Listening to music while reading

[El Entenado]

First let me say that, for me, listening to music is an engaging act, much like reading literature, and by music I don't mean Taylor Swift, nor do I mean Pink Floyd, but Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Schoenberg, Eisler, et cetera.

I seem to not to be able to attend both music and literature at the same time. Either I forget the music and lose myself in the book, or I'm listening to the music while just mechanically reading the book. My question is, is this something that happens for everyone? Should I just accept it and do them one at a time, or does it take some practice to able to do them together. I would be glad to hear any advice or experience you have regarding this.

[Dreamwoven]

I recognise myself in what you say: can't listen to music and read a book at the same time.

[YesNo]

I also need silence to read well. I need to hear the words in my head. The hum of the computer is even annoying. My next computer I hope will have solid state memory rather than a hard drive.

[Dreamwoven]

I don't have problems with my apple mac - a macbook pro retina, 2011 model, coming to the end of its life soon enough, but still completely silent. No idea what a solid state memory is, either: http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/solid-state-storage

[Danik 2016]

I also have to do either one thing or the other. As we say here, I don´t have the ability to chew gum and cross the stree at the same time.
My PC is usually silent, it sometimes hums when I switch it on by cold weather. Maybe it´s the battery.
What is a PC solid state memory? Does it exist already?

[Dreamwoven]

Solid State Memory is apparently coming to MacBooks in the future: http://www.macrumors.com/2016/03/11/intel-optane-ssd-macbooks/

I guess this is what the mobile phones already have? So it is definitely not here yet in the pc world but might be soon?

[Danik 2016]

Thanks for the links DW. SSD looks good. I don´t know if we have it herealready, but if we do it is probably expensive.

[Dreamwoven]

Thanks for the links DW. SSD looks good. I don´t know if we have it herealready, but if we do it is probably expensive.

Perhaps, Danik. But my macbook is silent enough, just about completely, except when it is struggling with something heavy, like Drakensang, so it is surprising that Macbook is bothering to make the transition. There are no doubt other reasons for the change.

It weighs less and in these days when a desktop pc like mine is facing so much competition from mobile phones this is an important consideration.

[Danik 2016]

Well, I am halfway mobile with my two notebooks.

[YesNo]

I've seen in warehouses like Costco laptops with 256 gigabyte of solid state memory which should not make that humming sound that a hard drive does since the hard drive is physically spinning.

It is not a priority to eliminate this humming sound. It just would be nice. To have more meaningful or interesting sound in the background is more distracting or I forget to listen to it. I guess I can only do one thing at a time.