Please read more fiction. Why should everything be about becoming a 'better' person? Why not enjoy a good story? Unconsciously you will learn something, even from fiction.
Fiction gives me so much more than the "science-light" books mentioned in this blog post.
I don't think these books are bad and without ideas or merit, but many of them show an idea in the first two chapters and then repeat it for the rest of the book. It's like an expanded blog post with adequate but average writing. Reading 40 of them in a year is going to leave most people not remembering anything significant. Kind of like people that say they travelled to 40 countries in a year. You're not going to get anything other than surface-level understanding and some jetlag.
Yes! Fiction tends to be much better written and in many cases is an excellent window into understanding people whose lives have been very different from your own. If you want to improve your social awareness and better understand the human condition, fiction is a must.
If the author's goal is to live better rather than read about how to live better, I don't think the solution of reading make-believe fits. The same rejoinder exists: the author would be better served by actually meeting new people and learning from them rather than reading pretend.
Yeah exactly. I guessed pretty early that the books he was reading were productivity-branded self help and pop science. These can be fun but 2-3 per decade is probably plenty.
At 40 non-fiction books per year I'd throw in the towel too.
Fiction on the other hand… I think I average 40 a year without it being an effort at all. Just read a bit in bed before sleeping and on holidays. That's not an abnormal number for anyone who reads for leisure.
Was the author conflating the two? I can't imagine properly processing the contents of 40 non-fiction books in a year.
I don't think these books are bad and without ideas or merit, but many of them show an idea in the first two chapters and then repeat it for the rest of the book. It's like an expanded blog post with adequate but average writing. Reading 40 of them in a year is going to leave most people not remembering anything significant. Kind of like people that say they travelled to 40 countries in a year. You're not going to get anything other than surface-level understanding and some jetlag.