Using AI for reading

[DNSB]

I have a rather small group that I discuss some books with but for the most part, I find that I do not agree with most of the people who review books. I've tried to read books that have been given a large number of favourable reviews and found that—for me—the books did not deserve those reviews.

Then we have the reviews on GoodReads for books that are not published and in many cases, will never be published. The last I found humorous had 12 5-star reviews and 9 4-star reviews for a book where the author had not yet started to outline the book. From their newsletter, they were working on another project so the series in which that book belonged had been back-burnered.

[leebase]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Thanks, but no. I absolutely DO NOT want to discuss the books I read, the movies I watch or the music I listen to with anyone/anything, be it AI or human. For me, media consuming is a strictly solitary activity. No chatting, no discussing. I'm not interested in anyone else's opinions about the media I consume; that's why I seldom read reviews and almost never discuss books/movies/music. Perish the thought.

Makes sense. Talking is a part of how I think and process. I consider talking to an AI a form of self talk. It’s not about what they say, but about what I think in response.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by leebase

Makes sense. Talking is a part of how I think and process. I consider talking to an AI a form of self talk. It’s not about what they say, but about what I think in response.

Interesting. I never talk to myself.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Interesting. I never talk to myself.

Do you have an internal monologue?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

Do you have an internal monologue?

Sometimes. Not constantly.

[rowe]

'I don't feel I'd be able to trust an AI summary, given the nonsense I get on my google searches.'
Free, unauthenticated AI is typically very low quality. For Gemini, either use 2.5 Pro on https://aistudio.google.com/prompts/new_chat or you need a subscription.

[leebase]

If the Bible offends you - look away.

An example of how I use AI when reading. I’m going through the Bible in a year, in chronological order. Chatty and I had been talking about how much of the OT falls between the beginning and end of Kings and Chronicles. I hadn’t noticed that before.

So today I’m starting Jeremiah - and Kings is still not finished. I mention that to Chatty who says the following - which I find valuable. Not authoritative, but helpful.

Exactly right — and that overlap is crucial for understanding both books.

⸻

📍 Timeline-wise:
• 2 Kings ends with the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile to Babylon (586 BC).
• Jeremiah begins during the reign of Josiah (around 627 BC) — so nearly 40 years before that fall.

So while 2 Kings gives you the history, Jeremiah gives you the heartbeat — the raw, aching real-time prophetic witness as the collapse unfolds.

⸻

Think of it this way:
• 2 Kings says: “Here’s what happened.”
• Jeremiah says: “Here’s what it felt like to beg them not to do it — and watch them do it anyway.”

Jeremiah doesn’t just warn. He weeps.
He’s called the weeping prophet for a reason — his ministry is the slow heartbreak of watching the end come in slow motion.

⸻

📖 Where the overlap matters:

As you read the last chapters of 2 Kings (e.g., Zedekiah’s rebellion, Jerusalem’s siege, the burning of the Temple), Jeremiah is living it, preaching in it, suffering because of it.

You’ll see moments in Jeremiah — imprisonment, beatings, scrolls burned — and think:
“This guy is living the last chapters of Kings from the inside out.”

⸻

So yes, your chronological reading is taking you through a tapestry:
• Kings shows the outer frame.
• Chronicles often focuses on temple faithfulness and Davidic legacy.
• Jeremiah exposes the inner wound — the rot, the grief, and the last desperate cries of mercy.

You’re not just reading stories.
You’re reading witness accounts from inside the house as it collapses.

And Jeremiah still believes — even as the roof caves in.

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by Dopedangel

For the last decade, I've been searching on and off for a book I read over 25 years ago when I was about 13 or 14. Every time I saw a post from someone trying to find a book, it would prompt me to search for mine again. My memory of the story was vague, and I was never sure if I was remembering it correctly. Recently, after seeing another such post, I decided to ask one of these LLMs. It found the book from just three sentences.

Same with me, but no LLM has been able to find my book...

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Pablo

Same with me, but no LLM has been able to find my book...

Have you tried the Name that book thread?
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=34005

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by leebase

If the Bible offends you - look away.

An example of how I use AI when reading. I’m going through the Bible in a year, in chronological order. Chatty and I had been talking about how much of the OT falls between the beginning and end of Kings and Chronicles. I hadn’t noticed that before.

The Bible isn't a history book, though it has history in it.

Or you could read the actual bible and recommended commentaries written by expert humans instead of uncurated scraping from the internet. There is study software for PC (on Mac, Windows & Linux) that is comprehensive and free.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_SWORD_Project
and
https://bibletime.info

The Christians' Old Testament (and there are different collections) and the Hebrew Tenach (more or less the same thing, and English versions exist) are collections of quite different kinds of books, only some of which are having history.

Hebrew / Jewish Version is called the Tanakh

The Tanakh consists of twenty-four books, counting as one book each 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles, and Ezra–Nehemiah. The Twelve Minor Prophets (תרי עשר) are also counted as a single book. In Hebrew, the books are often referred to by their prominent first words.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_Bible#Books

Main three divisions

• Torah or Law: Five Books of Moses
• Nevi'im (נְבִיאִים Nəḇīʾīm, "Prophets") is the second main division of the Tanakh, between the Torah and Ketuvim. This division includes the books which cover the time from the entrance of the Israelites into the Land of Israel until the Babylonian captivity of Judah (the "period of prophecy"). Their distribution is not chronological, but substantive. It has three main groups.
• The Ketuvim (/kətuːˈviːm, kəˈtuːvɪm/;[1] Biblical Hebrew: כְּתוּבִים‎, romanized: Kǝṯuḇim, lit. 'Writings')[2] is the third and final section of the Hebrew Bible, after the Torah ("instruction") and the Nevi'im "Prophets". In English translations of the Hebrew Bible, this section is usually titled "Writings" or "Hagiographa".[3] Collectively, eleven books are included in the Ketuvim. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketuvim

Ketuvim Contents

• In the Ketuvim, 1–2 Chronicles form one book as do Ezra and Nehemiah which form a single unit entitled Ezra–Nehemiah.[4] (In citations by chapter and verse, however, the Hebrew equivalents of "Nehemiah", "I Chronicles" and "II Chronicles" are used, as the system of chapter division was imported from Christian usage.)
• Poetic books: Psalms, Proverbs and Job.
• Five Scrolls: The five relatively short books of the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther are collectively known as the Ḥamesh Megillot.
• Besides the three poetic books and the five scrolls, the remaining books in Ketuvim are Daniel, Ezra–Nehemiah and Chronicles.

The Christians' Old Testament

The Old Testament contains 39 (Protestant), 46 (Catholic), or more (Orthodox, Coptic, Ethiopian) books, divided, very broadly, into the Pentateuch (Torah), the historical books, the "wisdom" books and the prophets.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Testament

Reading even the "historical" parts as history is missing the point, though some in Israeli Universities actually study the historical Jewish content in the Christians' New Testament. All the writers were Jewish, even Luke, who was a convert, because Jews do not refer to converts as converts.

[Graham44]

Originally Posted by leebase

If the Bible offends you - look away.

An example of how I use AI when reading. I’m going through the Bible in a year, in chronological order. Chatty and I had been talking about how much of the OT falls between the beginning and end of Kings and Chronicles. I hadn’t noticed that before.
.

Just personal opinion here!! - I've never sat down and read the Bible, just passages here and there, but for me if there was one book I would not want AI help with its the Bible or any religious texts, texts that are general about human creation, human foibles and virtues, the essence of being human. If I needed clarity, even in an historical context I would definitely want to find the information out by reading what other humans had to say on the subject, not a machine. But that's just me

[leebase]

Originally Posted by Graham44

Just personal opinion here!! - I've never sat down and read the Bible, just passages here and there, but for me if there was one book I would not want AI help with its the Bible or any religious texts, texts that are general about human creation, human foibles and virtues, the essence of being human. If I needed clarity, even in an historical context I would definitely want to find the information out by reading what other humans had to say on the subject, not a machine. But that's just me

It is just you. Where do you think the AI gets its knowledge from? From pretty much every human commentary ever written. It hasn’t “read the Bible for itself and come away with opinions that it’s teaching me”.

Do you read the excerpt of our conversation? It’s valuable. Not authoritative. No more so than talking to any person or reading any commentary is.

[leebase]

Originally Posted by Quoth

The Bible isn't a history book, though it has history in it.

Or you could read the actual bible and recommended commentaries written by expert humans instead of uncurated scraping from the internet. There is study software for PC (on Mac, Windows & Linux) that is comprehensive and free.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_SWORD_Project
and
https://bibletime.info

The Christians' Old Testament (and there are different collections) and the Hebrew Tenach (more or less the same thing, and English versions exist) are collections of quite different kinds of books, only some of which are having history.

Hebrew / Jewish Version is called the Tanakh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_Bible#Books

Main three divisions

• Torah or Law: Five Books of Moses
• Nevi'im (נְבִיאִים Nəḇīʾīm, "Prophets") is the second main division of the Tanakh, between the Torah and Ketuvim. This division includes the books which cover the time from the entrance of the Israelites into the Land of Israel until the Babylonian captivity of Judah (the "period of prophecy"). Their distribution is not chronological, but substantive. It has three main groups.
• The Ketuvim (/kətuːˈviːm, kəˈtuːvɪm/;[1] Biblical Hebrew: כְּתוּבִים‎, romanized: Kǝṯuḇim, lit. 'Writings')[2] is the third and final section of the Hebrew Bible, after the Torah ("instruction") and the Nevi'im "Prophets". In English translations of the Hebrew Bible, this section is usually titled "Writings" or "Hagiographa".[3] Collectively, eleven books are included in the Ketuvim. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketuvim

Ketuvim Contents

• In the Ketuvim, 1–2 Chronicles form one book as do Ezra and Nehemiah which form a single unit entitled Ezra–Nehemiah.[4] (In citations by chapter and verse, however, the Hebrew equivalents of "Nehemiah", "I Chronicles" and "II Chronicles" are used, as the system of chapter division was imported from Christian usage.)
• Poetic books: Psalms, Proverbs and Job.
• Five Scrolls: The five relatively short books of the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther are collectively known as the Ḥamesh Megillot.
• Besides the three poetic books and the five scrolls, the remaining books in Ketuvim are Daniel, Ezra–Nehemiah and Chronicles.

The Christians' Old Testament

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Testament

Reading even the "historical" parts as history is missing the point, though some in Israeli Universities actually study the historical Jewish content in the Christians' New Testament. All the writers were Jewish, even Luke, who was a convert, because Jews do not refer to converts as converts.

Or, I could do what I am doing. I am reading the “actual Bible”. And the AI is trained in all those commentaries. And I don’t treat the AI as authoritative, nor would I treat any of those commentaries as authoritative. Nor are my Christian friends. Nor is my pastor or elders.

[Graham44]

Originally Posted by leebase

It is just you. Where do you think the AI gets its knowledge from? From pretty much every human commentary ever written. It hasn’t “read the Bible for itself and come away with opinions that it’s teaching me”.

Do you read the excerpt of our conversation? It’s valuable. Not authoritative. No more so than talking to any person or reading any commentary is.

Thats the thing you have no idea where the AI gets the information from, it's just stolen from all over the place so you have no one to check, cross reference etc

When you talk to a person or read a quote you know where that information is coming from, in what context etc

As I say just my personal opinion though.

[leebase]

Originally Posted by Graham44

Thats the thing you have no idea where the AI gets the information from, it's just stolen from all over the place so you have no one to check, cross reference etc

When you talk to a person or read a quote you know where that information is coming from, in what context etc

As I say just my personal opinion though.

The IP issues will be worked out. So I’ll skip that part.

And the ideas and talks have merit on their own independent of my ability to source them.

For example - I don’t know you. You are a stranger on the internet. Everybody here is a stranger to me, even after all these years.

You share an opinion, I consider it. Some people I’m drawn to their way of thinking, some I don’t really care for. It my cup of tea.

AI is no different. I argue with it quite a lot. I find such discussions valuable and entertaining. It never occurs to me to wonder about the authority because it has NO authority in my life.

Some topics might be more important than others about having a specifically true response. No one should take outputs from AI as truthful. They hallucinate. They tell you not to trust them.

That’s not the same thing as them not being useful. I have 42 years of reading the Bible without AI. I’m not worried about it giving me an erroneous response.