I did this a few years back as well, substituting goodreads for google docs (the social media aspect of that site is terrible, but I've found it useful for cataloging the books I read). I'm trying to get better at taking notes on the things I read. Every once in a while I have to force myself to purge my list of things I'm not ready to admit I'll never get around to reading. It also helps that I've somehow managed to never own a smartphone.
Very funny that you posted this because I'm currently reading If We Burn as the first book in my own concerted effort to get back to reading. Seems like it's a very common phenomenon.
Do you have trouble reading PDF on tablet, since the text doesn’t format itself for the screen? This is an issue I’ve run into for books that don’t have EPUB versions
I've resorted to using the (now sadly no longer officially supported) Kindle DX which, with its ten inch screen and crisp e-ink display, makes it possible to read even the densest pdf texts with something approaching comfort.
Vincent, when reading in the many languages that you’ve learned as an adult, how do you avoid using a device to look up words that you don’t know? Do you use a printed dictionary? Or do you simply move along and figure out the meaning based on context? I ask because I’ve learned French and Italian as an adult, and I would like to learn other languages as well. Nevertheless I still pull out my phone to verify words, which invariably leads to scrolling.
I have this issue as well reading in Spanish. I found recently that a Kindle can download dictionaries for each of these languages so it can be used offline. Now I keep a Kindle when I am commuting either to read from or to look up words from my physical book
As a general rule I avoid looking up words as I read. I create a list in the back of the book of words I want to look up after I am done reading (or, I highlight words like this in a given color, on the Kindle app). Ideally by the time you finish the book you have learned most of them through context (a process that is interrupted if you are constantly stopping to check a dictionary). I just read through
I have a less well known strategy for word learning, in both my mother tongue and new languages. I always learn *etymologies* of every word FIRST. It doesn't always make for the most "efficient" consumption of books, but I don't care about that. Plus, it has a hidden benefit: you develop an enormous vocabulary, and an acute sensitivity to meanings and nuances, and even the ability to quickly infer meanings of new words you've not seen before, by analyzing their component parts.
Therefore, one of my first goals when embarking on learning a new language is tracking down a high quality etymological dictionary for that language.
I went through a similar thing, I spent 4 years working 80+ hours a week then stopped and realized I hadn’t read a book since college. Spent a month just tearing through popcorn thrillers to get the juices back. Fun fact the Jakarta Method was actually the first “serious” book I read again after that. Now I’m back to 20-40 books a year and it feels so good.
I've always been a book addict since early adolescence (in the pre-www early 1980s). But in my case, the advent of the web never slackened my book reading, but instead evolved it into more random directions.
I tend to get absorbed by different obsessions, especially history (human and natural), that last for months going on years. For example, at one point I spent weeks reading most of the historical epics of the Mexican revolution by B Traven, man of mystery, then shortly later found myself picking up everything I could get my hands on about Sri Lanka, after stumbling on a biography of the extraordinary revolutionary Tamil journalist Taraki Sivaram. Lately it's been historical works on India by William Dalrymple and Romila Thappar, and even more recently Ervand Abrahamian et al on Iran.
I don't follow any methodical strategy for pursuing these obsessions, and I freely admit to picking up far more books than I ever read cover to cover. Most of the time, I have literally dozens of books I am reading at once (on my kobo e-reader) in any given week, and not necessarily finishing any of them in that same week. And I don't have any coherent "self improvement plan". That would completely defeat the joy of dillettantism.
Should I be embarrassed by my lack of diligence and purposefulness? Maybe. But the world is full of people following purposeful pursuits. There's a surfeit in that department. So I feel as though my constant scanning-the-horizon strategy can be justified.
here to respectfully, but understandably in vain, plea on behalf of the silent majority that we may see a morsel of the google doc sir 🧎🏾♂️
I did this a few years back as well, substituting goodreads for google docs (the social media aspect of that site is terrible, but I've found it useful for cataloging the books I read). I'm trying to get better at taking notes on the things I read. Every once in a while I have to force myself to purge my list of things I'm not ready to admit I'll never get around to reading. It also helps that I've somehow managed to never own a smartphone.
This is so real. Glad you wrote this up and I am going to share this with my Vincent Bevins reading group.
Love this!!! I feel seen.
Very funny that you posted this because I'm currently reading If We Burn as the first book in my own concerted effort to get back to reading. Seems like it's a very common phenomenon.
As I type this, my monitor is festooned with post-it notes with "need to read!" reminders. A bit of analog resistance, maybe.
Do you have trouble reading PDF on tablet, since the text doesn’t format itself for the screen? This is an issue I’ve run into for books that don’t have EPUB versions
I've resorted to using the (now sadly no longer officially supported) Kindle DX which, with its ten inch screen and crisp e-ink display, makes it possible to read even the densest pdf texts with something approaching comfort.
Vincent, when reading in the many languages that you’ve learned as an adult, how do you avoid using a device to look up words that you don’t know? Do you use a printed dictionary? Or do you simply move along and figure out the meaning based on context? I ask because I’ve learned French and Italian as an adult, and I would like to learn other languages as well. Nevertheless I still pull out my phone to verify words, which invariably leads to scrolling.
I have this issue as well reading in Spanish. I found recently that a Kindle can download dictionaries for each of these languages so it can be used offline. Now I keep a Kindle when I am commuting either to read from or to look up words from my physical book
As a general rule I avoid looking up words as I read. I create a list in the back of the book of words I want to look up after I am done reading (or, I highlight words like this in a given color, on the Kindle app). Ideally by the time you finish the book you have learned most of them through context (a process that is interrupted if you are constantly stopping to check a dictionary). I just read through
I have a less well known strategy for word learning, in both my mother tongue and new languages. I always learn *etymologies* of every word FIRST. It doesn't always make for the most "efficient" consumption of books, but I don't care about that. Plus, it has a hidden benefit: you develop an enormous vocabulary, and an acute sensitivity to meanings and nuances, and even the ability to quickly infer meanings of new words you've not seen before, by analyzing their component parts.
Therefore, one of my first goals when embarking on learning a new language is tracking down a high quality etymological dictionary for that language.
I went through a similar thing, I spent 4 years working 80+ hours a week then stopped and realized I hadn’t read a book since college. Spent a month just tearing through popcorn thrillers to get the juices back. Fun fact the Jakarta Method was actually the first “serious” book I read again after that. Now I’m back to 20-40 books a year and it feels so good.
I've always been a book addict since early adolescence (in the pre-www early 1980s). But in my case, the advent of the web never slackened my book reading, but instead evolved it into more random directions.
I tend to get absorbed by different obsessions, especially history (human and natural), that last for months going on years. For example, at one point I spent weeks reading most of the historical epics of the Mexican revolution by B Traven, man of mystery, then shortly later found myself picking up everything I could get my hands on about Sri Lanka, after stumbling on a biography of the extraordinary revolutionary Tamil journalist Taraki Sivaram. Lately it's been historical works on India by William Dalrymple and Romila Thappar, and even more recently Ervand Abrahamian et al on Iran.
I don't follow any methodical strategy for pursuing these obsessions, and I freely admit to picking up far more books than I ever read cover to cover. Most of the time, I have literally dozens of books I am reading at once (on my kobo e-reader) in any given week, and not necessarily finishing any of them in that same week. And I don't have any coherent "self improvement plan". That would completely defeat the joy of dillettantism.
Should I be embarrassed by my lack of diligence and purposefulness? Maybe. But the world is full of people following purposeful pursuits. There's a surfeit in that department. So I feel as though my constant scanning-the-horizon strategy can be justified.
nice piece - mentioned by an FT reader https://www.ft.com/content/85bf124b-958c-4412-b2da-932ff7d95d21#comments-anchor
would be great if you could write a piece on happiness, e.g. does it exist, what is it, how get there...