what’s the deal with the “new york times best seller” award, and why does every book have it, i swear to god it’s everywhere i look, everywhere i go i see those god forsaken words. “new york times best seller”. i go into a book store and those 5 words surround me. i cant escape it, they haunt me and watch over me as i sleep, and once you notice it you see it everywhere too, it’s like a plague, it’s inescapable
Lately, I’ve been seeing posts and comments here about how one can speed up one’s reading speed by eliminating the “inner voice”. The advice is to simply scan the words in a text with the result of increasing reading speed dramatically while maintaining comprehension. This is false and terrible advice.
A large review of the science behind reading shows that suppressing the inner voice, also called subvocalization, is detrimental to comprehension. Trying to remove it to improve reading speed will ironically make you a worse reader.
The study concludes that there is no magic bullet for reading quickly and actually understanding what you are reading. There exists a fundamental trade-off between speed and accuracy in reading. If you seek a specific piece of information and know the material beforehand, it makes sense to skim. If you want to read for comprehension and retention, do so with normal reading.
So is there a way to read faster while understanding? The …
For my part, it is the « I am the chosen one but I hate it and just want to be normal » trope. It’s super common in books and I feels that it prevent the plot from moving forward and leads to many chapters (sometimes it is the whole book) where the protagonist complains about it every two pages for finally accepting them for the grater good.
Does this bother anyone else? I consider it to be a significant spoiler. The point of a plot twist is that you do not see it coming. This really upsets me because now I know that when I read the book it’s all going to flip on its head at some point. Part of enjoying that book would have been the surprise of the plot twist.
Now it’s not always this dramatic, but I really think people should understand that when they say this they are indirectly spoiling a part of the reading experience.
For context, my job was working a sonar count on the Copper river for the sockeye salmon, and I had plenty of free time when I wasn’t actively counting. After all, I was 40mi away from the nearest town, had very little cell connection, and the field site was boat/air access only.
I had friends give me recommendations, and here is what I ended up reading on a kindle. Hope you enjoy or find something you like!
Digging Up Mother - Doug Stanhope
A fantastically entertaining autobiography, if you’re able to handle and sometimes laugh at squeamish to downright ugly stories. It’s a great mix of the coming up of comedian Doug Stanhope, and an explanation of why he is how he is due to his mother and upbringing, in the face of her death. Haven’t set down a book briefly to have a good laugh like I have at this one in a while. It gets dark but it’s worth it. 9⁄10
The Fellowship of the Ring - Tolkien
Great book. People were right about Tolkiens tendency to …
I see a lot of comments, especially on recommendation posts, along the lines of, “It’s not science fiction, but,” and thought it would be a good idea to remind everyone that, according to the sidebar description, all forms of speculative fiction are welcome and encouraged here.
A lot of users are accessing the site via mobile devices and may never have seen or read the sidebar, so here is the relevant bit:
A place to discuss published SF
Not sure if something is SF? Then post it! Science Fiction, Fantasy, Alt. History, Postmodern Lit., and more are all welcome here. The key is that it be speculative, not that it fit some arbitrary genre guidelines.
Science fiction is great, so are fantasy, magic realism, alt-history, etc, etc. Enjoy it all and try not to gatekeep.
Just finished house of suns and looking for more books like it
A few Things I liked about the book 1. Far future(but not a dying universe) 2. Futuristic technologies and weapons 3. Transhumanism 4. Intergalactic travel especially 5. Space mystery like absence 6. Coolest spaceships like silver wings of morning 7. Vast scales and distances
Suggest me books like that guys
I’ve recently finished all the Murderbot series by Martha Wells and enjoyed them. Are Martha’s other books worth reading ?
Can any one recommend a similar book to Murderbot ? (I’ve already read Ancillary Justice in case any one is thinking of that one, thanks)
I love the suspense, fight for survival, and mystery elements of Subnautica (granted I’m not terribly far into the game yet).
I’ve read Sphere already. And my library doesn’t appear to have ebooks of The Abyss or anything by Peter Watts. I’m also interested in something more modern than 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
The 2020 movie Underwater is another good example of what I’m after.
Or entire series! Any SF literature you would love to experience for the first time again!