Read 50+ books/year and remember most of it
How’s that for a catchy self-help snake-oil title? Let me explain why I wanted to write about this. When we started our company a couple of years ago, we realized that we lacked knowledge in business (shocking I know). We thought we were decent at all the other stuff, but who knows anything about finances, raising money, marketing, and business? I decided that I should be the one to know those things, to the possible extent — and I had to learn it yesterday. My approach was to subscribe to every relevant podcast I could find; to routinely read articles; to talk to knowledgeable people, and to apply to an incubator program. But my arguably dumbest idea was to read every book — and I mean all the books. Every one I deemed relevant, and the other ones too.
I’m not going to argue for or against books as a medium for learning or growth. I will, however, make a small case for books as bundles of the best and most condensed knowledge on a topic. All right, I guess I just made an argument… My point is — books are great — along with all the other shit.
Here I want to lay out my strategy for learning and improving through books. It comes in three parts:
1. How to read effectively and productively.
2. How to remember and learn from what you read.
3. How to apply what you’ve learned.
HOW TO READ
CHOOSING BOOKS
First off, you have to choose what books to read. I prefer to read in theme-like waves, where I focus on a genre of books where I want to learn or improve. This way, I can draw from what I learn in everyday situations, and it enhances learning because you enforce knowledge when topics from different books overlap.
Use Goodreads (or Amazon) to figure out what books are good and worthwhile. I rarely read books with a less than a 4/3.7-star rating, but if the book seems interesting enough, I’ll make an exception. I don’t stick with a book for long if it’s too dull or if the timing is off; life is too short for shitty books. If the content seems boring but super-relevant and vital, it will become interesting. If it doesn’t then shelf it; it might sting a bit, but money is renewable, time is not*.
*Note: I almost exclusively read e-books. Don’t buy physical books that you might not read — that’s genuinely wasteful.
READING ADVICE
For your actual reading effectiveness, I have two tips: don’t subvocalize and use a pen to trace the text. Subvocalizing means reading “aloud” in your head. This is likely an artifact from how we learn to read; when learning to read, you had to read aloud to your teacher or parent. There are different ways to stop this habit that I recommend. For instance, some people try and count numbers while reading to unlearn the subvocalization. I simply let the text stream into my head without subvocalizing. Text is essentially semantic images that our brain has learned to decipher.
Secondly, I like to keep a pen around to trace the text as I’m reading it. This seems to help back-skipping and losing focus. You’re also sure to look like a huge nerd, which is a plus.
Creating the right environment is also important. But I make a habit out of reading whenever I can (when traveling, etc.). Which is why I love my noise-canceling headphones. Try and minimize distractions. This is revolutionary shit, so take notes!
AUDIOBOOKS
I always have a reading book and an audiobook that I read. The reading book for when I’m traveling, idling or just at home. The audiobook for walks, simple chores or when I just feel like listening to something.
I usually don’t read the same book in audio and physically. Choosing the right type of book for audio is essential. I try and avoid books that need too much rereading or graphics to make certain points. If the material is advanced and requires a bit more diligence, I prefer the book/e-book. Books that take more than 15h at normal speed are too long; it gets incredibly tedious.
The best books (outside fiction) for audio are biographies or more story-heavy non-fiction.
You can set a faster reading pace to increase the reading rate. I usually go between 1.3–1–8. Faster than that, and I often lose track. Slower than that and I compulsively fall asleep. How fast you can go will also depend on the activity and the material.
HOW TO REMEMBER
If you want to remember what you read (learn things), I have a few suggestions based on “learning science.”
First off, take notes if possible. If you can, and want to, read more actively and jot down summaries, questions, and examples that you can think of.
This a lot of work, and I don’t do it personally (I just tell others to do it).
The phoning-it-in version of this is to find summaries of the books online. Chances are that someone has already done the work of taken decent notes. I find them and save them in Evernote.
What you want to do next is to return to these notes in spaced intervals — this helps retention and learning. Returning to the material is obvious, but spacing the sessions also enhances the effect; you need to allow for some “forgetting” to learn. First, I usually go back to it a day after finishing the book, then after a week and lastly a few months.
Reading in different environments, with a different stimulus, also helps retention. Try various cafés, a different chair in your house and play varying music.
If you’re really serious about memorization, I suggest good old flashcards. The platform Anki uses flashcards in combination with spacing like mentioned before.
HOW TO APPLY
Now that you’ve taken the measure to read a lot, and learn some of it, what’s the next step? Well, I’d argue that knowledge (at least some of it) should be put to use. Depending on the material, a fair share of books has an actionable bend to them. Some even go so far as to list steps to implement things in your work/life — that’s great! A lot of them don’t. Regardless, it’s good to have a way of making use of actionable knowledge.
First off, try and make an actionable plan, spanning from the abstract to the daily or even hourly. SMART goals are suitable for this — use them.
A lot of advice are changes in behaviour, or habits. Habits can only be created through triggers, actions, and reward cycles. I really recommend using habit log apps for this. Figure out what the implementation is, remind yourself to do it, and be rewarded by checking it off in an app! What greater joy is there in life, really?
SUMMARY
Reading is a great way to enhance your understanding of the world, but it should remain fun and exciting. Don’t force yourself to read books you hate and don’t stress about it. And remember, you have to live in the real world to see knowledge in action, so don’t stay buried in books the whole time.
