Why am I reading fewer and fewer books?為甚麼我讀的書越來越少？

Written right after reading “Outliers” — raw and unedited, just a spontaneous reflection.

English Version (中文版本在下方）

The older I get, the less I read. When I was younger, there was no doubt I was a book-loving kid. Even with my usually restless personality, I would become unusually quiet the moment I stepped into a library or bookstore. I could read for hours, completely absorbed, to the point of skipping meals or sleep.

But once I got to college, my reading habits dropped off. Sometimes I would go six months without finishing a single book. I used to think it was simply because my reading time had become more fragmented, spread across more digital formats and shorter content.

But after recently forcing myself to get back into reading physical books, I realized another reason: as I’ve gotten older and accumulated more knowledge, I’ve also become more selective. I now demand higher quality and denser insights from books.

I’ve always had a low tolerance for boredom. As a child, everything in books felt novel. Back then, I mostly read fiction, so it was easy to stay engaged. In high school, I started dabbling in literary works, and in college, I shifted toward essays and nonfiction. But I quickly ran out of patience for these types of books.

What I seek now is freshness of ideas and clarity of reasoning. If a book presents common knowledge, I lose interest. If its conclusions feel like leaps in logic, I reject them. And because I already consume a lot of curated content online — articles, summaries, tweets — I often feel like I’ve absorbed bits and pieces of many books before I even start them. That makes it harder to stay focused and read a book cover to cover.

Still, every once in a while, I come across a truly complete book — brilliant in its originality, storytelling, and intellectual rigor — and I find myself devouring it in one sitting. That old feeling returns: getting lost in a book, mind and spirit fully engaged. It reminds me of how joyful reading can be.

I’ve also noticed that over the past few years, as my mental models have solidified, the types of books I prefer have narrowed. These days, I mostly read business, sociology, and philosophy. I’ve neglected fiction and literature for a long time. Maybe it’s time to diversify again. Break the monotony.

It is not just the book genres — I feel like even the topics I care about are starting to get boxed in by my current thinking patterns. That is not a good thing. It is important to regularly reflect, reset, and consciously learn and unlearn. In a way, deliberate forgetting can be just as valuable as learning.

So I wanted to capture this sense of excitement. Reading is, at its core, still incredibly fun. I hope I can keep this going and keep digging deeper.

Do not pretend to be busy. There is nothing worse than busy working without direction.

中文版本

(此文寫於看完「異數」後的興奮，未多加潤飾，隨性而發）

越長大看的書越少，小時候的我應該無庸置疑是喜歡看書的小孩。平常坐不住的個性只要在圖書館或書店便異常安靜，專注的時長甚至可以達到廢寢忘食的地步。 但上了大學後，看的書越來越少，半年不知道有沒有看到一本，雖然書本的閱讀量減少了，但其實總閱讀時數並沒有，只是載體更分散，時間更碎片，我原本只歸因至此。

但在最近又強行重拾閱讀書本的習慣後，我發現另一個可能性：隨年紀和知識量的提升，我對書本的品質和知識密度更挑剔了。

本來就是很容易感到枯燥的人。小時候能夠一看好幾個小時是因為書裡的一切都是新奇的，且小時候更多看的是小說、故事類型的書籍，非常容易獲得新鮮感。 高中開始涉略純文學，大學則閱讀更多議論、工具書，而我對這類書的耐心卻非常容易耗盡。

我尋求知識的新鮮度和邏輯推演的嚴謹性。許多非新知的觀點我會感到無趣，而推理跳躍的結論我則無法苟同，更因為我平時就在網路上看了許多節選的短文，很多書中的知識已經被打包分裝在不同媒介上被我吸收，如此一來要專注的看完一本完整的書也就更難。

但每當遇到完整性十足，不論創造性、敘事功力、和理論基礎都十分優秀的書籍，我還是可以一個下午抱著書本閱讀，重新回到廢寢忘食的境界，並切切實實地感受到腦與心智在書本文字間漫遊的快感。

另一點我觀察到的是，在心智模型逐漸定型的這幾年，我偏好的書籍類型有單一化的傾向，不外乎商業、社會學、和哲學，純文學和小說類被我遺忘許久，也許有時可以試著多元化閱讀的類型，減少單調性。

其實不只書籍類型，甚至我有興趣的討論主題好像也會被思維框架定型，但這不是件好事，需要持續反思和重整，learn and unlearn，有意識的遺忘在某種程度上是好事。

特以此文記錄現在的興奮，閱讀果然還是一件非常有趣的事情，希望能繼續保持與挖掘。

好書不可多得，切記勿濫竽充數，裝忙是最不可取的。