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/lit/ - Literature

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4068431 No.4068431 [Reply] [Original]

Since there's no way to harm yourself by reading too much, why not read all the time?

>> No.4068455

Also, when you get to the end of a chapter or section, do you find yourself pausing before getting into the next one?

>> No.4068469

>>4068455

At the end of a chapter, I'll usually put the book down for a little while and study.

>> No.4068470

>>4068431
>Since there's no way to harm yourself by reading too much, why not read all the time?
Hostile meme infection.

>> No.4068474

>>4068469
?

How do you study that is different than reading?

>> No.4068479

>>4068431
Potential harms of reading too much:

Sedentary lifestyle (increased morbidity from cardiovascular ill health, joint problems, diabetes, increased risk of becoming overweight/obese, decreased lifespan, poor mental health due to lack of physical activity)
Vitamin d deficiency + osteoarthritis and rickets
Vision - vision will probably deteriorate first
Social isolation - reduced lifespan, poor mental health, poor motivation, etc
Poor sleep cycle (circadian rhythms disturbed by reading constantly)
Atrophied musculoskeletal system
etc

>> No.4068480

>implying I read

>> No.4068487

>>4068479
>flat ass

Unless I read on my back, which I do. In bed! #neet

>> No.4068489

if everyone read all the time, society would collapse

>> No.4068493

>>4068474

>Read book for entertainment
>Read book for school

>> No.4068501

>>4068493
How is that different? Oh, you're being forced to read things. I forgot. I've had my freedom for so long...

>> No.4069361
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4069361

>>4068431

I know many people who read so much that their intellectual faculties are always suspended, in a state of hibernation, as they've stopped thinking for themselves. They prefer to regurgitate what they've already read because it's less challenging and demanding than independent thought.

>> No.4069396

>>4068489
>dat categorical imperative

>> No.4069454

is that at trillby or a fedora, and what is the difference?

>> No.4069459
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4069459

>Since there's no way to harm yourself by reading too much

Where did you get that from? Is it just because it appears to be so? There are harms to reading (and I'm not talking about shit like >>4068479 at all either).

Everything you read transforms you in some way. In ways that you are not even aware. It affects the way you think and therefore it affects the way you act. Everytime you read a word you relocate it in your mind into this new context. Sometimes you have an epiphany for it, a revelation, an idea, a "click". But other times you don't feel it as strongly, even though its influence is there.

There is no reason to think that the quantity is what matters here. The dose makes the poison, right? Reading could harm you or help you. Even so, those two consequences are conceptions of our mind. If I asked you how a certain book has helped you, it would be hard to put your finger on how (if you feel it has helped you at all). It is the same with the harm.

Like with anything, it is a matter of estabilishing a good relationship with your habit. It's good to let the book sink in. Thinking about it, during and after, is also part of the reading experience. In fact, the time before is important too: what you expected, what brought you to that particular book and so on. It alters your relationship with the book, not only in terms of expecting more or less from it than what you actually got, but also on what type of answers you thought you'd get. And what was the question.

cont

>> No.4069461
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4069461

>>4069459 cont

I think it is more important to ask yourself why read at all.

And I don't mean this to take the merit out of reading, on the contrary. There is no expectation from my part to get an answer for it just like that, and there is no room for using a generic functionalistic excuse here either. The great thing here is to think on what pushes you towards reading (in general and that book in particular). So, because we are talking here about drive, will, call, desire (whatever your name for it), one cannot expect a straight answer.

Some people has it at the tip of their tongues though. To be entertained, or to get some sort of knowledge from it, etc. But is it that truly? Or could that be just a disguise for ulterior motives that you are not even aware? Perhaps to escape, to nourish a certain fantasy, maybe one is endlessly searching for one single answer in all the books one has read.

To put some thought on that raises your conscience about what you're doing with your time. Again, harm and help are relative. I can't say your reasons are vain, but most of the answers we fabricate for that question are not really the issue. In this sense, there is always this reason to read: to understand why you read at all. And is it helping you? On what? Could it be hurting you in some way? How were the relationships transformed by it?

cont

>> No.4069465
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4069465

>>4069461 cont

Reading could take you away from esthetic experience, it could raise your intolerance, gross "misunderstandings" could bring confusing thoughts (and they are often disguised as certainties), it could preach an ideology to you but also new fantasies, interests and fetishes.

We are taught in many ways to seek for an abundance of information rather than to make good use of whatever we have. We look down on excess of fat, but we treasure an obesity of the mind, as if reading more and recalling more were definitive good things, regardless of what you do with it. What exactly are you taking in? And how will it get out?

OP's question is "if there is no harm, why not go it all the way?", but put it differently: if there is no gain, why go at all?

This is not supposed to sound paranoid, nor to create an abuse of skepticism or caution when you turn to the next book. It is not dangerous in itself, but it has an effect on you and your world, so you can't ignore its quality, nor dive into the matter of quantity mindlessly. There is no need to calculate your actions, but I think it's a fairly good advice to at least think about them, retroactively also.

It's about maintaining healthy relationships, making good use of your time, asking yourself what does it mean, nourishing what you seek to develop, stumble upon things that have a good effect and so on.

>> No.4069477

>>4069459
>>4069461
>>4069465

TL;DR reading can be a negative or a positive experience.

Shocking revelation