Posts About Reading

A list of blog posts about reading — what it is, why it matters, how to do it better, and annual reading reviews.

The value & importance of reading

Reading and Managing your Time — Why reading matters (the Munger quote) and how to allocate time for it; different reading needs different strategies.
You have to read to be able to write — Matt Gemmell on how reading fuels the idea-flow and is essential even if you’re not a writer.
How many books did you read last year? — Reading is in decline as it competes with social media; deep reading vs. shallow thinking.
Reading to Lead — Ryan Holiday on reading books “above your level” to grow your intelligence.
Books break the shackles of Time — A Carl Sagan reflection on books letting us reach across time.
Reading every day — Naval Ravikant: an hour a day of reading compounds into success over years.
The Importance of Reading — Charlie Munger on wise people always reading and “making friends with the eminent dead.”
Read to Gain Knowledge — A short Alex & Books graphic on reading to gain knowledge, not just information.
Taleb on reading books — Taleb’s line: “Drink old wine. Read old books. Keep old friends.”
Books are an investment in yourself — Ryan Holiday and Murakami on books as a way to stand on the shoulders of giants.
Read to Understand — Naval on reading old books for human nature and new ones for specific knowledge.
Elon Musk on Reading Books — Musk on reading as a far higher “data rate” than listening.
Reading in the age of AI — Reading is a conversation with the author, not information extraction; why AI summaries miss the point.

Three Ideas to Improve Your Reading — Keep a yearly reading list, read 25 pages a day, and connect ideas across books.
How to Choose What Books to Read — Criteria for picking books: long-term value, leverage, and better thinking/decisions.
Learning from Books — Reading isn’t enough; take notes, reflect, and write/teach to truly absorb a book.
4 Questions to Ask About Any Book — Shane Parrish’s framework for being a demanding, active reader.
All time you spend reading a bad book comes at the expense of a good book — Why you should quit bad books without guilt.
Book Reading Tips by Shane Parrish — A digest of Parrish’s best tips: reread great books, highlight, distill, teach, write.
How to remember what you read — Albert Rutherford on note-taking and summarizing to retain what you read.
Ask AI: What is an Antilibrary? — Taleb’s idea (via Claude) that unread books represent valuable potential knowledge.
Hard-Won Lessons from Years of Reading — Reflections on keeping a reading journal, dropping books, and the 25-pages-a-day habit.

Fiction is a gateway drug to reading — Neil Gaiman on raising literate kids through the pleasure of fiction.
Reading to Kids — How reading to children builds bonds, plus the practical challenges of doing it.

(I’m not doing these any more. Maybe I should start again?)

Book Reading Goal for 2017 — Setting a 24-book goal and a section on why reading is a competitive advantage.
Book Reading Goal for 2017 (Update) — Mid-year progress, plus Ryan Holiday on the pleasure and ROI of reading.
33 Books in 2019 — Year-end recap with recommended titles from the 33 books read.
33 libros en el 2019 — Spanish version of the 2019 reading recap.
Book Reading 2021 — 28 books and lessons learned: systems over goals, dropping books, curating a list.
Book Reading 2022 — 46 books, plus thoughts on reading lists and asking what you expect from each book.

Finally, you can download your Kindle highlights — Highlighting/notes as part of the reading process, and Amazon finally letting you export them.
The Last Printed Book — A book lover’s realization that he’s moved entirely to ebooks for note-taking.