Read a book a week

[Jonathan]

A golden oldie I know, but was surprised to find there's no thread about this post (unless I'm being stupid...do tell me if so!)

Anyway, I've been reading a book a week for most of the year so far (starting, of course, with a 30 day trial), and have found it the most beneficial lifestyle change I've ever made. Somehow I feel much more confident now, as I've always got something new and interesting to talk about in social situations, which is an added benefit I never thought the project would have.

I'm starting off trying to read a lot of the classic novels that everyone should know, as well as classics in other fields, like A Brief History of Time and Men Are From Mars etc..., just to give myself a good all-round literary grounding, and then plan to move onto stuff in my specific field of work.

How have your experiences with this been? Any other side benefits I should look out for?! ;-)

[RT Wolf]

I inhale books. While I don't have a strict schedule of how many books, I usually get through a book or two in a week (depending on work and other factors). I used to read more, but I'm comfortable with teh choices I made.

Learning new and different things improves your ability to learn and improves your mental capacities. And its quite fun. You'll find hte compendium of human knowledge in books and, increasingly, on the Interwebs.

Other benefits include improved vocabulary, more ideas, more mental models, better ability to express yourself, etc. Lots of great stuff.

[Shamou]

Congratulation on reading a book a week... you must be a fast reader... or have a lot of time on your hands... anyway... that's a beautiful thing to do...

When you have the time... try, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert M. Pirsig... it's a classic... and if you can read and assimilate that book in a week... I want to know about it... it took me something like ten years to master it...

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[Zukin]

The real key is to also take notes on what you read. That was the step that really took my ability to gather and process information to the next level.

After that, the next process is to take what you learned and integrate that into your daily life. I'm still working on that part.

[Shamou]

Originally Posted by Zukin

The real key is to also take notes on what you read. That was the step that really took my ability to gather and process information to the next level.

After that, the next process is to take what you learned and integrate that into your daily life. I'm still working on that part.

What I do is copy the important parts in Words... then... transport it into my Palm... where I can review it at will... or when I have a few minutes to spare...

And, I agree with you... reading and understanding is the easy part... integrating it is what separate the men from the boys...

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[Bruce Achterberg]

In my experience, I find I miss too much detail from the books I'm reading if I read a book a week. I find reading 1 book every 2 weeks allows me to mow through a decent number of books while still allowing me to take some time out to really think about the concepts and ideas and experiment with them in my life as I’m reading. I'm also fairly selective of what I read. If a book is not terribly profound I tend to lack the motivation to continue reading, so I try to make good choices rather then just read a book because it "may" be good or "looks" interesting.

There are times when I take notes when reading, but I find it really interrupts the flow. I may gain more notes, but I get less out of reading. I find if I want to take notes it’s best to read the book a second time, or at the very least, take very brief notes (ie. a few words, a page, and a paragraph number relative to the page) so that you can go through the book later and more fully flesh out your notes if you need/want to.

When I take notes in that manner I write down the page number, the number of the paragraph(s) that had whatever I found interesting, and a few brief words (brief enough to not take too much time to jot down, but detailed enough to jog my memory later when I go through the notes). An example of a note may look like this:

p59, par 3, I like how this idea relates to productivity.

Often my notes consist of how one concept relates to another, so I find it important to jot down a few words with your notes, otherwise I forget what I wanted to note down when I go through my notes once I'm finished the book.

As for implementing ideas from books, I’m still working on this one. What learnt recently is that while I can get many great ideas from what I read and have loads of notes, the large majority of ideas aren’t really what I need to be focusing on at the moment (ie. they just aren't high enough leverage or aren't important enough to warrent my attention).

Often I can tell whether or not I should be focusing on something else by my thoughts. If I'm trying to implement an idea and I keep thinking of another idea, it's usually a subconscious message saying "this path is no good, try another one". Usually this happens when I've lost my awareness of the present moment and I'm trying to race off into the illusionary future to "find myself" in some form by gaining new information. New information is good, but without proper grounding, it can become an endless quest in denial of the present moment and the real work you should be doing.

But that’s one of the reasons I like to buy books instead of loaning them from a library. If I read a book I don't find immediately useful but then later think of an idea from it that could be useful, I can re-read it very easily since I still have the book available. An expensive practice to be sure, but it's not too bad if you focus on buying quality books that you'll be able to gain new insights from, regardless of the amount of times you've read them.

I'm sure some may disagree with me there, but I liken reading with the exploration of a piece of land -- a search space. Much like a forest can never be fully explored in your first pass through, a book often requires you to “trek through it” multiple times before it exposes its most interesting secrets.

[Calculusaurus]

I tend to skip out on "reading for fun"--as us students call it. Reading tends to be reserved for vacations, since it's too hard to fit it in during a semester.

However, I'm currently in a semester, but I have made the time to read religiously for about 5 weeks now. The benefits are huge.

I read mostly nonfiction, mostly which is somehow meant to be useful and applicable (psychology, religion, self-help, etc). But I don't neglect nonfiction whose purpose is to simply entertain and fascinate (science, math, music, history, etc).

Of these nonfiction books, I try, like others in this thread have mentioned, to take notes. I've read a couple "how to read books" books, which have opened me up to how little I actually remember from all the nonfiction books I've read. At first, note-taking was a disaster. It ruined my enjoyment of reading. I just couldn't enjoy a good nonfiction book when I was pressuring myself to make it as learning efficient as possible. So I decided to put down the note-taking for a while and just gobble up books as fast as I could. I really enjoy it more that way. But recently I've ever so slowly began to implement note-taking, taking notes when I feel like it, but still allowing myself to read when I just don't feel like being OCD about learning every little detail.

I have also found that my bias towards nonfiction has been destructive. I have finally re-entered the vivid world of sci-fi and fantasy. I remember in high school, 1000 page fantasy tomes were my bed-time reading. They let my visual imagination run wild, and (I think) as a result I had vivid dreams. Recently I've added sci-fi and fantasy into my reading regime, hoping that it'll stimulate my imagination again.

Other than that, I think the "book a week" method is very good, as it prevents us from going into book droughts.

[sergiutruta]

I read probably a book in one or two weeks, depending on the book. And I read a lot of magazines, mostly business. Does this count?
When I have more time, I read a book in a day or two, but that doesn't happen very often.

[Paul C]

Originally Posted by Calculusaurus

I have also found that my bias towards nonfiction has been destructive. I have finally re-entered the vivid world of sci-fi and fantasy. I remember in high school, 1000 page fantasy tomes were my bed-time reading. They let my visual imagination run wild, and (I think) as a result I had vivid dreams. Recently I've added sci-fi and fantasy into my reading regime, hoping that it'll stimulate my imagination again.

That's what I find interesting about the reading of fantasy as well as nonfiction. Even within a completely fictional story, important lessons can be conveyed to the reader. As well as ideas that could be implemented within life, if altered to a certain point.

[Adrienne]

I love to read. I read 1 book per week for fun which is usually a fiction book. However, work books, medical books, self improvement books, etc, i usually read 3 to 30 of them a week depending on what i am researching and how fast i need to move on something. These books i photoread...

Congrats on reading a book a week. It is amazing how life changes simply by adding reading to your life.

Adrienne

[Shamou]

Originally Posted by Adrienne

i usually read 3 to 30 of them a week depending on what i am researching and how fast i need to move on something. These books i photoread...

Adrienne

I don't want to hijack this thread... but it would be very interesting if you could start a thread on "speed reading & photoread"...

Thank you

.

[ArthurHung]

Often, for a certain type of book, I find that I can "read" it within 2 hours. I just skim for a few key concepts that I can immediately experiment with and intuitively believe may be of use. "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle is the type of book I am talking about that is great to use with this technique; someone who has read similar material-such as me-may find it not so useful to read the whole book cover to cover. Sure, I literally skip over pages that I feel are not important but if every book has only 5 or 6 great concepts and I get only 2 or 3, I save myself hours in the long run with the added benefit of receiving a lot more varied unique information and garner more exposure from different authors. This type of "skimming for the concept" is great for books that you borrow from the library and for checking over a book before buying it to see if you already understand the majority of information/ if the book is worth purchasing.

[Shamou]

Originally Posted by ArthurHung
I just skim for a few key concepts that I can immediately experiment with and intuitively believe may be of use.

This type of "skimming for the concept" is great for books that you borrow from the library and for checking over a book before buying it to see if you already understand the majority of information/ if the book is worth purchasing.

Thanks for sharing that… great suggestion…

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[beautyscientist]

I have a very beneficial habit. Every morning at about 11 I spend exactly 10 minutes reading a book in a foriegn language (either French or Portuguese). I do the same at about 3.30 in the afternoon.

This is almost nothing out of my day, but over the several years I have been doing it I have built up a list of books, all classics, that I have read in the original language.

I don't travel much and I don't need the language skills for business - it is just something that pleases me to do.

[RT Wolf]

Originally Posted by Shamou

I don't want to hijack this thread... but it would be very interesting if you could start a thread on "speed reading & photoread"...

Thank you

.

Photoreading

Original thread on photoreading, linked to Adrienne's review. Thanks again, Adrienne!

[Adrienne]

Originally Posted by Shamou

I don't want to hijack this thread... but it would be very interesting if you could start a thread on "speed reading & photoread"...

Thank you

.

Originally Posted by RT Wolf

Photoreading

Original thread on photoreading, linked to Adrienne's review. Thanks again, Adrienne!

RT you beat me to it You are welcome. We had a more in depth here

Photoreading

Shamou, if you ask me a question on the thread listed above, i will make sure to answer it, just make sure you address it to me.

Adrienne

[Jonathan]

I especially like the skim-reading and note-taking ideas above...anyone got any other good suggestions as to how one can absorb and remember more of the information one reads?

[Zukin]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

I especially like the skim-reading and note-taking ideas above...anyone got any other good suggestions as to how one can absorb and remember more of the information one reads?

Try teaching someone else what you learned.

[Brutha]

Originally Posted by Shamou

When you have the time... try, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert M. Pirsig... it's a classic... and if you can read and assimilate that book in a week... I want to know about it... it took me something like ten years to master it...
.

You might like to read Pirsigs second book then. It is also high quality

[Shamou]

Originally Posted by Brutha

You might like to read Pirsigs second book then. It is also high quality

I did... it's called, "Lila" ...but somehow it did not touch me the way that ZMM did...

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