Stop reading. Start acting.
Ways to Read More Books
81–90 of 123 posts
Re: Ways to Read More Books
#82I've read more in the past 12 months than in the past few years, purely because I discovered a company in the UK called the Folio Society[1]. They sell beautifully bound and illustrated editions of fantastic books, although at rather high prices (£30-40 on average). Previously the majority of the books I read came in the form of cheap ebooks from the Kindle store. As a result, I often abandoned them (or even just for…
Thank you for this! What a fantastic resource. This is going to hurt my wallet.
Re: Ways to Read More Books
#83This may be an unusual opinion, but I read a lot, and I've found non-fiction books to just not be efficient means of educating myself anymore. Most topics can be illustrated and described in far fewer words than a book takes. I get about a third of the way through a lot of books and say "ok I get it", as the author basically just continues to say the same thing in different ways. I'm sure this is incentivized by curr…
>I've found scientific literature and a number of very high quality bloggers to be a much more efficient source of reading material.
Re: Ways to Read More Books
#84My biggest aids to reading more books have been technical: 1) Goodreads to track books, maintain a to-read queue, share reviews, etc. Plus the "reading challenge" feature, which shows if you're on-track or not (2016: 52 originally, then 68. 2017 goal: 78, but possibly 104.) 2) Kindle -- not having to physically deal with books while traveling, and having access to my entire collection. 3) Audible -- when driving, fly…
I was skeptical of audio books until I discovered WhisperSync with Kindle and Audible. This has definitely improved my reading pace and motivation.
Re: Ways to Read More Books
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
I also found the survivorship-biasy part of the article to be a bit goofy, but I found other parts to be pretty spot on. I have fallen out of the habit of reading this past year (I think in part due to stress over political news) and I've been looking for ways to bring it back into my life. These things hit home: * While I don't think reading will make me successful, I do find the habitual focus/relaxation aspects of…
I think the "survivorship bias" argument for reading is a bit overplayed. There's practically _zero_ of these mega-successful people (Gates, Buffett, Zuckerburg, Musk, etc.) who don't read. Astonishingly, I can't think of a single one. While that doesn't prove causation, it definitely points at it! Do you want to try to be the first successful person who didn't read? It's not that reading was this one magical trick t…
not everybody who reads a lot is widely successful.
also replies below about Trump, are really distasteful.
Re: Ways to Read More Books
#86How to read more books: Speed listen to your books with adobe reader 9.5 plugin called texthelp PDFaloud 3.0 and high quality SAPI5 voices from acapela infovox, nuance realspeak, or neospeech.
I do this will FBreader on Android using Google TTS.
Re: Ways to Read More Books
#87What worked for me was setting smarter goals. Instead of a X-books-in-a-year, I switched to 3-books-in-a-month, which is far more easier to track because I need to finish a book once every 10 days.
I track everything on Goodreads, and it has been working out great.
Re: Ways to Read More Books
#88A lot of people waste their time reading the latest NY Times best sellers when they could be learning. Who cares how many trash novels you read? You might as well watch TV. Read for quality not quantity and pursue other avenues of learning. Kahn Academy has tons of excellent and free courses on YouTube. Or actually do things. Build something, plant a garden, fix your car, learn a language, write. Passive consumption is overrated.
Re: Ways to Read More Books
#89I'd add joining a reading circle. Forces a monthly/bimonthly book on me I'd likely not have picked up by myself, discussions afterwards are usually quite insightful, plus you can frequent and support your local bookstore.
Re: Ways to Read More Books
#90This may be an unusual opinion, but I read a lot, and I've found non-fiction books to just not be efficient means of educating myself anymore. Most topics can be illustrated and described in far fewer words than a book takes. I get about a third of the way through a lot of books and say "ok I get it", as the author basically just continues to say the same thing in different ways. I'm sure this is incentivized by curr…
That's because you should get to fiction more. Education is not about acquiring more knowledge. It's also about acquiring experience, emotions, etc. Thus fiction have a lot to bring to you, and probably more than nonfiction ones.
Try the Count of Monte Cristo for example :)