On Reading

In the last couple years, I have started reading several books, but finished very few. It would seem that my appetite for new knowledge doesn’t have a very long attention span.

Meanwhile, I spend night after night reading as much as I can from my feed reader, which right this instant clocks in at 501 subscriptions, with 1295 unread articles. I have yet to discover anyone who is subscribed to more feeds than I am.

Now I know that sounds staggering, and it should, but I don’t read everything. Indeed, it would be pretty much impossible to do so. But I do make quite an effort, and in doing so I have initiated the reading of countless streams of never-ending text. Yet more books I will never finish.

One thing I did recently finish, in one sitting, is Patrick Combs’s story from 1995 about cashing a junk mail check for over $95,000. Not sure how long it would be as a book but it would certainly take more physical pages than the 10 or so webpages that the story is split into.

The other day at work I printed out a page of Google API documentation that I was reading, and it came out to about 36 pages. I had already pretty much read the whole thing by the time I hit “Print”, so I was taken aback a little bit at just how much I must read in any given day without skipping a beat.

I’m even starting to read books on my iPhone. Right now I’m reading Edwin A. Abbott’s Flatland as part of the fun little Classics application. So there’s yet another incomplete reading.

So I guess the point is that I read a lot. My hunger for knowledge cannot be satiated.

So how do you occupy your time? Video games? Some sort of physical activity? Let me know in the comments.

09:15 PM | 3 Comments

Comments

  1. 53 feeds. 0 unread. I usually just skim titles, but I try to empty out feed counts on a daily basis. Some feeds I don’t even bother with and just mark the whole thing as read. If there’s something interesting and I don’t have time I might star it or e-mail it to myself. I’ve got a hefty stack of things to read during off times. Every semester, for example, I start a “Things to Read in May/December” folder, which I rarely get to even during the break. Sometimes I print them out and leave them on my desk if I think it’s something I’ll eventually really need to read.

    But yeah, when I’m not out with friends, or not at school/work, I am reading. In place of APIs it’s practice manuals for courts, or caselaw, or federal/state regulations. At home it’s random things on the net, typically technology or law related. When I have long drives, I like to listen to books from my iPod. Once a week or so I will watch a basketball game, or an episode of Law & Order. If I can, I go to the gym or go for a run a few times a week. There’s much less sitting around talking until 4 or 5 like we used to do in South C-shire. Reading has pretty much become it for me.

    Tommy on

  2. Hey Grant! You rock. Read on!

    I mostly read journals and textbooks. But I wouldn’t suggest those to anyone. For fun, you should read “Peppermints in the Parlor.” Its a juvenile fiction about an orphan who goes to live in a creepy mansion full of sad old people and forbidden peppermints, all of which are shrouded in mystery. But it has the most delightful ending.

    Erin on

  3. oh fun an interactive post! i mostly just listen to books as its easier than carying the thing around. i just finished hot, flat, and crowded by thomas friedman and the world without us by i forget who. both were full of lots of good random facts but they were pretty long winded. i had to set the ipod to fast speed. i also finally finished pimsleur japanese 1 and am a few lessons into japanese 2. also my feed list only has 15 subscriptions with 32 unread. i enjoyed marking every one of your posts read the other day when the feed screwed up.

    austin on
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