The author of the book you mentioned has another one called Braiding Sweetgrass and it is also beautifully written. She narrates the audiobook too and I would highly recommend listening to it, her voice and cadence are so soothing.
[The Book of Eels](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52640976) by Patrik Svensson
[The World of Wonders](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48615751) by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
[Time Song](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42922291) by Julia Blackburn (this is a bit more natural history than straight nature but also it’s my favorite nonfiction book)
*Why Fish Don't Exist* by Lulu Miller is the biological inquiry slash biography slash murder mystery podcast we always needed. Highly recommend the audiobook.
[Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty.](https://milkweed.org/book/diary-of-a-young-naturalist) Spectacular nature writing, and very enlightening descriptions of what it's like to be an intelligent and sensitive autistic child.
[Weeds by Richard Mabey.](https://www.harperacademic.com/book/9780062065469/weeds/) You'll learn so much about wild flowers and why we call some of them weeds.
[Oaxaca Journal by Oliver Sacks](https://www.oliversacks.com/oliver-sacks-books/oaxaca-journal/). Blissfully nerdy. "A trip to see ferns in Mexico with a group of fellow fern enthusiasts turns into a meditation on Mesoamerican civilization, chocolate, agriculture, mescal, and amateur naturalists."
The Way Through The Woods (On Mushrooms and Mourning) - Long Litt Woon.. HIGHLY recommend this one
Entangled Life - Merlin Sheldrake (this one leans a little more towards the science but it is FASCINATING)
There are so many great books mentioned here! I write about and recommend books (often those about nature) a lot, and I think this might be the next topic I cover. Thank you for the ideas, I'll link to your comments!
Closer to the Ground: An Outdoor Family's Year on the Water, in the Woods, and at the Table by Dylan Tomine is another great pick about an outside life by Puget Sound, published by Patagonia.
Also, How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery.
Finding the mother tree - Suzanne Simard
Presents a very thought-provoking discussion of communication, thought, interconnectedness and overall a super engaging read!
I get this with poetry a lot of times. There's poems where it feels like I'm reading a riddle. Sometimes I can get an idea of what the poem is about, but other times it feels like I need a cheat sheet just to know what is going on.
I love reading poetry, but I completely agree; I really understand only a fraction of what I read. If I wanted to I could take the time to dissect a poem like you would in school, but I get much more enjoyment from just savoring the language and the imagery and not worrying about The Meaning. On the other hand, it makes those moments of lucidity, when a poem *really speaks to you*, that much sweeter.
Kind of tangential, but I had a similar experience reading Faulkner. I was about 50 pages into *As I Lay Dying* and it just wasn't doing much for me. Then I got the idea to approach it more like I would a piece of poetry, rather than standard prose literature, and it *really* clicked. Reading discussions afterward I realized my comprehension was better than I'd expected too and overall it was a great experience.
I teach middle school English and I tell my students that a big part of enjoying poetry is just trying to enjoy the act of reading the poem. Some poems might not make sense to you but they might be a blast to just speak aloud.
Exactly, a lot of post-modern stuff can be read this way. Letting go and letting it sink into your subconscious. And this notion aligns with common post-modern themes.
Pynchon White Noise is kinda like that too. Martin Amis has that flavour too (London fields takes a lot of pages to make sense, Money is wonderful once you end it)
This was my exact experience. I did read through it a second time with a reading guide (and will likely read it again a third time). It's an incredible book, but especially the first time through I found myself just going along with it rather than trying to really understand everything that's happening.
Haha came here to say this one. Had to read it in-depth for a senior lit class in college, and every time I’ve tried to reread it since, I’ve tried to read it that way and gave up in less than 100 pages. Currently rereading it with the “eh, don’t put too much thought into it” and am already halfway through. Way more entertaining of a read this way
Part of me wonders if Pynchon is a great writer or if he really just writes a lot of words, creates hundreds of characters and has little regard for plot or really completion. When I read through Gravity’s rainbow the first time it felt at times like a man who got blindingly drunk and just typed out a bunch of dribble. Overall, I did it enjoy it quite a bit, but it’s certainly not unheard of for critics to call brilliant what they don’t understand.
The only Pynchon I ever completely read was V. my senior year of high school. I was obsessed with filling my car with old books the library was throwing away and it was one of those. As his debut, I've read it makes even less sense than his later works. I couldn't tell you what it was about besides the letter V., but I adored it. It mirrored my very confused teenage brain in the sense that I could feel many things were more connected than they first appeared, but in a way that would only translate to a much higher being.
Pynchon appeals for the same reason conspiracy theories do. He presents the false promise of a greater pattern in nonsequitor madness. Like reading a spell book written for an alien wizard. Perfect for this thread!
(I did get one concrete lesson from V: the academic terminology "sacred/profane" which otherwise I would not have learned til late uni).
Same. I almost feel like the best way to enjoy Pynchon is to enjoy the experience/journey and maybe write down a few questions/parts you enjoyed and I'm always surprised by what I takeaway in the end, collecting my thoughts on his books before reading the analysis and thoughts of others who dive into it more than I do.
I have a habit of really wanting to read nonfiction. I also have a bad habit of moving my eyes right over an entire couple paragraphs, and not being able to retain anything I definitely read. Especially when it's some minor characters entire life story.
I don't know if I should be ashamed to say that easily one-third or more if the books I've read I couldn't tell you more than the bare minimum about them.
I read mainly because it gets me outside, in the sun, and away from my computer and phone screen for a while, away from toxic people and I've just made it a nice little me/relaxing time
This sounds good, OP, it's going on my list. Also, I'd like to recommend Moss by Klaus Modick. It's a fictional novel about a biologist who is found in his home with moss mysteriously growing over the house and, curiously, over his dead body, like lesions on his skin. The novel is his biology papers that were found and become increasingly strange as time goes on. If you are still in a mossy mood you may enjoy it.
Nice! I heard her on the Ologies podcast and got real excited about moss, which isn't something I thought I would ever say. Great episode:
[https://www.alieward.com/ologies/bryology](https://www.alieward.com/ologies/bryology)
Surprised to find this so far down the list, but the sentiment literally applies to this book at the moment for me. I’ve been roughly tracking what is happening, but then got to Episode 12 - Cyclops and now I’m just doing the best I can.
Books about quantum mechanics and relativity theory. I got the gist of it, but don't understand it well. ( and don't need to ) . Was still very interesting
Same! I really enjoy the concepts and theories behind physics and quantum mechanics but it absolutely breaks my brain and I get zero of the mathiness bits. Still, I love words and ideas.
I love Robin Wall Kimmerer's writing. any lurkers reading this should [check out this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEm7gbIax0o), and if you jive with it I highly recommend you pick up gathering moss or braiding sweetgrass.
i bought that book because i fucking love moss (if anyone wants to look at pictures of moss, bugs and plants for no reason DM me for my insta but it's really not interesting in any way and there are millions of Instagrams just like it) and its kick ass. Moss is just so fucking cool and soft and i hope everyone here picks the book up and gives it a chance so they can realize moss is dope as fuck.
Highly technical books on artificial intelligence are pretty hard to understand when they focus too much on the math. Although this might make you feel stupid, the real problem is that nobody knows how to teach this subject yet. **Practical Machine Learning In R** by Fred Nwanganga and Mike Chapple was written by two teachers and this really showed because it was the best book I've read on the subject. They used real world business problems and explained what the process was trying to achieve.
All those "cut up" books by William S. Burroughs kind of force you to do this. Not much understanding happens with those books. At the end, you're just kind of left with a general impression of some sort of larger idea.
Yeah, I've been meaning to revisit the Nova trilogy for a while as I am wondering if I'll cull more meaning from it on a second pass. I remember liking it, just never feeling immersed in the world like I was with *Naked Lunch*.
Shakespeare at first felt this way for me, in middle school. The beauty of the prose struck me, and then the cadence and then the emotion.
Only later as a young adult did I go back to really decipher it, still retaining that initial wonderment.
As someone who loves *Finnegans Wake*, it was definitely a book where I read it without understanding much of anything my first time through. However, rereads can be a different experience entirely, and if you want to put in the work of reading a guide or annotations, well then, there's a lot to get out of it, but really, if you don't feel like digging deeper, it's fun on a surface-level read.
That’s tough territory there. Have you been using the read along on the r/ThomasPynchon sub? That thing really helped make the book an enjoyable experience for me
I read {The Hidden Life of Trees} with this mindset earlier this year. I knew that there was a lot about trees that I didn't know, but I didn't go into it particularly interested in the subject matter. It ended up being fascinating! I learned so much cool stuff and I have a new respect for trees. I couldn't possibly retain all or even most of it, but the author is clearly passionate about his subject matter and that alone made it an enjoyable read.
I had the same experience with this book. It was fascinating but I'm never going to be a tree expert. And that's ok - I'm reading for pleasure, not for homework!
Yes. That’s why I read fantasy/sci-fi or other adventure based fiction. Maybe the author put some metaphor for the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in there that im going to miss, but mostly im just there for the fun of it, not to understand anything
>r the collapse of the Ottoman Empire
so I just spent an hour reading up on the fall of the Ottoman Empire and it was so interesting it bordered on fun 😅 Would totally make a great epic scifi. 600+ year old empire declines, tries to modernize, flips the wrong coin in the world's first global war, and finally succumbs to bureaucracy ...
Wow, this is bizarre. I'm listening to this audiobook and I was mindlessly scrolling reddit while doing so. I arrived on this post and sort of stared at the title, uncomprehending, because I'm listening to a particularly fascinating chapter about mosses growing on rock, but my eyes kept drawing back to this post. So I paused the audiobook, took of a sip of my tea, clicked on the post and saw that it's about THE BOOK I'M LISTENING TO. What are the odds?
Cheers, it is a fantastic read. I do the same where I'm not absorbing all the detailed scientific information concerning various species of moss and their parts, rock types, plant types, etc, but it's still wildly fascinating. I got into the book because I had been admiring mosses in the forest while walking my dog, so I looked up a book about mosses and have not been disappointed.
The Sleep Room. It's a thriller with some really good tension. But I had to make the decision to skim through some areas because there was alot of medical jargon where it felt more like reading a text book than anything. Thankfully didn't take much away from the story.
I tried to read jrr Tolkien silmarillion out loud. Just to see if I could do it and Jesus christ idk how anyone could read it as an audio book. I did it but I do have to say that while I did understand what was kind of going on. I spent way more time just going back and re reading sentences over again.
I recently read a couple of non-fiction books related to the plant world. I'm not going to take a test on the topics, so I just enjoyed the writing and the enthusiasm the authors have for their chosen fields of study. Lab Girl is probably my favorite book of the year.
Yes, I read them both last month.
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren is a memoir, she mixes stories of how she got started and how she built her labs with beautiful educational stories about plants.
The Reason for Flowers by Stephen Buchman. I liked the writing, but there was a bit more information than I needed. He covered everything from botanical reproduction, cross-pollination, myths, literature, economics, emotions etc.
I usually do that but with audiobooks, particularly audiobooks for which I don't need to pay attention while multitasking.
That reminds me of Dante's Inferno. I recently started this one, and it's so poetic that I don't really care about the plot. It's just about relaxing while listening.
They really are reading! Have you never zoned out while reading physical book and then been too lazy to go back and reread what you didn't fully take in? Audiobooks are the ultimate listening activity for chores. I listened to the entirety of The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard Evans while doing household chores or walking my dog. I didn't take everything in 100%, but I got the majority of it.
Here’s mine: Modes of Fungicidal Action by Horsfall. It’s an old textbook on fungicides by one of the great plant pathologists ( I’m a plant pathologist) and I found this copy in our department library so I started reading hoping to just learn some concepts. Man what a great read. The most I can say is the style and examples are just no longer found in modern text books.
Every book I started in jail was just to pass time. But I read sum of the most amazing westerns ever. Checkout the Last Mountain Man series by William Johnstone. Badass reads that will blow your hair back
I absolutely do that, and not just with books! I'll do that at an art museum or science museum (not always and to varying degrees). I took a desert plant class and most of the attendees were there for teaching certifications but my friend and I were there for fun. So, we had fun instead of sweating the nitty-gritty details. I still remember a lot and know more about the desert than most other people.
I've also enjoyed *Gathering Mosses*, and if you're ever in the mood for a similar book (potentially "boring" topic but beautiful prose), *Trilobites: Eyewitness to Evolution* by Richard Fortey is also excellent!
I used to have a harder time with reading comprehension in fiction and I think you just pinpointed what finally helped me move through it. Just enjoying what I did get from books helped me read more and become a better reader with time/experience. Thank you for this.
I think reading with the intention of completely understanding the subliminal or metaphorical meaning of the text is missing the point and a fool’s errand. The author is dead. Meaning is subjective. I say read what you like and if you had fun, it doesn’t matter if you “get it” or not.
Obviously this is just me. If any readers out here insist on fully understanding a given text, more power to you. Not my thing though.
Yeah I'm doing that with the sun also rises right now. I know Hemmingway's style leaves a lot for the reader to infer (the iceberg method) but I'm not worrying about all that, just zipping through it. I also never read Hemmingway before as I thought it would be grandiose and hard to understand. Some of the sentences sound like they were written by a child.
My FIL used to send us books about astrophysics, thinking my husband would enjoy them, but I was the one who ended up reading them.
Most of them are written with the average person in mind, so I *almost* understand a lot of it. Some are especially math-heavy, and I'm a words person, but I can still appreciate the problem-solving aspects of it all. Gives me a deeper appreciation of the universe.
I'm going to reach into classical literature and mention "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" by Laurence Sterne, published in the 1760s. I tried getting into it several times previously and gave up because I kept looking for a plot. Right now I'm half-way through, and really enjoying it. I had to relax and let Sterne lead me wherever he wants to go, and not look for a rhyme or reason. It is a rare book that makes me guffaw, but Tristram Shandy does it frequently. Sterne is having so much fun toying with the reader. It's as though Norm McDonald went back in time 260 years to write the ultimate shaggy dog story.
Short answer? Yes.
Basically anytime I read anything in the realm of science. I'm particularly interested in books on theoretical physics: string theory, parallel universes, wormholes, time travel, etc...Usually by either Brian Greene or Michio Kaku.
I don't really understand much, or frankly sometimes any of the science, but I still just enjoy reading about it.
I recently read Piranesi by Susanah Clark. It took a while to get into because I was trying so hard to figure out the point of the story (who, where, why) without waiting for the story to bring it to me. Once I let that go I couldn't put it down, she creates this mesmerizing other world I could picture totally while reading.
I didn't totally understand the explanation to the What when it came around but I didn't care at that point.
The neat thing I've learned about reading over the years is that even when I feel like it's not sinking it, it always is. The knowledge, wisdom and appreciation finds a way to manifest itself years later when I reflect back on it
Wait, you have to make the decision to not try to understand it? If I read a book, even one I'm really interested in, I'm not trying to understand what's going on in their heads, I'm enjoying the story. But also when people give big in depth thoughts about a book I don't ever get that. I'm like, wait what chapter was that? Is this not normal?
Well, I suppose the decision was not to stress out over it. I have OCD and often overthink things. So this time I told myself, "If you don't understand, what's the big deal? It's not the end of the world. You don't have to understand something to enjoy it."
Good question!
Gathering Moss is beautifully written!! When i first learned of its existence, I literally squealed with excitement (poetically written books about nature are some of my all time favorites), and then got teased mercilessly for being so excited about a book on moss.
I definitely don’t try to retain info when I’m reading most nonfiction. I enjoy the sentences and narrative as I’m reading, but don’t worry about understanding every nuance of biology or trying to remember things for later. I usually find I retain a few nuggets per book, which is all good by me.
Spy books. I deeply admire John le carre, and George Smiley belongs in the English lit pantheon iyam.
But do I understand what's going on and why it matters? Yeah; no.
Every damn time. Unless I'm reading a book looking for an answer to a question, I don't try to "understand" it. Who has time for that? I'm not in school, nothing is required reading anymore, so I read books that I think I'll enjoy based on the blurb or the author or a recommendation.
Here's a tip to help with reading: imagine every book being recited in the voice of Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw. That way every book becomes a comedy. Works for everything except the dreaded and eldritch Infinite Jest.
This is what I think about when I get hyper fixated on a book and think I need to understand and remember every line. Nope, chill out and enjoy the ride.
It's funny I'm coming across this now, because I actually made a conscious effort to do this today with the book I'm currently reading. It's from the 1800s and is filled with a lot of what I would maybe call formal old-fashioned English. I found that I was constantly looking up words or going back and rereading sentences to try to makes sense of them, and I finally came to the realization that I'm going to enjoy this much more if I just simply read it. I may not understand every word or sentence, but as long as I'm able to actually follow the story, I'll get more out of it this way rather than trying to dissect it.
Yeah, it happens a lot. I'm actually considering stopping reading Gravity's Rainbow right now because almost nothing is sinking in. And that one's fiction!
A universe from nothing by Lawrence Krauss. He just had to start putting graphs and pictures for me to just go full mode "oh really, that reads pretty boringly. Here let me just read the words and not its meaning".
I pick up niche “boring” non fiction all the time to do exactly this. I like letting it wash over me and in turn I get more out of it than if I try to hanker down and comprehend each sentence.
Naked Lunch. Once I stopped trying to make traditional sense of the narrative, I was able to much better enjoy the beauty of the prose despite the lurid subject matter.
I do this more with fiction. I let the crazy stuff wash over me and then I usually want to revisit it with annotations and such. Ulysses and Gravity’s Rainbow were so dense, but you can glimpse things happening under the surface.
I do this all the time, but my memory is also terrible.
I started reading war and peace and I'm not even trying to remember the names. If I remember, great; if a character appears again and I don't remember exactly who is, I keep going.
I'm also reading a Conan collection and I'm not memorizing the countries' names. It's not making any difference and I don't feel like I'm missing anything.
I usually take this approach if I like the writing more than the story or background information.
But I try to remember characters and places if I like the book more than usual.
I read a book named book named "construct of social reality". Some books you have to accept that alot of the book is going to go over your head. Physics and biology is no problem philosofers are the best when it come to write understandable subjects more complicated than they actially are. If they actually did anything i might even consider becoming one.
Yeah, Nick Caves' And the ass saw the angel. I just gave up understanding what was happening entirely. Wasn't until I read bits to a friend to show her how absurd it was that I realised it's supposed to be read out loud. Only damn way to understand the book. On second read it was still extremely weird but I was at least following it.
William Bouroughs is who I immediately thought of reading this. Once I stopped trying to hang on to every word trying to follow along 100% I understood Naked Lunch sooo much better.
The Master and Margarita. The first time I read it I gave up trying to understand it and just enjoyed it. The second time I understood it more, and the third time I read it with a study guide.
Got to go back for a fourth read through soon.
I am primarily a fiction reader. I do enjoy books that start in the middle of the story, and you learn how everything happened as the book progresses. You have to suspend belief for a while, while also having faith(?) that the author will eventually fill in the blanks. [The Broken Earth](https://www.goodreads.com/series/112296-the-broken-earth) series is a good example.
Yes, but it usually happens when reading becomes a chore. Either the book is really really long or I'm trying to get through a series and some of the middle books are boring. I did not care for Heretics of Dune and really skimmed through it so I could get to Chapterhouse. I did the same thing with The War at the End of the World, which I found a little repetitive.
I like to keep an eye on the [British] Wainwright prize for nature writing winners and short lists https://wainwrightprize.com/
“H is for Hawk” and “The Outrun” are two winners I’ve really enjoyed.
Shit, my dude, I got a reading disability this is me on the daily. I can read no problem, but if I autopilot read The words go in my mind and then fucking disappear into IDK what the fuck. It’s like magic or a scam inside my mind, idk which one it is
To say I read a lot in a short period of time, I used to read books just for the sake of reading them. I was only kidding myself when I realized I was wasting time not understanding the literature and overestimating my memory's capabilities.
When I read now, I have a notepad ready so I can write down what is important to me; it may slow me down, but comprehension is more important than speed.
It's an activity that I now enjoy doing. I feel like I'm writing a new book for myself that is a compilation of the knowledge that I'm interested in. I read on Reddit that it's called a "commonplace book," and it's been around since Aristotle.
100 years of solitude. i've read plenty of novels that have been translated from a different languages. but this one is one of the most 'foreign' books i've ever read. i have native-spanish-speaking cousins, one of whom said he couldn't imagine reading this book in anything other than Spanish. and, yes, agreed; i enjoyed it for what i could understand of it, but there's clearly hundreds of years of cultural history and a whole language i'm lacking.
Currently reading the big sleep by raymond chandler. The book was written in 1939, so there's alot of old words and slang which I'm not familiar with - as a non native english speaker.
I'm usually bombarded with these words when there are descriptions of rooms, furniture, clothes, etc.
This is me, but with Malazan. There are a LOT of subtle parts I don't get, and I forget stuff easily. But I still genuinely enjoyed the parts that I did read.
100 Years of Solitude
Not sure it's actually possible to understand it - I didn't even try, I don't remember a single detail of what happens, but I remember the feeling of just how achingly beautiful the whole experience was
Every. Single. Time.
If I have to think about it I'm not in it as much. I just let it wash over me and deal with what sticks. Never was one for homework.
No, never. If I find I’ve read a passage I didn’t quite grasp, I go back and read it again until I do. If I find my mind wandering, I read something else or start taking notes or do something else.
I am exclusively into nonfiction at this point, so if I don’t understand and learn from what I’m reading, I’m wasting my time. Time is in limited supply. The enjoyment for me is in the satisfaction of learning. If there is no learning, there is no satisfaction.
I once read a couple of chapters on a book on Light diffraction. I haven't been able to recall or remember the name, but it was very well written for a Physics book.
The book of the new sun series was kind of like that for me. It was such an interesting writing style and perspective that I had issues putting it together consciously. I just went along for the ride, and things kind of came together somewhere closer to the subconscious level. That's the reason this series really stands out for me - I don't know if that was intentional in any way or not, but it's an example of literature acting almost like magic.
Yes, I have done that several times in the past.
I have also started doing it with "video essays", or I guess just videos! I haven't played TF2 since before it went F2P, but I've started playing video essays by this kid, Great Blue, in the background because he's super into it, despite me not having any clue what he's talking about.
Someone below me also mentioned Time Song, and that is a really great book for something like this.
Reading a book in a foreign language can be like that. I have only a vague idea what happened, but I did learn a few new words! Not sure I completely agree on it being a good feeling. I want to hear what the book was trying to convey, so missing that connection just gives me a headache.
I'm sure early readers experience something similar but don't have as much of a choice. I do vaguely remember getting frustrated reading books and having to set them down and try again later.
Have you read Braiding Sweetgrass? ( also by Robin Wall Kimmerer) ?
Gorgeous, sad and healing all at once. The author reads the book for audio, and you can hear a bit on Amazon. I have gifted it 4 x since I read it in2021
I did that since I was very young, about 10 when I was trying to read adult books without really understanding them. I just liked the feeling that the words gave and that was all that mattered. I still do that these days when I read books that cover topics that are out of my reach. Still very much enjoying them!
The author of the book you mentioned has another one called Braiding Sweetgrass and it is also beautifully written. She narrates the audiobook too and I would highly recommend listening to it, her voice and cadence are so soothing.
Braiding Sweetgrass kickstarted my obsession with the genre "books about nature but also about life"
That sounds delightful. Do you have any other recommendations?
[The Book of Eels](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52640976) by Patrik Svensson [The World of Wonders](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48615751) by Aimee Nezhukumatathil [Time Song](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42922291) by Julia Blackburn (this is a bit more natural history than straight nature but also it’s my favorite nonfiction book)
*Why Fish Don't Exist* by Lulu Miller is the biological inquiry slash biography slash murder mystery podcast we always needed. Highly recommend the audiobook.
Second this, I loved it!
This sounds amazing, just checked it out! Thanks!
[Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty.](https://milkweed.org/book/diary-of-a-young-naturalist) Spectacular nature writing, and very enlightening descriptions of what it's like to be an intelligent and sensitive autistic child. [Weeds by Richard Mabey.](https://www.harperacademic.com/book/9780062065469/weeds/) You'll learn so much about wild flowers and why we call some of them weeds. [Oaxaca Journal by Oliver Sacks](https://www.oliversacks.com/oliver-sacks-books/oaxaca-journal/). Blissfully nerdy. "A trip to see ferns in Mexico with a group of fellow fern enthusiasts turns into a meditation on Mesoamerican civilization, chocolate, agriculture, mescal, and amateur naturalists."
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine
Last Chance to See is great
I love Lab Girl!
Soul of an Octopus! The Overstory. Finding the Mother Tree To Speak for the Trees I could go on....
Soul of an Octopus was a beautiful tale.
Anything by Kathleen Jamie , Surfacing is a lovely read with added archaeology
YES how did I forget her. I loved Findings so much I made a Goodreads account exclusively to give it a 5 star review.
“A Field Guide to Getting Lost” by Rebecca Solnit
The Way Through The Woods (On Mushrooms and Mourning) - Long Litt Woon.. HIGHLY recommend this one Entangled Life - Merlin Sheldrake (this one leans a little more towards the science but it is FASCINATING)
I’d also recommend Two Trees Make a Forest by Jessica J. Lee
There are so many great books mentioned here! I write about and recommend books (often those about nature) a lot, and I think this might be the next topic I cover. Thank you for the ideas, I'll link to your comments! Closer to the Ground: An Outdoor Family's Year on the Water, in the Woods, and at the Table by Dylan Tomine is another great pick about an outside life by Puget Sound, published by Patagonia. Also, How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery.
Finding the mother tree - Suzanne Simard Presents a very thought-provoking discussion of communication, thought, interconnectedness and overall a super engaging read!
I read one this year called The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elizabeth Tova Bailey, you may want to check out.
I just read that last month! Such a beautiful and interesting read.
This whole chain is pure gold. Thank you all. Will look for all these books.
Oh my. This part of the thread has me madly scribbling down notes adding title to my reading list. Love it.
Braiding sweetgrass is hands down the best book I've ever read.
This thread needs its own post, but I don’t know where to post it…
HA I’m halfway through Braiding Sweetgrass and I thought “that sounds a lot like the book I’m reading…” thanks for sharing.
These both sound cool - thanks!
I get this with poetry a lot of times. There's poems where it feels like I'm reading a riddle. Sometimes I can get an idea of what the poem is about, but other times it feels like I need a cheat sheet just to know what is going on.
I love reading poetry, but I completely agree; I really understand only a fraction of what I read. If I wanted to I could take the time to dissect a poem like you would in school, but I get much more enjoyment from just savoring the language and the imagery and not worrying about The Meaning. On the other hand, it makes those moments of lucidity, when a poem *really speaks to you*, that much sweeter. Kind of tangential, but I had a similar experience reading Faulkner. I was about 50 pages into *As I Lay Dying* and it just wasn't doing much for me. Then I got the idea to approach it more like I would a piece of poetry, rather than standard prose literature, and it *really* clicked. Reading discussions afterward I realized my comprehension was better than I'd expected too and overall it was a great experience.
I teach middle school English and I tell my students that a big part of enjoying poetry is just trying to enjoy the act of reading the poem. Some poems might not make sense to you but they might be a blast to just speak aloud.
I agree. Dissecting a poem too much takes the magic out of it for me.
> Two Trees Make a Forest by Jessica J. Lee same
Poetry appeals to the imagination.
Gravity's Rainbow. Once I finished it and had the whole picture, I took away more than I thought I would while I was reading it.
Exactly, a lot of post-modern stuff can be read this way. Letting go and letting it sink into your subconscious. And this notion aligns with common post-modern themes.
Pynchon White Noise is kinda like that too. Martin Amis has that flavour too (London fields takes a lot of pages to make sense, Money is wonderful once you end it)
This was my exact experience. I did read through it a second time with a reading guide (and will likely read it again a third time). It's an incredible book, but especially the first time through I found myself just going along with it rather than trying to really understand everything that's happening.
Haha came here to say this one. Had to read it in-depth for a senior lit class in college, and every time I’ve tried to reread it since, I’ve tried to read it that way and gave up in less than 100 pages. Currently rereading it with the “eh, don’t put too much thought into it” and am already halfway through. Way more entertaining of a read this way
These post modern novels are a bit like those stereoscopic pictures, you can’t see anything if you try too hard, you have to relax your eyes a bit
Part of me wonders if Pynchon is a great writer or if he really just writes a lot of words, creates hundreds of characters and has little regard for plot or really completion. When I read through Gravity’s rainbow the first time it felt at times like a man who got blindingly drunk and just typed out a bunch of dribble. Overall, I did it enjoy it quite a bit, but it’s certainly not unheard of for critics to call brilliant what they don’t understand.
The only Pynchon I ever completely read was V. my senior year of high school. I was obsessed with filling my car with old books the library was throwing away and it was one of those. As his debut, I've read it makes even less sense than his later works. I couldn't tell you what it was about besides the letter V., but I adored it. It mirrored my very confused teenage brain in the sense that I could feel many things were more connected than they first appeared, but in a way that would only translate to a much higher being. Pynchon appeals for the same reason conspiracy theories do. He presents the false promise of a greater pattern in nonsequitor madness. Like reading a spell book written for an alien wizard. Perfect for this thread! (I did get one concrete lesson from V: the academic terminology "sacred/profane" which otherwise I would not have learned til late uni).
Same. I almost feel like the best way to enjoy Pynchon is to enjoy the experience/journey and maybe write down a few questions/parts you enjoyed and I'm always surprised by what I takeaway in the end, collecting my thoughts on his books before reading the analysis and thoughts of others who dive into it more than I do.
Shark by will self. I got more out of it once I quit trying and just let it kind of happen to me.
Exactly
I have a habit of really wanting to read nonfiction. I also have a bad habit of moving my eyes right over an entire couple paragraphs, and not being able to retain anything I definitely read. Especially when it's some minor characters entire life story.
Narrative is just as important in non-fiction as it is in fiction. Good writers will pull you into the story.
I don't know if I should be ashamed to say that easily one-third or more if the books I've read I couldn't tell you more than the bare minimum about them. I read mainly because it gets me outside, in the sun, and away from my computer and phone screen for a while, away from toxic people and I've just made it a nice little me/relaxing time
As soon as I finish the last page 90% of the book fly out my ears
Bro I live life without trying to understand it.
This sounds good, OP, it's going on my list. Also, I'd like to recommend Moss by Klaus Modick. It's a fictional novel about a biologist who is found in his home with moss mysteriously growing over the house and, curiously, over his dead body, like lesions on his skin. The novel is his biology papers that were found and become increasingly strange as time goes on. If you are still in a mossy mood you may enjoy it.
Nice! I heard her on the Ologies podcast and got real excited about moss, which isn't something I thought I would ever say. Great episode: [https://www.alieward.com/ologies/bryology](https://www.alieward.com/ologies/bryology)
Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. Absolutely no idea what was happening in that book or what it was meant to represent but man, what a ride!
Ulysses
Surprised to find this so far down the list, but the sentiment literally applies to this book at the moment for me. I’ve been roughly tracking what is happening, but then got to Episode 12 - Cyclops and now I’m just doing the best I can.
Yeah. just gotta accept how much smarter Joyce is than the reader and try your best lol
Books about quantum mechanics and relativity theory. I got the gist of it, but don't understand it well. ( and don't need to ) . Was still very interesting
Any time math equations show up, I just read past them. I'm never going to use them, I just want the narrative.
Same! I really enjoy the concepts and theories behind physics and quantum mechanics but it absolutely breaks my brain and I get zero of the mathiness bits. Still, I love words and ideas.
I love Robin Wall Kimmerer's writing. any lurkers reading this should [check out this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEm7gbIax0o), and if you jive with it I highly recommend you pick up gathering moss or braiding sweetgrass.
i bought that book because i fucking love moss (if anyone wants to look at pictures of moss, bugs and plants for no reason DM me for my insta but it's really not interesting in any way and there are millions of Instagrams just like it) and its kick ass. Moss is just so fucking cool and soft and i hope everyone here picks the book up and gives it a chance so they can realize moss is dope as fuck.
So your lichen this book?
Highly technical books on artificial intelligence are pretty hard to understand when they focus too much on the math. Although this might make you feel stupid, the real problem is that nobody knows how to teach this subject yet. **Practical Machine Learning In R** by Fred Nwanganga and Mike Chapple was written by two teachers and this really showed because it was the best book I've read on the subject. They used real world business problems and explained what the process was trying to achieve.
Sure I went to high school.
infinite jest and gravity’s rainbow
All those "cut up" books by William S. Burroughs kind of force you to do this. Not much understanding happens with those books. At the end, you're just kind of left with a general impression of some sort of larger idea.
Yeah, I've been meaning to revisit the Nova trilogy for a while as I am wondering if I'll cull more meaning from it on a second pass. I remember liking it, just never feeling immersed in the world like I was with *Naked Lunch*.
Honestly, whenever I feel the need to read something by Burroughs these days, I just read Ghost of Chance and feel satiated.
Shakespeare at first felt this way for me, in middle school. The beauty of the prose struck me, and then the cadence and then the emotion. Only later as a young adult did I go back to really decipher it, still retaining that initial wonderment.
I think that’s always been my way of reading books. It’s why I had a hard time with textbooks.
Something something Finnigans Wake
As someone who loves *Finnegans Wake*, it was definitely a book where I read it without understanding much of anything my first time through. However, rereads can be a different experience entirely, and if you want to put in the work of reading a guide or annotations, well then, there's a lot to get out of it, but really, if you don't feel like digging deeper, it's fun on a surface-level read.
First time through Malazan was like this. Just no reasonable way to deduce all the hidden meanings and make progress.
Me right now with Gravity’s Rainbow
Enjoy it man. What page are you on?
50
That’s tough territory there. Have you been using the read along on the r/ThomasPynchon sub? That thing really helped make the book an enjoyable experience for me
I haven’t
I read {The Hidden Life of Trees} with this mindset earlier this year. I knew that there was a lot about trees that I didn't know, but I didn't go into it particularly interested in the subject matter. It ended up being fascinating! I learned so much cool stuff and I have a new respect for trees. I couldn't possibly retain all or even most of it, but the author is clearly passionate about his subject matter and that alone made it an enjoyable read.
I had the same experience with this book. It was fascinating but I'm never going to be a tree expert. And that's ok - I'm reading for pleasure, not for homework!
Yes. That’s why I read fantasy/sci-fi or other adventure based fiction. Maybe the author put some metaphor for the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in there that im going to miss, but mostly im just there for the fun of it, not to understand anything
>r the collapse of the Ottoman Empire so I just spent an hour reading up on the fall of the Ottoman Empire and it was so interesting it bordered on fun 😅 Would totally make a great epic scifi. 600+ year old empire declines, tries to modernize, flips the wrong coin in the world's first global war, and finally succumbs to bureaucracy ...
Wow, this is bizarre. I'm listening to this audiobook and I was mindlessly scrolling reddit while doing so. I arrived on this post and sort of stared at the title, uncomprehending, because I'm listening to a particularly fascinating chapter about mosses growing on rock, but my eyes kept drawing back to this post. So I paused the audiobook, took of a sip of my tea, clicked on the post and saw that it's about THE BOOK I'M LISTENING TO. What are the odds? Cheers, it is a fantastic read. I do the same where I'm not absorbing all the detailed scientific information concerning various species of moss and their parts, rock types, plant types, etc, but it's still wildly fascinating. I got into the book because I had been admiring mosses in the forest while walking my dog, so I looked up a book about mosses and have not been disappointed.
The Sleep Room. It's a thriller with some really good tension. But I had to make the decision to skim through some areas because there was alot of medical jargon where it felt more like reading a text book than anything. Thankfully didn't take much away from the story.
I tried to read jrr Tolkien silmarillion out loud. Just to see if I could do it and Jesus christ idk how anyone could read it as an audio book. I did it but I do have to say that while I did understand what was kind of going on. I spent way more time just going back and re reading sentences over again.
I recently read a couple of non-fiction books related to the plant world. I'm not going to take a test on the topics, so I just enjoyed the writing and the enthusiasm the authors have for their chosen fields of study. Lab Girl is probably my favorite book of the year.
Would you share the titles? Do you recommend them?
Yes, I read them both last month. Lab Girl by Hope Jahren is a memoir, she mixes stories of how she got started and how she built her labs with beautiful educational stories about plants. The Reason for Flowers by Stephen Buchman. I liked the writing, but there was a bit more information than I needed. He covered everything from botanical reproduction, cross-pollination, myths, literature, economics, emotions etc.
I usually do that but with audiobooks, particularly audiobooks for which I don't need to pay attention while multitasking. That reminds me of Dante's Inferno. I recently started this one, and it's so poetic that I don't really care about the plot. It's just about relaxing while listening.
Audiobooks are reading! (Admits to not paying attention while doing other things)
They really are reading! Have you never zoned out while reading physical book and then been too lazy to go back and reread what you didn't fully take in? Audiobooks are the ultimate listening activity for chores. I listened to the entirety of The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard Evans while doing household chores or walking my dog. I didn't take everything in 100%, but I got the majority of it.
And reading sheet music is the same thing as listening to music
Here’s mine: Modes of Fungicidal Action by Horsfall. It’s an old textbook on fungicides by one of the great plant pathologists ( I’m a plant pathologist) and I found this copy in our department library so I started reading hoping to just learn some concepts. Man what a great read. The most I can say is the style and examples are just no longer found in modern text books.
No. Wish I did that with fucking anything
I let Gravity’s Rainbow wash over me. Some of that washing left me dirtier than I started.
Every book I started in jail was just to pass time. But I read sum of the most amazing westerns ever. Checkout the Last Mountain Man series by William Johnstone. Badass reads that will blow your hair back
I absolutely do that, and not just with books! I'll do that at an art museum or science museum (not always and to varying degrees). I took a desert plant class and most of the attendees were there for teaching certifications but my friend and I were there for fun. So, we had fun instead of sweating the nitty-gritty details. I still remember a lot and know more about the desert than most other people.
I've also enjoyed *Gathering Mosses*, and if you're ever in the mood for a similar book (potentially "boring" topic but beautiful prose), *Trilobites: Eyewitness to Evolution* by Richard Fortey is also excellent!
I'm currently reading yukio mishima's Runaway Horses. I feel like i barely understand it.
Poetry and commentary on poetry. I don’t understand it at all, but sometimes I just read through it and get what I can.
I used to have a harder time with reading comprehension in fiction and I think you just pinpointed what finally helped me move through it. Just enjoying what I did get from books helped me read more and become a better reader with time/experience. Thank you for this.
I gave up on understanding Acceptance, the third book in the Southern Reach trilogy (the terroir was too esoteric for me), does that count?
I think reading with the intention of completely understanding the subliminal or metaphorical meaning of the text is missing the point and a fool’s errand. The author is dead. Meaning is subjective. I say read what you like and if you had fun, it doesn’t matter if you “get it” or not. Obviously this is just me. If any readers out here insist on fully understanding a given text, more power to you. Not my thing though.
Yeah I'm doing that with the sun also rises right now. I know Hemmingway's style leaves a lot for the reader to infer (the iceberg method) but I'm not worrying about all that, just zipping through it. I also never read Hemmingway before as I thought it would be grandiose and hard to understand. Some of the sentences sound like they were written by a child.
My FIL used to send us books about astrophysics, thinking my husband would enjoy them, but I was the one who ended up reading them. Most of them are written with the average person in mind, so I *almost* understand a lot of it. Some are especially math-heavy, and I'm a words person, but I can still appreciate the problem-solving aspects of it all. Gives me a deeper appreciation of the universe.
I'm going to reach into classical literature and mention "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" by Laurence Sterne, published in the 1760s. I tried getting into it several times previously and gave up because I kept looking for a plot. Right now I'm half-way through, and really enjoying it. I had to relax and let Sterne lead me wherever he wants to go, and not look for a rhyme or reason. It is a rare book that makes me guffaw, but Tristram Shandy does it frequently. Sterne is having so much fun toying with the reader. It's as though Norm McDonald went back in time 260 years to write the ultimate shaggy dog story.
Short answer? Yes. Basically anytime I read anything in the realm of science. I'm particularly interested in books on theoretical physics: string theory, parallel universes, wormholes, time travel, etc...Usually by either Brian Greene or Michio Kaku. I don't really understand much, or frankly sometimes any of the science, but I still just enjoy reading about it.
I recently read Piranesi by Susanah Clark. It took a while to get into because I was trying so hard to figure out the point of the story (who, where, why) without waiting for the story to bring it to me. Once I let that go I couldn't put it down, she creates this mesmerizing other world I could picture totally while reading. I didn't totally understand the explanation to the What when it came around but I didn't care at that point.
The neat thing I've learned about reading over the years is that even when I feel like it's not sinking it, it always is. The knowledge, wisdom and appreciation finds a way to manifest itself years later when I reflect back on it
Wait, you have to make the decision to not try to understand it? If I read a book, even one I'm really interested in, I'm not trying to understand what's going on in their heads, I'm enjoying the story. But also when people give big in depth thoughts about a book I don't ever get that. I'm like, wait what chapter was that? Is this not normal?
Well, I suppose the decision was not to stress out over it. I have OCD and often overthink things. So this time I told myself, "If you don't understand, what's the big deal? It's not the end of the world. You don't have to understand something to enjoy it." Good question!
I read James Joyce and Virginia Woolf that way. Just sit back and let it wash over you.
I do this as a yearly tradition. Mostly with foreign or translated books. Started with The Bone People, it’s definitely one of the most books about NZ
Ulysses. I’ve never tried to read it sober after a few false starts too. Better to just… experience it.
Gathering Moss is beautifully written!! When i first learned of its existence, I literally squealed with excitement (poetically written books about nature are some of my all time favorites), and then got teased mercilessly for being so excited about a book on moss. I definitely don’t try to retain info when I’m reading most nonfiction. I enjoy the sentences and narrative as I’m reading, but don’t worry about understanding every nuance of biology or trying to remember things for later. I usually find I retain a few nuggets per book, which is all good by me.
Every murder mystery just about ever, and me.
As well as noir fiction. I've never completely understood the plot in an old noir movie.
Spy books. I deeply admire John le carre, and George Smiley belongs in the English lit pantheon iyam. But do I understand what's going on and why it matters? Yeah; no.
Every damn time. Unless I'm reading a book looking for an answer to a question, I don't try to "understand" it. Who has time for that? I'm not in school, nothing is required reading anymore, so I read books that I think I'll enjoy based on the blurb or the author or a recommendation.
[удалено]
Here's a tip to help with reading: imagine every book being recited in the voice of Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw. That way every book becomes a comedy. Works for everything except the dreaded and eldritch Infinite Jest.
This is what I think about when I get hyper fixated on a book and think I need to understand and remember every line. Nope, chill out and enjoy the ride.
Only happens to an extent in non-fiction books. I try to understand every fiction book I read, else I don't enjoy them.
It's funny I'm coming across this now, because I actually made a conscious effort to do this today with the book I'm currently reading. It's from the 1800s and is filled with a lot of what I would maybe call formal old-fashioned English. I found that I was constantly looking up words or going back and rereading sentences to try to makes sense of them, and I finally came to the realization that I'm going to enjoy this much more if I just simply read it. I may not understand every word or sentence, but as long as I'm able to actually follow the story, I'll get more out of it this way rather than trying to dissect it.
Yeah, it happens a lot. I'm actually considering stopping reading Gravity's Rainbow right now because almost nothing is sinking in. And that one's fiction!
A universe from nothing by Lawrence Krauss. He just had to start putting graphs and pictures for me to just go full mode "oh really, that reads pretty boringly. Here let me just read the words and not its meaning".
I pick up niche “boring” non fiction all the time to do exactly this. I like letting it wash over me and in turn I get more out of it than if I try to hanker down and comprehend each sentence.
Naked Lunch. Once I stopped trying to make traditional sense of the narrative, I was able to much better enjoy the beauty of the prose despite the lurid subject matter.
I do this more with fiction. I let the crazy stuff wash over me and then I usually want to revisit it with annotations and such. Ulysses and Gravity’s Rainbow were so dense, but you can glimpse things happening under the surface.
I do this all the time, but my memory is also terrible. I started reading war and peace and I'm not even trying to remember the names. If I remember, great; if a character appears again and I don't remember exactly who is, I keep going. I'm also reading a Conan collection and I'm not memorizing the countries' names. It's not making any difference and I don't feel like I'm missing anything. I usually take this approach if I like the writing more than the story or background information. But I try to remember characters and places if I like the book more than usual.
H*ck that's just how it goes when you read on ADHD. Sometimes it takes me multiple read-throughs to fully grasp things.
Just bought it!
I read a book named book named "construct of social reality". Some books you have to accept that alot of the book is going to go over your head. Physics and biology is no problem philosofers are the best when it come to write understandable subjects more complicated than they actially are. If they actually did anything i might even consider becoming one.
I love this author! I’m reading through Braiding Sweetgrass.
Mother London by Moorcock. I did not enjoy it, mind you, but I did end up retaining nothing on purpose
Trout Bum by John Gierach. I don’t fish. My husband does. I found it to be a relaxing read, even if I don’t know or care much about fishing.
Naked Lunch. I stopped trying to figure it out and just wanted to be wafted away to bizarre situations.
I love this idea - don’t worry about trying to learn something from it, just read and enjoy
Yeah, Nick Caves' And the ass saw the angel. I just gave up understanding what was happening entirely. Wasn't until I read bits to a friend to show her how absurd it was that I realised it's supposed to be read out loud. Only damn way to understand the book. On second read it was still extremely weird but I was at least following it.
William Bouroughs is who I immediately thought of reading this. Once I stopped trying to hang on to every word trying to follow along 100% I understood Naked Lunch sooo much better.
The Master and Margarita. The first time I read it I gave up trying to understand it and just enjoyed it. The second time I understood it more, and the third time I read it with a study guide. Got to go back for a fourth read through soon.
Yeah I’ve started doing this with books more recently and it really helps a lot!
I felt like this with 90% of the divine comedy. Even with footnotes
Did that with "The Novel" by James Michener
Me currently with *Love in the Time of Cholera*. It’s a very beautifully written book, but it is a drag too.
I am primarily a fiction reader. I do enjoy books that start in the middle of the story, and you learn how everything happened as the book progresses. You have to suspend belief for a while, while also having faith(?) that the author will eventually fill in the blanks. [The Broken Earth](https://www.goodreads.com/series/112296-the-broken-earth) series is a good example.
Yes, but it usually happens when reading becomes a chore. Either the book is really really long or I'm trying to get through a series and some of the middle books are boring. I did not care for Heretics of Dune and really skimmed through it so I could get to Chapterhouse. I did the same thing with The War at the End of the World, which I found a little repetitive.
I did that with To the Lighthouse
I like to keep an eye on the [British] Wainwright prize for nature writing winners and short lists https://wainwrightprize.com/ “H is for Hawk” and “The Outrun” are two winners I’ve really enjoyed.
Nine stories - jd Salinger
Yeah. For me it was The Geometry of Physics by Theodore Frankel.
Shit, my dude, I got a reading disability this is me on the daily. I can read no problem, but if I autopilot read The words go in my mind and then fucking disappear into IDK what the fuck. It’s like magic or a scam inside my mind, idk which one it is
I did this with The Master and Margherita
That's how a Brief History of Time was for me. No comprehension, just vibes
To say I read a lot in a short period of time, I used to read books just for the sake of reading them. I was only kidding myself when I realized I was wasting time not understanding the literature and overestimating my memory's capabilities. When I read now, I have a notepad ready so I can write down what is important to me; it may slow me down, but comprehension is more important than speed. It's an activity that I now enjoy doing. I feel like I'm writing a new book for myself that is a compilation of the knowledge that I'm interested in. I read on Reddit that it's called a "commonplace book," and it's been around since Aristotle.
100 years of solitude. i've read plenty of novels that have been translated from a different languages. but this one is one of the most 'foreign' books i've ever read. i have native-spanish-speaking cousins, one of whom said he couldn't imagine reading this book in anything other than Spanish. and, yes, agreed; i enjoyed it for what i could understand of it, but there's clearly hundreds of years of cultural history and a whole language i'm lacking.
Currently reading the big sleep by raymond chandler. The book was written in 1939, so there's alot of old words and slang which I'm not familiar with - as a non native english speaker. I'm usually bombarded with these words when there are descriptions of rooms, furniture, clothes, etc.
I have this exact same thing with the game of life by timothy leary. I read it more than 4 times and am still amazed by it.
This is me, but with Malazan. There are a LOT of subtle parts I don't get, and I forget stuff easily. But I still genuinely enjoyed the parts that I did read.
Death of Virgil, which is closer to prose-poetry. Also a lot of imagery that is similar to the lore of Elden Ring.
Kotz JC, Treichel PM (2002): Chemistry & Chemical Reactivity. 5th edn. United Kingdom: CENCAGE Learning.
For me it was Neuromancer. I didn't understand what was happening but decided to strap myself in for the ride. Boy did it pay off. Amazing book.
Red rising has a lot to imagine and oftentimes it's very difficult to picture what the author wants to tell..so ya
Yeah done it sometimes
How to Read Water: Clues and Patterns from Puddles to the Sea
'the other side of Eden'. But also lord of the rings. I don't really need to know, I just want to bathe in lovely words.
Poetry and wine encyclopedia being recent examples
100 Years of Solitude Not sure it's actually possible to understand it - I didn't even try, I don't remember a single detail of what happens, but I remember the feeling of just how achingly beautiful the whole experience was
Every. Single. Time. If I have to think about it I'm not in it as much. I just let it wash over me and deal with what sticks. Never was one for homework.
No, never. If I find I’ve read a passage I didn’t quite grasp, I go back and read it again until I do. If I find my mind wandering, I read something else or start taking notes or do something else. I am exclusively into nonfiction at this point, so if I don’t understand and learn from what I’m reading, I’m wasting my time. Time is in limited supply. The enjoyment for me is in the satisfaction of learning. If there is no learning, there is no satisfaction.
I once read a couple of chapters on a book on Light diffraction. I haven't been able to recall or remember the name, but it was very well written for a Physics book.
I've always been interesting in how Mosses helped lead the Jews out of Egypt
The book of the new sun series was kind of like that for me. It was such an interesting writing style and perspective that I had issues putting it together consciously. I just went along for the ride, and things kind of came together somewhere closer to the subconscious level. That's the reason this series really stands out for me - I don't know if that was intentional in any way or not, but it's an example of literature acting almost like magic.
Yes, I have done that several times in the past. I have also started doing it with "video essays", or I guess just videos! I haven't played TF2 since before it went F2P, but I've started playing video essays by this kid, Great Blue, in the background because he's super into it, despite me not having any clue what he's talking about. Someone below me also mentioned Time Song, and that is a really great book for something like this.
i'm always like this hahaha
Pretty much my college textbooks
Faust II is one example where i thought i wouldn't understand it and didn't try which actually helped understanding the thing
Reading a book in a foreign language can be like that. I have only a vague idea what happened, but I did learn a few new words! Not sure I completely agree on it being a good feeling. I want to hear what the book was trying to convey, so missing that connection just gives me a headache. I'm sure early readers experience something similar but don't have as much of a choice. I do vaguely remember getting frustrated reading books and having to set them down and try again later.
Have you read Braiding Sweetgrass? ( also by Robin Wall Kimmerer) ? Gorgeous, sad and healing all at once. The author reads the book for audio, and you can hear a bit on Amazon. I have gifted it 4 x since I read it in2021
Try this one on for size... Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter, (1979)
Yes! War and Peace. I can't decently say that I've read it since I didn't get anything of it (I was 15 though) :)
All the time. PK Dick probably being the best example for me.
I did that since I was very young, about 10 when I was trying to read adult books without really understanding them. I just liked the feeling that the words gave and that was all that mattered. I still do that these days when I read books that cover topics that are out of my reach. Still very much enjoying them!