I have been known to try and read drunk.
This is going to sound wanky but it’s the young kids and the ensuing sleep deprivation which has fucked me. But I got around it by reading more poetry. Shit, poems are short usually. I sometimes struggle with novels (rarely with non fiction, though) so poetry became a bit of a habit.
2017 I worked my way through Seamus Heaney’s collections which I had never done. I may do something similar next year.
I use my eyes.
I have recently moved on from either talking the words I read, or mouthing them, to being able to read in my head.
My reading regime (if there is such a thing) is:
Saturday/Sunday morning when no-one else is awake
Evenings when they’re is sod all on the telly, and Mrs D is engrossed in the latest episode of whatever drama she is currently engrossed in.
I often feel a strange “guilt” that I don’t read enough, or read the right books.
(Wikipedia? that counts as reading doesn’t it?)
Every night before attempting sleep. I always have done since boyhood. If I take a lunch break I read for an hour around midday.
Apart from my work reading is the only thing that fully occupies my attention nowadays. I tend to lose concentration watching tv and I listen to music only occasionally at the moment.
I tend to have more than one or two books on the go at any one time. Usually some non-fiction, a novel and a book or two of short stories spread across Kindle and ink on paper.
All of the following, but still not as much as I’d like, often with gaps in between that mean I have to re-read huge chunks just to remember where I got to on the last occasion.
1 – most nights before nodding off, often nodding off mid sentence.
2 – on Fridays in my favourite reading armchair, equipped with a fresh coffee, or better still, a large glass of Shiraz. (I am fortunate enough not to work on a Friday).
3 – early on a Saturday or Sunday morning, same armchair, same cup of coffee.
4 – summer days in a sun lounger in the garden. More nodding off, coffee and Shiraz.
Reading – gateway to sleep, caffeine and alcoholism.
Can’t figure out where to post this above, but….. with perfect timing, someone literally just sent me this.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/gizmodo.com/former-facebook-exec-you-don-t-realize-it-but-you-are-1821181133/amp
Worth a read and a bit of consideration.
“Your behaviors—you don’t realize it but you are being programed. It was unintentional, but now you gotta decide how much you are willing to give up, how much of your intellectual independence,”
“The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works,” Palihapitiya said. “No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth. And it’s not an American problem—this is not about Russians ads. This is a global problem.”
“The short-term dopamine-driven feedback loops”? Whaddafeck dem be? Are post-it notes left on the fridge door short-term dopamine-driven feedback loops?
OK any non-scientist throwing around ‘dopamine’ is gonna get short shrift I’m afraid.
But thanks- don’t have time now but I’ll read it tomorrow. 🙂
I wouldn’t get hung up on the use of the word “dopamine”.
It’s a former Facebook exec telling you that Facebook is bad for society and the individual, thereby echoing the words of former Facebook President Sean Parker (who was in the movie and everything).
If you’re looking for people qualified to talk about dopamine, they may not top your list. But I reckon they’re qualified to tell you about Facebook.
They’re a bit like those nice feelings we get when we repeatedly look in the mirror, Gary.
Ah-ha. Now I getcha.
Only at bed time. Never while listening to music and I don’t have my phone or iPad in the bedroom.
Get me.
Reading is essential for me. Always has been, always will be, until my eyes give out. I get a little twitchy if I’m anywhere with time to kill and I don’t have a book with me. I read in bed at night, over my breakfast in the morning, on the train to and fro work. Our spare room is largely bookcases, and I sit on the futon there when I’m alone in the house of an afternoon and read. I’m lucky that I’m a fast reader, and I can read in long stints, a hundred pages or more in a session, if I have the time. I normally have two or three books on the go at any one time, and I’d be surprised if there were more than a few years in my (literate) life where I’d read less than a hundred books. Libraries are my friend.
I try to go to bed around nine and read for an hour or 90 minutes before I fall asleep. I find it revarding, relaxing and, at best, therapeutic.
Promised myself maybe ten years ago to read one book a week and I think I have.
Not much time these days, between work, kids and everything else. I read at work on my breaks, and on the one day a week I travel by train. But it can take weeks to get though anything, although if I’m really enjoying something I’ll find more time.
Well, always the real book. Have no time for Kindles (I just find I concentrate more reading off a page than has been the case reading a screen).
– A 20 min tube journey into work.
– A 30 min pre-work coffee (if I am able to concentrate amongst the incessant corporate chatter. Since when did coffee shops become places to conduct interviews and a place to run a business ?If it’s you, bloody well do it quietly).
– If I can stay awake in the evenings for any length of time.
– The best is long train journeys (never read on planes – the compressed air ruins the book).
Books not Kindle although the iPad is great for storing technical manuals. I should read more but I find it difficult to read with any distractions in the room so no music or anyone watching TV. I used to read backstage at work beacause as long as you hit the cues, no one cared but I don’t do that sort of job any more, I’m usually front of house where people get a bit grumpy If you’re engrossed in a book rather than watching the PowerPoint.
I tend to be anti-social at work and read during my lunch-break. Sometimes I’ll go to my car and put my feet up on the backseat. Other than that, I’ll occasionally read at home, on holiday, at the in-laws or if travelling by train alone.
…with my tongue sticking out the corner of my mouth.
Train or loo, unless it’s a really engrossing one and I will make time elsewhere. Done using Kindle on my phone. Can’t remember when I last read a physical book. Probably a year ago on a plane flight.
I usually have three books on the go at the same time: one in the bathroom, one for reading while I eat my breakfast (most people would probably call it lunch at that hour, but it’s my breakfast) – both of any kind that you can easily dip in and out of without forgetting who’s who and what’s happened – and one “proper” book = a novel, which I will read in long sittings, the longer the better. Really long novels and novels that I really look forward to reading are saved for long, work-free weekends when I can sit undisturbed for hours and even days in a row (choosing carefully what to eat, things that doesn’t need any two hand action w. knife and fork) until it’s finished.
When that isn’t possible I read during the night, sitting at my desk listening to music through headphones. But I do have periods when I “don’t read” – meaning that I only re-read books I almost know by heart, and non-fiction, and “light stuff”, and magazines.
I can’t read on my commute, it’s too short and requires a line change mid-way; if I read a good book I’ll forget to get off at the right station.
I don’t own a mobile phone, never have. Don’t know why I would need one. Never miss it.
Still don’t have time to read as many books as I would like to (and as I used to)!
I do most of my reading in the loo. I actually refer it as “The Reading Room”. I can’t bring myself to call it the T****t.
Ohhh… swipe me!
Interesting reading all these views. Actually that’s about all I read these days, other people talking about stuff, on here, or in newspaper/magazine articles, which are all (apart from the daily Sydney Morning Herald which accompanies breakfast) sourced from links on Facebook or Twitter.
I grew up in a house full of books. My mother was a school librarian, she read us books at bedtime and knew what books to suggest as we got older. I did read quite a bit then but also I remember starting books that were bought for me and not finishing them and feeling guilty about it. Now I hardly read actual books at all, but I’m always buying them, or acquiring them.
For example, a couple of weeks ago we had a few days holiday, and at the house we stayed in I found Miles Davis’ autobiography. I read about a quarter of it, over a couple of days and and a plane flight. It stayed next to my bed ever since. I HOPE I finish it, but I fear I won’t.
I agree social media deflects us from possibly more important and worthwhile stuff, but as @RubyBlue pointed out above, there’s lots of entertaining and joyful and friendly stuff there. As has been said, it depends how you use it.
I’ve never understood the reading on the loo thing. Some of you lot must need more fibre in your diet!
In the old days of smaller houses it was the only place you could get some peace and quiet… guaranteed not to be disturbed by spouses, kids, siblings, bailiffs.
Surely in a small house with lots of people it’s the one place you could guarantee to be disturbed sooner rather than later? I remember a long discussion in The Old Place about reading on the loo (a level of intimacy I don’t think I have ever attained with a partner). As I said at the time, anyone who has time to read more than a paragraph needs to eat more fruit or drink more water.
Faecal crumbs on the pages.
And on your toothbrushes! And probably your phone screen.
You’re welcome.
*pushes novel to one side*
*pushes life to one side*
There’s also another aspect: skiving at work.
Any book that is not interesting enough to hold the attention, should not be read to completion, unless by a coerced student. With the latter one has full sympathy, of course.
I had this conversation with friends a while ago. If you start reading a book and you’re not enjoying it, should you stop, or plough on through in the hope that it will get better? A surprising number went for the second.
I once started reading Harry Potter and it opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me. Within a few pages I was imagining this vast, panoramic vista of other things I could be doing instead.
Excellent. I remember Stephen Fry calling Dan Brown’s work “absolute arse gravy” or similar. Didn’t stop him taking the money for reading through Ms Rowlings’ terrible prose, did it? I thought. Cos I’m cynical like that.
I have always read from being a very small child right up to the present day. I bought a Kindle because I used to take a dozen paperbacks on holiday with me for the fortnight and the Kindle was more convenient and saved on luggage room. When I commuted I used to enter my own little world which made the journey to London a lot more bearable – iPod on, Kindle primed with books and I was as happy as the proverbial pig in shit. As someone above said – I buy books that I want to keep which are normally music biographies, factual books etc and I buy trashy ebooks for entertainment. Now I don’t commute I read when I’m waiting to pick my wife up from the station and in any spare period of more than a couple of minutes. I always have the Kindle nearby and feel “naked” without it I do use social media – Twatter to find out about traffic hold ups, football transfer rumours etc but I very rarely tweet. I’m getting increasingly fed up with FB which seems to be merely “look at me” posts these days but it is useful when bands announce gigs (and also football stuff again). Thanks to this Afterword site I have discovered “Readly” so have cancelled 99% of my magazine subs and have discovered lots of interesting magazines through that app whilst still keeping up with the music magazines that I used to buy. I’ve got a subscription to the Times which I can access from my phone, iPad and Mac. I’d be lost without something to read.
I have always said that if someone made me choose between going to football and going to a gig I would drop football like a hot potato. If that same someone then said I had to make the same choice between music and reading I would end up not listening to music – I could not exist without reading and cannot understand anyone whose house isn’t filled with books.
My reading is usually an hour or so in bed before nodding off, find it difficult to settle to a book at other times – and strictly physical books too, rarely use the Kindle. If I’m not enjoying a book, these days I give it up, whereas in the past I’d have persevered to the bitter end.
I used to read walking back home in the dark using the street lights to read by, moving the book to catch the available light.
Nowadays every available moment. Waking up in the night and can’t get back to sleep the light goes on and pick up the bedside book.
Thanks to @badartdog I now have the complete works of MAD magazine to work through on two discs. That’ll keep me going.
I read less now than at any time. I’m also busier now than at any time so I suspect I will get more reading done when there is less work and family stuff occupying my time. I’d much rather watch my son play football or daughter play netball than read. Time for books when they bugger off to do stuff without me.
I do like an audiobook though. It’s the way to read and drive at the same time. But does it count as reading?
Im amazed at those who can listen to music and read [a novel] at the same time. How do you do it!
I can’t either. Maybe it’s a lyrics thing. Good lyrics are really important to me whereas some people claim not to listen to them at all. But I can’t even listen to instrumental music and expect to be able to concentrate on a book.
Oh good! That’s 3 of us, at least.
Make that 4. I used to be able to do both simultaneously but not any more, I find. I think it’s because I take music more seriously these days. Music I don’t like irritates me and spoils my concentration. Music that I like takes my attention away from the reading.
Someone up there ^ typed about reading a book while walking along the street at night. I used to be a bit of a reading addict. If I was eating my dinner I’d be reading the label on the ketchup bottle.
I was a proper bookworm as a child and got into the habit of reading as I walked to and from school. Until the morning I walked into a lamp post on my street while reading and banged both my head and my knee quite badly.
Twas me. Somehow I managed to sense where the street furniture was and avoided it.
My brain has two settings for listening to music; Intense (without filtering) and Background (with filtering). It switches to Background automatically when needed. Re. lyrics: When I’m reading in Swedish I can listen to singing in other languages without problems, it gets caught in that filter, but if a Swedish song comes on, I’ll have to skip to another track because the brain gets the heard words and the read words mixed up. And if I’m reading in English (I’m talking serious reading now, not blog comments etc) it’s easier to listen to music in a different language (but not as difficult as with Swedish/Swedish) or instrumental music.
Certain novels require a special soundtrack, it sounds too odd to listen to modern pop music or hip-hop when reading a novel set way back in history, or Tolkien etc. And dark, twisted plots need something slightly eerie to truly work its magic. When I do pick a specific album to soundtrack a novel, I play it over and over until the book ends – and then every time I think about that book I start humming that music, and every time I hear that music, I think about that book. Certain Middle-Eastern pop songs from a compilation I own will immediately trigger scenes from Sherlock Holmes in my mind, for exemple.
It sometimes happens by accident too; as a teenager I spent a weekend in bed reading Pet Sematary while playing a tape of Frankie Goes To Hollywood/The Art Of Noise non stop, just turning the tape every 45 minutes. I still find “The Power of Love” etc incredibly creepy. 🙂
Two hours of every day is spent walking the dogs, once a fortnight I drive 3 hours each way to suffer watching my football team, therefore most of my reading is via audiobooks. I have recently started to listen to historical fiction (often based on historical fact) and I’m lapping it up, Conn Iggulden, Bernard Cornwall, Angus Watson, Simon Scarrow – bring it on! I still love the physical object and have a huge collection of bird/natural history books and I also embrace the kindle, especially on holiday, I listen to music on all formats so why not read in different formats as well?
The two things that destroyed my reading time were kids and the internet. In our childless days, Mrs Bangs and I used to pile through book after book on holiday. I did nine one particular fortnight in Spain, including a Stephen King doorstop. Our last family holiday I read two titchy novels.
Same with internet. It’s kind of easy to while away a few minutes online, but Mrs Bangs might have something to say if I settled down with a book when we’re struggling to put the kids to bed.