Recent comments in /f/books

Paulrofnz t1_j54zssi wrote

Reply to Problem when Reading by beBenggu

I try to train myself to not skim read.

Every few pages, I might take a little break, close my eyes and recall what has happened in the last few pages, who the new characters were, what did whoever do etc. My punishment for failing to remember is to go back and re-read.

If, I am skimming a lot and can't stop, I figure its probably a book not worth my time as its not capturing my interest.

Also, for me at least, if I want to concentrate on anything, whether its a book, a videogame, TV, sports game or movie, the phone has to be in anther room, its far too distracting. With reading I may see a word or phrase that I want to look up on google and do so, then spend next ten minutes clicking on more and more stuff.

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polyphobicDE t1_j54wwhf wrote

Reply to comment by beBenggu in Problem when Reading by beBenggu

I think the general scrolling behavior and looking for something that entertains us makes us tend to jump towards the end of paragraphs quicker. And that behavior extends to the offline-world. How often do you read just the first sentences and then jump to the end, just to see if it's worth reading the whole thing, when you find a veeeery long Reddit post? Social Media does something with our attention span, definitely. Just google it, there are loads of scientific papers on this.

https://scholar.google.de/scholar?hl=de&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=social+media+attention+span&btnG=

I think Reddit is even worse because it has the highest text share, at least in some subs.

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Thalattos t1_j54ugat wrote

Reply to Problem when Reading by beBenggu

Like any unwanted habit, all you really can do is to re-train yourself. Read slow on purpose, if you catch yourself skimming, start over. Maybe it's possible to condition yourself (rewards for not skimming etc.), but I don't know.

​

I start to do it, when I'm either bored or the exact opposite, hyped for what's coming. I don't mind the bored skimming. Because of the other case I really started to like audiobooks, they force me to a certain tempo that's far slower than my normal reading speed and it's impossible to skim ahead.

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speedofplight t1_j54nu70 wrote

Reply to Problem when Reading by beBenggu

I have the same problem. What I found worked for me was to read the different parts out loud. I do realise that this only works at home.

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IamEclipse t1_j54male wrote

Reply to Problem when Reading by beBenggu

I sometimes do this too, especially when I get into good reading flow. My mind runs away with the text.

I've found that manually stopping, and starting the page again helps reset my flow, but it is something you have to do manually.

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RaderH2O OP t1_j5497u1 wrote

Reply to comment by Raemle in Greetings everyone! A lot of people say reading books is beneficial for you, though... by RaderH2O

Hmmm, I think I get your point now...Some matters just can't be directly told, and in fiction, a lot of them are expressed with allegory as you mentioned. A good point of view! Also cannot deny the fact that it will always have some correlation to the human world since fiction has been written by a human being aftwr all!

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DifficultCharacter17 t1_j548fro wrote

Reply to comment by Alaira314 in I read the books Little Women, Little Men and Jo's Boys and here is my opinion and what did you think of these books? by Magister_Xehanort

I actually agree with you. I think Amy is a much better match for Laurie than Jo. Jo is too hot headed as is he. Also, both Jo and Laurie need more conventional partners to help them navigate society. The two of them together would have been cast off from polite society within 5 minutes of them getting married.

Also, I think the book is clear that Jo never saw Laurie as anything more than a brother, and she never really wavered on that point. Amy also always had a bit of a crush on Laurie. The book burning happens because she wants to go out with Jo and Laurie. She interacts with him only when she goes to stay at Aunt March’s the first time Beth gets sick. He organizes all the boys to buy her artwork when it gets relegated to a lesser table at that fair/bazaar, I can’t remember exactly what they called it. She is brave enough to call him on his Lazy Laurence behavior and tell him he is behaving like a big baby. And they are both able to grow together in their grief when Beth dies since they are away from the rest of the family. There is a thread of the two of them together through the whole book that makes them seem plausible once they got together.

I just think Jo is everyone’s favorite so they want her to have the rich handsome husband instead of the old, kind of unkempt professor. I think he works for Jo because Jo loves him for the teacher with the big heart that he is. They are true partners with their school going forward. Their paring reminds me somewhat of Jo’s own parents. It always seemed like Marmee was the more practical one of the two and Mr. Laurence was more the dreamer. I think I may be in the minority but I never wanted Jo to end up with Laurie.

Edited to add: I meant Mr March was a dreamer! Marmee wasn’t married to Mr. Laurence! Sorry!

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Fireflair_kTreva t1_j546gi3 wrote

Reply to comment by Avahna in Babel, or The Necessity of Violence by R.F. Kuang by [deleted]

I feel the Kuang doesn't do good character development, in any of her works. Babel was better than the Poppy War, by far, but I think she has a ways to go as a writer in this regard.

I enjoyed Babel more than her previous works, and I liked the connection of language. In fact I feel that the book is much more about the being an outsider bit and the examination of language than anything else.

Side note for you, when doing hidden text, don't put a space after the !, otherwise it doesn't take.

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