Reading Rituals(cruiseandpaul.substack.com)
cruiseandpaul.substack.com
Reading Rituals
https://cruiseandpaul.substack.com/p/reading-rituals
37 comments
> When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.
-- C.S. Lewis
-- C.S. Lewis
I could never read in silence!
I like to read fiction late at night (after my SO goes to bed) on my Ikea Poäng, under a floor lamp, with soft instrumental music on the background (Chet Baker usually works the magic even when singing). Some days when I am in the mood I sip a finger of single malt, neat. I am a smoker but do not do it at home, so I vape whatever tastes like buttered coffee.
Setting this up in my not so big room is kind of my "wind down" ritual.
But if I am reading non fiction, I am usually on my computer with DEVONThink helping me with annotations and so on, but then there is no music, no whiskey, no vaping and no nonsense :P
Setting this up in my not so big room is kind of my "wind down" ritual.
But if I am reading non fiction, I am usually on my computer with DEVONThink helping me with annotations and so on, but then there is no music, no whiskey, no vaping and no nonsense :P
The modern internet has made me cynical. I can’t read a comment with brand name references in it anymore without my astroturfing alarm going off.
I am not affiliated with DEVONThink or Ikea, just to be clear.
I am a smoker too and if things get particularly intense I have to take a smoke break!
I read lying in bed. If my cat is cooperating, she's on the pillow behind my head, and sometimes her tail is whacking me on the head which I actually kinda love. Usually she takes over my desk chair or is nowhere to be found though. I keep my cell phone next to me so I can be interrupted by notifications as needed without getting up to go to my PC (usually notifications are non-work). Whether I'm holding a pencil or not depends on the book I'm reading. Usually I read for about 1-2 hours at a time or so.
Recently I've spent a lot more time reading than I previously did because I've had a lot of neck pain from migraines - the migraine medications I'm on are pretty effective at clearing the headaches, but not so much the neck pain (so far anyway). Lying down fixes the neck pain, so I spend a lot of time reading, mostly nonfiction. I've been reading a bunch of books about American public libraries, it turns out they're really interesting and have a very rich history!
Recently I've spent a lot more time reading than I previously did because I've had a lot of neck pain from migraines - the migraine medications I'm on are pretty effective at clearing the headaches, but not so much the neck pain (so far anyway). Lying down fixes the neck pain, so I spend a lot of time reading, mostly nonfiction. I've been reading a bunch of books about American public libraries, it turns out they're really interesting and have a very rich history!
I'm way too distractable to be able to read with a TV going in the background. It pulls my attention from the text and my own thoughts.
Did Exceed and Dr Pepper pay for the promotion? Seems like almost all of this person's newsletters mention some product or service.
Did Exceed and Dr Pepper pay for the promotion? Seems like almost all of this person's newsletters mention some product or service.
Neither were promotions. It was suggested by substance that I post my newsletter articles to this site and I am entirely new and not completely sure of the rules. I do book reviews for a living. Sometimes I post them on my newsletter. The newsletter is mostly for my fanfiction readers to not miss a chapter and receive it directly into their emails. I don't promote anything intentionally, but it is hard to talk about things without naturally mentioning certain things. I am still learning this site.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding substack, but isn’t that more or less what it’s for? I know it offers features for making money off of subscriptions, I just generally think of it as a place where writers are expressly attempting to make money.
I use it for my newsletter for my fanfiction blog and book reviews. My subscription is free. I may post some articles in the future you have to pay for due to content, but for now, I like it to be entirely free so people can get my fanfic chapters directly sent to their emails and won't miss a chapter
Rituals? Unlike for the author, for many of us reading alone in a room on a couch is a rare indulgence. By the time we get home from work I'm more concentrated on eating a decent meal and getting to bed early enough for a solid five hours before the alarm goes off again.
That doesn't sound great actually. Are you being sarcastic? It kinda reads like a cry of help.
>> Are you being sarcastic?
At the moment, no. My shifts are 6am to midnight, six days a week. Day 7 is for laundry, exercise, phoning home and catching up on sleep. Lots of us have jobs that require long hours at least temporarily. For me (military) we will keep this pace until at least mid-January but this is a norm in many industries. Talk to anyone working on any sort of ship, resource extraction, farming, or remote locations. The hours are long, the rooms are small, but the pay is high. Time for reading is a privilege. Only those with "normal" jobs have the stability and time to associate rituals with reading.
At the moment, no. My shifts are 6am to midnight, six days a week. Day 7 is for laundry, exercise, phoning home and catching up on sleep. Lots of us have jobs that require long hours at least temporarily. For me (military) we will keep this pace until at least mid-January but this is a norm in many industries. Talk to anyone working on any sort of ship, resource extraction, farming, or remote locations. The hours are long, the rooms are small, but the pay is high. Time for reading is a privilege. Only those with "normal" jobs have the stability and time to associate rituals with reading.
Yeah, no time for reading, but plenty of time for posting on Hacker News
They didn't say they have no time for reading. Anyone with a modern phone and a lunch break can post to HN from work.
What they said was:
> reading alone in a room on a couch is a rare indulgence
What they said was:
> reading alone in a room on a couch is a rare indulgence
The post I responded to contained this:
> Time for reading is a privilege. Only those with "normal" jobs have the stability and time to associate rituals with reading.
Virtually everyone has time to read, even if it's 5-10 minutes between shifts. Whatever time you spend reading or posting on HN could be spent reading a book, which is not to say that it should be, only that this "time for reading is a privilege" stuff is nonsense.
> Time for reading is a privilege. Only those with "normal" jobs have the stability and time to associate rituals with reading.
Virtually everyone has time to read, even if it's 5-10 minutes between shifts. Whatever time you spend reading or posting on HN could be spent reading a book, which is not to say that it should be, only that this "time for reading is a privilege" stuff is nonsense.
I agree. And it is obvious people read the article and are doing something that could be considered a ritual. Reading an article on your lunch break could be a ritual just as much as reading a book on a couch for hours on end every night. It was literally the point to share how and where people read, not just books, but submissions on here or other journalistic type materials.Most people do read something on a regular basis like a newspaper or spiritual writing at different times during the day. I am just curious as to what, where, and when people like to read.
Lol. Work machines have internet too. I'd bet that a good number of HN readers are currently at some sort of office. Even soldiers have offices.
My parents worked service jobs their entire lives. One of my main memories of my time as a child is my dad napping on weekends while my mom was at work, with me sitting watching TV. As I grew up and learned about "self-actualization" and heard exhortations imploring me to follow my passions, those values quickly crashed against my lived reality. I had a span of time as a teenager, before I ever worked, where I applied those values to my expectations of my parents and felt disappointed.
It took me a while to understand why my parents didn't have hobbies, abandoned self-study courses, did little outside of maintenance tasks, etc. The first chunk of my working life put me in positions where physical exhaustion became real.
Some people really don't have the space in their lives to engage in non-critical life activities. Off the top of my head, I don't know of any philosophers that have explored those types of lives. Are those types of people destined to grind until their last days? This seems especially important to understand as safety nets like Social Security become less reliable.
It took me a while to understand why my parents didn't have hobbies, abandoned self-study courses, did little outside of maintenance tasks, etc. The first chunk of my working life put me in positions where physical exhaustion became real.
Some people really don't have the space in their lives to engage in non-critical life activities. Off the top of my head, I don't know of any philosophers that have explored those types of lives. Are those types of people destined to grind until their last days? This seems especially important to understand as safety nets like Social Security become less reliable.
> Off the top of my head, I don't know of any philosophers that have explored those types of lives.
"Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work" by Matthew B. Crawford [1, 2] is one such book. The author holds a PhD in soft sciences, but works as a motorcycle mechanic.
Having worked as a brush cutter and tree planter, I can fully confirm that e.g. physical work can be exhausting to the point that all you want to do at night is finish your household chores and then get to sleep. I'm definitely a bookworm, but I remember having much less interest in reading, abstract reasoning or even listening to music at that time. It is probably related to the day-long exposure to industrial noise that a brush cutter experiences. Your brain is tired.
I've always found tradesmen interesting, but after that personal experience, I think I have a much better understanding for their occasional grumpiness and the "rough edges" they have. More often than not, they're probably just really tired.
1: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6261332-shop-class-as-so...
2: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26925445
"Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work" by Matthew B. Crawford [1, 2] is one such book. The author holds a PhD in soft sciences, but works as a motorcycle mechanic.
Having worked as a brush cutter and tree planter, I can fully confirm that e.g. physical work can be exhausting to the point that all you want to do at night is finish your household chores and then get to sleep. I'm definitely a bookworm, but I remember having much less interest in reading, abstract reasoning or even listening to music at that time. It is probably related to the day-long exposure to industrial noise that a brush cutter experiences. Your brain is tired.
I've always found tradesmen interesting, but after that personal experience, I think I have a much better understanding for their occasional grumpiness and the "rough edges" they have. More often than not, they're probably just really tired.
1: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6261332-shop-class-as-so...
2: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26925445
Yeah this is partly something I recognize. Until the age of 7 or so, my dad usually had left for work when we got up, and would get back home only after we'd gone to bed. When I was around 12, he no longer worked Saturdays, but he'd be tired and angry.
Nowadays, I understand they were trying to build up a business (and more or less succeeded). I've had periods when I started a freelance business and worked too much, but now that I've got a daughter, family comes first. But maybe that's a luxury.
Nowadays, I understand they were trying to build up a business (and more or less succeeded). I've had periods when I started a freelance business and worked too much, but now that I've got a daughter, family comes first. But maybe that's a luxury.
Is it perhaps a luxury afforded in part from prior investments (in the form of hard work to launch and nurture these past businesses)?
I hadn’t thought about it like that, but that does actually have a bit of truth to it. Realistically though, I realized that I was doing dumb, badly paying projects and then decided I needed to get good, well paying clients :D
So no successful serial entrepreneur story there, more like deciding to charge more and invest the remainder in the stock market :-)
So no successful serial entrepreneur story there, more like deciding to charge more and invest the remainder in the stock market :-)
Yes. This sounds awful.
This is life for most people in the world. I don't see how this is surprising to so many.
Though, I assume people around here tend to work cushy tech jobs that involve staring at a computer all day and know nothing else.
Though, I assume people around here tend to work cushy tech jobs that involve staring at a computer all day and know nothing else.
I've seen tech, education and logistics. And this hasn't been common in any of those. I'm living in Scandinavia but have seen other European colleagues leading a normal life as well.
Life is variable. Perhaps for some decades of your life you’ll have more time for this ritual while this person might be thrown into some circumstance which takes the opportunity away.
Like another person here who can’t find the time due to young children in the house, I spent years fantasizing about disappearing into a book but I was too tired, too overworked, and constantly playing catch-up with kids and the home. These days I read just about every night to fall asleep. Maybe as my kids get older I’ll find time to read during the day a bit more too. Or maybe not.
I mean to say this stuff isn’t static, and one person's rare indulgence is another’s routine. It doesn’t mean much. And it will probably change.
Like another person here who can’t find the time due to young children in the house, I spent years fantasizing about disappearing into a book but I was too tired, too overworked, and constantly playing catch-up with kids and the home. These days I read just about every night to fall asleep. Maybe as my kids get older I’ll find time to read during the day a bit more too. Or maybe not.
I mean to say this stuff isn’t static, and one person's rare indulgence is another’s routine. It doesn’t mean much. And it will probably change.
The author seems to be reading for payment. You might say "Nice work if you can get it", but I don't think you could call it an indulgence.
If you are a stay at home mom who makes a living doing book reviews it is a ritual
not quite ur 'Salinger Year' then ..
sorry for u.
I wish I could have a reading ritual but two young kids in the house (one being an infant) makes it near impossible.
Sigh, next year :)
Sigh, next year :)
I am a stay at home mom of a 2 year old. We read books together. He is learning his letters and points to the pictures. When he goes to bed I stay up another 4 hours to read books for my book review job.
I used to feel pretty bad that I never made time for reading when my kids were tiny. In retrospect, it’s totally fine. I doubt you need the reinforcement, I only wish I realized how reasonable it is not to have time for things (even things you care about) when parenting is turned to 11.
I'm currently in the midst of this with a 5 month old. It helps to read your affirmation! I manage to sneak in about 20 mins of reading a day if I'm lucky right now.
It gets easier! Keep fitting in those 20 minutes here and there, and soon enough it’ll be 30, then 40, then… Life gets back to normal. One day it happens!
Those are the moments when I stop being a responsible adult in life, a spouse, an employee, a colleague, or a friend. I'm just a child wallowing in silly wonderlands of imagination.