Eli Bendersky's website - Reading

In defense of books

2022-01-17T09:27:00-08:00

When I'm asked "what podcasts do you listen to?", after an uncomfortable pause I'm forced to answer that "I usually don't". The full explanation is almost always too long for a brief friendly chat, but I did manage to articulate it to friends a couple of times in recent history; I think it's time to put it down in writing.

Generally speaking, I prefer Slow Media, and the slower the better. This means I'd rather read books than articles, blog posts and video talks; I'd rather listen to audiobooks than to podcasts. The same applies further down the scale; I prefer articles and blog posts to social media, and if I do listen to a podcast I favor the long-form ones.

Why? Wouldn't one learn more by spending 10 hours listening to 10-20 podcasts on different topics than by spending the same time on a single book?

While this question is phrased in a suggestive way, I posit that the answer - at least for me - is actually NO, at least when viewed strategically rather than tactically.

Consuming information is a marathon, not a sprint. It's not the case that I have 10 hours allocated in my life to consume information and I have to be as efficient as possible; the truth is that over the years, I have many thousands of hours. While it may appear that given 10 hours listening to the more condensed podcast format is more efficient, the same is absolutely not apparent if the decision is between 1000 books and 15,000 podcast episodes.

Suppose I'm interested in 20 different topics. I could read two books on each topic - 40 books in total; at my current pace of reading this would probably take a bit less than a year. Alternatively, I could spend these ~400 hours listening to podcasts and/or reading articles on the same 20 topics. It's slicing the same cake of time, just along different axes. One could claim that with articles and podcasts you could learn about more than 20 topics in a given year, but do you really want to? I'd say even 20 is a stretch, at least if by "learn" you mean at least some minimal depth.

In programming terms, it's a bit like using DFS vs. BFS to explore the same knowledge graph.

If the actual information intake is similar with the two approaches over a long time period, why prefer one over the other? This is where the quality and depth of information comes in. Books typically win on depth, since authors have put much more effort into researching and writing them than is put into podcasts or articles. Books also win on quality because they are easier to vet; when I plan to spend 10 hours on reading a book, I can afford spending 15 minutes on researching which book to read, looking at reviews, looking at samples, etc. When one plans to spend 45 minutes on a podcast episode, any non-trivial investment into research seems wasteful.

I'll end this post with a few disclaimers: none of this is a rigid rule. I do listen to podcasts every once in a while, and I do read articles and blogs posts. Some of them are of a very high quality and informational value. I'll also note that some podcasts are packaged in well-researched and in-depth series, which makes them very similar to books at this point. I'm not dogmatic about these things; just stating my preferences.

My Reading Habits

2020-01-02T05:30:00-08:00

In 2019 I've finished 63 books, which is a new personal record:

Chart of books read yearly 2003-2019

I began keeping detailed track of my reading when this blog launched in 2003. In case you're wondering, the total count since 2003 is just a bit over 700, though this overcounts by 10-15% if we consider unique books, since I re-read books quite a bit (more on this later).

This seemed like a good time to reflect and also answer some frequently asked questions I get from followers about my reading habits.

Reading books is an important part of my life. Reading a good book is an activity I enjoy on a profound level. It's not just for passing time; it's for gaining a deeper understanding of the world we inhabit, and for shaping my own view of myself and my place in this world. Therefore, the effort to find good books to read is never-ending, and over the years my summaries have helped many people fill up their own reading queues - very happy to help!

I get many questions from followers about my reading habits. Here's a bit of Q&A. The first question is by far the most common, but others come up quite a bit as well.

Q: How do you find time to read so much?

A: I make time.

It's as simple as that. When people ask me this question, I always feel tempted to ask back "Why do you think you don't have time?". I'm convinced that anyone can find time if they really want it; it's just a matter of priorities.

I feel compelled to add that I don't see myself as any sort of record-breaking reader. There are many people who read way more than me, both in terms of quantity and quality. I still have much to learn about time management.

A more detailed answer is due, though. It's a combination of several factors:

Audiobooks: these make up a sizable chunk (at least a third) of my reading in the past few years. I can carve up a lot of reading time while commuting, working out, waiting at my kids' after-school activities, washing dishes and doing other chores around the house. Over an hour a day spent on all these combined is not uncommon. At 1.25x listening speed, I can burn through an average-sized book in a couple of weeks.
Making time: I find that I have some free time almost every evening to relax; it's usually not much, maybe 30-45 minutes. Rather than watching TV or browsing social media, I read. I also spend some of my working time reading technical books; when I'm really into a technical book, this can amount to 20-30 minutes a day. Each instance in isolation is not much, but it really adds up over time.

This is the place to mention that I prefer consuming slow media, to the extent possible. I have a longer blog post about this topic alone, but in the context of reading slow media means I prefer books to articles, magazines and blog posts. These, in turn, I prefer over social media. Therefore, given that I spend some small chunk of my day reading - meaning scanning text with my eyes - I strongly prefer this time to be spent on books rather than any other text organization format.
Reading with my kids: this one is fairly new, from the last year or so. As my kids grow older, I find that I can read books together with them that both of us actually enjoy. There are a couple of instances of that in the most recent reading summary. This is just like audiobooks in a way - it allows me to "steal" reading time while doing something else. Reading together with my kids is a lot of fun, and it combines an activity that's dear to my heart (spending quality time with them) with another activity - reading. I actually find that some "young reader" versions of books are better than adult books! They convey very similar amounts of information in a shorter, clearer way, without spending text on useless embellishments and trying to pad to 300 pages.

Q: Do you read paper books? Audiobooks? Ebooks?

A: Short answer: yes.

For audiobooks, see the answer above. The rest is split between ebooks and paper books. My heuristic here is pretty clear: I prefer an ebook, unless it's a book that has graphics (like images, photos or charts), equations or code in it. I read ebooks on a Kindle, and I don't like how Kindles do images, equations or code. But I do prefer them for pure-text books, because a Kindle is lighter, easier to hold with one hand, and easier to put down (in the sense that it's easier to find where you left off).

Q: Do you speed-read?

A: No. I experimented a little bit with speed-reading many years ago, but never really warmed up to it. I did manage to bring my WPM much higher, but comprehension suffered, and I also found I enjoy reading less. Lately, the vast majority of my reading is non-fiction, which makes speed-reading even more challenging, because comprehension is crucial. I'd say I read physical books at a pretty average pace now.

As for audiobooks, I set them to 1.25x because the original speed is unbearably slow, but this is not fast by any means. Most folks I know listen at 1.25x at least, and some listen at much faster - like 1.5x or 2x. I found these higher speeds harder to concentrate with, and comprehension suffers greatly. So I settled for a more moderate pace.

Q: Do you re-read books?

A: Absolutely. I also group them separately in my reading summaries, so it's easy to see which books are re-reads. I estimate that about 10-15% of the books I've been reading recently fall into this category. I've read many books twice, and some books three or more times.

Re-reading good books is very important for me. A while ago I made a resolution to read more for quality than quantity, but this is easier said then done. Yes, most of my reading is non-fiction, and I spend quite a bit of time vetting books before I read them. But the most effective way to keep average quality up is to re-read books I found great.

How often does it happen that I re-read a book and find almost nothing new in it? Almost never. Keep in mind that some books are a distillation of many years of an author's diligent research and writing work; it's very unlikely to "get" all of it in just a few hours. Reading a book and letting the material simmer in the back of your mind for some period (a year or more, typically), and then re-reading is a very effective way to extract more information.

Q: Do you always finish a book before starting the next one?

A: I always have more than one book in progress - one on audio and another in text. But usually it's even more than one. For example, there is a technical book I'm slowly plowing through only at certain times (when concentration is easiest), and quite often if I'm reading something "heavy" I'll put it aside for a while and read a lighter book. I also have at least one book "in progress" going with my kids at any given time. So the average is probably around 4.

The question is also sometimes asked in the sense of "do you finish all the books you begin". Well, not always, but almost. I try to vet books very carefully before reading them, so I don't get duds often. But every once in a while I do, and then I have no issue abandoning a particularly bad book in the middle.

Reading on a Kindle vs. a paper book

2012-04-26T05:23:27-07:00

Note: "Kindle" here can be probably replaced with any good electronic book reader. I only happen to own a Kindle, so my personal opinion is confined to it.

Here are some thoughts on the relative merits of "real" paper books and books read on a Kindle:

Why a Kindle is better (in no particular order):

Smaller, slimmer and lighter than most books, while still being big enough to provide a good holding and reading experience.
Much easier to put down and come back to the correct spot later. Not only you don't need a physical marker, but the pages themselves are significantly smaller so it's easy to stop at the first paragraph and know this is where you should resume reading. I appreciate this a lot when reading while watching my daughter, which means I should put the book down each minute or two and come back to it later.
Easier and cleaner to highlight interesting sections and get back to them later - no need to keep a pen around.
A blessing when reading several books simultaneously (which is frequently the case for me). This becomes quite important when traveling.
Practically every book from Amazon available for you 15 seconds after you decide you want to read it (and you can read a sample before paying).
Has a built-in clock.
Has built-in dictionaries and you can install more.
Adjustable font size is a blessing for people with poor eyesight (although this is thankfully not my problem yet, I can see how important this is).

Why a paper book is better:

Its battery lasts longer.
Illustration quality is higher, especially in non-fiction books where this is important, and where high-quality color illustrations may be crucial. I think this is temporary, though - it's hard to believe it will still be an issue 5 years from now when e-readers have better screens.
More reliable. In normal day-to-day conditions this isn't a big issue, though.
Costs much less so you don't worry too much about it getting damaged, lost or stolen.
Has the good-old feeling and smell of paper. I must admit, however, that when I read on a Kindle, I miss this feeling much less than initially imagined.
Gives you the opportunity to fill shelves with books, which is a terrific adornment for every home, especially the "office room".

"Reading" audiobooks - a first experience

2007-09-24T19:30:41-07:00

Introduction

I've just finished "reading" my first audio book. The decision came after I noticed that on the bus back home from work I very rarely can concentrate on reading a paper book, because I'm either tired, being disturbed by people talking around me or both. Besides, now with the winter on our doorstep, the dusk arrives earlier each day, which makes reading without ruining the eyes hard.

Anyway, to give it a first shot, I browsed to LibriVox to grab myself a free audiobook. LibriVox is somewhat similar to Project Gutenberg, collecting books with an expired copyright (in the U.S.). However, since getting access to the text of books is considerably easier than recording them on audio, LibriVox has so far collected a little less than a thousand books, while Gutenberg holds tens of thousands.

I must say that the collection on LibriVox isn't large. Clearly, recording a book is a long and difficult task, so it isn't simple to find volunteers. Eventually, I picked up "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" for an easy start (I'll post a review of the book itself soon, so I won't dwell on its contents here).

The quality of recording

LibriVox is operated entirely by volunteers, and often a single book is being recorded by multiple people. In the book I read, the 12 chapters were all narrated by different people. Naturally, the quality varies.

I don't mean the digital quality here - LibriVox allows to download MP3s encoded in 64kbps and 128kbps - and I found the 64kbps perfectly acceptable. What I really want to talk about is the quality of the narrator. In "The Adventures", I had a bad start, as the first reader was quite bad. He had a strange accent, over-dramatized many episodes and generally was difficult to understand. Luckily, all the rest were quite good, and generally I can say it was all very easy to listen to. A couple of the readers were splendid - I couldn't expect a better quality from a purchased audiobook.

LibriVox's policy is not to allow ratings of chapter quality by users. I can understand their point of view in saying that bad ratings might discourage readers that aren't simple to find anyhow. Nevertheless, I think that allowing ratings would still be better. It would surely encourage readers to do a better job.

All in all I can't complain, however. As I said, the overall quality of the recordings was very good and the listening experience was enjoyable - I'm pretty sure I didn't lose track of the events because of recording quality even a single time.

Speed and concentration

The narrators read at a very comfortable speed - like the speed of two people at ease speaking with each other. The total duration of the recording is 10 hours for this book. I checked its length in an electronic text version - and it consists of about 100,000 words, which would take me 5.5 hours to read at my average rate of 300 wpm for books of this kind. So, on one hand, audiobooks are twice "slower".

However, there is a very significant factor I'm ignoring here. Reading a book at a sustained rate of 300 wpm isn't an easy task - because you need to stay very focused the whole time. This isn't easy for long stretches of time even in a quiet environment, not to mention a dark, noisy bus when you're tired after a day of work.

So I think that while I would still prefer reading with my eyes while sitting at ease on my couch at home, listening to audiobooks on the bus or train is a pretty good option even speed-wise, because their rate is constant, and it is much simpler to stay concentrated listening than reading in a noisy environment.

While on the topic of concentration, it is interesting to notice that although it is easier to keep focus while listening, when you lose it you can completely miss portions of the text. While reading a normal book, I often find that my thoughts have wondered and that I have only a vague clue of what the last page or so was about. However, not all the meaning is lost and after a quick skim I'm back on track. With an audiobook this is different. When my mind wondered for 20 seconds - I found that I completely missed that part of the recording, as if I didn't hear it at all - and I have to come back to listen to it fully if I deem it important.

Another interesting, and more important point to note is that listening to an audiobook doesn't detriment much my attention to the real world. I even drove while listening for a short time and found no problem concentrating on the road, and understanding the book at the same time. This is probably not surprising, considering that radio talk-shows are a favorite with long-haul drivers of buses and trucks.

Conclusion

To summarize, I had a very positive experience listening to this audiobook. I find that such type of reading fills a niche in times when I find it hard to concentrate but still prefer reading to sitting idly. The speed, while inferior to eye-reading under optimal conditions, is quite comparable on average. And on some occasions, like when taking a walk or driving - audiobooks are a pure win - because you just can't read in any other way.

What's very important, however - is the quality of the narration. It can make all the change in the world - a bad narrator can make the listening experience irritating and practically useless, so I suppose that buying audiobooks can be a good option as their quality is probably very good and they're not too expensive.

Books read during the vacation

2007-03-15T20:22:15-07:00

During the vacation I've read quite a lot of books, at almost twice my normal rate. There's just more free time on a vacation (and the nightlife in New Zealand isn't too great ;-))

Anyway, here is the list of the books I read, in very rough chronological order (a couple of them were finished in 2006, but I'll attribute them to 2007 anyway). I won't be writing the usual full fledged reviews because there's too many of them, but I do include a short description.

"Gideon's spies" by Gordon Thomas

Telling some of the known facts about Mossad's (Israeli equivalent of CIA or MI6) operations, including many interviews with some of Mossad's past agents.
"Being Here, Shaping a preferred future" by Christine Loh

She is a member of Hong Kong's government and past activist and committee member. Tells about Hong Kong's politics, somewhat autobiographic in nature.
"Baghdad without a map" by Tony Horwitz

The traveling reporter's adventures in the Middle East in the late 80s.
"Spy catcher" by Peter Wright

The former assistant director of MI5 tells about his years in the agency. I heard it was quite a controversial book at its time.
"Adventure Capitalist" by Jim Rogers

This rich dude packed himself and his young wife into a special built Mercedes and has done a mighty road trip across the world (152,000 miles), telling about his impressions of the countries' economies along the way.
"The journey of man - A genetic odyssey" by Spencer Wells

Trying to follow the early history of man's journey from Africa colonizing other parts of the world. Interesting but doesn't add much information over other books.
"A history of the middle east" by Peter Mansfield

A careful and expansive account of the history of the Middle East from early times to the second half of the 20th century.
"From Beirut to Jerusalem" by Thomas Friedman

He was a reporter in Lebanon for a few years, and then moved to Israel. This book is his story of the turbulent events in the history of these countries. This is one of the better books I've read on the middle east.
"The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger

An unusual science fiction - like story of man who keeps jumping in time and his wife. Very readable.
"World war 1939-1945" by Peter Young

A brief but detailed history of WWII, told by a Brittish brigadier turned historian.
"The bride stripped bare" by Anonymous

A confession of an adulterous, sex-addicted woman in London. I found it bizarre and couldn't wait to finish.
"Following the equator" by Mark Twain

A humorous travel log in various countries of the British Commonwealth in the beginning of the 20th century. Entertaining, but its age shows well as some stories deal with completely unfamiliar events.
"Electric Universe" by David Bodanis

A brief history of electricity and its major applications. Although this book definitely lacks in depth, it is very well written and fun to read.
"Longtitude" by Dava Sobel

A small book telling the story of how an English engineer devised a clock accurate enough to measure longitude and solved the great problem of marine navigation.
"The six day war" by Randolph S. and Winston S. Churchill

A small book telling the story of the Israeli-Arab war in 1967.
"The prince and the pauper" by Mark Twain

A short entertaining fairy tale about a prince and a pauper in London who switched places. More a children's book than anything else.
"Terra incognita" by Sara Wheeler

This lady spent a few months in Antarctica, harassing people on various research bases on the continent. Pretty good account of what it's like down there.
"Once while traveling" by Tony and Maureen Wheeler

An autobiographic account of the couple who created the Lonely Planet publication.
"Exodus" by Leon Uris

Fiction story of the years leading to the creation of the state of Israel and a few years after that. A very good book.
"1421" by Gavin Menzies

A very curious and well researched account of China's explorations in the 15th century. The author makes some bold claims about Chinese colonization of the Americas and outposts in Australia and New Zealand, and backs them with lots of seemingly solid evidence. Whether what he says is true or not, it's a good, well-written history book
"The island of lost maps" by Miles Harvey

The main theme of this book is following the story of an ancient-map thief who stole precious maps from libraries and universities. On the way the author tells a little about the world of cartography and engages on a quest of self-discovery.
"One L" by Scott Turow

An account of the first year in the prestigious Harvard Law School. The book is well written and is an interesting insight into the world of elite education.
"Questioning the Millennium" by Stephen J. Gould

A mini-book in which Gould tries to explain the true meaning of the year 2000 in Christianity, exploring its roots and discusses when it is really appropriate to celebrate. A cute, quick, not too deep read.
"Why in the world" by John Demko

Displays the topic of geography, emphasizing on what geographers do and how knowing geography is important. The first half of the book is interesting, but the second is completely useless - a "state of affairs" summary for each country in the world. The book being written in 1992, this is hardly interesting now. Wikipedia is a better source of information.