Thank you, @revcd! Both for your reply and your offering.
There are many authors I'm interested in and plenty of books I'd love to read, but the truth is I don't have the bandwidth for reading many books. So a decade ago, I pivoted to reading about books and authors, mainly on Wikipedia, where I spend an hour or two every night hopping from one interesting article to another. This gives me culture and a broad perspective on many topics, which I enjoy and find helpful in life, though it's admittedly a shallow understanding.
This might be considered sacrilege by many, but here's how I see it: many books that would take weeks to read can be distilled into a few key ideas and pages that can be absorbed in an hour. So instead of comitting to a single book for weeks, I read the encyclopedia and explore a broader range of topics and authors with the same effort.
I do read books as well, though not that many. When I do, I often summarize them on Wikipedia, as I did, for example, with Marriage and morals by Bertrand Russell, which has deeply influenced my views on love, freedom and happiness.
A unique approach, I like it! I too dislike the idea popularised by BookTok to read N books per year; this kind of "make number go up" style of reading feels pointless and disingenuous.
I'm aligned with you that it's far more important to be intentional with your reading, and read broadly (avoiding "must-read" lists), in whatever form that consumption may occur — be it books, articles, papers, or Wikipedia!
Thank you, @revcd! Both for your reply and your offering.
There are many authors I'm interested in and plenty of books I'd love to read, but the truth is I don't have the bandwidth for reading many books. So a decade ago, I pivoted to reading about books and authors, mainly on Wikipedia, where I spend an hour or two every night hopping from one interesting article to another. This gives me culture and a broad perspective on many topics, which I enjoy and find helpful in life, though it's admittedly a shallow understanding.
This might be considered sacrilege by many, but here's how I see it: many books that would take weeks to read can be distilled into a few key ideas and pages that can be absorbed in an hour. So instead of comitting to a single book for weeks, I read the encyclopedia and explore a broader range of topics and authors with the same effort.
I do read books as well, though not that many. When I do, I often summarize them on Wikipedia, as I did, for example, with Marriage and morals by Bertrand Russell, which has deeply influenced my views on love, freedom and happiness.
A unique approach, I like it! I too dislike the idea popularised by BookTok to read N books per year; this kind of "make number go up" style of reading feels pointless and disingenuous.
I'm aligned with you that it's far more important to be intentional with your reading, and read broadly (avoiding "must-read" lists), in whatever form that consumption may occur — be it books, articles, papers, or Wikipedia!