• howrar
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    4 months ago

    even if you read only fiction

    Isn’t this post specifically about fiction? When we say that a person “reads”, it normally means fiction. Plus, I don’t think anything else is typically measured in number of books.

    I guess what I mean to ask is: what we can gain from reading works of fiction over other forms of text? Would you give the same answer given the clarification?

    • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
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      4 months ago

      Isn’t this post specifically about fiction? When we say that a person “reads”, it normally means fiction.

      I don’t see anything suggesting this is fiction only and I definitely don’t think “reads” means “reads fiction”.

      • howrar
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        4 months ago

        What else do you read that can be measured in number of books? You wouldn’t do that for news articles, blog posts, or scientific papers. Cookbooks, textbooks and dictionaries are books, but you rarely read those from cover to cover, so you wouldn’t see people talking about the number of books they’ve read in that context.

        • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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          4 months ago

          Did you forget that non-fiction exists as a genre? Biographies and memoirs are very popular, for example.

          • howrar
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            4 months ago

            Ah, right. Sorry about that. I’m just thinking through all the things I’ve read in the recent months and looking through my bookshelf. Seems our reading habits here are rather narrow.

          • howrar
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            4 months ago

            Sorry, I’m dumb. I do go to libraries quite often, but if I’m looking at the books, it’s to find something specific. I never browse the shelves.

        • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
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          4 months ago

          What else do you read that can be measured in number of books?

          Non fiction obviously? You know, books about the world and stuff. Recently I read Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harrari for instance. That is not fiction and it is a book.