| ▲ | CrimsonRain 5 hours ago |
| Re: books Most books are useless and boring. Some books have good concept but drags things needlessly. I still read a good amount everyday but not a 300 page book where the core content is 2 page. However, a great book is still interesting and being "completely engrossed" is still possible. It is the book content quality (compared to other things in society) that dropped. |
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| ▲ | foruhar 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| I feel like the authors of many non-fiction books (e.g. business, self-help) are told that they must write a 320 page book, even if the core is, at most twenty, pages. I guess it needs to look plump on the shelf at the airport or something. Dale Carnegie got a lot across in a small number of pages. Today he’d have to do 320 pages or maybe even two books one on making friends and one influencing people. I wouldn’t mind paying for the book if there was a way to get the wheat without the chaff. I’ve seen various book summary apps but I’d rather get it straight from the author minus 300 pages of filler. |
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| ▲ | hannasanarion 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | This is basically the conclusion of the "If Books Could Kill" podcast. After reviewing hundreds of bad nonfiction and self help books, excepting the ones that are deliberate scams through-and-through, they tend to be one good idea, or interesting observation the author had, that could fit in a blog post, but which had to be expanded to become an all-encompassing explanation for all of society and history and the universe in order to be publishable. | |
| ▲ | CrimsonRain 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I was reading this book "Why Greatness Can't be Planned". Very interesting concept. From some startup SWE as well. Contains quite a few topics I wanted to read about but even for a "thin" 130 pages book, it is still needlessly padded; could have been half the pages and not miss anything. | |
| ▲ | phoghed 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Yeah. Like I’m already here bro, you don’t need to spend 50% of the book trying to convince me your ideas are worth considering |
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| ▲ | floren 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| It's always surprising how many HN readers seem to read only non-fiction, sometimes only self-help style books about business and startups. Some are even proud of that. |
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| ▲ | hawaiianbrah 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | This became me, somewhere along the last 5-10 years. Not the being proud of it part, just the realization that my breadth of book reading has taken a nosedive. Unfortunately I haven’t read a single book of any kind in the last few years. Having kids didn’t help, but I am planning to change that finally. | |
| ▲ | dlisboa 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I’m equally surprised how many people read extremely low quality pop fiction nowadays. Especially those romantic/erotic books. Those were the kind of book you’d be laughed at for reading back in the day. Reading non-fiction about some current topic isn’t that bad in comparison. |
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