Respect.

I'm gonna start using "shitlit" from hereon out.

And also, there are people I respect who said they read 100+ books a year, and that you should, too. But while others in my circles were eager to jump on the train, for me, I thought it would be performative, and be about having read said 100+ books than digesting any of it. And what more, I recall that I best retain info via reading if I have skin in the game, rather than feeling like reading makes me appear more approvable to others.

All that is to say, it's good to hear from someone who reads a ton that a lot of your reading is kinda junk stuff (even if 150+ books a year is still a crazy metric – and as a tangent, people who ride bikes a ton say that a lot of their miles they rack up are junk miles, so I'm sure there's an equivalent of shitlit in any pursuit/ hobby/ interest/ endeavor).

For "shitlit", I highly recommend novels written by Charles Bukowski. They are very funny.

Bukowski's books are funny and sad at the same time, but I would not consider it shitlit! Well maybe some if it like Hollywood I could see it, but definitely not Post Office.

What do you consider shitlit?

Do you blog or keep a list? I would be nice to see what you read. I tend to only read fiction written by women. (I read enough non-fiction via the Financial Times newspaper.) As a man, it is really eye-opening to "see the other (emotional) side". Usually, the stories are much more about character development, than trying to save the world ("do something big") that I often see in fiction written by men.

I have most of it on my kindle so there is a purchase history there.

Recently its been a lot of LitRPG stuff. Dungeon Crawler Carl, The Primal Hunter and so on. I also read most of the Hugo and Nebula lists too. Lots of SciFi in the past couple of years.

How does this work? Is it a book every two days? Or three books on the weekend? How long is your commute and how do you keep off YouTube/Netflix in the evening?

When you get in the habit of reading, it's remarkable how quickly you can do it. It's quite easy to read a book in a day when you read every day.

Unfortunately, I got in the habit of reading before bed. I inadvertently trained myself that reading leads to sleep. Now when I read, I very quickly start to feel sleepy.

So my advice would be to get in the habit of reading, but be mindful of the details of the habit you are establishing.

If you read short books of low complexity, aye. We need to start talking page count. Aint nobody reading 3 Robin Hobb books a week all year long.

> 15 books each weekend should be read as ==>> I traded my 15 books for 15 new books each weekend, reading them during the weekend and when not in school

So you mean 15 books each week, not each weekend! I was surprised when I read that, but this makes more sense.

So you read about 780 books/year as a teen? I have doubts. Unless the average page count is under 100 maybe.

Again, this isn't a measuring contest but I will point out that you could read that much given you wanted to. Life is tradeoffs after all.

I commute for 20 hours a week on public transport, so a lot gets done there. I also read every night as a way to wind down before bed. Sometimes I will read continuously on a weekend if the book/series is engaging enough and can finish a couple of thousand pages that way.

Honestly, its not a target it is just what happens when you read a lot - you get through books.

As for YouTube or Netflix, I dont really watch that much and can't really understand how people spend that much time on them. Given that though, I read instead and lots of people dont understand that. Each to their own, happiness is different for everyone etc

> how do you keep off YouTube/Netflix in the evening?

not Having Netflix is a start. Realizing that most Netflix shows gets dumped mid-story after 1 or 2 seasons and will leave me without closure is another

Reading indeed should be a source of enjoyment. But sometimes you read coz you have to.

They're only well ahead of the crowd if someone's measuring for some reason, otherwise they just have a number and other people might have their own numbers, but regardless it's just as arbitrary as having a number for how many video games you played or tv shows watched.

I read probably 6 books last year, all of them left me with some little useful takeaway. I didn't watch any shows, and none of the movies seemed remotely compelling. These numbers and whether I come away feeling good or not are basically a series of dice rolls from year to year, and I'm never desiring to do arbitrarily more of any of them; the time comes when the time comes.

I only ever want to do more when something else is diverting my attention in a way I dislike. For example, I love hiking and I love video games, but one has an endless viable season and the other doesn't.

I used to feel differently though. I used to want to persistently clear my Pocket list, but now I just let the things that really seem compelling draw me in, and the rest can sit there waiting.

"it would be tough to apply all 150 books contents to real life."

Why the hell would anybody want to do that?

Do you feel some need to "apply every meal you eat to real life"? or to "apply every movie you watch"? Or every concert you hear, or every ballet you see?

(I usually read books as a way to avoid "real life" for a while...)

Especially considering this "shitlit" label (which I love and immediately understand, because I read somewhere between 70 and 80 shitlit books last year). The shitlit that I read is totally inconsequential fiction that has no material bearing on life whatsoever. It's a form of entertainment that's analog, that's why I do it.

> The shitlit that I read is totally inconsequential fiction

Same. Kindle Unlimited has an almost, uh, unlimited selection of light fluff detective fiction that's good for killing a few hours.

(Although I was pleasantly surprised by the DCI Logan series by JD Kirk which are actually amusing and fun to read.)

I think this comment encapsulates quite exactly the point of the article: reading as a gamified chore that puts you "well ahead of the crowd" and somehow measures (or influences, even?) how successful, smart, rich, interesting, etc. you are.

This is such a weird comment.

Ahead in what way? Reading more shitlit than anyone? I guess. It's clearly a time tradeoff, and you are probably "ahead" on something else besides book reading that you don't even think about.

I think even if you did find the time to read 150 books a year, you'd quickly be disappointed.

You know, this whole idea of applying what you read to your own life, even if it's good literature is really funny. I've been rereading a lot of southern gothic lit, and thinking about applying Wise Blood or Confederacy of Dunces to guide my life actually seems kind of hilarious (even though O'Connor especially has some interesting commentary packed in her works).