How many books do you read at once? How long will you leave

I only actively read one usually, very occasionally 2 (particularly if one is very long and I need a break).

But there are always a few lurking around that I got half way through and didn't finish. A couple of times a year I force myself to complete them. I got about 40% through "The meeting of east and west" by FSC Northrop early last year before deciding that I would have to go and read about some of the things he kept referring to. I think I'll have to start it again whenever I come back to it.

>>9170073
Every time I see a political cartoon like this I print out a picture of Plato and shit on it.

A SHIP IS NOT A GOVERNMENT, HOLY FUCK, HOW MUCH WINE DID YOU HAVE THAT DAY

GODDAMN ANCIENT PEDERAST

>>9170181
So you are saying that the government shuldn't be run by those who are best suited for the task

Usually just one.
If there's a book that was left unfinished I just read a few chapters from where I left it and continue from there.

>>9170195
That question is intellectually dishonest. Who's to say who is "best suited for the task"? Isn't that our job?

>>9170073
Reading more than one book at a time is for white trash.

I can't read 2 at once and it fucks me up, I get stuck on a long book and only read one chapter a day for like a month

>>9170195
The question is dishonest, but not for the reason given by >>9170209 which is a mere appeal to democracy.

There is no government. It has no levers of operation, other than human beings. There is no skill required to operate it, other than the skill known as "emotional manipulation." To say a government is like a ship and should be run by the most skilled is to say that humans are nothing but planks of wood, and sails, and rudders, arranged like chess pieces to the sole end of being politically dominated, or "cooperating." On that note, fuck Aristotle equally as hard. If I could clone him back into existence to have him raped to death by a male lion, I would.

>>9170073

Two at a time. A work of philosophy and a work of literature.

The decision to start over again when picking up a book for the first time in a while depends entirely on the circumstances. I picked up The Magic Mountain after a 6 month break and could remember pretty much everything I needed to.

>>9170209

But my dear Glaucon, you must admit that it is either the case that you wish for those who are best suited for the job to have the job, or it is the case that you do not wish for those who are best suited for the job to have the job.

The dude has a point though. If the pilot is charging $20 for a bag of peanuts and acts condescendingly to the passengers when confronted, hasn't he lost touch with the people? Shouldn't the people, who are the reason the plane exists, have a say in the operation of the plane? If the pilot is fucking you over for his own benefit, and you have a mechanism in place to replace him with a new pilot, shouldn't you use that mechanism and exercise your right as an individual, who has a vested interest in the plane, to change the way the plane is run?

What is wrong with plane populism? Either the plane is a service for the passengers and should be accommodating for their desires, Or the plane is run by dictators who only care about themselves and will harm the passengers.

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4MB, 400x225px

>>9170261
At that point there is but one option...

I always read two. One that is hard to read due to lenght, complexity, old language or whatever and an easier more lighthearted one, preferably short stories.

That way I have something I can fall back to when my concentration is bad, say during my commute or after work days that fried my brain.

>>9170073
Generally 4-6 because I read through all my textbooks like a geek. I read a couple dozen pages per day from each depending on what classes I have next day. Then I read some fiction before bed.

>>9170073
I try to only read one book at a time.

I leave the decision of when to reread a book to whimsy.

>>9170261
The pilot's main purpose is not to be in touch with the people. The pilot's main purpose is to pilot the plane competently (which according to definition includes some amount of accommodation of passengers).

>>9170227

I disagree. The issue with your post is the deflation of systems of power into 'just humans'. There are 22 million government employees, each of which sorted into separate agencies and bureaus, each with different goals, and each jockeying for funding.

To say that management of a modern state is equivalent to management of interpersonal communications implies that the president can simply speak to that many people to organize them properly.

Intersecting domains of specialized knowledge require the ability to filter years of experience down to a single report. 18 hours a day need to be synthesized into meeting with a few dozen people who have the maximum potential to reform their own bureaucracies toward a unified goal. A unified goal has to be decided upon in the first place. Our government has to interact with other, sovereign, autonomous states, each with their own complex internal power systems.

It is very difficult to defend the position that "there is no special skill associated with good governance", when we look at how the government actually operates. Consent of the governed is a requirement in our society, sure, but ignoring the difficulty of the task is absurd.

>take brief summarizing notes while I read
>have no problem resuming a book left unfinished for months on end