Often reading is just distraction. There's often very little actionable information there. It's just taking your mind off your real problems. It's basically all entertainment.
I go home and I watch Khan Academy videos now. I read Wikipedia. I read some Hacker News mainly to distract myself from work. I pretend that it's useful, and it sometimes is, but sometimes I wonder if I'm engaging in repetitive naval gazing and somehow getting off on the ubiquitous outrage.
Why do all this reading anyway? To be more fun at parties? To pretend like we're part of something important when all that lies ahead of us is years of sitting in a cube and stuck in traffic?
I guess it's all not so bad. Whatever floats your boat. Just realize that it's mostly entertainment unless you actually DO something with what you've learned. It's not what you think. It's what you DO that matters.
I'll just set up every straw man and let you tear 'em down, I guess.
Reading isn't always just distraction, in the same way that the internet isn't and, as you've said, you use the internet for Wikipedia, Khan Academy videos, etc.
I just bought Ron Paul's "End the Fed" book (it's on sale in hardcover at Amazon), which I feel will give me a more informed position in politics. You'll have to pardon my belief that politics matter, and aren't a waste of time.
The book I'm currently reading is Higbee's "Your Memory : How It Works and How to Improve It", which I believe will help me extend my mnemonic memory, which will allow me to remember the things that never stuck with rote memory (capitals of all the states, periodic table, presidential terms, etc.)
These aren't fiction (well, depends on how you interpret "End the Fed" I guess), and aren't just a 'distraction', at least in my opinion.
Even if these things ultimately get categorized as 'Entertainment', I don't know that to be a problem either. The mind needs entertainment, and if trying to enrich your experiences and imagination is a 'waste of time', then I don't know what isn't.
What's the end game for watching Khan Academy videos? To know more? To be more successful? To make more money?
I don't know that any of those motivations (other than the first) is philosophically any better than reading for entertainment.
The Higbee memory book is fun. I used it to help my kid memorize some things before kindergarten (spell a complicated last name, sing daddy's phone number, where I live, etc).
I am planning to refresh my data structures and algorithms background with an eye on using some of the techniques in this book to memorize them.
I got started with the idea of mnemonics by reading Jonathan Foer's "Moonwalking with Einstein[1]", which is an exceptionally good read.
============* Potential Spoiler Alert* =====================
It isn't a 'how-to' book per se, as it mostly tells the story of how the author went from being a journalist who covered the World Memory Championship tournament and within a year of training, became the US Memory Champ.
Regardless, it's a really fun read, and Foer is a really good writer. It does have some 'how-to' moments in it, and the little I've learned has been 100% effective, but I needed something to deal with more complicated data structures -- I could easily memorize the periodic table now, in order, but I don't know how I would store associated data, like atomic weights, symbols, melting point, boiling point, etc. That's why I got the Higbee book.
Glad to hear an endorsement on it. The one deficiency I have with Moonwalking is that it doesn't go on to recommend a book or technique that would work. I debated over a few of the books mentioned in Moonwalking, and ultimately decided to go with the (not mentioned) Higbee book based on an external review.
Moonwalking actually has a pretty extensive bibliography. In addition to the memory techniques, the references to Dr. K. Anders Ericsson's work on how to become an expert at anything was really interesting (http://www.coachingmanagement.nl/The%20Making%20of%20an%20Ex..., for example)
I go home and I watch Khan Academy videos now. I read Wikipedia. I read some Hacker News mainly to distract myself from work. I pretend that it's useful, and it sometimes is, but sometimes I wonder if I'm engaging in repetitive naval gazing and somehow getting off on the ubiquitous outrage.
Why do all this reading anyway? To be more fun at parties? To pretend like we're part of something important when all that lies ahead of us is years of sitting in a cube and stuck in traffic?
I guess it's all not so bad. Whatever floats your boat. Just realize that it's mostly entertainment unless you actually DO something with what you've learned. It's not what you think. It's what you DO that matters.