I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport.
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I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.
@Daojoan I assure you lists of what you have read and reading counts were invented by people (and schools!) well before the internet.
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I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.
Before the internet, I used to read at least 1 book every week or two.
At some point in the mid to late 2000's... That slowed to just a few a year.
Then in the mid to late 2010's... I started reading a little more again... at least one book a month on avg.
I still read a lot... but it's articles online now that take up a large chunk of it... I switched to reading books on a tablet sometime around 12-13yrs ago
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I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.
@Daojoan Some books are meant to be read slowly, so you keep thinking about them. Similar to a good wine than you sip instead cheap alcohol that you chug
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I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.
@Daojoan @briankrebs THAT’S the worst thing the internet has done???
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I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.
@Daojoan The stack of books at my bedside won't read themselves unless I make goals regarding reading time. (hour a day at the very least) I also belong to a book club, so I try to have the book of the month read for discussion purposes.
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I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.
@Daojoan I am teaching an afterschool "Immersive Book Club" this semester for my 3-5 grade kids. We have a chart in the classroom that starts with "Its okay to give up on a book."
I cant believe how many kids found this concept to be shocking.
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I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.
@Daojoan Thanks! I needed to hear that today.
In my pre-teen and early teen years, I would read so much that sometimes, I would be caught unaware by the morning light just to realize that I had read all night and now had to go to school.
MANY concussions later, I can't read a book. I can't connect the events on one page to the events on another, and sometimes not even to events earlier on the page.
It's as though my contemporary brain narrates books rather than reading them.
When I miss that feeling of reading, I usually open one of those books that I read when I was reading all night. Stories so ingrained in my brain that I can read them without feeling completely lost.
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@Daojoan Some books are meant to be read slowly, so you keep thinking about them. Similar to a good wine than you sip instead cheap alcohol that you chug
@hugoestr @Daojoan I've been doing several "slow reads" lately. Either by reading a chapter a week - currently doing Carl Sagan's Cosmos for that. Or a little each day for really long books. I recently finished the audiobook of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which I started in December and listened to about 30 minutes a day most days. And it worked really well like that. I felt had had time to absorb and remember stuff, rather than rushing onwards and forgetting.
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I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.
@Daojoan All while school generally focusses on what is measurable - grammar - killing interest and blinding children to the sheer joy of reading for pleasure.
Do no head teachers ever question teaching perverted by testing?
A Chinese boy I played Go with online loved chatting with me as conversational English was a profound release from intense grammar focus in China.
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I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.
@Daojoan same with movies and Letterboxd. I saw a thing where people try to watch 1000 movies a year and unless it's your literal job I can't imagine being able to watch and process and genuinely appreciate that many movies
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@hugoestr @Daojoan I've been doing several "slow reads" lately. Either by reading a chapter a week - currently doing Carl Sagan's Cosmos for that. Or a little each day for really long books. I recently finished the audiobook of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which I started in December and listened to about 30 minutes a day most days. And it worked really well like that. I felt had had time to absorb and remember stuff, rather than rushing onwards and forgetting.
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I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.
@Daojoan even worse, imo, was when nanowrimo was big and people were sharing their tips for hitting the word count that made the product completely unreadable. Adding five to ten extraneous adjectives per sentence, lengthy recaps of the plot so far, having characters mishear dialogue for no reason other than to have it repeated. Just a complete misunderstanding of the point of writing
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I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.
@Daojoan @RalphBassfeld I did the 52 books in one year thing once. Just to have done it. I agree with Joan's post!
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I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.
@Daojoan is like a tobacco junkie needing to smoke 3 packs each day
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I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.
@Daojoan just because it can be quantified does not mean that it should be quantified. Is this another case of trying to make the measurable important? Or assuming that measurable things are a good proxy for important things (reading and thinking in this case)?
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I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.
@Daojoan No. The worst thing the internet did to reading was shortening ideas to the length of a social media post. You are in rarefied circles if the people you a surrounded by are competitively reading. The people I'm around brag, BRAG, about how few books they've read. Social posts from other semiliterates is high literature to these- and most- folks.
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I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.
@Daojoan why are you pissed at TikTok and not GoodReads? They started this crap with their challenges
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I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.
@Daojoan
This: And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.And it is OK to read the same book again because you are older, wiser, more open to ideas, whatever, and might learn something new. The number of times I have pulled a book of the shelf, re-read it, and thought "Huh, they changed some of the words." is significant. Spoiler alert - the book has been sitting on my shelf for a decade, the only thing that changed is me.
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I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.
@Daojoan I’m not sure when we decided, as a society, to have to quantify and measure everything.
Being early Gen X (the best generation) I can remember when having fun didn’t involve a calendar and an agenda.
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I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.
@Daojoan@mastodon.social tbf I grew up with Book It!, so I encountered competitive reading as a corporate-sponsored activity in, like, elementary/middle school
