{"id":40117,"date":"2026-01-15T13:17:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T11:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/?p=40117"},"modified":"2026-01-15T13:17:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T11:17:26","slug":"books-read-and-the-tip-of-the-iceberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/books-read-and-the-tip-of-the-iceberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Books Read and the Tip of The Iceberg"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

Some people aim to read twenty books per year. Others aim for a book a week. I read 15 or so books last year which doesn’t feel like much, compared to others. Having said that, I don’t read like others. When I read I flit between books. I might start three or four books within a few days, and gently make progress for weeks or months at a time.<\/p>\n

Since the books are often not finished I might read hundreds of pages but it doesn’t appear in the reading stats. It appears in the pages read statistic. Many apps do not put that forward, until you dig a little deeper.<\/p>\n

With the Audible app reading is measured in hours read and duration, rather than as a page number or percentage. When reading via Audible progress is an estimate. That’s why Audiobookshelf is good. With this app I do get a percentage so I can update Goodreads.<\/p>\n

Fifty Books and Sixteen Finished<\/h2>\n

According to Audiobookshelf I listened to 52 books, but finished 16. I am in the habit of picking up books, starting to read them, and finding that I am either not interested in the book, or that I am not in the mood for such a story. That’s part of the reason for which I appreciate that Amazon via Kindlue Unlimited, Audible, Kobo and others allow us to access books that are included within a subscription. <\/p>\n

With a subscription you can begin a book, and if you enjoy it, you keep reading, and if you don’t you return it, especially with Kindle Unlimited. With Audible some books are included within the subscription for a few mmonths, so you need to finish a book, before it has to be paid for.<\/p>\n

When I was struggling to read As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow I considered getting an audiobook version, but it was 17 CHF on the Apple Book app, and 20+ on Audible without the right subscription, but free with another. With this book I read 48 percent as a book, and then finished it as an audiobook at double speed.<\/p>\n

Usually I listen to books at normal speed but this one was hard to read. After working at UNHCR as a video archivist and Media Asset Manager I found this book challenging to read. By reading it at two times speed, while walking, I was able to complete the book ahead of the group discussion.<\/p>\n

I see value in such a book, but my work as a media assset manager means that I have an emotional catalyst that makes the book hard to read. Some would speak of triggers.<\/p>\n

Reading Like I Watch TV Series<\/h2>\n

I like to think that I read like others watch TV series, including myself. By this I mean that I can read several books at once, and follow the plots in each. I don’t get lost or confused. If I read three books from one series at once, then I would really get confused. I find that books are individual enough to read several at a time. That’s why I read a lot, and finish few books.<\/p>\n

And Finally<\/h2>\n

Audiobookshelf brought my attention to how many books I started reading, compared to how many I finished reading. I like that I start reading so many books, and it demonstrates why lending libraries and subscription models work well for readers like me. Some readers buy a book, read it, and then buy the next. I buy a library and I fly between them like a bee. I like to crosspollinate ideas from a variety of books at once.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>Some people aim to read twenty books per year. Others aim for a book a week. I read 15 or so books last year which doesn’t feel like much, compared to others. Having said that, I don’t read like others. When I read I flit between books. I might start three or four books within […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20,9],"tags":[671,604,1122,977],"class_list":["post-40117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-observation","category-tech-related","tag-books","tag-habit","tag-habits","tag-reading"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40118,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40117\/revisions\/40118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}