Stefanos Baziotis

A comprehensive guide to reading books as a hobby, covering practical advice on choosing books, dealing with translations, reading non-linearly, and avoiding common pitfalls. The author emphasizes reading for enjoyment rather than appearing educated, suggests starting anywhere rather than seeking perfect entry points, and discusses the benefits of physical books over audiobooks for deep reflection. Additional topics include learning languages through reading, the value of classics over contemporary works, and strategies for abandoning books that don't engage you.

On Reading Books

To enjoy reading, you must first appreciate the form of copious volumes of text. It can start by just looking at books instead of reading them. Flip through books, get a hang of how it feels. Once that warmup is done, then proceed to actual reading. Reading without notes is the first phase, then comes reading with notes. And finally, there is reading to write. I wouldn’t recommend audiobooks as the format of consumption of words is different. Everyone always reads, either books they were recommended when they were kids or books based on their subject matter interest. Trends happen primarily because of peer pressure and that will get you through maybe one year. Zuck tried that in 2012, I think.

I would like to add one more thing.
In different phases of life we enjoy different things. It is not like that the books we liked 3 years ago we will still read those books.
And sometimes when we are transioning from one phase to another we lose intrest in the book we are reading. That is also fine just pick a new one don’t be afraid to leave it unfinished.
This a life for living not tangeling oursevles into things we don’t want to be stuck in.