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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@Daojoan
Was anyone convinced of that?@Photo55 @Daojoan yes!! especially when using apps like goodreads or storygraph. i used to blog/post on instagram about books, the culture was really about reading as *many* books as you could, even if you didn’t like them. it’s still very much the same, on goodreads and especially on booktok. it sounds really silly but realising that i could read 15 good books a year rather than 50-100 mediocre ones was quite revolutionary
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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.
i don't have a problem with it, some people have a competitive mentality & they literally would never do anything except to keep up with the Joneses -- any kind of reading exercises the brain, the imagination, & empathy even if it's just not that deep
plus many fast reads aren't worth spending too much time on, the Jenna's Pick I'm listening to now (moral of the story: rich Florida sucks) doesn't need deep thought, it's something we already know
disclosure: i do read a lot at speed
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@Daojoan true though my local library literally encouraged competitive reading over the summer holidays in the 90s
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@peachfront @Daojoan yeah, it was one of the things I looked forward to over the summer
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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 What the current interactions on internet do is connecting people with other people, or fake representations of, in a "gamified" environment. Most games, to turn on our addiction, are competitive, requiring you you outperform the other partecipants.
So, it's not just on books: every interaction is planned by the game masters to make you search for a win.
In the end, this may be one of the reasons it's all resulting in a "shame machine", as described by Cathy O'Neil in her... books. -
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.
I think the rise in audio books has a lot to do with this. I'm not convinced people are "reading" as much as we used to.
And that's not a slight on audio books, btw.
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@Daojoan I don’t think the internet did that organically. There’s major marketing involved in turning books into a basic consumable.
some books are basic consumables
some GENRES are basic consumables
i sometimes wonder if non romance readers have ANY clue about how many many many gay hockey romances were published every month (almost all by self published authors) since (i wanna say) maybe 2012 or 2013 before the world took notice and made a TV series
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I've gotten used to it. If a show doesn't hold my interest past episode 3 or 4, it's done for me. It's why I've never watched much beloved shows who take 3 seasons to get good like DS9. I got better shit to do then slog through multiple seasons of "it's fine I guess" when there's so much else to watch.
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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.
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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 I love this
I do think it can be beneficial to see reading & thinking as a practice - until recently I had fallen out of reading books & had a fear that I was somehow left behind. Especially when seeing lists and recommendations that seemed so far beyond what I had time or energy for.
Lately I've been reading whatever makes me keep reading, and I'm not focused on a number of books, rather I want reading to be something I do most days and something I do to relax.
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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 for soo many good things in life ruined because of competition
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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 One thing I like to do is to limit myself to read only one hour each day (specially with Philosophy books), so I can think about the book the rest of the 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.
Me: I just finished "War and Peace" last night!
Gimli: Still only counts as one! -
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.
