How many books people read
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Let me help you understand why I don't read for fun. Look at all the other activities I can do. Exercise Make Beer Drink Beer Play Video Games Have Quality Time with the wife Kayak Clean my house Cook Eat Play with the dogs Program Surf internet and or masturbate watch a movie Target shoot with my shotgun ride my bike hike smoke something make beef jerky clean my car garden post in the lounge on codeproject There are so many things to do that are more fun than reading. That is why I don't read for fun.
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
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From September of last year till just this past week, I've gone through at least 20 books, probably more. And I've been muddling through the first study book for my MCPD for about three months now (it's so boring!)
Please don't bother me... I'm hacking right now. Don't look at me like that - doesn't anybody remember what "hacking" really means? :sigh:
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Mike Gaskey wrote:
Wife reads more but she's a natural speed reader.
I was thinking after responding to this thread that how many books you read and even whether you enjoy reading is due, in large part, to how fast you read. I've been clocked at 620 wpm which means that, for me, an action novel is filled with as much excitement as a good FX-filled movie - and has the advantage of being available on my schedule. I've known and worked with folks who have a clocked speed of less than 100 wpm. Apparently they actually subvocalise while they read which slows them down to talking speed.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
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I was reading a bit about why Stevo thinks the Kindle won't go anywhere: because no one reads (as opposed to the real reason - it sucks and it's a lame device). Which I thought was a typical ridiculous comment from Jobs until I googled for more information. And lo and behold, what I found seems to back him up! Some of the stats claim that, in the U.S. at least, 1 in 4 haven't read a book at ALL in the last year. There was a similar statistic quoted for the UK. Is this in fact true? I find I read 20+ books a year. Granted it's a lot of Sci-Fi, but still, to not read, at all? I can't even comprehend that.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog
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I was reading a bit about why Stevo thinks the Kindle won't go anywhere: because no one reads (as opposed to the real reason - it sucks and it's a lame device). Which I thought was a typical ridiculous comment from Jobs until I googled for more information. And lo and behold, what I found seems to back him up! Some of the stats claim that, in the U.S. at least, 1 in 4 haven't read a book at ALL in the last year. There was a similar statistic quoted for the UK. Is this in fact true? I find I read 20+ books a year. Granted it's a lot of Sci-Fi, but still, to not read, at all? I can't even comprehend that.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog
Depending on the book (and type), I can easily get through about 100 books a year. I read a lot of technical books, but my fiction tastes are very far ranging, from crime through science fiction, fantasy to Jeeves & Wooster and historical/scientific books.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
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I like how sleep didn't make it onto the list. That's how we know you belong on CP: no time/use for sleep.
Have faith in yourself; amateurs built the Ark, professionals built the Titanic.
You speak truth. *** time for another cup of coffee.
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
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Mike Gaskey wrote:
Wife reads more but she's a natural speed reader.
I was thinking after responding to this thread that how many books you read and even whether you enjoy reading is due, in large part, to how fast you read. I've been clocked at 620 wpm which means that, for me, an action novel is filled with as much excitement as a good FX-filled movie - and has the advantage of being available on my schedule. I've known and worked with folks who have a clocked speed of less than 100 wpm. Apparently they actually subvocalise while they read which slows them down to talking speed.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
Not sure what my rate in words/min is, but I typically do 65-80 pages/hour reading fiction in mass market paperback format. Depending on the writing style and lines/page anywhere between 50 and 110 isn't totally unheard of. Nonfic tends to be around 40 or 50pph.
Otherwise [Microsoft is] toast in the long term no matter how much money they've got. They would be already if the Linux community didn't have it's head so firmly up it's own command line buffer that it looks like taking 15 years to find the desktop. -- Matthew Faithfull
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dan neely wrote:
My average is probably closer to 4/week than 3, and I'm working
I think I'd be higher, but I've developed cataracts which aren't bad enough to force an operation yet, but are bad enough to make it a little harder to focus.
dan neely wrote:
Baen's probably responsible for at least half of my new acquisitions. Not the free library though, I'm one of the suckersfans who buy the $15 ebooks of major titles a few months before release instead of waiting for the cheaper ebook or treeware versions.
Thats where working has an advantage over retirement. I still buy books and just picked up Ringo's latest from Baen, but the days of buying the hardbounds are gone for me, I am afraid.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
Which one? When you read Maxome Foe (Into the looking glass #3), pay attention to the characters. :-\
Otherwise [Microsoft is] toast in the long term no matter how much money they've got. They would be already if the Linux community didn't have it's head so firmly up it's own command line buffer that it looks like taking 15 years to find the desktop. -- Matthew Faithfull
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Try picking up some of the Eric Flint or John Ringo books from Baen. Or John Birmingham's "Axis of Time" trilogy.I used to feel that no-one could match the great ones of the past, but some of the new guys have got a lot going for them.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
The only caveat with Ringo is that some of his last few books have become rather politicized. The dems in his ghost books are caricatures, and the ones he's coauthored with Tom Kratman are 95% Tom's and possess truely stunning amounts of vitriol. From what I've seen of The Last Centurion (mostly the first ~25%), although 100% John's writing it looks to be as much political rant as anything else, although he's tossed a few high action snippets from later in the book.
Otherwise [Microsoft is] toast in the long term no matter how much money they've got. They would be already if the Linux community didn't have it's head so firmly up it's own command line buffer that it looks like taking 15 years to find the desktop. -- Matthew Faithfull
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Christopher Duncan wrote:
there are three kinds of falsehoods: lies, damned lies, and statistics
Actually, there are four: lies, damned lies, statistics, and tax returns.
Software Zen:
delete this;So which ones do politicians tell? From what I can see, they tell the first 3, and expect everyone else to tell the forth
"There are three sides to every story. Yours, mine and the truth" ~ unknown
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The only caveat with Ringo is that some of his last few books have become rather politicized. The dems in his ghost books are caricatures, and the ones he's coauthored with Tom Kratman are 95% Tom's and possess truely stunning amounts of vitriol. From what I've seen of The Last Centurion (mostly the first ~25%), although 100% John's writing it looks to be as much political rant as anything else, although he's tossed a few high action snippets from later in the book.
Otherwise [Microsoft is] toast in the long term no matter how much money they've got. They would be already if the Linux community didn't have it's head so firmly up it's own command line buffer that it looks like taking 15 years to find the desktop. -- Matthew Faithfull
dan neely wrote:
The only caveat with Ringo is that some of his last few books have become rather politicized
I'm forced to agree. I wasn't really aware of him until his Posleen series which I thought was excellently well done at first - then Watch on the Rhine showed up with a sympathetic view of the Waffen SS. . . . The point that he makes - people sleep in their beds tonight because somewhere rough men are prepared to do violence to those who would harm them (Trying to quote George Orwell) is one I've tried to make a few times here and elsewhere, but it's really hard to swallow the idea that the SS (even the soldiering end of it) can be cast as noble is a little hard to take. Still and all, as an action writer he comes close to Clancy. Even while I am rejecting some of what he he offers up as a world-view, I am turning the page to find out what happens next.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
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dan neely wrote:
The only caveat with Ringo is that some of his last few books have become rather politicized
I'm forced to agree. I wasn't really aware of him until his Posleen series which I thought was excellently well done at first - then Watch on the Rhine showed up with a sympathetic view of the Waffen SS. . . . The point that he makes - people sleep in their beds tonight because somewhere rough men are prepared to do violence to those who would harm them (Trying to quote George Orwell) is one I've tried to make a few times here and elsewhere, but it's really hard to swallow the idea that the SS (even the soldiering end of it) can be cast as noble is a little hard to take. Still and all, as an action writer he comes close to Clancy. Even while I am rejecting some of what he he offers up as a world-view, I am turning the page to find out what happens next.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
That's basically pure Kratman, and I don't know if he fully believes it himself, or just did it to infuriate the left. Tom styles himself as a politcal refugee and defector from the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts and has a truely implacable hatred of the left. If it makes you feel any better about being hoodwinked the text on the cover isn't what John, Tom, and Jim Baen had agreed to in the past. As John's put in in multiple cons it was supposed to say:
The Watch on the Rhine by Tom Kratman
in the universe created by john ringo Yellow Eyes (Tom's Posleen in Panama) doesn't have any single thing as blatant the SS, but dwells enough more heavily on the treason of the left (sold earth out to the darhel for promise of transport off world) to have a similar level of political intensity. It doesn't look like it's going to be as easy to skip though. Several of the main characters from it are also main characters in The Tuloriad, which'll be his 3rd posleen colab. The Tuloriad one doesn't appear to have any attack on human political targets, although Tom apparently is planning to put the Darhel in his sights instead later in the book. It appears that this one is going to be along with Honor of the CLan (Callys War #3) a leadin/major brackground dump into the Eye of the Storm (start of the next series of Mike ONeal Jr books). HotC's manuscript is due in 2 more months and EotS is at 90% and mainly being held because of needing to sync events with it and HotC. Mild spoilers (major events type) for EotS below.: You get to see Mike O'Neal, Jr learn that Cally and Papa survived the war. And that he's got grandkids and step-siblings. You get to see the OTHER types of Himmits. You get to see an enemy that makes fighting the Posleen look boring. You get to watch the Darhel squirm.
Otherwise [Microsoft is] toast in the long term no matter how much money they've got. They would be already if the Linux community didn't have it's head so firmly up it's own command line buffer that it looks like taking 15 years to find the desktop. -- Matthew Faithfull
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I was reading a bit about why Stevo thinks the Kindle won't go anywhere: because no one reads (as opposed to the real reason - it sucks and it's a lame device). Which I thought was a typical ridiculous comment from Jobs until I googled for more information. And lo and behold, what I found seems to back him up! Some of the stats claim that, in the U.S. at least, 1 in 4 haven't read a book at ALL in the last year. There was a similar statistic quoted for the UK. Is this in fact true? I find I read 20+ books a year. Granted it's a lot of Sci-Fi, but still, to not read, at all? I can't even comprehend that.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog
For quite a number of years (since I was curious long ago and started writing down the books I read), I'm consistently hitting 50+ books a year, and that is just for enjoyment and doesn't count all the books that I read for work and technical material, articles and the like. Like many others have stated, I don't understand how people can NOT read, but I guess it takes all types.
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When I was commuting 55 miles each way I listened to a lot of books on tape, as well as reading at home. I'm retired now, so I'll scew the curve, but I read about three books @ week - Mostly SF or Detective fiction. The only time in my life when my reading dropped below a book @ week was when I was married and had small kids to watch over. One really cool place to check out is Baen Free Library^ which provides for download a large number of SF e-books that first saw print only a few years ago.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
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That's basically pure Kratman, and I don't know if he fully believes it himself, or just did it to infuriate the left. Tom styles himself as a politcal refugee and defector from the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts and has a truely implacable hatred of the left. If it makes you feel any better about being hoodwinked the text on the cover isn't what John, Tom, and Jim Baen had agreed to in the past. As John's put in in multiple cons it was supposed to say:
The Watch on the Rhine by Tom Kratman
in the universe created by john ringo Yellow Eyes (Tom's Posleen in Panama) doesn't have any single thing as blatant the SS, but dwells enough more heavily on the treason of the left (sold earth out to the darhel for promise of transport off world) to have a similar level of political intensity. It doesn't look like it's going to be as easy to skip though. Several of the main characters from it are also main characters in The Tuloriad, which'll be his 3rd posleen colab. The Tuloriad one doesn't appear to have any attack on human political targets, although Tom apparently is planning to put the Darhel in his sights instead later in the book. It appears that this one is going to be along with Honor of the CLan (Callys War #3) a leadin/major brackground dump into the Eye of the Storm (start of the next series of Mike ONeal Jr books). HotC's manuscript is due in 2 more months and EotS is at 90% and mainly being held because of needing to sync events with it and HotC. Mild spoilers (major events type) for EotS below.: You get to see Mike O'Neal, Jr learn that Cally and Papa survived the war. And that he's got grandkids and step-siblings. You get to see the OTHER types of Himmits. You get to see an enemy that makes fighting the Posleen look boring. You get to watch the Darhel squirm.
Otherwise [Microsoft is] toast in the long term no matter how much money they've got. They would be already if the Linux community didn't have it's head so firmly up it's own command line buffer that it looks like taking 15 years to find the desktop. -- Matthew Faithfull
I got Yellow Eyes as a gift last summer. I enjoyed it a lot. And Daisy Mae is a hoot! (I was a Li'l Abner fan for a long time.) I didn't really have any problem with the politicos selling out the earth to save their hides as I suspect it could/would happen that way on both the left and the right. The junta types down in Panama read pretty true to me as did the Panamanian white hats, although Grandmother was a bit larger than life. Of course I knew that Cally had survived due the Cally's War (I think he should have held that book back only because it does seem to jump ahead in the time-line.) According to rumors, Cally will star in two more books. I've got Choosers of the Slain (from the Ghost series) headed my way now - along with the Disunited States by Turtledove. I do appreciate getting gift cards for Christmas. :)
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
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Which one? When you read Maxome Foe (Into the looking glass #3), pay attention to the characters. :-\
Otherwise [Microsoft is] toast in the long term no matter how much money they've got. They would be already if the Linux community didn't have it's head so firmly up it's own command line buffer that it looks like taking 15 years to find the desktop. -- Matthew Faithfull
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I got Yellow Eyes as a gift last summer. I enjoyed it a lot. And Daisy Mae is a hoot! (I was a Li'l Abner fan for a long time.) I didn't really have any problem with the politicos selling out the earth to save their hides as I suspect it could/would happen that way on both the left and the right. The junta types down in Panama read pretty true to me as did the Panamanian white hats, although Grandmother was a bit larger than life. Of course I knew that Cally had survived due the Cally's War (I think he should have held that book back only because it does seem to jump ahead in the time-line.) According to rumors, Cally will star in two more books. I've got Choosers of the Slain (from the Ghost series) headed my way now - along with the Disunited States by Turtledove. I do appreciate getting gift cards for Christmas. :)
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
Cally does star in two more. Sister Time (#2) came out last month: Michelle's back. And as I said up thread, the third Honor of the CLan is almost complete and due to be turned in two more months. Speaking of which, did you catch the very end of Cally's War? Idid, but alot of people complained that it was too subtle. http://www.webscription.net/p-664-sister-time.aspx[^] Choosers or the Slain is the weakest book in that series. Unto the Breach and A Deeper Blue are both much better. ADB's easily the best of the series, but the very end of UtB is one of the best endings I've ever read. Disunited States was something of a disappointment as well. Not a bad book but something of a letdown compared to the ones before it or the most recent The Gladiator, although the latter has one extreme case of OMFGWTF grade stupidity in the ending.
Otherwise [Microsoft is] toast in the long term no matter how much money they've got. They would be already if the Linux community didn't have it's head so firmly up it's own command line buffer that it looks like taking 15 years to find the desktop. -- Matthew Faithfull
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I was reading a bit about why Stevo thinks the Kindle won't go anywhere: because no one reads (as opposed to the real reason - it sucks and it's a lame device). Which I thought was a typical ridiculous comment from Jobs until I googled for more information. And lo and behold, what I found seems to back him up! Some of the stats claim that, in the U.S. at least, 1 in 4 haven't read a book at ALL in the last year. There was a similar statistic quoted for the UK. Is this in fact true? I find I read 20+ books a year. Granted it's a lot of Sci-Fi, but still, to not read, at all? I can't even comprehend that.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog
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I got the ebook the earliest date it was out, need to get the HC before I see John at Stellarcon in March.
Otherwise [Microsoft is] toast in the long term no matter how much money they've got. They would be already if the Linux community didn't have it's head so firmly up it's own command line buffer that it looks like taking 15 years to find the desktop. -- Matthew Faithfull
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ROTFL - I know what you mean. My daughter wanted 'one fish two fish red fish blue fish' so often, I can quote most of it. I find I can't get to sleep easily unless I read for a half hour, that's where most of my reading occurs. Watching TV or a computer is the worst thing you can do just before bed.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ "also I don't think "TranslateOneToTwoBillion OneHundredAndFortySevenMillion FourHundredAndEightyThreeThousand SixHundredAndFortySeven()" is a very good choice for a function name" - SpacixOne ( offering help to someone who really needed it ) ( spaces added for the benefit of people running at < 1280x1024 )
At least now I know I am not the only one who finds it helpful (in order to get to sleep) to read from a good book right before bed. You can tell from reading posts on here, as well as other sites, that many people do not read these days. Just look at the atrocious misspellings and bad grammar that you find (I understand that not all people who post online are native English speakers, and I can forgive those folks for their misspellings and poor grammar). I honestly believe that the more that a person reads, the more that they learn to master the English language. It really irks me to see things like, "do to a problem I had", rather than "due to", and people who don't know the difference between to, too and two, or there, their, and they're, etc. :mad: Whoa. Better stop, or I will be banished to the soapbox! :)
WE ARE DYSLEXIC OF BORG. Refutance is systile. Your a$$ will be laminated. There are 10 kinds of people in the world: People who know binary and people who don't.