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Comment by ctkrohn | Hacker News Reader

Read.

Do it right though. Sit down in a comfortable chair. Turn off your computer so you're not constantly getting up and checking your email. Maybe turn on some music. Allocate a sufficient block of time, so you can become truly engrossed in your book.

Good fiction has a way of taking your mind elsewhere that no other medium can match. It's the most satisfying and fulfilling way to relax that I know of.

edit: minor grammar correction

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One of the downsides, for me, is that I can end up 'out of it' until I actually finish the story, yet other times, I'll stop reading at a lull in the story, and never pick the book back up again, because I didn't stop at a point that was engrossing enough to pull me back into the storyline (e.g. Diamond Age).

I do like reading (non-narrative nonfiction mostly), but I can never seem to relax while doing so. Sitting up in a chair makes holding the book up difficult, reclining is no better, and lying in bed makes my back uncomfortable. How do people physically read for more than an hour at a time?

I fidget a lot, too. I suppose I've just gotten used to it, though.

I would recommend "bone support." You shouldn't be holding the book up, but resting it somehow. Angle your arm so you don't have to use muscle, or it'll become painful.

I don't know if that's a good term for it, but that's what they called it when we were learning to shoot in the Marine Corps. Same idea. :-)

I may have noticed it early because I'm too tall for the tables in most coffeeshops, but your body is probably not cool with sitting static while you read for hours on end. Any exercise that emphasizes stretching will help. Yoga, aikido, etc.

100% agree with fiction book point.

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