Comments on: Massively parallel reading

By: Marie-Therese C. Le Roux

Marie-Therese C. Le Roux — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:10:51 +0000

Parallel reading seems to me like a great strategy to cross-fertilize ideas. Works great for non-fiction. I wouldn’t read more than one piece of fiction at a time though. I say go for it!

By: Britt

Britt — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 16:56:57 +0000

I can remember reading many books simultaneously all the way back to about the 7th grade. I am now 48 and still read many things at the same time… Mostly for work, but I usually do keep a couple of books going at home. Of course, I was/am an introvert and so perhaps that has something to do with my closeting myself with a book more often than some…

By: JP

JP — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 21:24:14 +0000

Dom, the last time I wrote about reading styles was as an aside in this post:

http://confusedofcalcutta.com/2007/04/17/of-markets-and-conversations-and-platforms-and-shopping-malls/

It only covered management and technology books; I will write a more detailed post on all my reading styles sometime soon, I’m too tired right now. Age.

By: Stephen Smoliar

Stephen Smoliar — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:51:00 +0000

Dominic, meanwhile you might want to check out the “reading” tag on my own Rehearsal Studio blog (whose link should be attached to my name in the heading); the last time I wrote something in response to JP on this matter was at

http://therehearsalstudio.blogspot.com/2007/05/reading-what-i-dont-understand.html

By: JP

JP — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:48:45 +0000

Dom, all you are doing is putting me to shame for not tagging my posts sensibly. Will rectify. One day. In the meantime I will dig up the post and revert to the subject tonight.

By: Dominic Sayers

Dominic Sayers — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 13:46:24 +0000

I am trying to find your post where you describe how you approach reading books (in the hope I might get a clue how to address my growing reading list).

Can you point me in the right direction, or perhaps return to the subject soon?

By: Stephen Smoliar

Stephen Smoliar — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 15:33:54 +0000

Massively parallel reading may work for entertainment, but I find I need to focus when I get to the heavy stuff. Otherwise, I just come away with a superficial feel; and, if THAT is what I want, then I can get a bit more depth from THE NEW YORK REVIEW. Actually, I think that good review writing is probably one of the most valuable talents in the age of information overload; but, since so few people agree with me, I doubt that I shall be able to start my own service business around it!

By: JP

JP — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 11:25:04 +0000

:-)

By: Kerry Buckley

Kerry Buckley — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 11:23:57 +0000

Nothing to do with the post itself, but the title reminded me of this story.

During the run-up to their launch, the schedule slipped significantly, and the CEO (overall a great guy) made the classic engineering management mistake of adding many more developers to the late project in hopes of speeding its completion.

…

After failing to win several arguments on this point, the engineers … each bought a copy of [The Mythical Man-Month], brought the CEO into a conference room, and stacked up the copies of the book, telling him, It is extremely urgent that you read this book. We’ve bought you many copies so that you might read it faster. They made their point.

Have a happy Christmas and a continued speedy recovery.

By: Antony Mayfield

Antony Mayfield — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 03:48:24 +0000

I’m definitely reading more books in parallel than I used to. And I feel like I need to be – my interests are broadening as a result of my reading on the web, but in cocmplementary ways. I want to be reading history, economics, fiction, sociology and even some basic mathematics (theis is a recent thing, I’m an arts man by trade) because (a) I need to expore those lines of thought and (b) serendipity, synchrony and synthesis seem to come up that much thicker and faster when I’m reading lots in parallel.