Has Access to the net killed your ability to read books?

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I know in my case I've probably read about a third as many books in the year that i have had home net access as i did the previous year. Now I have started to make a concerted effort to read books again and am enjoying it once i settle into it but i find it hard to drag myself away from screen to page.

― jed (jed_e_3), Thursday, 18 December 2003 15:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I do spend a lot of time on-line, but at least with the ilx boards i feel like i'm DOING something, you know?(reading&writing) And I leave it and come back to it. And when I leave it I'm doing other stuff including reading. But do you know what makes all the difference in the world? When we moved to where we are now in august we consciously made the decision not to get cable for a while! And boy oh boy is that like living on another planet. It's been so many years since I've lived without t.v. and i probably read twice as much as before. Our solution for these cold winter months was to sign up for Netflix and that way we just rent The Office or whatever on dvd and we get our t.v. fix.So far, so good.(gotta rent that Firefly box-set)

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 18 December 2003 16:24 (twenty-one years ago)

It's cut into my reading time for sure, but it's also exposed me to so many more books than I otherwise would know about. Google beats a card catalog any day.

― otto, Thursday, 18 December 2003 16:54 (twenty-one years ago)

It has a bit, but the main thing that's cut the amount of book reading (as opposed to magazine skimming) I do is driving or cycling to work insted of getting the bus. I used to do most of my reading on the bus.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 18 December 2003 20:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Jed, I'm with you. But in my case it's not just net access, it's the proliferation of TV, DVDs and video games as well (all of which I love). It takes less effort to watch something on the screen than it does to read it on a page; I guess 'cause there is less imagination (mind work) involved.

― Berkeley Sackett (calstars), Thursday, 18 December 2003 21:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Good question.

Probably not because reading a book, for me, stimulates different parts of the mind than reading Fark or ILM. One's relaxing, one's ... not.

― Xii (Xii), Thursday, 18 December 2003 23:24 (twenty-one years ago)

i can't read at home usually and not being near a good cafe is what does me in.

so i get my reading done on public transit and while travelling but the more i drive my car the less it works out.

the gratification factor is too low for reading, in the instant way.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 19 December 2003 06:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I do most of my reading on public transport.

whenever i do reading at home TV and listening to music are just as big factors in 'stopping' me.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 19 December 2003 09:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Reading and listening to music can be combined of course. Not Nu-Metal obviously. The 66 bus from Leytonstone is my main reading room.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Friday, 19 December 2003 10:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't have internet access at home, and this is quite purposeful, because it interferes with all sorts of IRL activities, not just book reading.

It's strange, I don't really read that much on public transport any more. My bus ride to work isn't that long at the moment. Though I started taking "Metropolitican Myths" by Glenys Roberts on the bus because the chapters are short enough to read in small gulps, depending on how long you're stuck in traffic for.

Coincidentally, today is my last day at work, and I just finished the last chapter (Islington) this morning. What a great book! I don't know if it's still in print, but I reccomend that anyone who loves London trivia/psychogeography/pure snobbery type stuff read it!

― HRH Queen Kate (kate), Friday, 19 December 2003 10:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I always thought psychogeography was when a nutter came up to you and yelled "WHAT'S THE CAPITAL OF ANGOLA?" in your face.

I'm reading Peter Ackroyd's biography of London. It's so heavy my arms ache by the time I get to work.

Have you got a new job lined up, Kate? You temp, right?

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Friday, 19 December 2003 11:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I have to get a new job next year with a very long busride, so I can catch up on my reading. Or maybe I should work in a bookshop, to support my habit!

Sorry, we are getting off topic.

Ackroyd's London really deserves its own thread.

― HRH Queen Kate (kate), Friday, 19 December 2003 11:06 (twenty-one years ago)

It's less kiss and tell than I imagined. Perhaps we'll have to wait for London's autobiography for celebrity gossip.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Friday, 19 December 2003 11:11 (twenty-one years ago)

''Reading and listening to music can be combined of course.''

I can't do that I'm afraid.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 19 December 2003 12:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I read more now than I did before ILX came along. I think part of it is that I feel guilt-tripped by being in conversation w/ lots of smart people who are reading a lot, so a little voice starts saying, "You're smart too, why don't you read more??".

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Sunday, 21 December 2003 23:48 (twenty-one years ago)

It's easier to find stuff to read when you're on the Net, I think. If you just got paid you can zip over to Amazon before you forget a title, unlike the real world where by the time you get to the bookstore you've completely forgotten what you were after..

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 22:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, now with net access at home, plus the time I spend practicing, watching dvd's, and listening to music (can't read while listening anymore), I really have to consciously set aside time for reading.

I got so sick of only reading before bed and getting in five pages before I fell asleep that it's getting easier to make time, though.

(Pavlovian sleep response attached to reading, C/D)

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 05:44 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

this was one of ILB's first threads. I'd like to know what new members think. for my part i am doing better than i was a year or so ago (though not quite good enough, still).

so?

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 1 January 2005 18:49 (twenty years ago)

Because this was revived, I'll toss in my two cents. No. Not a bit of it. I have had access to the net for a bit more than a decade. In that decade I probably averaged reading over 40 books a year. I read most evenings for at least an hour, more if the book is especially intersting or I am especially lazy or tired.

― Aimless (Aimless), Saturday, 1 January 2005 19:00 (twenty years ago)

yes. can't to listen to a single voice for a long period.
seriously I have like 30 books on the back burner, I shouldn't even be posting this

― fcussen (Burger), Saturday, 1 January 2005 22:04 (twenty years ago)

It certainly isn't helping, although I think I read the same number of words, if not more, and get exposed to the same number of ideas, although different kinds of ideas, online as I did in books. Still, books are nice, and I would like to push myself to reading them more often.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 2 January 2005 02:19 (twenty years ago)

Absolutely not. In fact posting to ILB and reading other people's book recommendations has raised my reading rate. I read fifty books last year, thanks to Bookslut's challenge to read fifty books and blog them. Okay, I didn't blog them (unless you count the 'what are you reading' thread), but it's still more books than I read the year before.

I don't really use the net as much as other people do. I have about four bookmarked sites that I access regularly, and the rest of it might as well not exist for all I care.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Sunday, 2 January 2005 15:44 (twenty years ago)

Internet access has ruined my ability to read in libraries, due to the endless chattering that tends to accompany it.

― Puddin'Head Miller (PJ Miller), Sunday, 2 January 2005 20:45 (twenty years ago)

PS: I don't count reading Internet things as reading, any more than reading adverts on the side of buses.

― Puddin'Head Miller (PJ Miller), Sunday, 2 January 2005 20:46 (twenty years ago)

Not the reading of books per se, the reading of textbooks, maybe. Like somebody said upthread, the net tells you about the existence of certain books you might want to read and that you might not have known about otherwise, as well as the existence of other readers of these books, adding some fellow-feeling to the otherwise solitary reading experience. I think the net as timewaster eats into other things besides reading. Maybe things one is supposed to do as opposed to things one likes to do.

Things that do eat into reading time: Cable TV, as scott and others have suggested. Imperfect commutes-I used to do a lot of my reading on the subway but my commute now is pretty short and usually so crowded that it's physically difficult to read. A less crowded train, and I know it sounds crazy, but a five minute longer commute would actually be preferable.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 15:40 (twenty years ago)

It killed my TV long back but it has somehow improved my ability to read books.

― Fred (Fred), Monday, 3 January 2005 15:46 (twenty years ago)

Quite the opposite - I seem to be reading more than ever - finding out about more books I want to read - following the connections between different authors more easily - and buying books I particularly want online is so tempting and simple compared to searching forever through bookstores hoping something I was looking for would show up (of course I still haunt the bookshops too).

― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Monday, 3 January 2005 18:47 (twenty years ago)

I have quit the inter-net.

― the bellefox, Thursday, 6 January 2005 11:52 (twenty years ago)

I rarely use the internet at home and don't have a TV - I think I'm reading more now than ever before, including during my English degree.

But net access HAS severely damaged my handwriting and my ability to write letters. Which is a shame.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 6 January 2005 17:28 (twenty years ago)

Me too, Archel: precisely as you say.

― the bellefox, Monday, 10 January 2005 16:42 (twenty years ago)

Things like this, though, might be my salvation.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 10 January 2005 22:42 (twenty years ago)

Since last year my back and neck have deteriorated thanks to my job -- so I can only gabble on the net for a little bit before my mousing shoulder forces me into the softer arms of a book.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 02:08 (twenty years ago)

the internet this minute=saturday morning tv to me when i was 6. yes absolutely. i have to leave my apartment now and read at cafes which i once would have thought was completely lame but now must schedule daily. i can't wait until i get sick of this and can return to book worming at home lying around for hours at a time.

― anonymous poster, Tuesday, 11 January 2005 02:38 (twenty years ago)

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