
I have a lot of books I want to read. But I'm a slow reader. Not a great combo.One of the habits I've been trying to establish is to treat books less preciously. Not reading every chapter is OK. Jumping around is OK.But most important of all: Bailing on a book is REALLY OK. Hear that Ms. English teacher from grade school? Seriously, I don't know why that's so ingrained in me, maybe it has something to do with being an English major, but it really is.A couple of recent articles/podcasts has helped me arrive at this new perspective. I don't remember who said what, so full attribution isn't possible. Sorry
- Books are tools. Your job is to extract the value from them as quickly as possible.
- Before you start reading a new book flip to somewhere in the middle and ask yourself, is this somewhere I'd want to end up? – I think this one is from a podcast with Ben Thompson and Tyler Cowen (who also has this take on reading).
- It's ok to stop reading a book then come back to it later. Maybe it's just not the right time ya know? –Startup Chat podcast
ps. here's a list of most of the books i've ever read.