Trying to get back on reading - eviltoast

I have a little difficulty to read long text, i lose focus rather easy and my mind starts to wander, still managed to read impressive 2 books last year Sophias World to get an intro in philosophy and I Robot from assimov, and the communist manifest, but i didn’t understood anything :(, half of a book about operation carwash, and some other scattered texts. still no theory tho :(

anyway, trying to get back on reading to see if im able to pick the habit to be able to read some denser texts like the capital.

what you think of my book of choice?

  • Tatar_Nobility@lemmy.ml
    7·
    10 months ago

    Crime and Punishment was definitely a decent read. It’s full of Dostoyevsky’s (peculiar?) opinions about the trends of his time, but regardless he has a way with words. I commend you for your literary efforts, good luck! o7

  • diegeticscream[all]🔻@lemmygrad.ml
    3·
    10 months ago

    I think there’s probably a couple qualities that go into reading well. I think it might be helpful to read something, easy, fun, and entertaining (to exercise the “reading words” muscles) and something relatively short and deep at a slower pace (to exercise the “reading slower and understanding deeply” muscles).

    I haven’t read Crime and Punishment, but I thought Notes from the Underground was interesting!

  • QueerCommie@lemmygrad.ml
    3·
    10 months ago

    For accessible theory I’ve got a tons of suggestions, but classic Lenin or Parenti or good starts. I’ve got a couple books by Dostoyevsky, but have yet to read them. He’s got some strange politics, but I’m intrigued by psychological writing, and some points he had to make.

    • olgas_husband@lemmygrad.mlOP
      3·
      10 months ago

      thanks comrade. nice half earth picture.

      i tried to read Lenin’s what to be done, 5 pages in he mention a lot of people that i haven’t slightest idea who they are and what they said to trigger lenin that much.

      there is still marx and general philosophy to read and understand, oh god, being a communist is hard 😭

      • QueerCommie@lemmygrad.ml
        3·
        10 months ago

        nice half earth picture.

        ty

        WITBD is not the place to start with Lenin. I already understood the point it was trying to make before I picked it up. Overall it was a bit of a slog. Where I would start is State and Revolution or one of my first theory reads, Imperialism. The former should be required reading for everyone. It’s short, and you should already be familiar with a good bit of the arguments. Imperialism is also good. When I read it I was like “idk who this Kautsky guy is, but he is wrong.” It explains why liberal attempts to control capitalism are stupid, and lays a foundation for dependency theory and an understanding of contemporary empire.

        I would also recommend the other WITBD (by Chernyshevsky) which largely inspired the Russian revolution, and gave Lenin his lovely style. I’m only a chapter in, but I like it. Not required reading, but a nice novel.

        I’ve only read the Manifesto and Wage Labor and Capital by Marx, so far.

  • starkillerfish (she)@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    41·
    10 months ago

    i’ve read that book in the original Russian. definitely one of my favorite classics (even though as another commenter pointed out, Dostoevsky had some weird politics).

    if you are struggling to read however, I would suggest getting into more modern writers (for both fiction and non-fiction)? It helped me a lot when I was struggling and I still read contemporary stuff when I just want to relax.

    • olgas_husband@lemmygrad.mlOP
      4·
      10 months ago

      yeah, when i read sophias, i didn’t got lost all that often, was easier to read, about his politics the preface of this edition says in short that russia was a pot of wacky politics