Mastodawn

Leanne Wu Mar 3

I 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 Mar 2

@Daojoan Perfect @anon_opin right there. Couldn't agree more.

Nicovel0 🍉Mar 2

@Daojoan you can even stop reading a book you don’t enjoy, or read a book you like several times.
Mad I know.

@Nicovel0 @Daojoan

cue Daniel Pennac's “the rights of the reader”

Edelruth, PBS Passport Holder Mar 2

@oblomov @Nicovel0 @Daojoan

I don't know this. Gotta go look that up.

Edelruth, PBS Passport Holder Mar 2

@Nicovel0 @Daojoan

Yes! Doing that now, in fact. Hiding from a real world war I cannot stop in a fictional combat that I already know the outcome of. The comfort read is therapy.

@Daojoan Thank you for saying that!

Dźwiedziu Mar 2

@Daojoan
There was a Polish social campaign that stated “You don't read I'm not going to bed with you.”

https://nieczytasz.pl/o-nas

(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.

Nie czytasz? Nie idę z Tobą do łóżka!

Stoneface Vimes Mar 2

@Daojoan hear hear.

noplasticshower Mar 2

@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 ☯⚛Mar 2

@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 Mar 2

"I genuinely think"

sorry my eyes glazed over at this point

could you do a TLDR?

(/s)

MidgePhoto Mar 2

@Daojoan
Was anyone convinced of that?

holly 🐜Mar 2

@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 😅😅

@Daojoan yep. give me dungeon crawler Carl style stuff I'd disappear for few days.

Fish in the Percolator Mar 2

@Daojoan guilty as charged (quantifying is addictive too...)

Gary Houston Mar 2

@Daojoan "finishing books is a competitive sport".

Interesting, I hadn't even heard. Are there prizes?

Ray McCarthy Mar 2

@ghouston @Daojoan
Only ego stroking on social media etc.

Gary Houston Mar 2

@raymaccarthy @Daojoan oh, I'll pass. Seems like it would be too easy to cheat in any case.

DorfCaninae[Andromeda]Mar 2

@Daojoan or take pauses from one book, I like to do that as that makes me enjoy the book more and I can play around with the characters in my head between reading sessions :3

Stage name Jay Peach Mar 2

@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.

Flavia Marques Mar 2

@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.

Ray McCarthy Mar 2

@Daojoan
I abandoned Goodreads ages ago, even before Amazon bought it.

@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

The Guardian

AccordionBruce Mar 3

@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 Mar 2

@Daojoan important is quality not quantity

Suramya Tomar Mar 2

@Daojoan
This is so true... Well said

Barry Schwartz 🫖Mar 2

@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.

ChookMother 🇦🇺🦘Mar 2

@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 📸Mar 2

@Daojoan

100% and thanks for the reminder.

Keri Svendsen Mar 2

@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 Mar 2

@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.

@Daojoan Are people competitively reading now!? First it was yoga and now this. I blame those childhood readathons.

alina cyborg mouse

neomouse_cyborg

@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 Mar 2

@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 Raddatz Mar 2

I'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.

Coleen Walter Mar 2

@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 🐺Mar 2

@Daojoan true though my local library literally encouraged competitive reading over the summer holidays in the 90s 😁

@Daojoan it reminds me of churches convincing people to read the entire Bible every year but without any support. Then people read it and don't think about it. If they thought about what they read you would have way more people complaining about its weird parts!

@Daojoan hmm wonder if this is one of the factors in reading comprehension?

@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.

@Daojoan Someone I know claims to read a lot but in fact listens to audio books at speed.

@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.

@Daojoan I think I've been reading Gödel-Escher-Bach for 30 years. Every few years I discover my copy, read a chapter, then put it aside.

Stefan Scholl Mar 2

@Daojoan I heard this on #BookTok.

@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 Mar 2

@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.

@Daojoan same for soo many good things in life ruined because of competition 😭

Toot Terrorist Mar 2

@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.

TeacherThomas Mar 2

Me: I just finished "War and Peace" last night!
Gimli: Still only counts as one!

@Daojoan I assure you lists of what you have read and reading counts were invented by people (and schools!) well before the internet.

A-nom-nom-nom-aly BSC SSC Mar 2

Before the internet, I used to read at least 1 book every week or two.

At some point in the mid to late 2000's... That slowed to just a few a year.

Then in the mid to late 2010's... I started reading a little more again... at least one book a month on avg.

I still read a lot... but it's articles online now that take up a large chunk of it... I switched to reading books on a tablet sometime around 12-13yrs ago

Deborah Rose ❌👑Mar 2

@Daojoan The stack of books at my bedside won't read themselves unless I make goals regarding reading time. (hour a day at the very least) I also belong to a book club, so I try to have the book of the month read for discussion purposes.

@Daojoan I am teaching an afterschool "Immersive Book Club" this semester for my 3-5 grade kids. We have a chart in the classroom that starts with "Its okay to give up on a book."

I cant believe how many kids found this concept to be shocking.

vandenberglegs Mar 2

@seolucius @Daojoan I really struggled with giving up until a few years ago. Felt like some sort of moral failing if I didn't finish a book no matter how much I was hating it. Now? I'll happily put a book aside for later or not at all. Life's too short.

@vandenberglegs @Daojoan absolutely!

(I confess, its still kinda hard for me, but Im getting there!)

monstreline Mar 2

@Daojoan Thanks! I needed to hear that today.

In my pre-teen and early teen years, I would read so much that sometimes, I would be caught unaware by the morning light just to realize that I had read all night and now had to go to school.

MANY concussions later, I can't read a book. I can't connect the events on one page to the events on another, and sometimes not even to events earlier on the page.

It's as though my contemporary brain narrates books rather than reading them.

When I miss that feeling of reading, I usually open one of those books that I read when I was reading all night. Stories so ingrained in my brain that I can read them without feeling completely lost.

Neil Moffatt Mar 2

@Daojoan All while school generally focusses on what is measurable - grammar - killing interest and blinding children to the sheer joy of reading for pleasure.

Do no head teachers ever question teaching perverted by testing?

A Chinese boy I played Go with online loved chatting with me as conversational English was a profound release from intense grammar focus in China.

Tom Magnanimous Mar 2

@Daojoan even worse, imo, was when nanowrimo was big and people were sharing their tips for hitting the word count that made the product completely unreadable. Adding five to ten extraneous adjectives per sentence, lengthy recaps of the plot so far, having characters mishear dialogue for no reason other than to have it repeated. Just a complete misunderstanding of the point of writing

Ian Robinson Mar 2

@Daojoan @RalphBassfeld I did the 52 books in one year thing once. Just to have done it. I agree with Joan's post!

Confused Middle Aged Dad Mar 2

@Daojoan just because it can be quantified does not mean that it should be quantified. Is this another case of trying to make the measurable important? Or assuming that measurable things are a good proxy for important things (reading and thinking in this case)?