How to be well read? I feel I'm fairly intelligent, but

>>8891286
Stick to your anime and 'vidya', faggot

>>>/r9k/

>>8891286
>I feel I'm fairly intelligent

No, you aren't

>>8891286
Find a group of people to chat with about books. If there's a bookstore in town that has a symposium or something like that, go to it. You'll meet people there.

there's a chance you're choosing books which won't appeal to you for prestige. that's a dumb plan if you are.

there's also the possibility that you might have to force yourself. i had to do this after a period where i couldn't read anything longer than a sentence or two. once i had enough attention span to read four sentences, i sat down and read a third of a book like i was getting paid to do that shit. same thing the next day but i enjoyed it more

throw away tv, computer, phone

your attention span will recover after a few months

File: homer.jpg (20KB, 220x277px) Image search: [Google]

20KB, 220x277px

START

File: 1480771637420.jpg (39KB, 431x450px) Image search: [Google]

39KB, 431x450px

WITH

>>8891286
you have 2 pills:

the blue one you stick with your TV, computer, video-games, cellphone. but NO BOOKS

the red one you get the books, but no TV, no vidya, no cellphone, no facebook, etc

pick one and don't regret

>>8891286
Anon pls. You're asking strangers for permission to live a better and more fulfilling life here. Don't you think it's time to take control of your life instead of blaming your past?

File: 1481907355661.jpg (81KB, 1000x800px) Image search: [Google]

81KB, 1000x800px

>>8891363
>'Stop taking the advice of strangers.'
>'Here's my advice!'

>>8891286
Sometimes people genuinely don't like to read. It's alright. But if you really want to start reading start with short and very engaging novels, fight club, anything by Bukowski and a clockwork orange come to mind. Once you get used to reading start building up bigger and maybe more descriptive works

>>8891286

you can never go wrong with starting with the greeks

>>8891286
Read classics that deal with subject matter that interests you, fifty pages a day, and keep a notepad to jot down the most interesting ideas and thoughts you have. Before a year has passed, perhaps even six months, you will be noticeably more well read an able to recollect some key ideas in your reading.

And honestly ditch videogames and restrict TV (there is good quality here, but how often do we watch crap because it happens to be on?) They are like soma, mind numbing things which overstimulate your senses and irritate the soul by its insidious and unedifying nature. Seriously now, watching pornography is less harmful than subjecting yourself to more than 2 hours a day of TV. I include youtube here.

>>8891371
Very witty. If only my appeal hinged on anyone being strangers or resembled advice.

Sorry but no, I won't indulge OP/you in mimicking his legal guardian which is what he's begging for here given his overt external locus of control and victim mentality, e,g, how he's been "fed" videogames rather than playing them and how his only option is "forcing" himself to read rather than freely choosing to do so why is why he sought the advice of the motherfucking sages of 4chan like a complete pantaloon with more than plenty morons ready to oblige.

It's a complete tragedy.

>>8891301
Wrong. Books are not meant to be read so that you can talk about them with your gay little book friends

>>8891302
>read books for fun because life is about happiness and cupcakes and rainbows!! :))
Wrong. books are about enlightenment. Learn to do hard work, you lazy faggot.

>>8891378
>read Bukowski
>read fight club
>start with shitty beginner literature then make your way up
Wrong. Unless you are retarded, then you can start with quality literature. It will be hard work, but literature is not just about hedonistic pleasure. I suggest working your way, OP, through Dostoevsky's bibliography.
>sometimes people genuinely don't like to read. It's alright.
>sometimes people genuinely don't like to do hard work. it's alright :)))
>sometimes people genuinely don't like to be productive. it's alright :)))))
>sometimes people genuinely don't like to do anything other than be a worthless piece of shit. it's alright :)))))))))

Also,
>>8891291
correct
>>8891300
correct

TLDR: give up and stay with japanese porn cartoons, stupid bitch

>>8891286
Commence with Confucius, and then go forth with the Greeks.

>>8891436
Make
lit
great
again

why are you being so mean guys?

>>8891322
This

>>8891436
>Wrong. books are about enlightenment. Learn to do hard work, you lazy faggot.
Learn to have taste, you preening illiterate social climbing scum. There isn't a book combination which unlocks the secret name of God and gives you his digits so you can ask him like wikipedia if you're not sure of life questions, and if there were it would tell you to kill yourself.
>midas_should_have_listened_departing_hoofsteps.mp3

Approach it like it's the gym. Start easy, measure you progress, don't expect to enjoy it at first and make sure to do it almost every day, gradually increasing the difficulty.

At first you will have to force it because as a pleb you don't have literary interests and you're probably not part of any literary milieu. Once you read more books you will know more or less what topics interest you, and you might bond with people over them, online or irl. Then it's pretty much on automatic from there.

And trust me, this is it. Ignore anyone who will try to dignify the "literary lifestyle" by suggesting it can't be attained in a forced, systematic fashion because it has to be spontaneous. In the gym analogy, these are the DYEL faggots who tell you to do martial arts instead of lifting because it's less artificial.

File: 1479822416828.png (626KB, 796x430px) Image search: [Google]

626KB, 796x430px

>>8891286
>I've started buying books 6 months ago, and I've not finished any of them

How is this even possible?
I was just like you with not reading anything during my teenage years, but back in April i started to buy used books because I fund out I was living close to a antiquarian shop. Since then I have managed to read 21 books.

Maybe you should just try to force you way through?
Like, pick a book, check out how many chapters it has, then divide that on 1-2 weeks and force yourself to read x amount of chapters every night.

You need to chill out and find out what you really want to do. You don't like reading but want the social prestige of being "well-read".

>>8891291
This desu

>>8892252
>You need to chill out and find out what you really want to do. You don't like reading but want the social prestige of being "well-read".

t. person who doesn't read but thinks he's the "type of person" who reads

File: to smart.jpg (8KB, 239x211px) Image search: [Google]

8KB, 239x211px

>>8891286
It sounds to me like you just want to become a pseud. If, by the off chance, you're genuinely interested in improving yourself, here's a little guide that got me started.

From my observation, most normies don't read. They're too busy watching movies, TV, being glued to their phones, etc. That means they read 0 pages per day.

Find a book with a topic that interests you. It can be anything. Start out with reading 5 pages a day. It sounds like nothing, but start with 5. No more, no less. If you read 5 pages a day, you read 5 more pages than the average normie. After 2-3 weeks, you'll be aching to upgrade to 10-15 pages a day. Then a month later, you'll probably eat up 30-40. You won't even notice when you're eating up 100-150 pages a day.

Eventually, you stop caring about how much normies read because you realize you actually love reading and do it because you enjoy it.

It happens on its own. Just start out reading 5 pages a day for a few days.

Take a NEET year, Im 6 months in and I've read a pretty decent amount of good books

>>8892097

holy shit underrated

File: confused.png (74KB, 300x256px) Image search: [Google]

74KB, 300x256px

>>8891436
>literature is hard work

Why do ladder-climbing normies think that reading is for self-improvement? Reading should be for your own enjoyment and edification. If you aren't the type of person who truly cares about art just put down the Dostoyevsky book and stop pretending like you're doing it for anything other than social signalling. And for god's sake stop trying to argue philosophy in public, it's beyond embarrassing.

>>8892518
>And for god's sake stop trying to argue philosophy in public, it's beyond embarrassing.
This is the age of anti-intellectualism we live in. Unless of course you are referring to people who spout drivel about things they don't know anything about, then yeah, but still this is literally the whole point of philosophy.

>>8891286
Started my first 15 years like you, luckily my wise father gave me the exact right book and from there I got into reading, including the dull, smart shit. You need to find books that interest you to get into the medium before digging into the "classics" of a medium. That book/series that gets you into reading depends on your interests. Try finding books people say remind them of your favorite movies/games and go from there. Like sci-fi shit? Read sci-fi books. Etc. Good luck, being a pseud helps.

File: 1471833514498.png (97KB, 362x492px) Image search: [Google]

97KB, 362x492px

>i don't feel like finishing a book
i grew up on spongebob and CoD too my man but i'm trying. have some work ethic and see it through or else you will desire to eat nothing but instant gratification doggy doo-doo

>>8892569
Forgot to mention, of you don't find enjoyment after searching actively then why bother? Ask yourself WHY you want to read.

Start with short stories and work your way up.

>>8892569
what book?

File: 1475230940761.png (4KB, 300x300px) Image search: [Google]

4KB, 300x300px

Bunch of no fun elitists in this thread. I work, I draw, I read and I still find time for movies and vidya. I'll probably never be a master of anything, but I have a solid understanding of a lot of things and I enjoy most of the shit I do.

Try and get into a routine. Set yourself a minimum of pages to read per day. If you enjoy it, you'll want to read more. If you don't, that's fine. At the end of the day you still made progress.

>>8892612
Pseuds are going to shit on me but Ender's Game. The later books have some interesting, easy-to-read political science and cultural content, though I imagine any book with a society all working together globally to face a common enemy would have made me curious why it wasn't reality. From here I went on to read The Wealth and Poverty of Nations (explains current globalism trends and some cultural differences that Ender's Series touched on) and some other shit that made me realize why humanity is a plague that needs to just die already. Didn't say reading made me happier btw, consider the "ignorance is bliss" saying before you go down the road of enlightenment.

>>8892629

>and some other shit that made me realize why humanity is a plague that needs to just die already.

t. edgelord

i know dats u linkola stop lurking here

>>8892078

Are you not your brother's keeper?
Would you rather let your fellow men, or imitations thereof, degenerate further by spoon-feeding them niceties and half-truths?
Fuck that, give it to him straight and plainly

This is really pathetic...

>>8892626
This actually. I've come to terms with the fact that I'll never be a genius in any field, and I only started 'reading' at 18 because I grew up in the generation of pokemon and 90's cartoons (my parents are not intellectually curious in the least). Still, I've probably read about 250-300 books in the last six or seven years, and can balance that out with my ability to play several instruments and watch a ton of film, which suits me fine. Being well-read is a meme

>>8891378
I don't consider fight club or bukowski to be very engaging, I feel like they suit the 16-year old sensibility, but past that, they don't serve as introductory literature. A Clockwork Orange is just a pretty good book

The best advice ITT is >>8891301

You don't have to read for too long before it becomes intrinsically enjoyable, but if you want to kickstart your interest, find people to talk to about a book. /lit/ bookclubs are a great place to start if you can't find anybody in real life

>>8891286
>I've started buying books 6 months ag

what books did you pick?

>>8891286
Maybe you should stop trying to force yourself, slow down, and let things comes naturally.

>>8892629
Just read Foundation if you're going to go this route