I’m out on a little field trip this week, so let’s keep things light with some notes on reading. Someone once asked me in a Q&A what I read – not knowing, I think, that I read a lot. I read a few dozen articles and around two books every week.
Tools, which are unimportant
For articles I’ve used Instapaper, the greatest iPhone app, since the day of its release in 2008. Now that the consumer web is unreadable, I use archive.today to fix what needs fixing, which is most of it. When I favorite something on Instapaper, it syncs over to a tool that permanently archives the plain text of the web page so I never lose it to link rot.
I’ve used plain text exclusively for all of my work since 1992. Plain text is the only correct format, because it is the only durable format.
I use Feedbin & NetNewsWire for RSS.
For ebooks I use KyBook & PDF Expert on my mobile devices. But realistically, I’m always reading multiple paper books, which I buy or take out of my library.
Routine, which is important
I mostly read nonfiction. Yes, this makes me a dude cliché. Fine.
Because I mostly read nonfiction, I have the luxury of being able to skim. As a result I truly read way fewer than two books a week. In practice, most books can be distilled to a few pages of important insight. Some are valuable wall-to-wall; their value is structural, and they respect your time & attention. These are the books I find myself re-reading. Most, however, are not.
Most contemporary titles are 90% stories and 10% the actual point. Get to the actual point and I’ve read the book. Sometimes the actual point is written on the dust jacket. This is not a sign of a high-quality book.
I try to avoid books that are obviously written to make money. I prefer books that are written to shift awareness, that are written to show a clear point of view. I would rather re-read a truly great book than read a new-to-me book that only served the author.
I put down books that don’t grab me quickly. The goal is to find books that are not only valuable, but recommendable.
My favorite genres of books include:
- The ones I wish I had written
- The ones that change my thinking by the end
- The ones I slow down to read carefully
You are not a bad reader by putting down a book that sucks. You are a bad reader if you’re intimidated by picking up a book in the first place. The goal is the practice.
This is the practice that works for me. Do whatever works for you.