MetaFilter posts tagged with reading

Faster. Faster. FASTER!

jbickers — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:41:28 -0800

Spreeder is a free speed-reading training tool. Paste in your desired text, tell it how many words per minute, and hit play. The basic principles at play in speed reading are (a) "chunk" text into groups of multiple words and teach yourself to absorb each of those chunks as a unit instead of individual words, and (b) quit vocalizing words in your head as you read them. (There, I just saved you hundreds of dollars on books and courses.) A few ideas for things to paste into the app.

The Book I Read

Xurando — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:04:07 -0800

Nina Sankovitch is about to finish reading a book a day for a year. She not only reads them, she reviews them too. "You can’t go from ‘Little Bee,’ by Chris Cleave, which is about this young woman who witnesses torture and herself is a victim of abuse in Nigeria — a really great book, but you’re just crying or your stomach is clenched — to another book like it the next day,” she said. “If I read a book like that every day, I would have collapsed a long time ago.” Other 365 day projects have included this, this, and this.

Wonder what this will do for book sales?

up in the old hotel — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:08:44 -0800

Bin Laden's Reading List for Americans “After you read the suggested books, you will know the truth, and you will be greatly shocked by the scale of concealment that has been exercised on you:"

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. Previously on Metafilter.
Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter
According to the translation, “The Apology of a Hired Killer.” The book is said to have been written by “a former CIA agent who lived in two cultures, whose conscience was awakened in his third decade and decided to say the truth despite threats.” While there seems to be no book of that title and description, bin Laden may have been reading Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins.

But you don't have to take my word for it.

uncleozzy — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:01:50 -0800

Whether you grew up checking out books like Louis the Fish and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie from the library every week, or you just know Steve Horlick's iconic theme song, you're probably familiar with Reading Rainbow, which ends its 26-year run today. Funding has dried up to renew the show's broadcast rights due, in part, to a sea change in the philosophy of teaching reading on television: while Reading Rainbow promoted the idea of reading, some educators today would prefer that programming focus on the mechanics of reading. Others, though, say that the place for such instruction is in the classroom. And although host LeVar Burton left the show in 2007, citing philosophical differences with the program's new owners, Educate, Inc., parent company of Sylvan Learning Centers and Hooked on Phonics, he hints that he's working on adult-targeted webisodes of a similar program. Episodes of Reading Rainbow will still be available for the home and classroom, and there are plans to expand the Young Writers and Illustrators Contest (previously on MetaFilter).

An ingenious device for avoiding thought...

smoke — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:56:20 -0800

The brain's plasticity has some neuroscientists worried about what the internet will do to reading - and to humanity. But teenagers - the very demographic you would expect to suffer most from the google-induced inability to focus and critique - are in fact reading more than ever. Or are they? Young adult fiction might be selling, but who's doing the reading?

Suggestion

plexi — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 11:43:22 -0800

I've just finished reading ____________. Type in the name of the book you've just finished, and The Book Seer will provide recommendations for your next read.

...I didn't actually read the link...

Artw — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:06:48 -0800

It’s only natural that if you wish to present yourself as a well-read person, a certain degree of complete bullshit is required. There’s no shame in lying about what you’ve read. There’s only shame in getting caught. Then you look like a doofus, and an illiterate one at that... How to lie about books.

Infinite Summer

mattbucher — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:46:49 -0800

Infinite Summer - "The Challenge: Read Infinite Jest over the summer of 2009" "You've been meaning to do it for over a decade. Now join endurance bibliophiles from around the web as we tackle and comment upon David Foster Wallace's masterwork, June 21st to September 22nd. A thousand pages1 ÷ 93 days = 75 pages a week. No sweat." There is also a Twitter account, hashtag (#infsum), and a Facebook group.

Readernaut

chunking express — Wed, 06 May 2009 11:58:12 -0800

Readernaut. Share your reading experience by writing notes, tracking progress, and engaging in meaningful discussions with friends.

What are you reading, charming writer?

mattbucher — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 08:13:48 -0800

What are writers reading? An eclectic mix of authors answer the perennial question. A sampling of responses: George Packer Anne Fadiman Cass Sunstein Jane Smiley Lydia Millet Steven Zipperstein Abraham Verghese John Dunning Stephen Burt Tim Harford

Storyreading

ocherdraco — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:06:55 -0800

A guide to Storyreading. "For over ten years now, various friends and I have been getting together on occasion to read stories aloud to each other. This activity—graced with the unlovely but utilitarian name "story reading"—can be a great deal of fun, but can also be rife with pitfalls of various sorts. This guide is an attempt to help others to run story readings. Note that reading stories is different from—and, generally, much easier than—telling stories; while people do occasionally tell stories at these gatherings (and it usually goes over well), that's not the primary emphasis...The origins of our approach to story readings are lost in the mists of antiquity. The idea may have sprung fully-fledged from a conversation I had with DH about a Delany essay called "On Pure Storytelling"; or it may've been derived from MK's reading The Princess Bride aloud, which in turn may've been inspired by folks at Yale who were doing much the same thing. Whatever the history, it's clear that other groups—notably one in Boston—have been having similar sorts of readings for at least as long as we have." Storyreading is essentially a bunch of people getting together and reading 8-10 page pieces, usually short stories (but also essays, or chapters from novels or nonfiction books). Want to start a storyreading group? Here are some places to find things to read:

A list of books read at the Yale group and its satellites
Literary journals: Glimmer Train, One Story, Ploughshares, and Zoetrope All-Story
Anthologies: The O. Henry Prize Stories, the Best American series, the Pushcart Prize Anthology
Collections of short fiction that have won the Story Prize
And, of course, the wonderful treasures of short fiction found by your fellow mefites

An addition to the advice given in the guide: it's nice to keep a wiki or other online list of the things your group has read, so you can go back and find them later. For flavor, some things recently read at my group include:

"A Signal in the Sky Said: Marry Her," by Ben Karlin, in the March 9, 2008 issue of The New York Times. Full text online here.
"The American Male at Age 10" by Susan Orlean, from The New Kings of Nonfiction, edited by Ira Glass
from Liberation by Brian Slattery
“All Seated on the Ground” by Connie Willis. Full text online here.
"My Affliction" by Gabrielle Bell. Self-published mini-comic later reprinted in Lucky Volume 2 #1.
"The Dubbing of General Garbage" from City Boy by Herman Wouk
from James Brown: Live at the Apollo by Douglas Wolk. Accompanied by the album.
from Celine Dion: Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste by Carl Wilson. Accompanied by the song.
"Excellent" from Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan
"My Uncle in the Garden" from Just An Ordinary Day by Shirley Jackson
from Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
from The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange by Mark Barrowcliffe
from Paper Towns by John Green

Telling tales

fearfulsymmetry — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 04:47:19 -0800

You say Orwell, Tolstoy and Joyce, but actually it's Rowling and Grisham... Anyway if you are a chap, just make sure you put away that Clarkson before your date arrives.

Hey, some of us are reading here.

jragon — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:19:35 -0800

Readability is a wonderful bookmarklet that strips away all the surrounding cruft on a page so you can focus on the content.

Fetish of ambition

joseph conrad is fully awesome — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 10:05:15 -0800

"... many critics and editors, especially male ones, make a fetish of "ambition," by which they mean the contemporary equivalent of novels about men in boats ("Moby-Dick," "Huckleberry Finn") rather than women in houses ("House of Mirth"), and that as a result big novels by male writers get treated as major events while slender but equally accomplished books by women tend to make a smaller splash." A book review of Elaine Showalter's newly published book, A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx, contains a brief historical overview and discussion of the question, "Why can't a woman write the Great American novel?"

It is impossible - and unnecessary - to grapple with every 'must read' of the literary canon

stbalbach — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 08:40:42 -0800

John Updike died, have you read his books? Who has time where there are a 1000 novels to read yet! James Delingpole argues that it is impossible - and unnecessary - to grapple with every 'must read' of the literary canon. He says:

Partly you're excused by the issue of time. In the early 19th century, it might just have been possible for a sprightly reader with bags of leisure time to whizz through all the great novels that had ever been written. In the early 21st century, it's an impossibility. Mainly though, you're excused by the fact that there's no novelist out there so essential that an unfamiliarity with his work represents a crime against taste and good judgment. All I mean is that once you've had a reasonable grounding in sufficient "proper" literature to form your taste, you should never again read a book out of duty. Far too many of the (depressingly few) novel-readers I know do, though. They feel compelled to read the must-read new literary prizewinner; the must-read new, vibrant-insight-into-remote-foreign-culture novel. They have this idea in their heads, instilled from having to revere the classics at school, that literature is a lofty thing, that the best writing is fine writing or stuff they don't quite understand or feels slightly hard work. But if you don't read any must-read books, I promise you won't be missing anything. First, it's because must-read books .. are just never, ever, EVER as good as the critics say they are. Second it's because there is no such thing as a perfect novel.

Screen Literacy

dhruva — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:22:30 -0800

People of the Screen : "Digital literacy’s advocates increasingly speak of replacing, rather than supplementing, print literacy. What is “reading” anyway, they ask, in a multimedia world like ours? We are increasingly distractible, impatient, and convenience-obsessed—and the paper book just can’t keep up. Shouldn’t we simply acknowledge that we are becoming people of the screen, not people of the book?"

Nietzsche on your Nokia

desjardins — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:29:27 -0800

Need a little Tolstoy while you're waiting in line? How about some Mark Twain on the subway? Booksinmyphone puts - surprise! - books in your phone, for free.

Read me a story.

nickyskye — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:04:51 -0800

Something for a kid you know, or your own inner child. Speakaboos offers online stories with the written word below the illustrations, as if read from a book: fables, nursery rhymes, fairy tales, folk tales, lullabies. You can watch the stories without registering. You will have to sign-up (for free) for the future function of recording your own "that will allow kids and parents to record their own voices reading (or singing!) their favorite story, song, or nursery rhyme." Christmas stories. About the creators of the site. The readers of the stories.

Magazines + Google = Neato

stavrosthewonderchicken — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:15:53 -0800

New York Magazine? Popular Science? The Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists? Ebony? Every issue, every page, back into the mists of history. No kidding. I'm not usually one to go all Pepsi Blue with the latest bit of Goo from the Googleplex, but this is pretty cool. Extra whizbang points for the way they integrate Google maps, with pins where locations are mentioned in the magazine (at least for some of them). Too much information, not enough time. [via]

'Where Forgotton Books are Remembered'

anastasiav — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:13:26 -0800

The Neglected Books Page

Will success spoil Nate the Great?

rikschell — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:48:55 -0800

It happened to Clifford. It happened to Little Bear. It happened to Harold and his Purple Crayon, and Curious George. Now, Moe Greene productions presents, Nate the Great. I don't want to begrudge my favorite children's book authors a fat paycheck, BUT... Is it about the product, or is it about the kids? The classic books remain, but is the brand enriched or is it watered down by "merch?" Whatever happened to teaching kids to read? Some people have their own ideas.

free reading, writing and arithmetic resources

nickyskye — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 06:11:10 -0800

EduChoices offers some good free stuff online: 25 Places to Read Free Books Online l 50 Online Writing Websites for New Writers l Ranking of 20 Universities that Offer Free Courses Online (with links to the free courses), as well as information about university courses etc. l Great Reference Sites Other Than Wikipedia l Free Linux Tutorials for Beginners l Useful Online Calculators For Almost Every Educational and Life Need. The 10 Most Politically Active College and University Campuses of All Time l other useful links.

Online Literacy Is a Lesser Kind

stbalbach — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 08:50:43 -0800

Online Literacy Is a Lesser Kind. Testing shows people "read" online text much differently than printed text. Before reading this extended description, I recommend reading the linked article and being conscious of your reading style, as discussed in the article. For those without the patience for reading longish articles online, here is the articles "nut":

In the eye-tracking test, only one in six subjects read Web pages linearly, sentence by sentence. The rest jumped around chasing keywords, bullet points, visuals, and color and typeface variations. In another experiment on how people read e-newsletters, informational e-mail messages, and news feeds, Nielsen exclaimed, "'Reading' is not even the right word." The subjects usually read only the first two words in headlines, and they ignored the introductory sections. They wanted the "nut" and nothing else. A 2003 Nielsen warning asserted that a PDF file strikes users as a "content blob," and they won't read it unless they print it out. A "booklike" page on screen, it seems, turns them off and sends them away.

You wanna rock 'n' roll, or you wanna throw stuff?

the_very_hungry_caterpillar — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:18:50 -0800

Last weekend, (22-24 August 2008) saw the fantastic Reading Festival take place (dodgy timeline). Emerging from the National Jazz Festival in 1961, it mutated into the National Jazz, Blues and Rock Festival festival in the 70s, and on into the eclectic festival it is today. My personal faves were 1989 and 1992, but the best moment was seeing Meatloaf bottled off stage in 1988! Due to the combined force of the BBC and the interwebs, most of this year's performances - many complete - are available online for your delictation...

What Book Got You Hooked?

NotMyselfRightNow — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 07:09:08 -0800

What book got you hooked? For Scarlett Johansson, it was Fantastic Mr. Fox. For Stephen Colbert, it was Swiss Family Robinson. Neil Patrick Harris? Bridge to Terebithia. And it was Franny and Zooey for Ira Glass. These and dozens of other celebs have shared their answer to this question with First Book, a charity that has distributed more than 60 million free and low cost books to children to spur their interest in reading. What book got you hooked? (Via the always fantastic Get Rich Slowly)