• I added an agora current events board to contain discussions of political and current events to that category. This was due to a increase support for a separate board for political talk.
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  • i have so much i want to read but my shitty reading skills are getting in the way, do you guys have any tips on improving your reading? other than drinking coffee
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    №56
    №56
    Reading out loud is great, and if you're in an area where you can't read out loud you can mouth out the words as you read them. It makes you look like a moron but it's great for keeping your focus and boosting your reading comprehension/memory of what you've read.
    Also try not to worry about being in the right frame of mind to read. I have a bad habit of putting books down for a long time because I keep telling myself "I'm too tired to read" or "I'm not focused enough, I'll get distracted." Turns out that all I have to do to get out of those mindsets is to just sit down and start reading anyway.
    Another good tip is to read stuff that you're actually interested in and not stuff that you feel like you have to read because it's important/famous/difficult/impressive/etc.
    MySpace Tom
    MySpace Tom
    A weird one that kind of works is adjusting how far away the book is from your face. If you can handle smaller text, holding a book further away will make it easier to let your eyes scan across a line
    RainySky
    RainySky
    Lotta good advice here that I agree with. Been thinking bout this all last few weeks (months?) cause reading lots, so heres a few things that spring to mind. Sorry if any of it is obvious or poorly explained, havent finished drinking my first coffee yet and it has yet to arrive at brain. Below is mostly for nonfiction, most of it wont apply to fiction. Ive written a lot in this comment, but Im no expert or anything - I just have thought about this topic quite a bit for myself, so perhaps you can find some of what Ive written useful.

    To help understanding, make sure you take note of terms defined early in the work, later explanations might get confusing if you dont. Skim over the book as a whole as well as individual chapters before you read them, both so that you can have an outline of how the argument will go, and so that you potentially skip pieces. Its easier to motivate yourself to read through some more uninteresting argument if you know what its building towards, and sometimes skipping things can be justifiable in some situations imo (e.g. when too many examples are used to back up a point). Of course reading everything is ideal, but time spent reading an argument that you already feel comfortable with or understand could be spent elsewhere.

    Try to consciously figure out how the author writes as you read; realizing how a specific author structures their sentences can make it easier. For instance, some authors couch subordinate clauses within each other to an extreme extent, which can be skipped over the first reading of a sentence for clarity. I notice you wrote in another status that you were struggling with communist literature earlier, and this is especially important with lots of them I think - lotta stuff translated from german, which I feel is kinda more permissive with couching lots of info in one sentance.

    Also try to be very conscious of what you are reading a text for. If you are reading a text on peace and conflict studies because you are interested in wars surrounding the resource coltan you will need to focus on and think about different, very specific aspects of the text than if you were reading it for the purpose of, say, understanding the role of ethnicity, or understanding the field as a whole and trying to get an overview. The focus will dictate both your notes, as well as what parts you skip, what parts you reread, and what parts you skim. I think this applies less if youre not reading a text as part of a broader research project, just to understand what the author is saying.

    One thing I havent seen mentioned in terms of getting self to focus is the space you read in. I kinda function better if Im not doing it in bed, but rather at my desk - or even better a library, park, or somewhere similarly public. I can imagine this is very dependant on the person though, but doesnt hurt to experiment if youre struggling.

    Im also beggining to try convince myself that its fine to not finish books, despite feeling guilty about it. Ultimatley, unless doing it for work of some sort, if a book isnt interesting, useful, or fun it might be best to just drop and pick up another. Ive spent embarressing amounts of time avoiding reading because one of my current books is not something I want; better to spend that time reading something else. One compromise Ive found is to have 2 or 3 books Im reading at a time to switch between as the mood dictates.

    Theres also a few books on reading I think; I think I read one off some 4chan reading chart thing about 5 years ago. I recall finding some bits helpful (like the importance of looking at the structure of a text before reading) and some fairly bad - if youre interested I can try figure out which one it was though.
    theorie communiste is shit, can't understand a word they say.
    ĦĦĦ
    ĦĦĦ
    its not like i find the ideas they are saying stupid, i want to understand them; but with the way that they have written their work, it just makes me annoyed and mad. this is either because their works are translated from French to English, leading to grammatical differences, or because i'm just stupid
    ark
    ark
    It's probably because the French are assholes
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    RojoUsagi122
    RojoUsagi122
    I think it's because they like to sound pretentious, but I'm just assuming.
    • Thinking
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    Onani Master Kurosawa is actually good, the story development is very nice. it gives me hope in my life and in human beings, it makes me see how valuable human connections are no matter how cynical and pessimistic an individual acts. this is definitely something that i have needed in my current mental state, now what is left to do is to execute those lessons and to truly learn from this piece of media.

    who knew that a manga about a fucking school beater could move me this much.
    Math Equal Angelic Mantra
    Math Equal Angelic Mantra
    White power gatekeeping? Now I've seen everything.

    The question if Italians and Greeks are white have been a serious enough issue within White Nationalism they have the term "Nordicist" for people who are real old school for how they define who is white.
    • Funky
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    Math Equal Angelic Mantra
    Math Equal Angelic Mantra
    Watched the clip. Lmao, trying to get a zoomer to just to you a serious answer and not just sarcastically meme. This is the real generational divide
    ĦĦĦ
    ĦĦĦ
    @266hz it's basically libreddit but for twitter
    @Math Equal Angelic Mantra i think this has to do with which what medium the individual decides to get their ideas from. the zoomer kid obviously adopted the dumb neo-nazi ideology through tiktok or instagram, probably by seeing those "educational" nazi edits. while miller adopted such an ideology through the medium of books and with very dedicated and "educated" groups. we can see this stark divide between mediums in other ideologies and movements as well such as Marxism-Leninism, l*beralism, variations of anarchism etc.
    surprisingly, agora is not banned in China
    Screenshot 2025-05-13 at 23.27.51.png
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