Ask HN: How much time do you spend reading books?

Sometimes 1-3 hours a day, sometimes never. It is important to build the reading habit.

My tips? Make a goal of reading a single book for 30 minutes somewhere quiet. If you have a smartphone and/or smartwatch, put them in a different room. Now resolve to read an interesting book for 30 minutes.

If you are looking for engaging recommendations, check out Replay by Ken Grimwood[1]. Try not to read too much about the plot before reading it. If you're a younger person, the book will serve as a warning. If you're an older person, it will hit hard.

1. https://www.amazon.com/Replay-Ken-Grimwood/dp/068816112X

I read 1-3 hours a day. Usually 1-2 hours reading on my Kindle before bed. Then another hour or so via audiobook while walking, doing chores, in the car etc...

But sometimes I will go through a slump, then see a book that really looks interesting and get into it.

Don't feel bad about starting a book and then not finishing it. Life's too short to read books you're not into.

How much time do you spend reading books?

It varies from year to year, month to month, and even week to week. But for quite some time now I've been really focused on doing a lot of "deep dive" backgrounding on various AI topics. During this period I've read probably 30'ish books (it's been 2+ years now).

For the most part, I carve out time to study very specifically. I'd say a normal week is reading/studying for 3-5 hours on Friday evening after work, then putting in 8 or 9 hours on Saturday, and then probably 3-4 hours on Sunday (during football season) and maybe 6-7 hours on Sunday (non football season). Then maybe another aggregate total of 3-5 hours throughout the rest of the work-week. And then mix in maybe another hour or two a week for reading fiction (that's more sporadic though, so don't take this bit too literally).

Totaling it all up, that's something like 20-30'ish hours as week. Keep in mind, most of this stuff is textbooks which are pretty dense and don't read real fast. I used to read a lot of novels, but I've largely fallen off on the fiction reading lately since I've been so research focused. I think I've read maybe 4 novels this year and am working on the 5th now (Book One of the "Bobiverse" series).

I feel that it's important to build the habit of reading books to improve my cognitive skills. Are there any tips for me please?

Hard to say. I've been an avid reader for basically my entire life, so it comes very naturally to me. The one thing I will observe though, is that over the past 5+ years I've noticed that I find it harder and harder to stay focused on one thing when it comes to video content. I can't watch a movie or tv show without constantly stopping to check Twitter, Facebook, HN, email, news.google.com, etc. But when I sit down with a book, I can just "lock in" and read for hours at a time mostly uninterrupted. My experience may not generalize, but if you try to make yourself read a bit, you may find that reading (paper books) might help you have similar periods of focus? That is, assuming such a thing is important to you.

In either case, read if you enjoy it and derive value from it. But don't read just because you feel like other people are telling you ought to read. "To thine own self be true" and all that jazz...

I've been in a similar slump for a while now (lectures + paper skims >> books + coding), so this is advice I'm telling myself right now. Put a stack of good books in a place where you see them several times a day. There's a good chance their presence will taunt you into reading them. Maybe charge your phone on the stack. Don't feel guilty about skipping around between books. Do feel guilty about neglecting them. I'm going to null route HN and YouTube for the remainder of November. Thanks for the question.

Nowadays I only have time to read 1) very technical books (think something close to Lion's comments on UNIX VI), or 2) parenting books.

I spent about 30-60 minutes every day.

Yes, most people in this age are trapped in the widespread phenomenon of "digital media induced dopamine traps". Your mind may never let you use old school slow information gathering tools (like books, manuals and software documentation) when easy and instant servings like LLM lookups and youtube vids are so accessible. Your mind might ask "why go through all that pain and trouble, what's the use of it?" and you'll have no easy answer to that.

15 to 20 hours a week give or take.

I’m at 117 books read on the year.

The only tip is that if you actually want to read more you’ll do it. If you don’t do it, you’re only telling yourself you want to read more and you’ll continue to prefer to watch hour long documentaries/TED talks/programming tutorials on Youtube.

For non-IT books, physical copies work best for me. In my case, it not only helps but is absolutely essential - completely shutting down the computer at the end of the day, with a firm decision that it stays off until tomorrow. The exception is IT books that require interaction, like typing code - then it's completely the opposite: only PDFs work, and reading them on the computer is the way to go.

With a rule of no phones in the bedroom, reading a book at bed time becomes a habit. I read about a time in history which interests me, classic novels, some modern fiction. You would need to find your own niche. Don't read self help books, it's meant to be enjoyable!

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