(via allblack)
Freight Baggage
chrisframpton: I just bought a Kindle. I’ve wanted one for a while but just found out they’re available in Canada. It’s amazing. The “e-paper” screen is actually displaying ink — ink thats particles are being organized, displayed and rearranged electronically. Science!
I know what you’re thinking: “But I love how a book feels in my hands! I love the smell of a book!” Yeah, I get it; I like those things too. But you know what? Those aren’t really the main reasons I like books (and presumably they’re not your main reasons either). What I really love about books is the intellectual and emotional immersion of reading. I associate that experience with physical books, but that doesn’t mean they’re the same thing.
The Kindle is awesome to read. I really didn’t think it would be, but it is. And even though it doesn’t smell like a book or leave ink smudges on my fingers, it completely succeeds in the important ways a book needs to succeed — intellectually and emotionally it’s as immersive and pleasurable to read as a real book.
Plus it’s actually easier to hold than a book. It’s lighter and much thinner. It has a built-in dictionary that actually works like you’d want it to. And I can (and will) still walk into a bookstore and browse books. At least for as long as we’re printing them on dead trees.
Francis Bacon bacon
HOWTO: Read more books by Aaron Swartz 
I’ve read a hundred books a year for the past couple years. Last time I mentioned this, a couple people asked how I could read so many books. Do I read unusually quickly? Do I spend an unusual amount of time reading? I did a simple calculation: The average person spends 1704 hours a year watching TV. If the average reading rate is 250 words per minute and the average book is 180,000 words, then that’s 142 books a year. To my surprise, I wasn’t reading nearly enough books. So I’ve taken some steps to read more:
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Block your favorite blogs except YMFY. I definitely have the mental habit noted in this xkcd cartoon: at the first sign of mental difficulty, I tab to a different window and begin typing the URL of a favorite blog. This habit is purely automatic, I do it without even thinking about it. As a result, I spend many, many hours a day reading blogs and following their links.
To overcome this habit, I added all my favorite blogs to an
/etc/hostsfile that redirects them to a bogus IP. Now when I type their URLs, I get an error message. I did the same with Hulu and other sites I use to watch TV shows; if you have a real television, be sure to get rid of it too. Now I usually try visiting a couple different blogs before my conscious self realizes what’s happening, but this happens soon enough and, over the past couple weeks, I’ve managed to pretty much train myself out of this bad habit.Now I either focus on the problem at hand or think enough about it to take a break and go for a walk, eat something, drink some water, read a book, or take a nap.
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Order lots of books at the library. Most people think the way you read more books is by spending more time reading. But I’ve found that, like exercise, this is an effect and not a cause. I spend time reading when I have a great book to read. When I don’t, I feel no urge to read and when I do start reading something, I put it down quickly. But if I’m reading a great book, I spontaneously come up with times and places to read it.
But figuring out which books are great in advance is hard. People’s experiences about which books they find compelling depend somewhat on their interests and finding accurate critics is problematic. So the best way I’ve found to see whether a book is good is to just start reading it.
My local library system (Minuteman) allows you to request up to 20 books online and then delivers them to the branch library nearest you. So whenever someone makes a book recommendation or I hear about a book that seems interesting, I request it online. Then I go and pick up a stack of books at the library every week or so.
I begin reading them and finish the ones that are exciting enough to finish and return the ones that are unpromising enough to give up on. Then I return them all and get some more.
I also find that the due dates and the growing pile of books provides additional impetus to read them. And the habit doesn’t cost me any money this way, so I don’t feel guilty about it. (I’m sure you can come up with reasons I should feel guilty, but the fact remains that I don’t.)
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Alienate everyone close to you. The biggest consumer of time is undoubtedly other people, in large measure because talking to other people is so fun that you don’t notice time going by. By keeping yourself away from other people (living alone is a good start), you free up an enormous amount of time for reading. I find this is particularly useful in reading books, since books can usually substitute for human company: you can take them with you on the train and to meals and curl up with them at night and so on.
Getting rid of other hobbies no doubt also helps. (And, unlike people, books don’t encourage you to have other hobbies.) I didn’t have any other hobbies, so this was less of a problem for me, but you may want to think about the things you do instead of reading books and stop doing them.
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Keep the temperature low. A common problem is falling asleep while reading. But I find it’s difficult to fall asleep when I’m cold (whereas it’s very easy to sleep when I’m warm), so I keep the temperature quite low in my apartment during the day. Even when I’m snuggled up in bed, I’m usually cold enough that I can’t fall asleep.
I suspect few people will take all of this advice, but hopefully some of it is useful to you.
(via fauxchenaux)
MEMORIES OF ISLAND LIFE III: TAKASHI SAVORY, 1972
The final of our three-part series taking a personal look back at the Ogasawara Islands (Parts 1 & 2). The Ogasawara Islands of Tokyo Prefecture could be mistaken for a Japanese Garden of Eden, located far out amidst the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. The Islands were uninhabited until 1830, when they were first settled by Americans and Europeans who arrived from Hawaii, the US mainland and elsewhere. In 1861, they came under Japanese control and Japanese citizens began to immigrate. To this day, many people of mixed heritage reside here. Following World War II, the islands passed from Japanese to US control and back again. Many of the islanders who lived on the mainland during the war have returned to Ogasawara, no doubt drawn home by the stunning natural beauty of the place. The history of the islands has been one of constant flux, and among the residents of these little green satellites in the Pacific, personal history is told with a kind of spectacular abruptness and profound sincerity that mirrors the geography of the islands themselves. The “Past & Present in Ogasawara” series originally appeared in Paper Sky No. 8 Tokyo Paradise, January, 2004. This is Takashi Savory’s story. In 1830, Nathaniel Savoy set sail from Boston and became one of the first people to settle on the islands of Ogasawara. His descendants still inhabit Chichijima, among them Takashi Savory of the family’s fifth generation. Takashi was born in 1957 on Chichijima, after residents with European or American ancestry were allowed to return following their forced evacuation to the mainland. “I went to elementary school with the soldiers’ children, so at home, I spoke a mixture of Japanese and English.” At that time, there was also a movie theater and a tennis court, and at Christmas, someone ordered Jackets and things from the Sears catalog for me.” Takashi was ten years old when, in 1968, the islands reverted to Japanese control. Having grown up comfortably on the mainland, he was in for some surprises when he arrived back on the island. “The sight of these Japanese people from the mainland with towels wrapped around their heads was so rare, I remember it well.” Japanese schools were also established. “It wasn’t until I was in the 6th grade that I started doing ‘a-i-u-e-o’ dictation.” By his second year of junior high, however, Takashi was ready to leave the island and decided to attend high school in Niigata, his mother’s birthplace. “At first, I didn’t have slacks for the school uniform. I wore these black jeans that were really rare then. Everyone said ‘wow, who’s this guy?’ and I was the talk of the town.” After he graduated from university in Tokyo in 1981 Takashi sat for the employment examination for Chichijima’s public offices. “It was only after I left the island that I realized how wonderful it is, with its beautiful nature.” Takashi is currently employed at a regional social welfare center where he met a visiting nurse who brought medical care to remote places. They married, she stayed and now the couple has four children.” Deeply interested in his family’s roots, Takashi went to Boston to see the ancestral hometown of the Savory family. “It’s really cold there. I think I’ve figured out why my ancestors came to the islands!”
