avatarSven Vandenberghe E.P.

Summary

The article provides strategies for efficiently selecting books that align with one's interests and goals, emphasizing the importance of making personal choices rather than relying on summaries or others' opinions.

Abstract

The article "How To Make Smarter Choices In Selecting Books?" discusses the pitfalls of relying on pre-selected book summaries and the importance of personal judgment in choosing reading material. It suggests using book titles and covers as initial filters, asking specific questions to clarify one's reading goals, and considering the timing of reading specific books to align with personal development objectives. The author advocates for patience in book selection to ensure that the chosen material is relevant and beneficial, arguing that this approach saves time in the long run and leads to a more fulfilling reading experience. The article also touches on the unique insights gained from reading a book in its entirety, which can be lost when relying on summaries.

Opinions

  • The author believes that book summaries, while time-saving, may not provide the depth of understanding or the personal insights that come from reading the full text.
  • It is implied that readers should be wary of books with overly clever titles or those that do not clearly state their benefits, as they may not deliver on expectations.
  • The article suggests that re-reading a great book can provide new insights or reinforce existing knowledge, which can be more valuable than exploring a new but potentially less relevant book.
  • The author emphasizes the concept of "book timing," suggesting that reading a book at the wrong time can lead to wasted effort and reduced retention.
  • There is a strong opinion against the idea of reading books merely to increase book count, stressing the importance of reading with purpose and intent.
  • The author values the individual reading experience, noting that each reader's takeaways are unique due to differences in perspective and subconscious interpretation.
  • A recommendation is made for conducting quick research and engaging in discussions with others who have read the book to better assess its relevance before committing to reading it.

How To Make Smarter Choices In Selecting Books?

Save A Tremendous Duration Of Time By How You Pick Books.

Picture By Mike

You like to read, don’t you?

We all have seen them pass by, those creative business models which have it figured out. They now offer a tremendous benefit of compressing time.

How do they do that?

By selecting a huge list of great scoring books. Then they gather a lot of different book summaries from numerous readers. Once all of those summaries are collected, they can be transformed even into audiobooks, video content, or molded into visual imaging.

By doing that, you are presented with compressed information that otherwise would take thousands of hours to get your head around. It’s a fabulous gesture they provide you with to save you a significant amount of time.

Why would you choose to spend hours of your pressure time reading books if you could get it done in record time?

Although this might sound subliminal, there is a problem with it.

That problem is THEY.

Ask yourself the question; would you want someone else to tell you what’s interesting or best to reap from a 300-page book?

I thought so.

So, how do you solve the problem differently? I mean, there is no denying the fact that the idea of saving heaps of time sounds seducing.

Here are Some ways that can help you make smarter choices in selecting Books

Book titles and covers tell you a lot already, so abuse that to your advantage.

To start with, you don’t want to choose a title that appears too intelligent or clever. Seek simplicity. A title that’s difficult to comprehend or doesn’t specifically line out what you search for in a book will often guide you around the bush way too much, making you spend hours of useless reading.

Perhaps the book title doesn’t attract your interest enough, but the cover image tells you what you seek.

Ask yourself extremely specific questions about why exactly it is that you want to read that book.

  • What’s your main question that the book needs to solve?
  • Are you sure that question is going to be answered?
  • What exactly do you seek?

A great book will present the benefits clearly from the start; a smart author will want to come forward with the benefits to attract you. This, by molding the benefits into clear language or by another obvious method. In that sense, it’s obvious that this will meet your expectations.

These are the no-brainer picks. Go for it!

If you’re unsure what to read, perhaps it’s wiser to re-read a great book that you’ve read in the past, something that could enlighten your mind with new insights or reinforce your knowledge by re-triggering useful information.

When you are searching for reading a book with a very specific goal of solving a problem, you could do some quick research to find out if the book has the allures to guide you in the direction of that specific problem already. This could save you a lot of time than immediately going deep into a book to start seeking that fine needle in the haystack.

Perhaps your circle of competence has a lot of great readers, which would be rare, but hey. Then you could talk to someone who has already read the book you were planning to read and try to pick their mind to see if it would be worth reading.

In the past, I’ve read books to get book counts up…GUILTY

Looking back, I was lucky to make great book choices. I only had a few, which perhaps were a bit of a waste.

Still, you want to reduce that waste of time to a bare minimum.

Book timing.

This is something I found extremely important and tremendously beneficial! You don’t want to read a great book at the wrong time. If you do this, you’re wasting both your time and a great book.

What do I mean by this?

I’m looking to improve my online writing skills. Therefore, I recently read: ‘The Art And Business Of Online Writing by Nicolas Cole.’ Let’s say I would read the book ‘Growth by Vaclav Smill’ or such. Instead, I wouldn’t be in that same flow. It would confuse my subconscious mind all the time, and everything would require more effort.

Those forces of action and acquiring specific knowledge wouldn’t bundle with each other. I strongly believe that you would memorize less and produce less qualitative output because your brain would require to task-switch too often.

Patience before buying a book is therefore of great importance. You’re better off considering another day more for a book that will steal a week of your time than jumping straight on it to find out later that you were wasting your time.

To return to the previous story, perhaps you think: “Well, that business model of compressing the content isn’t so bad then, after all.” But the thing is, when you read a book, you’ll gain more or different elements than I will. The reason is that my question of reading that same book will perhaps be a bit more specific, or my subconscious mind will pick up different elements than yours… It’s just how our minds operate; we are not all the same.

While you read, you always gain more than just the specific thing that you seek; the lessons are hidden within the structures, the vocabulary, the emotional expression of a writer, the energy transferred from the writer to the reader, the age of experience that’s blended within a story, the unconscious elements… And more, you would also lose a lot by accepting to read the summary another person makes for you.

“Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.”

-Joyce Carol Oates-

Therefore here pointing out that these simple methods of patiently considering your book will enable you:

  • To not waste your time in the long run
  • To increase your rate of finding that specific answer
  • Gaining better insight and unexpected knowledge than you would’ve expected in the first place

Taking your time before buying a book can benefit or save you more time than reading the wrong book.

Think about it carefully.

We know reading is important. Some of us have bookshelves filled with books we want to read or feel like we should. But might it be that we buy books we think will help us, only to read the first page and be let down?

How To Make Smarter Book Choices?

  • Choose your book patiently will save you heaps of time over the long run
  • When you spot the benefits by checking the cover
  • Seek simplicity & clarity within the book title
  • Extremely specific self-questioning
  • Seek for resonance from the cover
  • Quick research on reviews
  • In advanced mind picking
  • Re-read a great book
  • Book timing

Additionally, I’ve blended in a short post to save you even more time:

Absorb, Read, Write, Sleep, Exercise, Thrive!

Thanks for reading this post!

P.S.:

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Personal Development
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Effective Reading
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