If you can't read a page every 10 seconds, or at least a book a week, should you just not even bother reading...

If you can't read a page every 10 seconds, or at least a book a week, should you just not even bother reading? Harold Bloom has read 80000 books at least once, and many more than once in his 90 years, so he claims. I have read 40 and I am 25. I sometimes wonder if reading is the most important thing in the world and my life is a waste because I can't reap the pleasures of it. I read a book a month, sometimes, but really when it comes to intellect and knowledge, mine is miscule. It is a sad and pathetic little modicum of thought, which one could easily toss aside as if it were a penny on the street.

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>so he claims.

Why do you want to read ? If you read slowly plan out the books you'll read carefully. Also get into the habit of reading an hour a day.

I claim to read 999 books in my 20 years of life
>fock off retard

just read books if you like it you dumbass. you have nothing to prove to anyone but yourself. nobody in real life is going to talk to you about any high concepts in literature or philosophy unless your in academia

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your're'are*

What a useless and, what is more, vain lamentation OP. You feign self-pity but you really indulge yourself; protecting with disproportionate affection the pride you claim you ought not to have. Be humble or be prideful, but at least be consistent about it. Do not be prideful and yet admire your woes, your pitiful self...

Not OP but FP speaking: I don't think that's what he means. His point is more like, "what if I don't even read fast enough to remember the start of the cannon by the end?" or something like that. Personally I think there are some books I've read where I wasn't able to fully appreciate them until I'd read many more. So, had those been the only books I'd read, then you can see the potential problem.

It seems to me that reading books' not nearly as important as you make it out to be. Surely an argument can be made that the ultimate goal of humanity is the accumulation of knowledge, however, as an individual, happiness is far more crucial. Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.

>If you can't read a page every 10 seconds, or at least a book a week, should you just not even bother reading?
Are you really reading slow? Are you _trying_ to read? That could be part of the problem

Sometimes with dense books its better to keep reading even if you don't understand it at first because you will get to a part that is actually interesting and relevant to you so the understanding will click and previous references will make sense.

Same thing with fiction, just keep going and as the story starts to form in your head your interest should carry your motivation forward.

If its not happening maybe the book is boring, get something else, try a different genre.

If you are reading for fun it shouldn't be work, if you are reading to learn and its something you are interested in the work part should be fun. If the book isn't teaching you get a different book.

But I already read Yea Forums posts?

OP, you must read Schopenhauer's essay 'On Thinking for Oneself' at once. Then put the books down and take a long walk in nature. Spend the first half of the walk simply experiencing your surroundings. In the second half, allow yourself to reflect.

'Therefore the mind is deprived of all its elasticity by much
reading as is a spring when a weight is continually applied to it; and the surest
way not to have thoughts of our own is for us at once to take up a book when we
have a moment to spare. This practice is the reason why erudition makes most
men more stupid and simple than they are by nature and also deprives their
literary careers of every success. As Pope says, they remain:
"For ever reading, never to be read."'

- Schopenhauer, 'On Thinking for Oneself'

I take about 1-2 minutes to read a single page, but I read for an hour or two at a time

Flaubert said if you know 6 books truly well, you can be a genius... or something like that. So I don think quantity is always necessary.

>At least a book a week
Not gonna make it bro

Yes but you need to ask how much of those 80000 books did he enjoy and how much did he retain from reading at that speed.
Could he rewrite them completely from memory ? If not then his claim of reading 80000 books is worthless anyway since I can gather as much from reading a synopsis on wikipedia instead.
You should read books you enjoy and enjoy the time reading them, visualize every page in front of you and you will retain the story much better this way.
Besides there aren't even 80000 books worth reading (I personally think there can't be more than a 1000 that are worth it).
Find more books that you enjoy reading instead of simply reading for the sole purpose of reading.

>Harold Bloom has read 80000 books at least once
>claims to read 1k pages an hour and remember pretty much all of it

anyone actually measure this guy's abilities or is he full of shit?

Given that he only writes on a handful of canonical authors that have ample criticism he can paraphrase while singing their praises, I’m gonna go with, “What is of shit, Alex...”

*full of shit

My sister always asks "what are you reading" so she can passive aggresivly brag about how many books she reads. It's all liberal garbage though, books about some black gay tranny in france. I like to spend time pouring over something thick and historical, I don't see reading as something you keep score of, because longer books are better than knocking out a bunch of novels if you don't really like half of them.

Socrates hasn't read a book in his life, and neither has Gautama Buddha. Both are some of the wisest people this world has ever seen. Reading books can absolutely poison the mind, and people who collect them are empty, shallow people. It is much better to carefully select your reading, let it touch your soul and transform you, than to be an 'intellectual' who speedreads classics, only to be able to entertain guests at a dinner party.

"If I can't be Olympic level, is there any point in doing any sport for fun?"
"If I'll never be Miles Davis, should I bother playing trumpet?"
etc.