Felix Herder
JA WestenbergI genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.
Andre Louis@Daojoan Perfect @anon_opin right there. Couldn't agree more.
Nicovel0 🍉@Daojoan you can even stop reading a book you don’t enjoy, or read a book you like several times.
Mad I know.
Mad I know.
Nazo
Jess👾I've gotten used to it. If a show doesn't hold my interest past episode 3 or 4, it's done for me. It's why I've never watched much beloved shows who take 3 seasons to get good like DS9. I got better shit to do then slog through multiple seasons of "it's fine I guess" when there's so much else to watch.
Cattivo Strega ✅bonafide🇨🇦@JessTheUnstill @nazokiyoubinbou @Nicovel0 @Daojoan
Same. I drop books, walk out of movies, turn off music. If it sucks? My opinion should matter to me. And my time matters to me and others.
Being judicious is a life skill.
Oblomov
Edelruth, PBS Passport Holder
Andrea
Dźwiedziu@Daojoan
There was a Polish social campaign that stated “You don't read I'm not going to bed with you.”
(Supposedly based on a John Waters quote that I couldn't find a primary source for on a glance.)
Edit: I misremembered the exact slogan of the campaign having “books” in it.
Referring generally to reading, not just books, is a better stance.
Najbardziej niepokorna kampania promująca czytelnictwo!
Kochamy książki miłością prawie że fizyczną. Chcemy zachęcać do odkrywania czytania na nowo – tym razem w kontekście nieco erotycznym. Bo przecież nie ma nic bardziej pociągającego, niż fajna osoba z dobrą książką, w odpowiednio dobranej pościeli.
Arratoon@dzwiedziu @Daojoan Off the top of my head the John Waters quote was something like: “If you go back to someone’s house and they don’t have any books don’t fuck them.” Sound advice.
@arratoon
Yeah, that is even quoted on the action's page, yet I was looking for a primary source to verify.
And to expand this is troublesome advice. Books can be in storage or electronic or audio. You can read magazines, zines, long-form articles, and still be a decent person.
Because often such thinking is intellectual snobbery, as books are often expensive and require time.
Jim Rea@dzwiedziu @arratoon @Daojoan 30 years ago, if someone was a reader there would be no hiding it. All books were paper, and even if some were stored there would always be books at hand.
Now this clue is no longer available. Instead, you would actually have to *talk* to someone to find this out. I knew, how inconvenient!
Note that I’m not saying someone that isn’t a reader isn’t worth knowing, that would indeed be snobbery. But it is a useful data point.
@provuejim
Yes, that's a good observation.
And if instead of this coming naturally from a conversation, they are telling you not prompted and how, that will be another nice data point.
Stoneface Vimes@Daojoan hear hear.
noplasticshower@Daojoan I don't know about that...I missed 52 by one last year in a crushing defeat that I only got over after 3 minutes.
Luci ☯⚛@Daojoan It did that to a lot of things that I imagine we'd consider indulging in the arts, whether as a first-party or third-party enjoyer. It used to be such a mindful activity. Now it feels like everything wants us to see art as work. Both the initial creation as well as our interactions with art.
I long for society to remember to be mindful and intentional again.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
MidgePhoto@Daojoan
Was anyone convinced of that?
Was anyone convinced of that?
holly 🐜@Photo55 @Daojoan yes!! especially when using apps like goodreads or storygraph. i used to blog/post on instagram about books, the culture was really about reading as *many* books as you could, even if you didn’t like them. it’s still very much the same, on goodreads and especially on booktok. it sounds really silly but realising that i could read 15 good books a year rather than 50-100 mediocre ones was quite revolutionary 😅😅
patricus
Fish in the Percolator@Daojoan guilty as charged (quantifying is addictive too...)
Gary Houston@Daojoan "finishing books is a competitive sport".
Interesting, I hadn't even heard. Are there prizes?
Ray McCarthy@raymaccarthy @Daojoan oh, I'll pass. Seems like it would be too easy to cheat in any case.
Andromeda
Stage name Jay Peach@Daojoan Nice of you to force your convictions onto others. I read for pleasure and knowledge. If I read a lot, it’s my business, not yours.
No TV no movies. To each their own.
No TV no movies. To each their own.
That’s a moray@jaypeach53 There are entire swaths of the interned devoted to competitive book reading. It's crazy stuff.
@Bumblefish I’m not a competition book reader. I just read a lot. Currently I have 6 books in various states of completion. But I started rereading The Hunger Games trilogy which has expanded to 5 books, and I’m binge reading them. So apropos.
Flavia Marques@Daojoan I’ve been reading a lot these past couple of years, and I didn’t realize how much I’d been missing. You’re absolutely right. I finished a book yesterday, and it’s still sitting with me. I’m not ready to move on to another one just yet.
@Daojoan
I abandoned Goodreads ages ago, even before Amazon bought it.
I abandoned Goodreads ages ago, even before Amazon bought it.
michael@Daojoan personally I try to review most of them in writing, and keep a list just for myself. Various views on the counting trend in this recent Guardian piece: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/feb/21/last-year-i-read-137-books-could-setting-targets-help-you-put-down-your-phone-and-pick-up-a-book
‘Last year I read 137 books’: could setting targets help you put down your phone and pick up a book?
BookTok influencer Jack Edwards motivates himself with reading goals – and he’s not alone. Authors and avid readers discuss the rise of metrics, and reveal how many books they finished last year
AccordionBruce@proseandpassion @Daojoan
My phone cut that off leaving me to anticipate an alternate article that would be interesting to compare, “Last year I read One book”
Reading books isn’t always a mentally or physically healthy activity
Just like going to the gym all the time isn’t
I don’t keep count but can definitely say if I read a few less books and took a few more walks it might be a better balance
Readers with dogs likely don’t have those problem
François @Jura
Suramya Tomar@Daojoan
This is so true... Well said
This is so true... Well said
Barry Schwartz 🫖@Daojoan It was common practice in past centuries, amongst the learned, to read portions of books piecemeal. They would also mark the books up and/or write about them in commonplace books.
Adam van Sertima@chemoelectric @Daojoan “On advice that books, once started, should be read all the way through: "This is surely a strange advice; you may as well resolve that whatever men you happen to get acquainted with, you are to keep them for life. A book may be good for nothing; or there may be only one thing in it worth knowing; are we to read it all through?"-Samuel Johnson, 18th C English writer.
@adamvs1 Anyway, who would want to read a dictionary all through, but the most boring of persons? Not even a lexicographer would read their own dictionary that way, except for galley proofing.
ChookMother 🇦🇺🦘@Daojoan Even a game of solitaire has to have point scores and "levels". Ludicrous when some deals are unsolvable. Either you clear all the cards or you don't. It's just a pastime, not the effin olympics.
Ewen Bell 📸
Keri Svendsen@FreakyFwoof @Daojoan I read a lot, but I tell people they don't have to read as much as I do. I spend most of my free time reading. I encourage people to just read!
Morten Juhl-Johansen@Daojoan After I exported my ebooks from Kindle and on to a regular ePub reader, all the gamification bullshit went away. That is really so much better.
Alsy
alina cyborg mouse 
@Daojoan another facet: you don't need to finish a book at all. if you aren't having fun or valuable thoughts, don't feel safe with the topic, need a break from it, and so on: you can put a book aside and revisit it in a different frame of reference or never
Softspeak@Daojoan I feel as though children book programs focus on quantity over actually understanding what they are reading. Most people know Moby Dick is about Captain Ahab hunting a White Whale, but I doubt some people understand that the book is really about futility of taking revenge over the natural world.
Carsten RaddatzI've long stopped bothering much with compulsion to finish a book I've started. Also, I excel at procrastinating by not posting to that fedi book site I made an account on to document how I not finish reading.
Otoh it makes me proud when I keep at a specific book and get myself over that lengthy part on p. 320-350 of 700 because, well, growing to like the $whateverDetail there often does make the book and "experience" better.
Otoh it makes me proud when I keep at a specific book and get myself over that lengthy part on p. 320-350 of 700 because, well, growing to like the $whateverDetail there often does make the book and "experience" better.
Coleen Walter@Daojoan I am very late in the game joining social media. Often people would ask me how I could stay informed. I did not understand the question. I read books (fiction and various nonfiction), read articles (not only the headlines), listen to a variety of public radio broadcasts and podcasts. I was also aware of most of the silly memes. I really appreciated your comment about the value of reading books.
wolfie 🐺
Gustavo
nixFREAK@Daojoan What the current interactions on internet do is connecting people with other people, or fake representations of, in a "gamified" environment. Most games, to turn on our addiction, are competitive, requiring you you outperform the other partecipants.
So, it's not just on books: every interaction is planned by the game masters to make you search for a win.
In the end, this may be one of the reasons it's all resulting in a "shame machine", as described by Cathy O'Neil in her... books.
So, it's not just on books: every interaction is planned by the game masters to make you search for a win.
In the end, this may be one of the reasons it's all resulting in a "shame machine", as described by Cathy O'Neil in her... books.
Gish Gallop@Daojoan Someone I know claims to read a lot but in fact listens to audio books at speed.
Kim Possible 
@Daojoan I think you are right about this. Some people do benefit from modest goals, say 12 books a year, or to read more books from marginalized authors, but Netgalley* was all I did for a while, and I had to quit. I was reading 200 books a year. I needed to slow down and make time for other things. It feels much better to let go of reading goals and just have the goal of reading remarkably, no matter how long it takes.
Thank you for saying this.
*a website that allows reading of books before they are published, in exchange for review.
arclight
Stefan Scholl
Amy@Daojoan @briankrebs I love this <3
I do think it can be beneficial to see reading & thinking as a practice - until recently I had fallen out of reading books & had a fear that I was somehow left behind. Especially when seeing lists and recommendations that seemed so far beyond what I had time or energy for.
Lately I've been reading whatever makes me keep reading, and I'm not focused on a number of books, rather I want reading to be something I do most days and something I do to relax.
CrazyDogLadySezPEACE@amypotato @Daojoan @briankrebs I spent a couple decades trying to “balance” my reading by alternating fiction and nonfiction. I gave up last year and decided to read as much fiction as I wanted with nonfiction when I felt like it. I probably read about the same amount, but I am SO much happier.
n1k0
Toot Terrorist@Daojoan One thing I like to do is to limit myself to read only one hour each day (specially with Philosophy books), so I can think about the book the rest of the day.
TeacherThomasMe: I just finished "War and Peace" last night!
Gimli: Still only counts as one!