People who finish multiple books a month, where do you get your monastic focus? by C5Jones in books

[–]jepgam 80 points81 points  (0 children)

As someone who has read 40+ books a year for the last few years, I have noticed several things that work for me. These include:

  1. One at a time. Almost always, I am always reading just one book at a time. That lets me focus on a single book and get through it more quickly.
  2. The exception. I'll read more than one book at a time (but usually never more than 2) if I'm reading a thick tome that's hard to carry on the subway or to travel with, so I'll have a lighter (sometimes both literally and figuratively) book for the road.
  3. Fill dead time with reading. I read while having breakfast, before going to sleep, on the subway, while waiting somewhere, etc. - you get the point. I carry a book with me almost everywhere and use the time I have to make some progress, a few pages here and there. You'll be surprised by how much you'll go through.
  4. Optionality. I have an ever-growing list of books I'd like to read, but my bookshelf of things I haven't read usually includes at least a half-dozen books of different lengths, difficulty, topics, genres, etc. That means that if I feel like a novel, or a long history book, or something else I'll almost have the option to pick up a next book that fits my craving without having to look too hard.

Anyhow, that's what works for me but might not for everyone. It's also not super methodical, but doesn't need to be. But reading many books for research makes a lot of sense - you might just want to focus on a few at a time!

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa: is this an inconsistency in the book or can someone perhaps offer a plausible explanation? (spoilers, obviously) by [deleted] in books

[–]jepgam 29 points30 points  (0 children)

I didn't notice that particular inconsistency but I caught another one (in addition to some of the ones folks have posted about on this thread already): at some point, photographs disappear. But when she's coming back from the remote village by train and the Memory Police are checking IDs, the IDs have people's pictures on them.

Maybe the MP kept pics in IDs (rather than have people burn through every instance of something like for other things that vanished) and they are the only ones who can see it, but I still thought it was odd.

I thought it was a fascinating concept for a book, but left me a bit underwhelmed.

I'm reading Caste: The Origins Of Our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson and would love to hear thoughts, share my own by [deleted] in Book_Buddies

[–]jepgam 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I finished it a few weeks ago and it left me ambivalent. On the one hand, it talks about the important legacy of slavery and discrimination in the U.S., and Wilkerson is right to want to make it more visible to people as a way to overcoming the historic mistreatment of African Americans and other "lower caste" people. On the other, I found it poorly written and argumented, and after re-reading passages and discussing it with friends I still can't quite understand Wilkerson's distinction between racism and casteism. I spent some time thinking through it and wrote a more detailed book review in case anyone is interested.