Aotearoa Daily Kōrero 01/12/2023
Aotearoa Daily Kōrero 01/12/2023
Welcome to today’s daily kōrero!
Anyone can make the thread, first in first served. If you are here on a day and there’s no daily thread, feel free to create it!
Anyway, it’s just a chance to talk about your day, what you have planned, what you have done, etc.
So, how’s it going?
Thought for the day
How many books do you read per year?
Fiction / non-fiction doesn't matter.
I don't have a goal number; but try to get 1-2 per month. I also have a book club that I'm in, just a bunch of people from university, we "meet" on Signal and post our hot takes. Beyond books, I also read a lot of articles and papers, but generally avoid the "news".
I go on spurts of reading, and then not reading for a bit.
I used to always think that I didn't like reading, but I've now learned that I don't like reading Fiction, but really like reading Non-Fiction. I think because when you are at school, most of the prescribed reading is Fiction, I assumed I hated reading in general.
Now I'll read a handful of books a year, mostly in a row, then take a break for a bit until something piques my interest.
Now you’ve got an ereader I recommend dabbling in a bit of fiction! I also thought I didn’t like fiction until I found the things I actually enjoy reading. I particularly enjoy speculative/science fiction myself. Sometimes you find a book that you end up reading in a day or two because the story keeps you wanting to find out more. I liken it to watching TV or movies, but in my head.
School reading is always literary fiction, which is great but doesn’t really do it for me. I can see why it turns people off reading. I didn’t start reading regularly until after 30.
I read a good mix of both fiction and nonfiction, but there was a moment of realisation where I understood why I don't get as immersed in fiction as others.
There's a wide range of ability to visualise things in your head. Some people I know can invent fantasy worlds and walk through them in their minds.
I'm far at the other end of the spectrum, with virtually no ability to "see" things in my mind, sometimes called aphantasia.
Others I've spoken to have been in disbelief. I've been asked how I get any joy from reading if I can't visualise the fantasy world. I think I enjoy reading fiction for other reasons, but I don't enjoy re-reading anything I've read before, and I enjoy nonfiction just as much as fiction.
If you count manga as well, according to my reader app I've read 315 books so far this year, with a total of 1,751 hours spent (= ~74days).
You've read on average over 5 hours a day? Is that typical for you or was this year abnormal due to having time off work?
I don't know. I don't understand how anyone can really keep track of how many books or movies they consume in a year. To be fair I learnt to read when I was 3 or 4 though so I'm fairly fast by most people's standards.
I guess I read a few a week? Ramping up to about 4 or 5 if I'm stuck in bed, but I re-read a lot and some of it is light fiction and very fast to read.
I used to have to read acres and acres of nonfiction for work, but nowadays I only do that if I feel like it, and I try to make myself slow down.
I live in spread sheets 😆
Also there's Bookworm.nz, if you want a federated goodreads type site. I track on there as well as the spread sheet.
I generally don't re-read, other than some parenting books I've re-read when the kids got older for a new perspective, but when I re-read I don't write it down again. I'm more tracking which books I've read.
I use goodreads.com. It helps me find new books/series. It keeps track of how many I read (150-200ish a year).
Over a hundred. If we count re-reading, then well over over a thousand.
But if we aren't counting books read to kids, then I aim for one a month and am doing pretty poorly these last few years. I did 10 last year and have finished 7 so far this year (another almost finished).
I read a mix of fiction and nonfiction, a mix of genre, and a mix of physical, ebooks, and audiobooks, though these days it's mostly ebooks.
If we count kids books.....wow my numbers look very impressive, 3 - 7 every night and some during the day....so many 1000's
I was averaging around 30 per year, but have slowed down a lot in the last couple of years. I felt I was rushing a lot of books and would have a couple on the go at the same time. I try to read for enjoyment now, mainly fiction. Been awhile since I’ve read a good non-fiction book.
Try "atomic habits" or "the subtle art of not giving a fuck"
I used to average around 35 a year, them I got a Kobo subscription and churned through more than a hundred last year. This year I had to cancel Kobo and am sitting at 68 so far. It's mostly all fiction but I want to get into nonfiction next year as well.
I have Discworld on my list for next year, so there are 41 in that.
I'm mostly non-fiction these days. But I do like to mix it up.
I rarely read books and newspapers these days, prior 2010-2012 I still read them. Over time, a number of publishers went out of business.
Since pandemic I read webtoons mostly. In a single day I can read 4-5 webtoons with 1-10 chapters each webtoon.