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 "finishing books is a competitive sport".
Interesting, I hadn't even heard. Are there prizes?
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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 personally I try to review most of them in writing, and keep a list just for myself. Various views on the counting trend in this recent Guardian piece: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/feb/21/last-year-i-read-137-books-could-setting-targets-help-you-put-down-your-phone-and-pick-up-a-book
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@raymaccarthy @Daojoan oh, I'll pass. Seems like it would be too easy to cheat in any 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 important is quality not quantity
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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 is so true... Well said -
@benroyce
This is a bad attempt of a joke.Not only it's the bad kind of cringe, it's now making me have a cascade response because of my AuADHD.
And now I am very angry and down, because I have to relive some shit in a fucking dark period of my life.
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alright sorry, i'll delete it
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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 It was common practice in past centuries, amongst the learned, to read portions of books piecemeal. They would also mark the books up and/or write about them in commonplace books.
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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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@Daojoan@mastodon.social Nice of you to force your convictions onto others. I read for pleasure and knowledge. If I read a lot, it’s my business, not yours.
No TV no movies. To each their own.@jaypeach53 There are entire swaths of the interned devoted to competitive book reading. It's crazy stuff.
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@Daojoan you can even stop reading a book you don’t enjoy, or read a book you like several times.
Mad I know. -
@arratoon
Yeah, that is even quoted on the action's page, yet I was looking for a primary source to verify.And to expand this is troublesome advice. Books can be in storage or electronic or audio. You can read magazines, zines, long-form articles, and still be a decent person.
Because often such thinking is intellectual snobbery, as books are often expensive and require time.
@dzwiedziu @arratoon @Daojoan 30 years ago, if someone was a reader there would be no hiding it. All books were paper, and even if some were stored there would always be books at hand.
Now this clue is no longer available. Instead, you would actually have to *talk* to someone to find this out. I knew, how inconvenient!
Note that I’m not saying someone that isn’t a reader isn’t worth knowing, that would indeed be snobbery. But it is a useful data point.
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@dzwiedziu @arratoon @Daojoan 30 years ago, if someone was a reader there would be no hiding it. All books were paper, and even if some were stored there would always be books at hand.
Now this clue is no longer available. Instead, you would actually have to *talk* to someone to find this out. I knew, how inconvenient!
Note that I’m not saying someone that isn’t a reader isn’t worth knowing, that would indeed be snobbery. But it is a useful data point.
@provuejim
Yes, that's a good observation.And if instead of this coming naturally from a conversation, they are telling you not prompted and how, that will be another nice data point.
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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.
@FreakyFwoof @Daojoan I read a lot, but I tell people they don't have to read as much as I do. I spend most of my free time reading. I encourage people to just read!
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B bogwitch@social.data.coop shared this topic
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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 After I exported my ebooks from Kindle and on to a regular ePub reader, all the gamification bullshit went away. That is really so much better.
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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 Are people competitively reading now!? First it was yoga and now this. I blame those childhood readathons.
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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 another facet: you don't need to finish a book at all. if you aren't having fun or valuable thoughts, don't feel safe with the topic, need a break from it, and so on: you can put a book aside and revisit it in a different frame of reference or never
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I've long stopped bothering much with compulsion to finish a book I've started. Also, I excel at procrastinating by not posting to that fedi book site I made an account on to document how I not finish reading.
Otoh it makes me proud when I keep at a specific book and get myself over that lengthy part on p. 320-350 of 700 because, well, growing to like the $whateverDetail there often does make the book and "experience" better. -
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 very late in the game joining social media. Often people would ask me how I could stay informed. I did not understand the question. I read books (fiction and various nonfiction), read articles (not only the headlines), listen to a variety of public radio broadcasts and podcasts. I was also aware of most of the silly memes. I really appreciated your comment about the value of reading books.
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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 Now with AI we all can pretend like we read a book every day.
