“Decide that for the time you will be reading, you will focus on the book and nothing else. No quick Twitter checks. No emails. No cell phone. No TV. No staring into midair. Understanding and absorbing a book requires deep focus. . .”
Farnam Street has a great piece on reading books.
Occasionally, people will ask me how I find time to read. The thought that first flashes through my mind is “how do you get through life NOT reading?”
Reading is not the same as listening to podcasts or even the same as listening to a book. Just like studies have shown that typing or dictating doesn’t have the same effect on the brain as the act of writing something down, the act of reading words from a book (yes, an e-book if you must) is different from other forms of learning.
But if you only remember six things after reading this article, it should be the following truths about reading:
Quality matters more than quantity. If you read one book a month but fully appreciate and absorb it, you’ll be better off than someone who skims half the library without paying attention.
Speed-reading is bullshit. Getting the rough gist and absorbing the lessons are two different things. Confuse them at your peril.
Book summary services miss the point. A lot of companies charge ridiculous prices for access to vague summaries bearing only the faintest resemblance to anything in the book. Summaries can be a useful jumping-off point to explore your curiosity, but you cannot learn from them the way you can from the original text.*
Fancy apps and tools are not needed. A notebook, index cards, and a pen will do just fine.
We shouldn’t read stuff we find boring. Life is far too short.
Finishing the book is optional. You should start a lot of books and only finish a few of them.