Thread 514190536

Currently less then 14% of men read for pleasure. This is with a definition of 'reading' so relaxed that even picking up a magazine counts. Can Trump do anything or does it even matter?
https://www.axios.com/2025/08/27/reading-books-pleasure-data

>>514190536 (OP)
But both sexes are reading at about 11% less.

>>514190536 (OP)
I listen to audio books about Warhammer fantasy and 40k
They can try getting me to read the words, but the only book I will ever read is “Inquistor” by Ian Watson, the esteemed author of “Orgasmachine”

i've tried going back to reading.. even got an e-reader.. our brains are truly fried these days, it's nearly fucking impossible to hold interest on it for an extended period of time..

i kind of question if it's really that great at making people smarter either

i feel like you learn more tuning into happenings and keeping up on /pol/

Because all modern literature is either leftist cult material or porn for women.

I bang ur mom for pleasure faggot

>>514190536 (OP)
Majority of Americans are not capable of reading an adult book

>About 130 million adults in the U.S. - half of Americans between the ages of 16 and 74 - have low literacy skills according to a Gallup analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Education.
>National averages show that 54% of adults read at or below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.

>>514190536 (OP)
didn't Trump say that he loves the uneducated?
he's probably glad this is happening

>>514190597
>both sexes are reading at about 11% less.
The men's lower initial rate made their decrease more significant.

>>514190536 (OP)
Not really difficult to understand.
Humans will, by their nature, seek the most quickly accessible form of stimulation and entertainment. On top of that, it needs to take minimal effort and focus and be highly interesting to the individual looking to be entertained.
Books unfortunately tend to require focus, so they're not the first option.

>>514190536 (OP)
I don't read. I listen to audiobooks. It's way faster since I can multitask. I just finished Project Hail Mary in 2 days while surfing the internet and watching baseball.

>>514190536 (OP)
glut of trash shit called literature, nothing worth reading, not sorting your pile of woman shit, kys faggot

>>514190536 (OP)
There's no fiction written for men.
Look at the percent of new male authors out there.

>>514190816
>Majority of Americans are not capable
Not only are less reading, they are also reading less.

>>514190816
Why do we have that department of education again?
They obviously haven't fone a good job

>>514190986
I wish I could do that. I don't understand how the hell people can manage to do that without constantly losing track of what the hell happens in the novel desu. I think I'm an extreme singletasker.

>>514191293
Do you have the memory of a goldfish ffs?
How old are you?

>>514190703
Classic retard take. There are also plenty of old books to read, maggot.

>>514191354
True, but it's nice to find a good new book or book series.
Or an excellent author.

>>514190536 (OP)
First off, why would anyone trust "polls"?
Would you talk to them and tell the truth?

Second, try picrel to read. Avoid anything made for film -- that way you can imagine things and not be force-fed what someone else thinks.

There are more than 20 books in this series, and it reads a bit like James Bond. Sax and Violins

>>514190682
Try audiobooks. It took me like a month to finish reading the last ASOIAF book. I switched over to audiobooks and I got through the Stormlight Archive series in a couple weeks. Each book is over 1,000 pages long.
>>514191293
Spacing out happened to me way more when I read books. I would read like half a chapter before I realized I was thinking about something else. It rarely happens to me with audiobooks, but when it does, I only have to rewind 15 like seconds.

>>514191225
>no fiction written for men.
Study history

im currently reading a translation of the arabian nights. the story starts with a ruler murdering his wife and cookboy before going to his brothers house. he's depressed until he learns that his brother's wife and maids have been sleeping with black slaves. after relaying this to his brother they kill the wife and slaves then wander the desert until they find a demon who has stolen a bride. the demon falls asleep and the woman threatens the men with death if they don't run a train on her. this shit is wild.

Shit's gay
Read these digits faggot

Less than 5% of adults spend time reading to or with children.

>>514191566
Nigger i own dozens and dozens of older books.
There's nothing in the last 15 years that's worth shit in sci fi or fantasy

>>514191666
Damn, checked.

The overwhelming majority of books that women read are porn. They're just porn.

>>514190536 (OP)
Books are a largely obsolete form of storytelling. They take too long and they have no interactivity.

>>514191540
Also, get it from your local library -- it deserves your support (mine has Turner Diaries among many other things)
And you _could_ run into an interesting woman there...

>>514191293
These people are stuck in child mode, like when their parents read to them before sleep. They cant read a book lmao

>>514190536 (OP)
Why would they read instead of watching interracial pornography?

>>514190536 (OP)
I play lots of vidya that has no or limited voice acting, does that count as reading? They use big words too sometimes like "nonplussed" and "rostrum."

>>514190986
you're reading right now asshole this is a reading website

>>514191470
>good new book or book series.

New books will be heavily influenced by something that was written in the past. There is so much shit just from the past 200 years to read

>>514190536 (OP)
Men don't need to read books about getting raped by bears or minotaurs to coom

>>514191829
>Books are a largely obsolete form of storytelling.
Appears so. Obsolete Boomers do the most reading.

>>514190536 (OP)
I've been reading Robinson Crusoe lately. Ive just started to get into books written from those time periods to get a sense of how people lived day to day. I can spend hours getting lost in historical wikipedia pages. That's the only real reading I do or have ever done really

>>514190536 (OP)
>13% of the readers read 56% of the books
per capita gone getcha!

I read but not faggy stories. I read geopolitics and mass manipulation theory and shit.

>>514192219
Books written 100 years ago or more are wonderful.

>>514190536 (OP)

I read constantly; but its mostly on the internet.

Last time the power was out I really enjoyed reading a bunch of Louis Lamour westerns though. Really comfy little adventures.

Now do it by race.

>>514191225
Just read old good shit, retard. There's thousands of years of books to read.

nothing aspirational to read in schools, its all white man bad nihilistic garbage. the only reason women are above men is because they read porn

>>514190536 (OP)
Modern literature industry, as with every other form of entertainment nowadays, is full of DEI bullshit and geared towards female audiences while actively and unrepentantly shitting on the male audiences. You tell me.

>>514192656
No shit Sherlock.
That doesn't mean shitty new books wont turn off young male readers

>>514191666
Checked

>>514192515
He probably got his start writing for pulp magazines. Those magazines had limited space, so the authors were really good at pacing and holding a reader's attention. All the bullshit is trimmed off.

>>514192576
>by race.
Unfortunately, no breakdown on race *and* gender without getting dataset.

>>514192776
Pretty much. I looked at the list of Hugo award finalists, and the past few years it's nothing but women and women of color. It's so blatant.

The only modern fiction books I read these days are LNs.

>>514192776
this, everything new is trash

>>514191543
>Try audiobooks.
yeah, I have audiobooks in the car, it is amazing just daily driving in a week or two you can listen to a whole book, Ive gone through maybe 10 audiobooks so far, out of 200 downloaded off PirateBay. Just finished books on Rockefeller and JP Morgan

Librivox also has 1000s of free audiobooks read by volunteers

>>514192841
>pulp magazines
>All the bullshit is trimmed off.
Agree. Written for men.

>>514190536 (OP)
i just listen to lovecraft and tolkien audiobooks, that count?

>>514191756
There's haremslop (for men)
But even then I only read the slop made by the few female authors.

>>514191666
CHEQUE

>>514192776
Basically all the progression fantasy, litrpg, wuxia, xanxia, system novels, and fanfictions I read are for male audiences. Basically anything marketed as having romance is for females though. For non-fiction novels just read based on skill interests or biographies.

anons have recommended 'The Diversity Myth' by Peter Thiel 1998 2nd ed, about the Cultural Marxism on Stanford campus and the controversy over replacing the Western Civ class because its too white and too male, kind of an amusing story, makes me wonder what the Stanford Western Civ curriculum is now, if any

>>514190536 (OP)
I spent my childhood reading and now nothing looks like it's worth reading anymore. Everything is low quality slop.

>>514193456
yes, Lovecraft's writing makes good listening

>>514191354
this. The last guy is just coping for being a retard. like who the fuck even says that lmao.

>>514190536 (OP)
Because we're reading anytime we're on the internet. This is just some 70-80 year old boomer cope who can't understand that the digital age has placed books.

>>514190536 (OP)
Misleading questionaire. Most men who read say they don't do it for pleasure but rather for knowledge.

>>514190536 (OP)
Is there any new good fiction for men.
I don't read classics cause they are already popular and I prefer to find and promote less known works.

>>514190536 (OP)
all we do is read, specifically each others nonsense posts. I spend 4 hours a day here just reading and getting mad

>>514193728
>we're reading anytime we're on the internet
There's a lot of space between something that managed to get published and uninformed one line opinions written by near illiterates online.

>>514193639
The average book club in America.

>>514190536 (OP)
>read for pleasure
That is probably because most of us are not faggots fantasizing about getting gang raped by mythical creatures. Most books nowadays are not worth reading. Most of them are self help I'm 15 and this is deep slop. Same for most media these days now that I think about it. If you want something great to read, watch, play or whatever you have to reach way back to the glory days.

>>514190536 (OP)
implying you can still read a book when you have a smartphone in your hands 16h/day.
Before smartphones I used to read 100 books/year. Now zero to one/year and not necessarily cover to cover.

>>514190536 (OP)
Reading for pleasure is as faggy as playing vidya or staring at the electric jew.

>>514190536 (OP)
>>514190597
Now do a correlation with migration

you read shit on the computer or phone every day. fuck off, just because it’s not a dusty old paper back copy of some femoid rape fantasy smut doesn’t mean men aren’t reading. i genuinely hope no one was paid for that bottom of the barrel slop “article”. journalist? more like glorified youtube comment section poster.

>>514190536 (OP)
I read asianslop almost daily

>>514190536 (OP)
Sauce on the brunette babe?

>>514190536 (OP)
I read 4chan for pleasure don't got time for books too

>>514191666
Unholy checked
You got your digits, Satan

>>514191290
Just wait 10 years for the rampant AI cheating alphies and zoomers do in schools to show up in the numbers

>>514190936
No, it’s the opposite way.
>1000 woman read, 100 men read
>cut 10% of both
>900 woman read, 90 men read
>100 woman stopped reading vs only 10 men

>>514191666
Based

This line tracks inverse diversity.

>>514190536 (OP)
Aren’t we reading right now?

I want to see that bitches' tits, then I want to go read a book.

>>514190536 (OP)
>less the
>nobody corrects the mistake
hahahahahaha you are fucking useless morons

>>514191290
>it is their job to make children absorb information
lol no.

>>514195194
Do you read it in Bakarina's voice?

>>514191540
>dont read anything made for film
jack reacher was literally made into a tv ahow called… reacher.

>>514191540
sorry, forgot picrel. stupid fucking yankees strike again. think ill screenshot this one lmfao.

>>514191666
wtf i love illiteracy now

>>514196824
>>514196762
also also, james bond was made for film lmfao. you americans are seriously stupid.

>>514190536 (OP)
i read a lot of 4chan but it's not "for pleasure".

>>514190536 (OP)
This question is kind of ridiculous since you need to read to interact with a forum. However, since you mean more than just general reading to interact, process bureaucratic paperwork or follow basic news, fads or trends; reading beyond that can be defined in largely two categories, novels or educational books. People generally get their education now from search engine sources: social medium, internet search engines, or AI models. As for novels, which is probably the crutch of your question, there is a deep question here. There is something about the time wasted in reading a novel for a world to never have when the present circumstances are non-ideal in the real world. An example would be the opportunity forgone in spending time to read a novel versus spending that time cooking for example, because food is more scarce.

>>514190536 (OP)
theyre not the brightest, some of the brightest of them you might meet here but also some of the dumbest (mexicans and neckbeards)

>>514190536 (OP)
Because you have to be conditioned or condition yourself to read. Most books nowadays are not aimed at men:
> Minotaur Blowjob Operator Feminist Princess by Obviously a PenName
> You Crackas Owe Me by Xerokeesha Johnes
> White People Need To Be Eradicated by Merchant Shmuley
Most books read in school are either dumbed down, written by gays for gays (and women) or you can only have one interpretation of it.
Reading literature is not natural, you need to be prepared mentally for it, especially if you're reading older books which aren't a min-maxed dopamine cycle fest.
Nobody is catering to tastes of men to read new books (plus you'd need to compete with vidya, anime, movies); and nobody is preparing men intellectually to be scholars.

>>514190536 (OP)
Lazy and addicted to TV.
I can't enjoy watching TV and I have to have a book or a reading tablet in my hands.

>>514191293
It depends on what you're doing, anon. For example I can cook or workout while listening to an audio book but if I play games it's just background noise, even for games that require little reading.

>>514190536 (OP)
i am in my 40s and have been destroyed by the internet since the 90s. used to read a lot until i got hooked on the computer. now i can't read a book at all. i have accepted that i can't anymore. i've tried it all, audiobooks, e-readers, different lighting, reading before bed, reading in a park, lowering screen time, none of it works. i have a friend who is in his mid 30s who is technologically retarded but claims he reads a lot, multiple books a week, and shows it off. very "performative male" i guess. however his vocabulary level is far below mine and has me explain words or topics to him often in conversation. i have a couple other friends like this. so i figure i'm fine, and a lot of people who claim they are reading are faking it or skimming.

>>514190536 (OP)
I read thousands of books and my eyesight and health is fucked.

I think developing a good skill for listening and communicating and mostly sticking to audiobooks would be a lot better than reading.

Reading gives you a bad posture, receded jaw, breathing problems, etc and if you're reading a book, tablet, or phone it's worse than sitting at a computer reading a monitor.

>>514198605
My last name is literally the German word for Scholar.

I end up being a scholar despite not going to school and just reading a ton of psychology, history, politics, philosophy, parapsychology, and theology. Also some physics, mathematics, and other random interests but not to the same degree as the first list of interests. Also a lot of medical journals because I'm always trying to fix my health problems.

>>514190536 (OP)
publishers only publish woman authors. Men are not interested in woman stories.

>>514190536 (OP)
Does playing an RPG with 5,000 pages worth of dialogue and collectible books count as reading?

>>514200267
I'm nearing 40 - when I'm burned out by work (SWE, 10 years in the same company) I also can't read for shit. This is most common after I have a lot of work and break the habit of reading.
The trick I found work for me is to read dumb downed material. If I can't work through a math/cs book I turn to "soft math" like history of mathematics, history of CS, biographies. If that's too hard I read economics or philosophy, if that's too hard I read prose/poetry (lately: London, Kipling, Lovecraft, Dickens), if that's too hard I just read fantasy or sf and if even that's too hard I grab comic books.
The important thing is to make a habit out of it, always read at the same time every week no matter what, and start with 30 minutes of reading. Readjust your reading level and duration after a while.
A couple of weeks of reading pulp I'm usually good to go to read something more serious.

>>514200267
Go get the Purica 8 mushroom blend or find something similar with Lion's Mane and other mushrooms but especially Lion's Mane. Then take it in a really and concentrated dose. Like if it says take one tablespoon take at least two or three. You'll have no problem with reading. You should also give your nervous system rest because stuff like work, gaming, etc. can really use up your nerve-force and you need to spend some time not engaged in any kind of mental work at all just resting, sleeping, eating, showering, whatever but don't let it carry on too long because if that's your life always then you stagnate just enough that you can empty your mind of all thoughts, calm the storm of emotions, and be in a tranquil and rested state of mind primed for reading. Also if you do start to read you need to prioritize something actually engaging and important. If it's missing either one of these two attributes then you're wasting time or will have to struggle to concentrate. However as someone who can't stop reading for hours and hours I have no fucking social life and fail at many other things so you really need to pick what you actually want to optimize in life and do that because you can't do it all, you can't be a jack of all trades, there's always trade-offs... if you are going to be some kind of savant though whose good at socialization, takes care of his body, is well read, etc. you'll need a supporting environment otherwise you'll crash and burn out. One only has so much energy for things.

The only reading you should be doing these days is the shitposts here and books about how to build stuff, made by pros. Anything else you're wasting time, yes even with the philosophers

I read your comments all the time.

>>514200781
>>514200838
thanks gentlemen. will try some of this stuff out.

>>514190536 (OP)
I already read everything needed and every new book released now is a jewish psyop.

>>514200781
I believe that you can't get good at reading by reading.

It's more important to take a walk and work on breathing and work on rest before doing any reading.

Just reading a lot won't make you any better at reading. It's the other variables in life that count. Diet, breath, sleep, stress, and an empty mind that is primed.

If you are preoccupied with some mental problem then you need to either let it go or resolve it before you start reading.

Psychic abilities and many other things too are not about how much you practice. Muscles even aren't entirely about consistency, there is an aspect of that, but it's more about rhythm of tensing, relaxing, sleeping, waking, and diet. That 5th hermetic axiom is really importance and so is that principle found in The Arcane Teachings about equipoise, balance. Everything in one's life has to be harmonious or everything becomes really difficult. Our social relations or lack thereof, our work-life balance, etc. it all needs to be optimized and what can't be optimized one has to pay the price somehow in burn out, extra time for recovery, etc.

>>514190536 (OP)
Reading is gay

>>514190536 (OP)
There's nothing to read, it's all geared towards midwit women, written by midwit women, to make them feel smart. Or it's just rape fantasy

>>514190536 (OP)
I already finished reading every book worth reading 20 years ago. Nobody these days can write for shit.

>>514201064
Be mindful of at least this one concept: "the rest and primed state of mind". Knowing how to produce that state of mind is a prerequisite to learning effectively. Trying to force learning while not in that state of mind just becomes an exercise in will power which is a good thing as well but not productive of learning. Will power is better for endurance, for trying situations, for decision making, and for prolonged concentration but life is about flow and harmony just as much as it is about conflict and tension. A philosopher/economist who really brings out the necessity of tension is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb

He wrote a book called Anti-fragile and several other books I all read. There are other philosophers as well like Arthur Schopenhauer and Nietzsche and Ragnar Redbeard who emphasize the side of life that is about struggle and conflict. Reading all of these along with the said economist will help to emphasize that part of life but then there's on philosophers, scientists, psychologists etc. who emphasize concepts like Wu Wei, flow, zen, etc. and how important it is to not try, to not struggle, to do everything without effort.

You can apply use the hermetic axioms in The Kybalion and The Arcane Teachings as well to solve all kinds of problems and order your life and efforts very efficiently. https://www.yogebooks.com/english/atkinson/

Also do consider developing a skill for listening to audiobooks especially as you can combine it with other activities such as walking. Usually there are many skills that at first require concentration and effort but after you've mastered it a lot less conscious attention need be given it and the subconscious can auto-pilot for you, walking is usually one of those things that everyone does without effort, you should of course correct your form though and not limp around, not have one foot pointing away at an odd angle, etc. learn mobility training and fix your hips and so on...

>>514201064
...but once you've mastered the art of walking (and you might already be a master but probably aren't) you can then combine walking with listening to audiobooks. Sometimes I will listen for a few hours of walking and then stop just to concentrate on form again or to be conservative with my energy. The brain btw burns more energy than does our muscles and the people who do insanely long ultra-marathons and soldiers often learn to shut off the brain as much as possible so as to get through the training or the ultramarathon without burning out.

>>514201083
Aside from the writings of people related to New Thinking Allowed or Essentia Foundation which is basically related to circles of people studying consciousness and philosophizing about it most of what I read is before 1940s. The quality of literature really started to take a hit in the 1950s and then degraded into total dogshit when everyone with a keyboard was starting to publish stuff then became something worse than dogshit when AI came out.

>>514201453
Did you read all the works of Plato? If not then you are not yet done reading.

>>514190536 (OP)
fiction is kike venom anyways. anything worth reading qualifies as 'education', not 'pleasure'

>>514190536 (OP)
foids are reading erotica or crime mystery so they may as well not be included at the statistics

Another example what toilets are reading

>>514190536 (OP)
I don't read "for pleasure." I read out of necessity. I am a bloody fucking idiot, completely ignorant about a million different things, and even if I read 48 hours a day this will still be true, but it will be less true. And that is why I must read all the time, not so I won't be stupid, but so I will be less stupid.

As for people who do not read a good chunk of their time, they should just shut the fuck up. They have nothing to say worth hearing. They are just retarded.

>>514201379
Read old books, dummy.

People do read a lot but it's on screens, fragmented and devoid of a telos.
For example reading a book means you want to understand it, that's your final goal that motivates/informs the long process of sustained attention,. which ends up building attention and reading stamina, every other form of reading we do does the opposite.

>>514191293
At the end of the day comprehension outcomes are all that matters.
Many people even claim to speak multiple languages but in reality they don't.

And thus far for pretty much every single human being multi tasking like that is a myth, you can do it but you do both things in a very shitty way, which might be enough for most normies.

>>514190536 (OP)
Do VNs count?
Also how do they get these results? I've never been polled for one

>>514191935
A conundrum for the modern /pol/ user.

>>514201953
ive read a lot of shit im my life and trust me, you are better off having a hands on approach to life and less cerebral or theorical (books). In other words you learn by doing. Thats fresh out of school grads are pretty much useless, all they've done is reading

>>514202502
thats why*

>>514201101
In my opinion most people (including me) aren't overtraining nor overconcentrating. There might be exceptions but most of the time the block is mental and not due to the lack of capacity.

Does reading LNs count?
I've also been chipping away at Shermans autobiography for a couple years but I lose a bit of interest at the battles themselves and have much more interest in surrounding context, like he confirms that the Californian constitution was mostly penned by Georgians and they still were anti slave because there were probably little Jews there at the time and Jews were a big advocate for slavery in the south. Also funny that he couldn't handle spicy food and said he nearly died eating hot pepper sauce.
Probably should finish it at some point though, I have made zero progress in months.

I've only gotten back into reading the last 6 months or so after an absence of decades. Pic related is what I've either read in the last few months or in my rotation to start. I got a cheap on sale tablet- like $200 AUD which I use exclusively for ebooks. downloads are free from Annas Archive. hope some of the titles help or interest someone.

>>514190682
>it's nearly fucking impossible to hold interest on it for an extended period of time
Not if you find something that really interests you. Reading dry stuff that has occasional bits of interest but is mostly stuff that doesn't matter or is stuff you could logically conclude yourself is different than reading something you have genuine interest in and/or is entertaining and brings forth arguments that you haven't even considered and offers a new way to ponder things even without reading further.

>>514202502
Probably because book, when used for knowledge, are fundamentally about preparation when the other half of life is about reacting to events correctly. And no book can prepare you for every case

>>514190536 (OP)
Chat is this true?

Read to be informed, not for hedonistic trivialities

>>514190536 (OP)
>Average written word less qualitative than the average 4chan shitpost
Gee, no idea why people would just stop bothering.

>>514191293
>I don't understand how the hell people can manage to do that without constantly losing track of what the hell happens in the novel
If you do lose your place, you can easily just go back a few chapters and re-listen to the part you zoned out during. I do it all the time and end up knowing the story that much better overall.

AI "authors" want to sell you books written by computers. They're looking for whatever slop product they can produce to keep the AI bubble from popping.

>>514201101
>I believe that you can't get good at reading by reading.
That's retarded. You do something more, you get better at it, unless you're an idiot unable to learn.

that chatgpt is reading stuff for me now. we evolved.

>>514194925
Got invited to speak at a book club because I'm a local guy that everyone knows was the smartest kids years ago and now I have a bookstore (side gig).

So it's all old women like that and when I say I could help them or post a "book club" notice in my store or whatever... I could feel the room turn. They DO NOT want anyone else there but their little social clique of women and their pre established pecking order of "who is the smartest about books."
There was palpable fear I might expose them to an outsider to the point I think they all dislike me personally for having suggested it.

Totally pathetic and reading basically NTY suggested fem novels.

>>514202905
How good is Wiseguy compared to Goodfellas?

>>514190536 (OP)
>Read the paper at the library
>Getting yesterdays news today
>CNN & MSNBC in written form
Not missing out on it. Reading a paper does feel sophisticated though

>>514190682
>tuning into happenings
There hasn't been a real happening since ww2

>>514191293
>manage to do that without constantly losing track of what the hell happens in the novel desu
novels are for women
pic related si what real men read

>>514193363
For me it's Osprey Publishing
They have lots of good shit on military tech history with great book layouts
https://z-library.sk/book/880693/864d97/the-rocket-propelled-grenade-osprey-weapon.html

>>514207269
no surprises but the reality is much worse. it's a whole different story. almost as though the movie version was a pop cover song that made them all look better than they ever deserved.

>>514190536 (OP)
>>514190597
The author by the way. Big shnoz on that specimen

>>514208709
holy shit
NOW THAT'S A KIKE

I rarely read but i do like books that look like picrel

I prefer manga

>>514190536 (OP)
the books women are reading are smut novels
they are too embarsed to watch porn like the rest of us

thats why the female literature rate in this chart is soo high

>>514190536 (OP)
>Expecting Zoomers and Alphaniggers to know how to read
C'mon Anon

>>514191540
is this book about what I think it is?

>>514190536 (OP)
This is the 21st century, we invented technology
>why don’t men use candlelight anymore

>>514193326
>Librivox also has 1000s of free audiobooks read by volunteers
You can listen to audiobooks here for free (the second link also has speed options but you may have to reload it a few times to see them)
https://manyaudiobooks.net/
https://fulllengthaudiobooks.net/

>>514191666
impressive, very nice

video games exist, therefore books are obsolete. do you drive a car or a horse and buggy? sure people kept using horses, but we call them ignorant hicks today. women only read more because kikes sell them dragon fucker whore smut.

>>514191666
ok satan

You're not a true poltard if you've never read Lotr. The rob inglis narration is also acceptable. David Gemmel's "The Legend" is also chud approved. That book has big hairy balls

>>514190816
50% of "people" are borderline retared

>>514190536 (OP)
I am currently reading:
Plato's Laws
The Secret Teachings of All Ages
Born in Blood
The History of Western Philosophy
Iron John
Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations
My year completion list is longer.
I'm a janitor.

it's not for pleasure.
i'm a masochist.

>>514190536 (OP)
I do read, I just rarely read fiction.

I am also in the process of writing a book, also non fiction.

>>514190816

Why is this happening?

>>514190536 (OP)
Most people aren’t readers. It’s a pretty rare trait for someone to read for entertainment.

>>514191666
shot caller

>>514190816
>HALF OF ALL PEOPLE READ BELOW AVERAGE

Fucking idiot.

>>514211331
>I'm a janitor.

Makes sense with that reading list.

>>514211721
most of it was recommended here.

>>514211540
Because normies were never interested in knowledge. The only reason why the literacy rates are falling down is because they got inflated in the last few centuries due to mass education.
Normies began "reading" when it became a status symbol to read, same as playing piano and as soon as reading fell out of fashion, so did the literacy rates. Normies simply replaced books with social media updoots.

In reality nothing really changed. The only thing that changed is that smart people have better tools now, like Libgen, Balabolka, AI search engines for research, etc... normies don't care about any of this but will learn somehow to use these tools when it becomes the necessity and drop them with equal speed when new thing appears (brain chips).

Good book on this topic is "The Revolt of the Masses".

>>514211981
> here

The "here" is /pol which is full of idiots.

>>514212021
The Ortega hypothesis and his actual meaning doesn't expand on any thought past Aristotle.

>>514207949
WW2 is still going on anon

>>514212047
Enlighten me oh wise seer. Recomm

>>514190536 (OP)

The industry purposely stopped publishing anything written by men. Despite their hopes and dreams women rarely are capable of writing what men want. So men stopped buying. Now they are in a doom loop they wont hire male writers because males don't buy their products because they don't hire male writings. Same thing in parts of the movie industry.

>the % of the population that can visualize an apple
shieeeet

>>514190816
Hence protestantism. A religion based solely on scripture but it's adherents are completely illiterate.

>>514208056
You don't happen to have a pdf of that, do you?

>>514190536 (OP)
>women read literal porn

Of course women read for “pleasure”.

>>514191666
Not every day the man downstairs tells the truth.

>>514190536 (OP)
people either like to read or they don't like to read. no one can force themselves to like anything. i love to read personally, and i also dislike sports in general. i can't force myself to like football no matter how much i watch it. who cares?

>>514190536 (OP)
More third worlders means less literacy, what a surprise

>>514190984
True. I have such a ridiculous backlog of books. I’ve tried audiobook but I can’t retain shit unless I’m just sitting there focused on listening, in which case, I might as well just read.

If only there was a way to inject the knowledge of all those books directly into my veins.

>>514208056
>>514208223

Cool cool cool.

>>514190536 (OP)
Not reading for pleasure =/= not reading.
I haven’t read fiction since high school. I am currently getting my doctorate and I have to read constantly, but I have zero interest in reading a series of adjectives about some bullshit that never happened.

>>514190536 (OP)
Women don't really read books. They buy smut and pretend that's the same as reading a real story

>>514211713
I am probably being rused but the relevant information here is precisely that the median adult reading is at sixth grade level (11-12 years old), and the official standards have dropped compared to their peak last century.
The average person today would be classified as semi-illiterate a century ago. They can (mostly) understand labels and simple instructions but little more than that.

>>514190536 (OP)
The spam filter is getting funnier by the day.

>>514190536 (OP)
It shows when you read them here. Kudos to the rare cultured American

>>514190536 (OP)
I read everyday. Women read trash.

>>514190682
Reading is a skill, if you havent done it in a while it can take a while to get back into. Go read a handful of short uncomplicated books to get the ball rolling

A small percentage of us read way more than anyone.

>>514190986
>I don't read. I listen to audiobooks.
For some reason they count that as reading.
>The intrigue: The researchers were somewhat surprised because the data defined reading to include books, magazines, newspapers, audiobooks and e-readers.

>>514190536 (OP)
reading makes my eyes hurt.

>>514215590
Thats just reading German

>>514190765
fucking absolutely based

>>514190536 (OP)
Beyond increasing screen time, changing demographics
It's because they give kids garbage to read in school
What kid is going to be interested in reading to kill a mockingbird?

>>514190536 (OP)
What could I possibly learn from books that I haven’t/won’t learn on /pol/?

Not me
>>514201083
>new
Theres your problem.
Behead All Satans is based and only thing worth reading in last 25y
>>514213425
True

>>514190597
Men are objectively far more retarded. Also, fuck old White men!

>>514195384
Doesn't work like that. The percentage is of total in that gender, not just readers.
Men's reading nearly halved

>>514191354
>There are also plenty of old books to read, maggot.
500 year old ZOG propaganda, so based, your Stephen King addiction should qualify for a PHD.

>>514214728
Unfortunately not. I get it from my local library

>>514217295
>Also, fuck old White men!
You have a weird kink, burger.

>>514215240
The janitors and mods are very very sensitive about insulting Americans, that and insulting Jews is the only way I ever rarely got banned outside of /pol/
They ignore everything else, you could shit threads, troll everybody, post softcore porn, it doesn't move them in the slightest.

>>514215181
>The average person today would be classified as semi-illiterate a century ago.

No. A century ago literacy was measured by “can you read?” Which was at about a third grade level. Today, literacy isn’t measured, in both our nations we stopped asking that question in the 1970’s. We assume literacy and ask, “how well can you read?” There’s a few things to understand. Literally half of all adults do not have the mental capacity to think abstractly enough to get above a 6th grade level of reading (simple analysis, compare and contrast etc). So when you see these dumbass statistics that amount to “50% of people read below average”. Yeah no shit.

Another thing to consider is how comprehension is tested. Having conducted many DRAs over many years with very many students, I can tell you this: the big knock on reading scores are 1. Verbal (out loud) reading skills and 2. Lack of a reading plan (as if any student has a reading plan).

>>514215172
Maybe in your country. Or you're reproducing shitty internet anecdotes without having verified.
The women that read in Romania, they read seriously.
Every single one I've meet has an elevated vocabulary, amazing comprehension and they read serious books.

>>514190536 (OP)
We are literally reading for pleasure right now, scrolling threads.

>>514220492
I’ve been to Romania. Romanian women are…exceptional. You seriously don’t deserve them.

>>514190536 (OP)
women have time to read because men are forced to be the breadwinners and go to work

men are playing video games

>>514220664
Are you a woman?

>>514190536 (OP)
>oy vey muh bound printed matter and newspapers it's anuda shoah
Protip: you're reading right fucking now

>>514190536 (OP)
I've been getting back into reading, because online content is just slop after a while. How many times can you watch cat videos or livestreams of the same few games, or drama about what this streamer did or that? If you have an IQ above room temperature it gets boring after a while.

However, most books nowadays are NSFW nonsense written for women. A lot of books just suck too, like the entire self-help genre, it's all a bunch of platitudes and rah-rah shit.

>>514190536 (OP)
What women 'read':
>THE HUGE HAIRY FUCKANIMALMAN
THAT ABDUCTS AND RAPES ME EVERY NIGHT

>>514190536 (OP)
I stopped reading full books once I found other sources of information.
Reading fiction is great. I love it, but I'm not in that phase of life anymore. I want information. Especially information I can use.
And that means distilled, concentrated chunks of useful data.
I read vastly more words per day than I ever did as a young student. Back when I read dozens of books per year for pleasure, it was the only interesting information available to me. I had a work commute on a train, etc. I had free time.
Any man needs to be focusing on resource acquisition, honing a skill, and achieving real-world goals. I'm sorry, but reading the latest Haruki Murakami and Douglas Coupland may make nerdy women wet, but it gets me nothing.

>>514220324
>We assume literacy and ask, “how well can you read?
Maybe they should go back to checking literacy.

>>514190703
There’s a billion books out there that aren’t modern trash literature you retard

>>514190536 (OP)
I've read a book a month on average this year.
It's mostly audiobooks now though since it's more convenient to draw/cook/clean/game while you enjoy a book.
there's no audiobook for it but Rembrandt's Eyes by Simon Schama (don't worry he became a fucking faggot long after he wrote this) has been fantastic.
Papilon by Henri Charriere was really good too. Great book about the boundless depths of hope that no matter how shitty your outlooks are, if you just keep moving forward you can still progress to something better. Which is fitting material for this gay timeline we're stuck on.

>>514190536 (OP)
I read a lot as a kid and through my 20s. I still technically read a lot if you count pol or just the internet in general, but all books seem to go through the same gay (((publishers))) that any normie slop goes through so I dont bother.

>>514190536 (OP)
WHY ARE YOU SPAMMING THIS TOPIC TODAY???? SHUT THE FUCK UP AND KILL YOURSELF

Reading is a skill, you can't enjoy something interesting before take it slow and mastering patience. Rushing like most people do is killing their will to continue, specially if they're dumb niggers.

>>514196875
look at this insane seething lmoa

I’ve already published two books btw. The latter was somewhat commercially successful. I plan to release another some time before April.

>>514190536 (OP)
Most women don’t even read. They skim or just read the first few chapters and that’s it. Then they say they read a ton of books.

>>514215330
This. Start with short stories if you haven't read in a while.

>>514195384
>Meanwhile 900 men were never reading

>>514191225
Nigger read The Horus Heresy

>>514190682
I've been trying to read for 20 minutes a day regularly. I can barely get through a book, what the fuck is going on?

>>514190536 (OP)
Books are an outdated form of entertainment, like dancing around a fire
You try to read a book these days, and it's just WORDSWORDSWORDSWORDS by some fucking nerd
You can transmit your ideas more efficiently by using some AI pictures and making a quick youtube video

>>514191666
Nigger

>>514190536 (OP)
I don't read regularly because most fiction is brainrot trash.

>>514190536 (OP)
>won't publish books for men
>why won't men buy our books!?
crazy how this keeps happening

>>514224095
Can't you read non-fiction?

>>514190620
>I listen to audio books about Warhammer fantasy and 40k
what would be a handful of these to start with if I wanted to try this out?

I enjoy TTRPGs and would like to up my media breadth a bit

>>514190536 (OP)
Americans just don't like reading. Even at its peak, it was never particularly high. I don't know I guess we're just too dumb. I'm in the small minority of americans that still reads for fun.

>>514190682
E reader programs kind of suck, I literally sat 20 minutes working with an opensource one last night and uninstalled it.

>>514216526
>What could I possibly learn from books that I haven’t/won’t learn on /pol/?

How to be a winner.

/lit/fags know my name and my work but every time I talk in a discussion about literature nobody is interested in what I say. I actually got banned from r/literature because I gave an aspiring author practical advice. Imagine that: a successful published author being banned in a literature sub for giving advice that isn’t PC enough and being outright ignored on the non-PC website.

>>514190536 (OP)
You're reading right now. Everyone reads all the time in the modern world. People read more than they speak.

Books are going out of style, not reading.

>>514224332
>Americans just don't like reading
American culture is built around pride of ignorance.

>>514223844
it takes time and you need to be reading something you are actually interested in. take breaks until you build endurance. think of it as exercise for your brain.

>>514223991
>Books are an outdated form of entertainment

The primary purpose of books was preservation and transmission of knowledge, not entertainment.

>>514202852
>Does reading LNs count?
Yeah but only if you read them in Japanese.

>>514224597
As is the case with all “Americans do x” claims, it’s bullshit. A small percentage of Americans are the most committed readers in the world. We are a people that inhabit extremes of all kinds. If there’s a pursuit, most likely an America is the best at it. That’s true for virtually everything. Never has there been a people for whom these sweeping generalizations make less sense.

>>514224564
With LLM's I'm basically reading interactive books now

What I need are structured interactive stories in LLM form where there's particular anchor points in the plot and you navigate the protagonist through the story making your own decisions, but it still retains enough structure to it that it's not completely open-ended with anything/everything happening.

>>514190536 (OP)
Women don't read. They schlick to porn. Ask a woman what book she's reading then look it up, 99% chance it's porn disguised as fantasy.

>>514224695
That was true perhaps 40 years ago.
If you look at any intellectual competition, or patent submissions, US (white Americans) are falling behind.
Few factors are cause of this:
1. diet
2. demoralization
3. Jews
4. social systems behind it

The world is changing and you guys are living in delusions of past glory.

>>514191691
I read to my son at least once a day. Usually it’s because he brings me a book and wants me to read to him. No wonder society is going down the shitter. Parents are fucking terrible at raising children

>>514224856
> non-American
Damn that’s crazy bro. Really makes you think (I didn’t read your slop reply).

>>514224695
>A small percentage of Americans are the most committed readers in the world
yeah there's no way that's true. My guess is that the most avid readers in the world are either in Europe somewhere or Japan.

>>514190536 (OP)
>20% of American women read in 2025
Lol. Lmao even.
Reading the instructions on the back of their baby-killer pills doesn't count.

>>514224922
Case in point.

>>514190597
Yea but jews like to frame everything in gender war terms.
They act dumb later
>I didnt lie tehnically men read less (together with women)
They do the same thing with voting

>>514190536 (OP)
I'm reading now and it's not pleasurable.

>>514224695
>If there’s a pursuit, most likely an America is the best at it. That’s true for virtually everything.
Doubt

>>514190682
>>514223844
>>514191543
It's incredible the levels of NPC this board has reached. Imagine not being able to enjoy reading. It is objectively the best form of entertainment/fulfillment if you're not an NPC.

This is why feudalism/monarchy/castes are based; in the past people like you would be respected for fulfilling your biological role (picking crops/farming, warrior caste, etc), but now all of you faggot NPC's shit up the world thinking your intelligent and swarm higher learning facilities, which are NPC factories rather than intellectual bastion now. I hate modernity so much it's unreal.

>>514224919
Reading to your child is one of the few things you can do that basically guarantees better intellectual development and I bet most modern parents don't even bother. Pretty sad.

/pol/:
>I’m 140IQ, I know better than all pre-eminent scientists, historians, geopolitical analysts
Also /pol/:
>I can’t read

FYI there has never been a civilization on earth other than the Western civilization and only for a few brief decades for which larger than a small minority valued literature and reading. It has always been a highly educated upper class interest. The success of mostly post-war education initiatives and the novel in particular have deceived you all into thinking it’s normal for a lot of people to like to read. It’s not. The majority couldn’t read or wouldn’t read. Now that the novel is no longer the primary means of education and scholarship has gotten way too verbose for the average person to engage with it, there is no reason for most literate people to read.

>>514191666
w o w
o
w

>>514225063
you're*
before you redditors try to use a typo as some epic pwn

>>514224927
You’re retarded so it doesn’t really matter what your guess is.

>>514225026
> a group said China is better therefore they are
This is retard logic my man, literally a logical fallacy.

Like I said, a land of extremes. Extreme intelligence and extreme idiocy as well.

No time. I read all the time in prison when I had nothing BUT time. But now I work 80 hour work weeks and barely ave time to take a shower and eat a home cooked meal.

>>514225089
Nu-pol is just gen x miggers now mostly. This placed used to be the toilet stall wall the 170 IQ autists drew on. Those days have been gone for at least 6 years, if not more.

>>514225026
So why do the send their spies to steal western ideas but the West send nobody to steal theirs?

>>514190816
Damn, shit went higher.
Last time i checked it was 46%
My posts about burgers not being able to read are severely outdated
Thanks for updating, emuanon

>>514190536 (OP)
i read news all day, and i write code and documentation for a living.
i don't consider myself a reader, but in reality i read all the time.
books are not a far leap but i don't consider it a valuable use of time.
if i need to learn a subject, there's 10,000 youtube videos i can immediately skip through for free.
if i want to learn the most current information, i watch conference speeches/talks on youtube for free.
even the exclusive expert opinions usually found in books are more-often found in youtube interviews.
ultimately i see books as unnecessarily slow/outdated and narrow-sighted.
the only exception is creative writing/fiction, and i've never had an interest in it. real life is more interesting than a contrived story

>>514225218
Since Trump’s election campaign. It’s been a decade of retards. I don’t know what keeps drawing me back to this place
t. oldfag that can read a book

>>514225089
C’mon man. It’s really obvious to anyone serious that most /pol/ users are stupid or intelligent but lazy and uncritical. It’s not a normal distribution. The intelligent people who do the research and reason get chased away. It is really very obvious. The board is made mostly of pseuds, midwits, and actual fucking morons.

>>514225258
Because US no longer has that kind of power and because Jews run US, who are more interested in stopping anti-semitism than dealing with China.

>>514190816
“Americans”
It’s a weird way to spell Latin American and MENA immigrants

>>514225337
I honestly didn't even think it was that bad post-2016. There was a drop in quality for sure, but I thought 2020 election killed the board because all of the gen x/boomers normalfags were censored on faceberg for a while, and thedonald was banned from plebbit.

Either way, yeah, I come here out of habit as well. Like a ghost who doesn't know where to go. Story of my life.

>>514190536 (OP)
>Currently less then 14% of men read
*fewer
*than

>>514225258
We actually do, but they don’t have any secrets to steal. They basically just steal everything from the West and then tend to a small handful of things (mostly centered around academics) a bit better than we do on average (but not at the upper margin).

>>514225183
>This is retard logic my man, literally a logical fallacy.
Try buying an American made phone.
America is so incompetent that even 'Made in USA" stickers com from China.

>>514190536 (OP)
Are American men even literate?

>>514225218
>This placed used to be the toilet stall wall the 170 IQ autists drew on. Those days have been gone for at least 6 years, if not more.

I remember... you could find a decent thread on /pol every day, and sometimes weekly there were golden threads. Now, I'm lucky if I read something useful in a month.

It's mostly Jews running countless bots and then these bots forcing quality people to leave pol.

>>514225404
It’s the delusion of grandeur. Far too many angry, inferiority-driven posts about how their theory of everything is correct and everybody else somehow got it wrong. Utter lack of critical thought

>>514190536 (OP)
I only read light novels and some pulp fiction. Everytime I read philosophy I always have to same two reactions, either "well aight that obvious" or "he's over thinking it." Bit to why people, specifically men, aren't reading as much is due to the death of American comics. A boy gets use to reading from comic books then moves onto cowboys, space operas, or fantasy novels. As for girls it's due to internet drama being more interesting than drama novels.

>>514225063
I guess the point is reading things you're interested in versus things that you have to for the sake of something else. People are best in what they care about

>>514225586
Almost like they're soulless commie bugs that lack the individuality required create or innovate.
At least they have no sense of shame or dignity. This allows them to focus all their efforts into theft imitation, and poor reproduction of things they don't fully understand.

>>514190703
>>514191354
Yeah I picked up a series from the 90's I started in high school. Realize it's not even subtle feminist agitprop. Finish the book just to see if it ever redeemed itself. It kills off the "bad" chud friend of the hero at the end. Throw it in the trash. Most novels are nihilist or leftist garbage.

>>514190536 (OP)
Agents and editors in the publishing industry are all progressive women. They will only publish you if you are a minority in some way, even if they make no money.
They will only offer deals to white men if they are making millions already.
Men have been driven to self publishing and LitRPG, many are making large amounts of money.

>>514225063
The problem is different. With a lack of focus, it's impossible to enjoy reading, and it demands time to be able to get your eyes right on the flow, exactly like reading music sheets. Nothing to do for being an NPC, at least the people you quoted tried, there is hope.

>>514196824
written by a Brit (with daddy issues)

>>514225667
From my perspective, /pol/ is just social media but the ideology of the board fails for the same reason ideology of most public spaces that don’t encourage thoughtfulness and research fail and that’s the desire to reduce everything to a single first cause or panacea solution. /pol/ essential worldview is “Jews bad”. That’s it. Every single thread and conversation ultimately turns into “Jews did this” and so this great mass builds up around this narrative, even where it fails, and you reach a point where the great mass of the board’s ideology is structurally retarded from core to exterior.

>>514225454
The answer is there are no ideas in China worth stealing. They know it themselves, which is why IP theft is their biggest money-maker.

>>514225590
Who do you think made that happen you knuckle dragging ape? Americans did that. Chinese people live in luxury today because WE willed it so.

>>514190536 (OP)
I read every single day of my life, it's just that I don't read gay fucking books.
We are in 21st century, reading for "fun" is archaic, a remnant of old times.
Name me 5 good books that came out in 2025 that will be timeless classics? There are none.

I much rather play a good, story focused game than read a gay fucking book.

>>514226351
It would be a tall order to name 5 timeless classics released in any single year.

>>514226502
There are more books being written and published than at any other point in time in history.
Goes to show the quality.

Every time I go to a bookstore all of that shit looks like some slop. Half the shelves are some stupid detective shit and female book porn or some propaganda celebrity biography.
If they are on the shelves, those are the books that sell. Those are the books the retards who claim to be superior because of reading are reading.

Even indie games have deeper, more meaningful stories with better writing than most of the shit you see in bookstores.

>>514190536 (OP)
In the Netherlands, I gather 50-60% of people read for pleasure at least once a week. That gap would be astounding.

>>514226351
>>514226802
treating not reading books as a brag is just a silly as those think they are amazing for reading

>>514226901
Most popular book being read in Netherlands is quran, so you might be right.
All the browns are reading that shit for pleasure.

I went to Netherlands last year and was in culture shock with the amount of muslims and browns you have in your country.

>>514226189
>no ideas in China worth stealing
That's why other countries have to license them.

>>514191293
Lil bro has never heard of active listening

>>514190536 (OP)
Problem is, most books can be summed up in 10 words or less. Last time I read a complete book was cause I was interested in the setting so it was enjoyable.

>>514226914
I have no read a single "good" book that came out after 2000. Not a single one, all of them are trash.
A quarter century of garbage. I gave up.

>>514227123
that sounds like a personal problem

>>514190536 (OP)
I used to like reading when I was younger. I think the problem is that my language class teachers made me read so much garbage in school (because they are sadists), that I started to view reading as a chore and eventually completely dropped it. I think the only good book I read in school was The Pearl, by John Steinbeck.

>>514227048
It’s still a shock for me Every day too, but it is the case. One million shitskins extra in the last 4-5 years is the reality. Muslims barely read by the way, many can’t even from inbred low IQ. I’m reading Freud, Flavius Josephus and Huntington at present, shifting between books as the mood suits me.

>>514227201
Read camp of the saints by raspail and if you like bizarre mindfucks crash by ballard.

>>514190536 (OP)
test

>>514191012
>nothing worth reading
not for you, champ - stick with video

>>514190536 (OP)
I never read for pleasure. I read to educate myself.

>>514228586
You look like this

>>514190682
That whole reading makes you smarter thing is a meme my dad has a whole library of books and he reads near daily but he still a retard that lacks the critical thinking skill to figure out the Jews control everything even when I sat with him to explain it slowly

>>514227317
>Muslims barely read by the way, many can’t even from inbred low IQ.
I've been road tripping indonesia and sort of amazing all these retareds have a cutie wife

>>514190536 (OP)
Yea it's kind of fucked up, I have some dystopian stories I write just for personal pleasure, just boredom and watching how it is evolving in real time. The problem is reading is dying, younger generations lack the attention span, and the only way to get your vision to a broader audience across is to make a Movie or show. So I'm just a writer hobbyists, but I don't have the time or energy to make animations...so I'm basically waiting for a decent video generator like Sora 2 to come out...despite some of them being really good, its just not there quite yet.