Not how much time do you spend reading. How many actual books do you finish, on average, in a year?
Also general books thread, I guess, if you guys want.
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Probably around 3-5 but I want to get that up to at least once per month. I feel like reading is becoming a forgotten art in my generation.
Does this include books on Audible? If yes, then I'm on track for about 30 this year
I would strongly argue that no, it does not. I think audiobooks are closer to podcasts than books. Something very special happens in the brain when you get comfortable, put your phone away, and read a book for a significant period of time in a concentrated, relaxed, and unrushed state. tl;dr: You have a lot more new ideas generated and from reading than from listening while driving or whatever.
I agree with this. You stop and think about your own ideas rather than just consume the ideas being spoken to you.
Not including Text Books for studying, 1 leisure book per quarter - anything I feel like. If you're counting audio books - I spend about 40-50 hours a month driving to and from work and thus spend about 30 hours a month listening to audio books, which is about 2-3 audio books per month.
Nowhere near as many as I buy :/
I feel that.
Same. I use all my cc points for books. I have a stack about 5' tall of books. I need a book shelf.
I try to read at least 6 books a year.
My fiancee legitimately reads 60+ books a year. It's beyond impressive. I'm lucky to get to 5.
Edit: Cool monkey shit?
Cop the Billy from IKEA. I just got one vertical and two horizontal ones for my office. They're really nice and cheap. Yo somebody pull up that pic of that ridiculous bookshelf I assembled for 18 hours straight last year. I have no idea where to find it. I hate particewood, but a fucking nice solid hardwood bookshelf costs used Civic money. Come on, man.
This hits deep...
What you gotta do is create a library system for yourself. I have a little purple sticker that goes on the top of the spine when I finish a book and a white sticker on the bottom of the spine I write the date of completion on. I also add it to my "media" spreadsheet under "books". You walk around your house see books without a purple sticker begin to outweigh the books with stickers and you feel deep shame. You take action!
8ish. And I probably start another 4-6 but stop because the content isn't interesting.
Guessing ~12/yr cover to cover. Stop a few mid way if they're boring.
BTW protip: A lot of you guys are buying books for $20 on Amazon. Just go on Ebay and search it sorted low to high. You can find almost any book that's like 5+ years old fur under $4 shipped being sold by a charity.
I would say - close to 15 in a year. But I don't understand why is the number that important? Some books are just too damn valuable and you should try to internalize every single chapter in them. Others are just a breeze, floating on the same generic idea throughout the book where every anecdote is a tool to drill in the same philosophy.
I have also realized that Kindle is just too damn awesome. I used to carry PDFs in my phone, but I honestly never opened them in the middle of my commute. Now, I find myself drawn back to the Kindle app as soon as a I get even half an hour of time. I guess, maybe it's a sunk cost fallacy in place; or maybe, Kindle is actually effective.
By all means, I think sometimes finishing a book might not add as much value, as it would to just understand the central idea of the book and move on. Besides, it all comes down to why are you reading in the first place? I read largely to pick up concepts and frameworks that I can put to use. If a book has the potential to change my worldview, I would prefer reading it cover to cover. I guess, by the end of the first few chapters, you know which one it is.
I have also learnt that there are some books you just can't finish. The writing is shoddy. The language is obsolete. Or the concepts are just too beaten down. Unless you have a very strong reason to finish the book, like your mentor has recommended it, put it down and move on. So, learning when to put down a book for the right reasons is almost as important as picking up a specific book from a pile.
I hear that "put a bad book down in 10 pages" shit so much. Sometimes, maybe. I think far more often people use it as an excuse to avoid challenging reading. Even if the main message does nothing for you, it can generate valuable ideas. Novel inputs = Novel outputs Yeah, there's the argument that in a world of unlimited books, you should be picky. What are your switching costs, for starters? I don't know, man. Just fucking commit and finish it.
I totally understand that philosophy - put your head down and get the work done. Besides, I cannot disagree with the fact that there might be some gems out there which are too difficult to read but are totally worth the struggle.
Here's what I think - if you are finding it too difficult to read, it's maybe because the reading is way beyond your league at the moment or it truly doesn't interest you altogether. Whenever I have found myself in the first case, I have literally kept the book aside and started with something much more preliminary in the same area. So, the idea is that if you find the philosophical guide to something very complicated, go back to reading something for dummies. In the second case, where the book is too uninteresting, I often switch to authors in the same area who might have given the right spin to the same topics.
My thoughts are perhaps filled with biases because I am too early in my own reading journey and am essentially looking for concepts, frameworks and theories, instead of novelty filled ideas.
But I would still say - the few times I read a book that was a drag, I did attain a strange level of satisfaction on finishing it.
I average about 2 books per month, so around 24 per year, give or take 1 or 2.
Made it a goal to read more this year as I had stopped for a number of years. Pushed through 23 so far.
Top 3 this year: 1. Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt 2. Thinking Fast and Slow 3. Billion Dollar Whale
Probably about 10 a year. 90% of pages read in airports / on planes. One of the only places I can find the right environment to read.
This and the beach
Second this. I do most of my reading around Christmas, Easter and summer. I got through three books in July, and have not opened one since then.
I used to read more, but have been stuck in the weeds operating lately. I think maybe around 10 - 12 on average.
I used to read a good deal: 30-45 books/year, per my Goodreads, over 5 years or so. Last year, something snapped and I couldn't get into it. I read one 700+ page magnum opus that I loved and still think about; the rest were short stories
I've read 3 books this year because I'm a moron. But self educating and improvement goes far beyond reading books!
I'll just throw this in here, since it is a thread about books.
If you don't know about libgen.is, just do yourself a favor and throw it in your address bar. It's a free database for books that has formats from ebook to pdf to docx. I have dozens of textbooks (that I will never read), fiction, non-fiction, etc. in my library thanks to the site.
Really changed the game for me.
Does reading the economist religiously count?
Wow, I don’t ready at all besides text books and articles on Bloomberg, finding alpha, yahoo finance. I feel bad now! How do you guys find the time to read books besides studies?!?!
As a fellow college student, I understand the difficulty of balancing studying and reading. I've always been a huge reader, and I've found that it takes dedicated time management to fit in pleasure reading. For instance, today is Sunday, and I've set aside the entire afternoon to myself. I'll go to the gym for a couple hours, then come back and read for a few more. Set that routine for every week and you'll be amazed at how easy it is to churn through books and how much you'll look forward to it.
Is this a joke? College is easy as fuck. They literally tell you what will be on the shit. I bet you spend at least 3 hours a week with your cock in your palm. Get it together.
This kid is befuddled people read books?
Wrong. It’s been a year since I’ve done that.
Managed 25 last year, on about 10 this year as I got distracted studying for CFA.
Around 10 is all I manage, unfortunately. Most of them read while laying next to the pool.
My favourite this year: World Order by Kissinger, only about 400 pages but manages to squeeze in the main narratives of world history and how they relate to modern-day international diplomacy and politics without sacrificing too many nuances.
Not counting audio books because I never do that, so far this year it's 37, but usually my annual reading goal is 25 or 30 books. If we count magazines: The Economist and the New Yorker, with each being 70-80 pages and 4 of them can make a book, then definitely over 40, although I don't count them as books this way.
Usually ~30ish as studying for the CFA after work takes its toll. When I wasn't studying for CFA, I was doing upwards of 70 one year, but that's well outside the norm. I'm happy at 30 a year, gotta have time for other hobbies too (lifting, playing guitar, hiking, etc.)
What kind of books did you read when you were hitting 70/year vs. now?
When I say 70, I mean just non-fiction, to be clear. I've probably read another 70-80 fiction, but I don't count that as it's purely for personal pleasure. The nonfiction was 90% business / finance / investing / personal development focused, and maybe another 10% history.
I've always been a voracious reader of fiction, that was the year that I really pushed myself to do the same with nonfiction. Once I read it, I was hooked. It's incredibly how much smarter you get reading nonfiction. But like I said, that was a freak year, I stick around 30 nonfiction books a year now (perhaps 40-50 fiction). Where did I find the time? Well, reading was pretty much my main hobby that year, but since then I've diversified so now I don't have the time to do that again.
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