How to keep people from reading

[ArMaP]

Why does Amazon have so many book categories? It makes it so that there are hundreds and hundreds of "#1 Bestseller" books.

If they create enough categories then all books will be #1 bestsellers.

[l0st]

No, the official version 6.0 TIFF uses 6 different types of compression (besides "none"):
CCITT Group 3
CCITT T.4
CCITT T.6
LZW
JPEG
PackBits (a kind of RLE compression)

Yikes. I bet you're right but back in the day when I converted a company to digital fax I believe the original codec was RLE now that you mention it. I think jpeg2000 was the "fast fax" codec (14.4Kbps+). It's been a LONG time and I haven't faxed a damn thing decades... I guess back to the future II got that wrong lol. We stopped using fax a year or two after that over HIPAA concerns.

[l0st]

Why does Amazon have so many book categories? It makes it so that there are hundreds and hundreds of "#1 Bestseller" books.

My new favourite category: Children's Dystopian Science Fiction.

Or perhaps Teen & Young Adult Diversity & Multicultural Comics & Graphic Novels. There's only one book in there, but it's a #1 Bestseller!

I don't use Amazon at all anymore. However, when I did I always thought their search was total garbage. Search for one thing get another. You can execute the same search 3 times and get totally different results (try with 3 private browsers).

[UltraBudgie]

Interesting article on why people aren't reading as much any more:

What’s Happening to Reading?

[Maxmars]

The author has clearly thought about his topic deeply.

However, I don't feel satisfied about the resolution of what "reading" contextually means... 

It sort of sets up the idea of reading well...
the full control of the information - including physically...
the segregated time which one can be said to 'devote' to it...

And then left it behind in a flurry of how and why it's more of a 'get past it' deal...'get it over with.'

Never once addressing that introspection is lost to the new way of things.

[UltraBudgie]

The author has clearly thought about his topic deeply.

However, I don't feel satisfied about the resolution of what "reading" contextually means... 

It sort of sets up the idea of reading well...
the full control of the information - including physically...
the segregated time which one can be said to 'devote' to it...

And then left it behind in a flurry of how and why it's more of a 'get past it' deal...'get it over with.'

Never once addressing that introspection is lost to the new way of things.

i especially liked the thought of the "gutenberg parenthesis", the era in time when books as a medium made sense. now due to technology written word may still be the medium, but we're returning more to a tradition of "oral storytelling", in that culture is not communicated in established monolithic blocks, but in communally renarrated snippets.

term for reading to linger and absorb rather than get past it or skim is 'mindful reading'
https://mellowed.com/mindful-reading/

which you probably know but is an interesting movement and idea that anyone who hasn't heard it may be interest in

and yes avoiding distraction is key
dopamine need is a distraction haha

anyway i like article in that it has thughts that aren't entirely pessimistic, in that decline of bookreading may in fact be an evolution as it were, mere with growing pains and early onset vulnerabilities (thoughtgrift)

[Maxmars]

Oh, I pondered this (perhaps as you were typing)...

This 'crystallization' between one kind of reading and another might actually be an imperative to define.

Perhaps my tendency towards nostalgia for reading was because of the psychology of it all... but still it is clear we must grow to accommodate new technology... we have come this far with physical mediums... but that can't be the end of how we manage sharing information... and incidentally, we have little control over it's adoption.

[sahgwa]

Reading is something I do because it's always been an enjoyable activity for me, I get pleasure from it, and I enjoy the escapism, using my imagination, and also learning new things.
You have to devote time to it for sure, like anything, it can become a habit.
I always read for at least an hour before bed. And generally on office days, I read for my lunch break too.
Real books. The eyes need a break from screens for crying out loud. 
I see people simply being TRAINED to be unfocussed.
Their mind wanders if it's longer than a few sentences. I see this at work all the time.
They simply need to TRAIN themselves to sit still and focus, they don't have 'a mental disease' or ADD or whatever, they just need to take the time. 
Just like exercising. It feels good and you enjoy it the more you do it. 
I cannot fathom reading not being fun.
There's a topic there for everyone. . .

[MichSwampbuck]

Pay the royalties for personal use, how much can it be?

[UltraBudgie]

Pay the royalties for personal use, how much can it be?

I read a couple of fantasy/scifi authors regularly and many of them now have Patreon accounts where you can read their next books chapter-by-chapter as they write them.

Some are $1 or $2 a month, I think the most expensive one I subscribe to is $5 a month. And it all goes to the author!

Well worth it.

Anyway it is very interesting that it is a new experience. Each chapter thread they release has a comment section, and the other fans will chat with the author, ask questions, point out rough spots, etc. It is interactive!

It is almost like stories around a campfire with friends.

Anyway what the authors do is after they've finished, they do an edit pass and then put the book up on Amazon or to another publisher. Some of the Patreons I've subscribed to because I didn't want to wait for the next book in a series!

It is great fun and innovative and I like that it bypasses the gatekeeping publishing houses, which frankly have gotten rather annoyingly biased in the last few decades. They are still operating like they have a lock on the distribution channel like with paperback book stores back in the 1900s. And just look at the fiction books on Goodreads for example and you can see much social bias, sadly. So new technology FTW!