/lit/ - Literature

I just bought six books from the bookstore to get into the groove. I haven't read for joy in years.
Call me a brainlet normie but (almost) every time I read I always get the urge to check my phone or use my computer, I have no idea why. Sometimes I even enjoy the book and I feel the need to do this.

you start with the greeks

>>11684822
If you dont, you just dont. Find joy from somewhere else and accept your brainlet life.

You’re not supposed to enjoy everything you read. No one enjoys reading the owners manual for a new television, but they do because they feel they should.

Maybe sample a ton of different eritig (with context) and see what draws you the most. I'm sure there are online resources, but if you want a physical copy in which you can sample I would recommend the Norton English anthology of literature. I reseaved it as a gift and its been very helpful to orient myself in different time period, as well as being able to discover things without much commitment. ( obviously if you want to read something other than english you should find an anthology in that language.)

>>11684839
>>11684831
>>11684826
Stupid emotional responses that draw on ‘how it feels’ instead of tackling the fundamental problem of not genuinely enjoying everything you do I.e. working at making life great for yourself and others.

>>11684830
>>11684837
Good

>>11684822
start reading

>>11684822
Practice and habituation. It is not only a getting-used-to-it, i.e. making it more tolerable and having more patience with it as a task, but also a strengthening-of-a-muscle, such that you can engage with increasingly difficult or 'weighty' reading for increasingly extended periods of times.

There is a sort of learning curve involved, though. You can't leap directly to, say, Finnegans Wake style gibberish. That would be akin to finding the heaviest weights in the gym and trying to lift those first. You have to engage in scaffolded learning, taking one step at a time. Start relatively light, but keep building that reading muscle: when a certain genre or author gets too easy, carry on to something just a little bit more difficult. In fact, once reading has become a proper habit, you should be regularly reading several books at once, and if you become fatigued from tackling too much dense philosophical writing you can switch back to fiction to give yourself a breather. At this point reading is almost compulsive and definitely self-perpetuating.
>>11684830
Only once you are actually interested in philosophical reading. If you're out of the habit of reading, go with lighter fiction first. Although /lit/ likes to mock "high school tier" books, these kinds of books provide a good foundation for a reading habit.
>>11684837
Even if a particular text is difficult and strenuous to read it should still provide satisfaction.
>>11685143
This, but be smart about your approach.

>>11685196
>Even if a particular text is difficult and strenuous to read it should still provide satisfaction

Absolutely not. This is why people sit around reading fiction instead of non-fiction all day. It’s not inherently enjoyable, but you learn much more from it.

>>11685213
Learning from it should be satisfying. Why else would you value learning? To be the cleverest p-zombie robot in the room?

>>11685228
No, for long-term objectives.

>>11685248
What are your long-term objectives, anon? Why do you act other than out of interest in a particular kind of feeling? You should be pursuing joy, not fleeing the anxiety of mediocrity.

>>11684822
A couple things:

Choose books youll actually enjoy even if its "pleb" genre stuff that /lit/ shittalks (e.g. John Grisham, Tom Clancy, James Patterson)

Work your way up. Dont start with Doestevsky or DFW. Read a novella like Animal Farm or a Kurt Vonnegut.

Find a comfortable, quiet place to read. I cant stress this enough.

>>11684822
the problem is that reading does not give you the dopamine high you have gotten used to from all the fake reward based entertainment that was specifically engineered to develop addictions
so
yeah

>>11685291
This

>>11685291
>>11685300
samefag

>>11685291
>>11685300
>>11685304
all me btw

>>11685291
>>11685300
>>11685304
>>11685312
samefag

>>11685281
This this this. Even starting with birdbrained thriller shit is fine so long as you're enjoying yourself.

when I was a kid I could read like 3 books a week now I struggle to get one done every other week

>>11684822
Reading is not enjoyable unless you are abstinent from all sexual activity, including masturbation. If you are sexually active, it will always be a chore because your limited motivational circuits are wasted on what your body believes to be the most important activity.
Your choices are to either to abstain or cultivate discipline. Reading will not be enjoyable or as fast with the latter. The motivation brought about by the former is it's own sort of discipline.
This is also the reason why so people give up reading upon puberty.

Not samefag. Just a guy with long term goals who doesn’t shoot after fleeting achievements like pleasure.

My long term goals is becoming a man of high rank with a lot of knowledge in particular areas, as opposed to having wasted my time reading fiction or watching anime.

Let’s be honest here these sorts of long term goals have real life benefits as you shoot for them.

>>11685344
Sorry forgot pic

reading is masochistic. deal with it

>>11685342
That is the stupidest thing I have ever read in my life

>>11685356
This is an emotional reaction and not an argument.

>>11684822
dont

>>11685342
This guy is a retard.
t. reads 150 pages a day and jerks off once in two days

>>11685491
>inb4 "b-but you don't truly enjoy it, you must subscribe to my protestant nuttery in order to do so"

>>11685344
>My long term goals is becoming a man of high rank with a lot of knowledge in particular areas
You are pursuing the pleasure you get from imagining being such a man and the pleasure you image would be involved in being such a man. All pleasures are fleeting because you will eventually die.

>>11685515
Oh ho so deep. I hope you understand the point went about fifteen stories over your head.

>>11685527
>implying that not pretending that reading fulfills some Platonic Ideal makes me not value living wholesomely and intelligently
See >>11685228

>>11685539
I’m not fulfilling a Platonic ideal, I’m planning my life, Plen

>>11684822
You have to find something you're into. If it's the act of reading the words themselves, off a page, then try listening to stories instead.

>>11685562
Nothing wrong with that, it's just that this is a retarded premise:
>Just a guy with long term goals who doesn’t shoot after fleeting achievements like pleasure.
It's far more realistic to realize that you are pursuing lasting pleasures than to pretend that you are capable of valuing anything without some sort of positive feeling associated with it.

>>11684826
>I have no idea why
What do you mean you have no idea why? You've conditioned yourself, you've built addiction/habit to the overabundance of digestible and enjoyable info available. The cure is to strictly limit your use and only consciously decide to use them, not habitually.

Read enjoyable books
There is something out there for everyone. Except YA. Don’t read YA

>>11685213
Just because something is not immediately pleasurable doesn't mean that it isn't satisfying because of its difficulty

Start with the twilight series. Then jump to critique of pure reason by kant.

Look within you. What are things you're interested in? What type of questions do you have? After that, look for non-fiction books that are related to your interests.
I was bored with reading fiction so I asked myself these things and came up with a bunch of books that I want to read. Since I did this exercise recently, I've read "Sapiens: A brief history of mankind" and Malcolm X's autobiography. Now I genuinely enjoy reading.

>>11684822
I like highlighting passages that mean something to me.

>>11684826
This is a huge problem for a lot of people. I suggest going to r/nosurf and going through the resources there.

There is a way out. You need to build systems for yourself, which condition you away from this behavior. It's hindering you from doing what you consciously want. Recognize how severe that is.

If you prefer TED, check out Tristan Harris.

It's literally impossible. While I read I'm always conscious of the fact that instead of reading right now I could be engaging in other superior forms of entertainment (like music or film or shitposting), even though I know that literature is deeper and more meaningful.

>>11685342
>>11685364
based chaste poster keep posting

>>11686005
desu you can't compare music to reading since the two are so vastly different from another
and film is a great medium for telling stories

>>11684822
My own solution for this OP was realizing I didn't enjoy reading fiction and I actually enjoyed informational nonfiction. Although, I also wanted to increase my attention span and focus so that was a big incentive too.

Just to repeat the most common sense answer ITT:start with the easy shit and work your way up. It doesn't have to be more complicated than that.

>>11685196
Not OP, but thanks

You can always enjoy not reading instead.

>>11687029
An imperialist.