00:11
英語でサイエンスしナイト。 Today's topic is 英語でサイエンスしナイト。
英語でサイエンスしナイト。 Today's topic is 英語でサイエンスしナイト。
英語でサイエンスしナイト。 Today's topic is 英語でサイエンスしナイト。
英語でサイエンスしナイト。 Today's topic is 英語でサイエンスしナイト。
英語でサイエンスしナイト。 Today's topic is 英語でサイエンスしナイト。
英語でサイエンスしナイト。 Today's topic is 英語でサイエンスしナイト。
03:11
英語でサイエンスしナイト。 Today's topic is 英語でサイエンスしナイト。
英語でサイエンスしナイト。 Today's topic is 英語でサイエンスしナイト。
英語でサイエンスしナイト。 Today's topic is 英語でサイエンスしナイト。
英語でサイエンスしナイト。 Today's topic is 英語でサイエンスしナイト。
英語でサイエンスしナイト。 Today's topic is 英語でサイエンスしナイト。
英語でサイエンスしナイト。 Today's topic is 英語でサイエンスしナイト。
Whoa, whoa, absolutely not. You cannot, you cannot be allowed to do such a thing.
But, okay. Okay, I digress. Okay, so you started reading as more of like a habitual reader,
starting middle school-ish. Yeah, yeah, I think that's fair. There were a series of books which
I don't necessarily feel the desire to sort of give, give air time to at the moment. But if
anybody knows, you know, Magic and Otherwise, they probably know the books that, you know,
I probably would have read as a middle schooler. But we... I don't know. It's interesting you say
that. That's a good point. Given that most of the listeners of this podcast are Japanese or
are based in Japan, what we've been exposed to growing up is quite different from what you've
been exposed to growing up. But my point is, we probably read very different things growing up.
Yeah, yeah, we probably did. I'm glad that I sort of slipped there and you and you caught me on that
for the different, you know, books that we might have experienced, right? Because we certainly,
certainly did. There's probably some overlap, like you mentioned, right? But I mean, the ones,
the other ones I can think of, I was thinking about another one that actually I can still kind
of visually remember, which was like the Charlie Bone series. It's not something that anyone might
know. It was recommended to me when I was, you know, around maybe middle school age or something
and had kind of finished up, you know, whatever the other magic ones like the Harry Potter stuff
and they were like, this one is within the same type of lens. And it was interesting. They did
have a different type of magic type system. There were like other sort of things going on. There was,
I think I remember a kid who would like be able to experience and kind of almost relive
bits of memory from like clothing items that were secondhand. So he always had to have like,
you know, non-secondhand materials, like otherwise it would be a real nightmare or
of course later they also use it to try and like figure things out because something happened and
there's a little mystery or something. Yeah, it was interesting. So that was Charlie Bone
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and I guess the series is called Children of the Red King, but that was another one. There
were also series with like dragons in it and there were other ones that did, that I think
were just called Dragon Rider. And there were ones about kind of like the Magic Treehouse that you
mentioned, this sort of traveling between worlds and having all these different spaces and people
and such. I'm looking at, I'm actually looking at a bit of a list like from the past that I
happened to have found, which are the Pendragon series. Pendragon series. That was an interesting
one. Oh, I have no clue. Yeah, maybe we can, if we feel we want to recommend any of these, we can
pop them in the text box or something. But yeah, so that was mine. Then probably through, you know,
high school and such, I found the young adult ones and like getting into more novel spaces,
things that I definitely had sort of a gritty, you know, magic version where there was this
series called the Dresden Files. It was kind of a,
well, actually it was a Chicago-based detective who would like, you know, who was also a wizard.
And there's this whole thing between that and the wizard world. Okay. Yeah. So stuff like that
started to pop up. And then I think it just sort of, you know, just expanded with whatever I was,
whatever I was interested in at the time, you know, I'd get more recommendations from people.
I stopped reading as much during some periods of, you know, either maybe a little in undergrad
and a little in grad school. Right. We mentioned that before. And yeah, now, now it's a range,
right? But they're usually still within some sort of fantasy space, right? I like the idea of
narrative-driven story. Like you would probably prefer fiction over nonfiction? Yeah. Yeah, I would,
I would definitely prefer fiction over nonfiction. I've read like particular nonfiction books.
The ones that focus on the experiences of maybe people and sort of the way things have unfolded,
which also is a, you know, a form of narrative engagement for a reader,
definitely hold my attention better in that space. But, you know, if I pick up a book that is,
you know, just the straight history of something or a whole collection of, what was one I had,
like a theory about a particular topic, it has to be written. I don't want to say really well,
that's probably part of it, but it has to be written in a way where I'm not just slogging
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through the information in front of me, right? I can go and pick up a history textbook, if I want
a history textbook, if I want to do that. I can go and pick up, you know, a scientific textbook,
if I wish to do that. Yeah, you can pick up the Kon Tanuji, Quantum Mechanics. I absolutely never
want to do that again. I did get to see it when you all had to do it. I was so glad I didn't have
to do that. That would not be the textbook. If I ever come around to having to teach quantum mechanics
to people, that would not be the textbook of choice. I just leave it at that. Yeah, it seems
fair. This actually, I think, is a good little bit. Textbooks, right? But also still reading,
right? In grad school in particular, everybody experiences this differently. But one thing I
noticed is that the reading many things at once type approach that I did start to build up through
kind of probably undergrad, high school undergrads, and you mentioned you also do,
and that's readability. I still do that now. But during grad school, I found that the approach to
doing that resulted in me simply gathering library books and stacking them up on the desk next to
me. Because I was always like, it was my tsundoku library. Because I was like, oh, I can open this,
and I'll kind of read a little. I'll open that and read a little of that. But especially when
it's material that is essentially academic in nature, right? Or if it's me attempting to learn
from it in a more sort of rigorous way, or at least a more controlled way. One, you're just not
as driven to get through some of that stuff, especially for me. It's not as enticing as, you know,
a magic treehouse taking me to the ancient Greek philosophy hall. Right. And it didn't help that
in this case, right? It also was like, I thought that I was interested in these topics, but really
it was that was not the case, right? There's more on here. There was an element of that. Yeah, you get this
basically like assortment of books, and I'm looking at them and going, well, I got all these
things for you. Why haven't I just like picked them up and read them, right? Like why haven't done the,
you know, perhaps the experience of those that have collected many books over time.
It took a while to release that, right? I basically had to just return everything and sort of settle
into what is it that I actually want to be reading. And that brought me back to, you know,
finding books that I was actually interested in. And I still do the jumping around, but now it's
actually moving forward, right? So this habit might change depending on how you feel about
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the books you've picked up and whether or not you're enjoying them for what you want out of
them, or you just feel like you need to read them. Or as I think you had mentioned last time,
Asami, there's this, you might have been listening to a podcast or something, it was
don't read the book to finish it or some similar wording, right?
Yes, yes. Yuru Gengo Gaku Radio.
So that idea, right, sort of needs or was very helpful to create early then. Because it's like,
oh, I'm reading it because I'm curious to see what's in here. And like, if it, you know,
maybe I'll get to the end, maybe I don't. Right. And like, you might find out that
what you're curious about is not there. And you are allowed to abandon the book halfway.
Yeah, to just be like, this was, and people will make, we're getting off the habit bit here,
but people will make arguments about, but you have to give, you know, the whole book,
like the chance, because maybe it does later. The answer is maybe it does do that thing later.
But also, you can pick it up later. Also, yeah, you can pick it up later. Also, you
also aren't necessarily guaranteed to find that and the author and you are in this sort of exchange.
Like, if you don't get what you're getting throughout the, you know, you shouldn't have
to go through all of it. Depending on context, we can talk about, you know, when the time spent
building up is necessary. But like, let's say in the case of, we'll talk more story related stuff
later and how that usually flows. But if you're expecting and looking for a story to have a
particular type of progression and narrative and, and aspects, and it's just not there.
Yeah.
Then you can put it down, right? Like it is, it is time to go to another book.
It's, it's also interesting because it's typically with the people who don't read as much,
who feel the guilt of putting the book down halfway through. Like,
I feel like some of my more avid readers don't have any problem admitting that they never finished
a book, that they started off or like, Oh, I like read, I started reading that book. You're
talking about Asami, but I never went beyond like chapter five. And, and, you know, whether it was
their real life stuff that was catching up with and eating into their reading time, or it just
simply didn't hold their attention enough to want to continue reading. Whatever it is, the reason
could be both internal and external in cause. And they feel often immensely guilty for not being
able to finish it because they feel like maybe they were too stupid to follow along, or like
it was too heady. And yeah, it's just my observation. But I feel like those who read a lot,
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don't really feel guilty for putting it down.
Yeah, I'm, I think what you've really touched on and what I think is
probably a really strong point there is, is that I don't know if it's each group
that experiences this, but the idea that like, how you define having read the book,
and how attached you are to the idea that you have read the book, right? Like, if somebody is
like, I, if they feel compelled, or that it must occur that they read 12 books a year, or maybe,
you know, four books a year or something, right? Yeah. Then the idea of putting one down feels as
if maybe it could feel like they failed to do so, it could feel like they've wasted their time,
and that now they have to go and do another one, it becomes this exhausting process,
or they feel guilty, maybe because they feel guilty about, you know, leaving the author's work,
you know, out, right? Like, they did this thing, right? Or they feel like they cannot say
that they've read it because they've only read part of it. Or they may have read it,
but don't remember anything from it. And yeah, they would not count that as having read it
because they cannot recall it. Oh man, yeah, that one is tough. Right, and I feel like the,
those avid readers, because they read tens and hundreds of books every year or something,
they don't feel guilty about not having a total recall of every single book that they've read.
Like, they just remember, oh, this book was about this, like a gist, right? And
along with that, I think they remember, like, how much of it they've understood,
or how much of that they tried to spend time with. Like, I'm sure you will remember if you
try to wrestle a really dense book, and you didn't finish it, like that memory of wrestling
will be with you. So you will remember that you didn't read the whole thing, but you did try
reading. And as an avid reader, you will probably count that as having read it. Whereas, because you
know the gist of what's in the book, you just don't remember every single chapter about it.
You don't even remember if you read the whole thing. And hence, they're able to talk about the
book, right? Because they have this little bit of information about the book, because they've
quote-unquote read it in their way, right? And that doesn't necessarily mean they've read cover
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to cover, but they still read it. So it's like they're able to talk about it. And that gives
an impression to other people that they have indeed read cover to cover. And it's a little
bit misleading sometimes, but I feel like more people should feel less guilty about not finishing
books. Yeah, I think that's a good conclusion for that. People do not need to feel guilty about
or not about not finishing a book. Right, because that's an information. Not being able,
I couldn't finish this book for one reason or the other. And that's an information. That's a
data point. And maybe it was just a really boring book. You can definitely take it as a data point,
if that is internally satisfying. Yes. Right. What we're getting at now is how people approach
reading. And I think we're kind of merging, or I want to be clear that maybe we're not merging
what type of reading we're talking about. So this is the voluntary reading. This is the going out
of your way. This is like non assigned books. Non assigned and like non somehow, you know,
world relevant, critical or something, right? Like, this is the stuff you choose to read for
you. Purely for your joy. Yeah, like, like that joy, that experience gaining even, because we
might talk about some books that are not necessarily full of joy, or do not bring that joy,
but they are there for you in that way. And if you are going at a book like that, for you,
then it is truly, as you said, Asami, a data point if you cannot get through it. And it is also
something for you to recognize as, oh, this book, maybe you want to identify why was not in it for
you. So you can find another one. Because the point is that it's for you to get something out
of it. It's not like you have to do that struggle bit. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for summarizing.
How about we stop here. I do want to talk about how to get through assigned books. Okay,
the books you feel like you need to finish. Yeah, the ones that you're like, this whole,
this book as a whole has worth and or I've been told it has worth because it's right. Yeah.
Let's do that. That's it for the show today. Thanks for listening and find us on x at
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Ego de Science. That is E I G O T E S C I E N C. See you next time.
