• Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Right Attitudes

Ideas for Impact

How to … Read More Books

August 8, 2022 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

With all of life’s distractions, here’s how to make time to read and get through more books:

  • Don’t make reading a chore. Read because you want to, and like to.
  • Become more selective. Choose topics you know you’ll enjoy—topics that have engrossed you previously.
  • Rather than choosing a book you haven’t read yet, reread one of the more helpful books you’ve read in the past. It usually takes multiple exposures for an idea to sink in.
  • Never be without a book; have one at hand wherever you are. Then, squeeze in some reading whenever you have a few minutes to spare—whether on the bus or while waiting at the dentist’s. (Charlie Munger, a voracious reader, has said, “As long as I have a book in my hand, I don’t feel like I’m wasting time.”)
  • Don’t feel obliged to complete everything you’ve started. The more enjoyable your read, the quicker you’ll get through it. If a book doesn’t hold your interest (“spark joy” to borrow Marie Kondo’s concept,) say, by page 50, stop reading.
  • Be decisive with the no-good books. Turn four pages at a time if you have to. Frequently, authors blather endlessly about studies and anecdotes of marginal relevance to the book’s premise.
  • Take a respectable speed-reading course to learn how to use your eyes to focus and gloss over groups of words (“chunking”) while making sure you dwell on what needs to be retained.
  • Make reading social. Join a book club—it’ll help you get more out of a title. Hearing other people’s interpretations—whether you agree with them—makes you think more about your own reading and synthesis.
  • Have a system to jot down, record, summarize, organize, and recall whatever you’ve read.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. You Have a Pile of Reading Material at Your Desk?
  2. Do Self-Help Books Really Help?
  3. How to Boost Your Willpower // Book Summary of Baumeister & Tierney’s ‘Willpower’
  4. Thinking Straight in the Age of Overload // Book Summary of Daniel Levitin’s ‘The Organized Mind’
  5. A Guide to Intelligent Reading // Book Summary of Mortimer Adler’s ‘How to Read a Book’

Filed Under: Sharpening Your Skills Tagged With: Books, Discipline, Reading

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Popular Now

Anxiety Assertiveness Attitudes Balance Biases Coaching Conflict Conversations Creativity Critical Thinking Decision-Making Discipline Emotions Entrepreneurs Etiquette Feedback Getting Along Getting Things Done Goals Great Manager Leadership Leadership Lessons Likeability Mental Models Mentoring Mindfulness Motivation Networking Parables Perfectionism Performance Management Persuasion Philosophy Problem Solving Procrastination Relationships Simple Living Social Skills Stress Suffering Thinking Tools Thought Process Time Management Winning on the Job Wisdom

About: Nagesh Belludi [hire] is a St. Petersburg, Florida-based freethinker, investor, and leadership coach. He specializes in helping executives and companies ensure that the overall quality of their decision-making benefits isn’t compromised by a lack of a big-picture understanding.

Get Updates

Signup for emails

Subscribe via RSS

Contact Nagesh Belludi

RECOMMENDED BOOK:
Made in America

Made in America: Sam Walton

Walmart founder Sam Walton’s very educational, insightful, and stimulating autobiography is teeming with his relentless search for better ideas.

Explore

  • Announcements
  • Belief and Spirituality
  • Business Stories
  • Career Development
  • Effective Communication
  • Great Personalities
  • Health and Well-being
  • Ideas and Insights
  • Inspirational Quotations
  • Leadership
  • Leadership Reading
  • Leading Teams
  • Living the Good Life
  • Managing Business Functions
  • Managing People
  • MBA in a Nutshell
  • Mental Models
  • News Analysis
  • Personal Finance
  • Podcasts
  • Project Management
  • Proverbs & Maxims
  • Sharpening Your Skills
  • The Great Innovators

Recently,

  • Inspirational Quotations #1105
  • Why Doing a Terrible Job First Actually Works
  • The Barnum Effect and the Appeal of Vagueness
  • Inspirational Quotations #1104
  • How to … Address Over-Apologizing
  • Van Gogh Didn’t Just Copy—He Reinvented
  • A Mindset Hack to Make Your Weekends More Refreshing

Unless otherwise stated in the individual document, the works above are © Nagesh Belludi under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license. You may quote, copy and share them freely, as long as you link back to RightAttitudes.com, don't make money with them, and don't modify the content. Enjoy!