A 50-something French dude that’s old enough to think blogs are still cool, if not cooler than ever. Also, I like to write and to sketch.
https://thefoolwithapen.com

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: November 26th, 2023

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  • As of now my nephew never touched a phone. This isn’t anything bad but compared to his class mates I think this is weird.

    He just turned six. What do you need a phone for at six? Call your kindergarten sweetheart?

    Imagine when he is in school and his friends tell him to scroll and he has no idea how to even scroll? Isn’t that weird?

    No. I would consider weird to think kids need to be using a phone as soon as they get out of their diapers in order to be considered ‘normal’ ;)

    As a side-note, maybe you could offer that kid books, instead. He will learn a lot more reading them. A lot. And have a lot of fun too.

    Plus, there is no in-app purchase in books, no tracking, no spying, no ads. And they won’t require updates either ;)


  • How many fiction books do you all read? E-book or paperback. But not interesting in audiobooks. I’m curious about physically-read books.

    To answer your question, I read fiction (be it novel, short stories, poetry, plays) less than I read essays, history, science(s), philosophy, sociology, spirituality books, and stuff like that. But I will always be reading some fiction, at any time. I love fiction, I just have to prioritize other kind of books if I want to read them ;)

    The number of books depends the type of book I’m reading and their author, and in what language. I’m French, but I read a lot more in English and can also manage my way through not too complex Spanish books and this year I hope I’ll be able to really start reading in German but obviously I will not read as fluently in any of those languages than I read in French, not even in English. And that’s true not just for fiction.

    I mean, I’m reading Jean-Jacques Rousseau at this moment and I obviously do not read him as quickly as I will read a novel but I also read Rousseau much quicker than I have read, say, Kant (Kant’s style is not as easy going as Rousseau’s, and his thought process is not as straightforward either, even though they ideally both require a lot of thinking in order to get anything worth out of reading them).

    Even only considering fiction, my speed does vary a lot depending the author and their style, the length of the book and the type of book as I have personal preferences that will help me read a lot more than with anything written by an author or even in a genre I may not appreciate as much. I’m also much more likely to quickly finish a volume of short stories or a short novel than say Anna Karenina (which is probably my all-time favorite novel, btw) because I can read it even when I have much shorter time available to read.

    Right now, I’m reading Proust In Search of Lost Time (I read it in French) and I know I will probably spend the whole year reading it. So, that’s one book a year? Not really, since I will read other fictions (and already have read others) during that time but still, it’s a whole year spent on a novel, or not?

    Also, should I count the books I start and don’t finish for whatever reason, or not?

    And then, even more so with fiction than with essays, I always have multiple books started at once. I don’t care much about finishing one book before starting another as I’ve pretty good memory and can instantly get back into the story where I left of and get back in the mood/atmosphere when I’m switching book), like when I’m watching a movie or a series. Even years after, I just have this odd memory.

    So, it’s kind of a difficult question to answer but I would say: a lot ;)