2021-04-30 Reading

Every time I see headlines like “How I read 200 books in 3 months”, all I want to do is ask the writer if they remember the lessons from each one.

You see, a friend of mine has recently discovered audiobooks. A great invention, but he’s fallen into the trap of listening (reading?) for listening’s sake. He recommended me a book to read, which I did, and I was looking forward to discussing it with him afterward. But when I started a conversation about it, he couldn’t remember a lot of the stuff I was mentioning.

Reading is a life-changing habit. It has the power to free people, like how we’ve seen with figures like Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X. Reading for the sake of checking a book off a list blocks you from accessing those amazing benefits.

How to not let it waste your time:

Bill Gates, famous for isolating himself in the woods to read and think, sets aside a lot of time for each book. In an interview, he said that he always needs a pen to write notes to help him internalize what he’s taking in.

I mean, if one of the smartest dudes on this planet needs to do that when he reads, we probably should do the same.

Amanda Gorman, a brilliant spoken word poet, said that her advice to aspiring writers was to read things 3 times. Once for pleasure, once to realize what’s good about it, and another time to think about how you could do better.

And science backs this up. Whether you’re a writer or not, studies have found that we best internalize knowledge when we read something 3 times.

The key point here is time. Allow time for each book to soak into your soul. Reading is not a race.