From everything I read last year (all 111 books) if I could have the knowledge of one book instantly downloaded into the minds of other people, I would choose the book I’m about to mention.
But
first, a bit of background…
For whatever reason, the recent revelations regarding Jeffrey Epstein have grasped my attention and wouldn’t let go. Because of some news sources I follow, I was aware of these crimes before his recent arrest in July 2019.
So when that happened, I got excited because I thought some shady stuff might just come to light!
Digging into Epstein you find he had powerful connections to politicians, including past and current presidents. To Hollywood celebrities. To scientists. To business and financial moguls. And to intelligence agencies.
Silly
me for thinking it would go somewhere! Then Epstein committed “suicide” and for
most people it faded into the background of constant other news noise.
(#epsteindidnotkillhimself)
All this made Ricky Gervais’ monologue at the Golden Globes all the funnier, not to mention ballsy because of the truth behind it.
And humor
is good before we dive further into darkness…
Most people want to bury their head in the sand about this stuff. To deny it even exists…despite the overwhelming proof if you only scratch below the surface. All it takes is the smallest amount of digging.
The
book I’m about to mention begins with a quote attributed to Edmund Burke:
“All
that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
And
that is why I am sharing on this topic. Why I won’t remain silent on the topic.
I find that if you want to understand something, understanding the past can be quite useful because nothing is really new under the sun. Epstein is a modern scandal (even though it goes back decades), but similar scandals have occurred before.
I heard about the following case, which occurred before I was even born, and choose to go deep down the rabbit hole. Enter…
Or you can check out this book, which includes 100 pages alone of proof from documents as well as links to the web for much more. You can check out the website right here: http://franklinscandal.com/
The story begins with Lawrence (Larry) King, Jr., a rising star in the Republican party. His embezzlement led to the collapse of the Franklin Credit Union. But that is only the start because it gets far worse from there.
This story involves a pedophilia ring, run by people in powerful positions, and the covering up of such crimes.
The
author, Nick Bryant, was a popular journalist, who got into this subject to
disprove it. He was a skeptic. But he followed the truth where it led him. This
book is the result of a seven year investigation.
The
book is close to 500 pages yet reads like a thriller…because in many senses it
is.
It does get bogged down in some areas including the court cases (you won’t believe how one sided the judges and prosecution can be!).
The cover up by multiple government agencies, with media in their pocket, seems unbelievable. It’s big in scale. There are a lot of people in on it. But…look…at…the…evidence.
And of course, it is likely to anger and disgust you. It might just send you into depression. Diving into this swamp was responsible for some down periods personally this past year. My world view was rocked by the implication of what this means. And I say to you, those are natural responses.
It might also inspire you. When you see the Job-like-transformation (as in Book of Job) of Alisha Owen, a victim of abuse many, many times over, you just might shed a tear. I did.
I understand that to talk about this, to even mention such a book or subject, is not good for business. I’m doing it anyway because I won’t remain silent.
The desire to turn away is normal too but I urge you to suppress that desire. Turning a blind eye will not make it go away. Instead, I challenge you to read this book.
What allowed me to read over 50% more than last year?
My intention this year was to engage in more speed reading depending on the book. Many of these I read every single word. Other ones I read through faster, with more skimming. It depends on a variety of factors. But my goal was to rule the book, more so than letting it rule me which has occurred in previous years. I would say mission accomplished!
In addition, I worked to moderate my habit of watching less TV and movies too. I enjoy these immensely, so don’t want to get rid of the TV entirely, not like I have in the past, just make sure it wasn’t on every day. I measured 173 days when it was not on, almost half the year. (Keeping in mind I’m not the only one wanting to turn it on in my household, I thought that was pretty good.)
I also want to mention that not only did I increase the number of books read, but also that the length of many of these books was overall larger than last year. Some large 500+ page tomes were counted here! Right now I’m reading two books that are over a thousand pages each.
Reading Plans for 2020
I am going to continue to expand on many of the threads started here. More diversity of reading I feel is paying off in greater fulfillment and depth of vision.
I will continue to speed read, possibly turning it up another notch of two.
My fiction percentage was a little under 10%. I think I want to get that up to at least 15% this coming year. (Those are the books in italics listed above.)
In my next post I’ll dive a bit deeper into the subjects I covered and my favorite and most impactful books from the year.
I read a lot because I love to learn. As a writer, reading is essential. It’s one of the places I get tons of ideas from, as well as one way to hone the craft. And I only started writing because I already read a lot.
For me, since adulthood at least, reading has been one of the best ways to learn.
The year after graduating from high school I took a semester at Community College but left after that. Why? Because I knew I could learn better myself, with a learning program tailored specifically to what I was going to do in the world. This has always been supplemented by live events such as seminars and conferences, audio and video programs too, but reading has been the mainstay.
It takes time to write a book. A lot of time. It’s a crystallization of thoughts that have been thought over many times, and hopefully put into practice (as oppose to just being theory). Thus, to learn from a book is to take a shortcut in that learning process.
But learning is only a part of it. I enjoy reading too. It’s not just about learning but is a pleasurable activity itself.
I thought about writing a book on the subject! But I’ll settle for this long article for now. Part of my reason for doing this, besides sharing, is that it had me reflecting more on what works well and what could be done even better.
Invest Time in Learning to Speed Read
If you want to read a lot you can’t be a slow reader. It is worth spending some time to learn how to read faster. There are countless books on the subject of speed reading, so make that one of the first you read. If I remember correctly, Breakthrough Rapid Reading was what I went through in high school.
And realize that it’s not just about reading a book on speed reading. Speed reading is a skill. As such it needs to be practiced.
This is done by using a book and forcing
yourself to read faster than you are comfortable doing. Practice this and your
time goes up. Simple as that.
Also, the main thing that stops people from reading faster is sub-vocalization. This is where you think the words to yourself as if speaking them. But you can see and understand the words on a page faster than you’ll ever be able to speak. Thus, this habit most people have needs to be broken. And pretty much any speed reading book or course will cover doing that.
Skimming
Speed reading can still involve you looking over every word. Even if you’re fast, this will still take some time with most books. The fact is that not all words, sections, chapters of books are worth devoting time too. (The fact is that many books aren’t worth it either so proper selection in the first place is essential.)
Rule the Book, Don’t Let the Book Rule You
I include skimming here as this is also
something I need to get better at. Especially in doing these lists for the past
two years I was trapping myself into finishing books, and reading all of them,
that I might not otherwise have done.
It is important to realize that the book is
there to serve you. While the author may have high hopes that you’ll read every
line, including the acknowledgements and appendixes, and re-read the book ten
times, very few books deserve this level of attention. Especially when it comes
to learning, you are here to get something out of the book. For great books
this may involve slowing down and taking your time, even re-reading them
several times. For many other books, skimming though it quickly to get one
nugget in a half hour time span may be all it’s worth.
Another way you can think of this is that if you get stuck an stop reading because you’re reading a “bad” book, that stops you from reading period, you’re stuck in not reading other things that would serve you much better. Having fallen into this completionist trap, as in “I started the book, I have to finish it,” before I feel it is important to recognize these other ways of looking at things.
One of my reading aims in 2019 is to do far more skimming. So far, so good.
Set a Goal
If you want to read more, than set a goal to do exactly that. Maybe it’s a certain number of books over the year. Maybe it’s a book a week. Maybe it is something else.
Goal setting works if you do it right, so make the intention, make the plan and then get after it.
Understand Why?
Beyond just the goal, why do you want to read
more. Is it simply to be more-well read? Or do you have specific outcomes you’d
like?
I primarily read to learn. It’s how I get better
at life. If there’s an area I want insight or help in from sex to thinking,
nutrition to team building, money to foraging there are books on it. There are
people that have spent decades or lifetimes in a field and distilled that down
into a few hundred pages and made it available for $20.
In this way I see it as insane NOT to read a lot
of books. It has worked out quite well for me so I plan to continue to do it.
Prioritize Reading
If you want to read more than you have been,
then reading needs to move up in your list of values or priorities. I’m not
saying that reading should become more important than working out or spending
time with your family. But chances are it can be made more important than watching
TV, spending time on social media or the internet.
A lot of people do read each day. But it’s a choice if that reading is just tweets and Facebook posts for the latest brain fart of the day, or something that has been put into book form.
Again just because it’s a book doesn’t make it worth reading, but chances are better that it’s higher quality than most things on social media or the internet.
The hurdles of writing and book and getting it published are smaller these days than in years past but there are still some hurdles. To put it another way what are you spending your time on?
Tweets vs. Books
Brain Farts vs. Knowledge and Wisdom
Make Reading a Habit
A goal is good. Prioritizing is good to. And
ultimately, these need to be transformed into a habit. If you want to read a
lot then it needs to become a daily habit.
Here is how I read. I find reading to be a relaxing and unwinding activity for me. It’s more passive than the work I’ve done that day. As an introvert, reading is recharging me-time. For these reasons, I read when I can in the afternoons and evenings after my work is done.
This is interspersed with other activities like spending time with my wife, daughter, doing social things, eating food, even some watching TV.
Very often if I have nothing else to do, I will go straight to a book. And specifically, some other points to come up next fit into more on how I structure my reading.
7 Books at a Time +/- 2
I don’t read one book at a time. Sometimes, if I get completely engrossed in a book (especially great fiction), I will read that all the way, then return to my normal routine, but that doesn’t happen to often.
Instead, I have somewhere between seven to nine books open at a time. Mostly six to eight. Why? First of all I am interested in a bunch of topics. If I only read one thing at a time I wouldn’t be learning new things in all these different areas.
Also if some of these books are more boring than
others I get stick to the more exciting ones that I want to dive into each day.
Often then I’ll get to the less boring ones once I have the momentum going as
related to the next point.
I have to give credit to Dr. John La Tourrette, one of my mentors that I picked up this tip from. Once I started reading this many books actively at one time, it really did transform my reading.
One Book Per Subject Matter
In my mix of five to nine books I tend to have
one business book in the rotation at each time. Right now, as I’m diving deep
on masculinity I’m re-reading previous books on the subject as well as some
new. One masculinity book is in the mix at any time. One pre-Gutenberg (see
below) is in the mix at any time. One (or more) fiction books too.
The subject matters do change over time, but I
find this tends to be helpful in keeping a mix of different materials.
One Chapter Per Book Per Day
This goes back to my habit. My ideal habit anyway, because I feel like I seldom hit this, but I tend to hit some part of it each day. For each of my open books I try to read one chapter per day. (If the chapters are too long, I may break it up into sections. If chapters are too short I may read multiple. But for the most part one chapter seems to work.) Read that chapter, whether skimming or full-on detailed reading, then close up the book and move onto the next one.
Why do this? We tend to remember the first and last things better than the middle. I’m creating lots of these first and lasts, by switching books and topics, rather than just reading through one book alone. It helps with recall.
It also can help with boredom. Again, if a book
isn’t worth reading please don’t read it. But some books are boring and still
worth reading. I can get through a chapter or a section at a time easily.
Trying to plow through chapter after chapter, not as much.
Fiction vs. Non-Fiction
Right now about 85-90% of the books I read are non-fiction. I did title this book about reading a lot to learn a lot, after all. But I am reading more fiction and over time, more and more of it. I do learn from fiction too. I learn how to tell a story better. I learn how to put words together in more magical ways.
That’s why I always have at least one fiction book in rotation, and lately its been two. (I am about halfway through the huge Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov right now, finally got to the murder promised in the first pages…400 pages in!)
Also there are times when I need to shut my learning mind off. It’s not often but it happens. So fiction is great when I need more of that relaxation and recharge that reading brings.
Parenting Books, Why Wouldn’t I?
As I was getting ready for my daughter being
born I posted on Facebook, asking people what their favorite parenting books
were. There was a great response and I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of
the list that was created. (Thanks to those that responded, those books have
been great so far!)
And, not to knock them, but a few people said I don’t need to read books about being a parent, it’ll come naturally.
I get the sentiment, but why wouldn’t I study this subject? I read books on strength training to become strong. I read books on health and nutrition to become healthy. I read books on business to build my businesses. I read books on NLP to master the subject matter. And on and on I could go. So why the hell wouldn’t I read books about something that is arguably more important than all those things, i.e. raising a human being?
I don’t always have one of these books in my mix but do most of the time. Just finished the 400 page Becoming the Parent You Want to Be which was quite illuminating as it describes things from the baby/child’s point of view as they’re developing.
Pre-Gutenberg Books
This is a tip I picked up from Perry Marshall. As I mentioned earlier there aren’t many hurdles to creating a book these days. So the quality of books overall has gone down because of that. But there use to be far more hurdles.
Specifically, before the printing press was invented by Gutenberg, which allowed for the mass printing of books, they had to be copied by hand. Think about that for a second and how much time it would take.
Therefore, because of the efforts involved, the books that come to us from before the printing press was invented tend to be of higher quality. There tends to be more wisdom present, instead of mere knowledge. That’s why I’m always reading something ancient.
And I am reading older stuff that isn’t quite that old. Books from a hundred years ago tend to be quite good as well.
Aim for One Book Per Week
If you read a book per week you would read 52 books in a year, which is not bad at all. That would put you in the top 1% compared to others, and very likely a much smaller fraction of a percent. (Sadly, most people don’t even read a single book per year.)
So it’s a good process goal to aim for. I often try to finish at least one book per week, though on average the past couple years I’ve done more than that. This brings me to the next point.
Extra Reading Time on Weekends
Because I see reading as a leisure activity, I will often do more of it on my weekends. Very often I’ll try to finish a book on a Sunday, among other things I might do that day.
I do like to finish things so this will often be several chapters in a book, whatever I am close to finishing, that I’ll do a final push on over the weekend.
Underline and Take Notes
I used to feel that I couldn’t damage the perfection of the book. That I needed to keep it in pristine order. But I realized my desire to learn was greater than this feeling.
I would say I at least double what I get out of a book by underlining the important points as I go along. I’ll also take notes in the margins, ideas triggered by the reading.
Plus this makes it easier to skim and refer to later, which I’ve found especially useful for writing when I want to use lots of other great books as references, such as in my new book Powered By Nature.
Recognize Your Primary Representation Channel – VADK
Are you a visual person? An auditory person? Or
a kinesthetic person? While we are all all of these, one channel tends to be
better as relates to learning. A visual person will learn best with a video or
a demonstration. An auditory person may prefer audiobooks. A kinesthetic person
will learn best hands-on.
There is also the digital representation system, which is basically words and symbols. If you’re strongly digital, like I am, then reading will suit you just fine.
The reason I read a lot is because I love to
learn AND it suits my learning style. Plus I find it to be a relaxing and
recharging activity. While I think pretty much everyone would benefit from
reading more, I recognize that I am particularly suited to it and others will
not necessarily be.
The question to ask is how much of this is
innate vs. trained? My guess is that it’s some of both, which means that if you
want to read a lot, you can train yourself to do it better and get more out of
it.
Irlen Syndrome
Do you often get to the bottom of a page and
feel like you don’t know what you just read? Or get to the end of a chapter and
not be able to recite anything? Does reading make you tired, hurt your eyes, or
give you brain fog?
Here is a possible stumbling block for some. I bring it up because it impacts my wife greatly. I first heard about Irlen Syndrome on Dave Asprey’s podcast. I though, “Hey that sounds like my wife.” So we consulted with a coach and sure enough, she has it. What this means is that normal words on a page negatively impact her. But by using a special colored filter she can read just fine. Find out more at Irlen.com.
I’m fortunate to not have this problem, but I mention it because it is not well known but should be more so.
Travel
The routine and habit I listed above is great for when I’m at home. But what about when I travel which I do from time to time? I tend to travel with one to two books on me (depending on length of travel and how much I will have time to read). If my flight is in the morning I tend to write on the plane. If my flight is in the afternoon, evening or overnight (besides sleeping) I will read. (I only tend to write well in the mornings.)
Because I’m not going to bring 7 +/- 2 books
with me, I don’t stick to my normal routine. Instead I pick a book I feel like
I’m fine with going straight through on. I tend to travel with fiction too,
because many of my travels like for business tend to drain me, and I want some
very passive reading.
E-Readers
I resisted using these for a long time as I like real books. Then after years I finally gave a Kindle a try. I used it a bit…but now it’s been in my draw for years without use.
If you like them all the power to you. But I choose real books.
Conclusion
I threw a whole lot at you here, with a minimum
of organization. Take what works for you and put it into practice.
Have any questions? Use the comments below and
I’ll be happy to answer them.
Any tips or methods that work well for you in reading? Please share them below.
This year, I don’t plan to go into as much detail, but I figured it was worth visiting the same concept in one large post.
To start with, here is the complete list of books I read in 2018.
The List of 73 Books
The Star Principle by Richard Koch
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
The Vaccine Guide by Randall Neustaedter
The Ra Principle (The Law of One Book One) by Ra
Birth Chemistry Workbook
12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson
The Essential Gnostic Gospels
Anything is Possible! by Joe Vitale
Wild at Heart by John Eldredge
Creative Imagination by Christopher Hills
Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee by Stan Lee and George Mair
The Healing Wisdom of Africa by Malidoma Patrice Some
Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer by Gregg Braden
Bottleneck Breakthrough by Joshua Long
Cuffed, Tied and Satisfied by Jaiya
How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams
The 80/20 Manager by Richard Koch
Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carrol
Warburton’s Winning System by Greg Warburton
16X by Richard Koch
Real Magic by Dean Radin
Raising An Emotionally Intelligent Child by John Gottmann
Persuader by Lee Child
Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz
The Natural Laws of Business by Richard Koch
Renegade Beauty by Nadine Artemis
The Terror by Dan Simmons
Killing Floor by Lee Child
60 Minute CFO by David A. Duryee
The Gulag Archipelago [Abridged] by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Remote Viewing Secrets by Joseph McMoneagle
Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons
Never Lose a Customer Again by Joey Coleman
Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Taoist Sexual Meditation by Bruce Francis
Selected Works of Cicero
Measure What Works by John Doerr
The Norse Myths by Kevin Crossley-Holland
Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters by Meg Meeker
The Everything Store by Brad Stone
Creative Conflict by Christopher Hills
A Brief Tour of Higher Consciousness by Itzhak Bentov
Servant of the Bones by Anne Rice
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Superconnect by Richard Koch and Greg Lockwood
The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan
Leonardo’s Notebooks edited by H. Anna Suh
The Outsider by Stephen King
Synchronicity by Allan Combs and Mark Holland
Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth by R. Buckminster Fuller
Your First CFO by Pam Prior
Finite and Infinite Games by James P. Carse
On Writing by Stephen King
Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
Clock Work by Mike Michalowicz
How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan
Reinventing Medicine by Larry Dossey
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
Golden Dawn Ritual Tarot by Chic Cicero & Sandra Tabatha Cicero
Superhuman You by Iron Tamer Dave Whitley
The San Lorenzo Valley by Lisa Robinson
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout
Iron John by Robert Bly
Modern Magick by Donald Michael Kraig
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Five Wishes by Gay Hendricks
Giftology by John Ruhlin
Synchronicity: The Art of Coincidence, Choice and Unlocking You Mind by Dr. Kirby Surprise
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
Plans from Start of 2018
It’s interesting to reflect on my predictions and plans around reading I made at the start of 2018.
More fiction. Check! While I only did 5 out of 72 in 2017, this year I read 11 out of 73. (And that’s not counting the Norse myths either.) More than doubled my fiction ratio. And I’m definitely enjoying it. Of all I read I always have at least one fiction book in progress, and lately more than one.
More diverse reading covering a wider-range of topics. Check! I wouldn’t even hope to categorize these books like I did last year. There’s still many of the familiar categories but some completely new areas of exploration. And that includes some very eclectic titles in there.
More biographies. Not really. There’s a few in there but about as much as previously. It did not turn out to be a major theme this year.
More re-reading. Not really, there was only a few in there.
More on strength and fitness. Check! Not included in the list because I didn’t finish it was The Super Athletes by David Willoughby. I read 400 pages or so of this monstrous tome but didn’t finish it. Still, this book gave me some big ideas and affected my training for the better. More on that in a bit.
Books on parenting. Check! I love to learn so why wouldn’t I spend some time doing so in this extremely important area?
On the note of having a baby, my time was impacted but I was able to read more than last year. In fact, I kind of made that my goal to beat out what I did previously. You can see I’m very goal oriented by hitting 73 with last year was 72. Helps to have a plan and a goal!
Not bad, hit four of the six things very well, without really thinking about them since writing them down last year.
Next, I’ll highlight a few books that top the bunch in a variety of ways.
This isn’t mentioned on the list as it’s not a book you “read.” Instead I’ve been using it almost daily by consulting the oracle. (I started with the older version, the translation by Wilheim and Baynes, with Jung’s interesting foreword, but found this version more user friendly.) I’m finding this is a very useful practice that helps me answer big questions. And in that way it’s related to the next book.
Another habit that has been added to my morning routine is the ‘Morning Pages’ as described in this book. Can’t say I’ve done most of the work from this book, but this one thing has been huge for me. I start off my morning pages with some of the results from the I Ching reading and then go from there.
Again, not a book I finished but one that has impacted my training. While it was a dream that got me started doing bent presses and getups again, I think it was reading this that caused the dream! I’ve also been practicing the chin hang which I had never even seen previously as a result of this book. Several other ideas for future training too.
Joey is a fellow Maverick1000 member, but that’s not why it’s on this list. This was my favorite, most impactful business book of the year. After reading this I was revamping our entire prospect and customer campaigns this year as well as several other recent changes in Lost Empire Herbs. More changes to come that have still been in the planning and development stages.
Although most of this book would come into play beyond the age of one, so wasn’t immediately applicable in that regard, I realized I needed to start practicing. This way I would be able to act in an emotionally intelligent way when the time comes. I have largely been practicing with my wife, but also kids besides my daughter when I’m around them.
Turned onto this by listening to Jordan Peterson, having never heard of it before. I picked up the Abridged version as I felt that was plenty long enough. Wow! The descriptions of what went on in the Soviet gulags were incredible. It further left me reflecting on why we don’t think of Stalin as badly as we do of Hitler…when after all he was responsible for far more death. And also left me a bit worried that I don’t think society has learned it’s history lessons.
I don’t think he would think of it as a health book, but I do. This is the best thing I’ve seen that clearly shows where food comes from. That will give you a feel for industrial food, organic food, beyond organic food, foraged and hunted food. I feel like the reason we have 10,000 different diets is our fractured relationship to food. We moderns don’t know where it comes from. This book shows you clearly the different types of food out there.
Parapsychology researcher Dean Radin comes to the conclusion the psi research, paranormal research, and all the other names it’s been called in the past hundred years or so, is simply different terminology for what people before called magic. I like this frame of reference and you can see that this sparked some new interest in the direction of some of the books I read.
The subject of masculinity is a subject I plan to explore much more in depth in 2019 (already have started). This includes writing about it. While I’ve read some other great books on the topic, this one is really, really good. It takes the myth of Iron John (one I had not even come across before) and shows how it maps to the masculine psyche.
Hard to pick but I have to go with The Terror. Dan Simmons is an amazing writer. I started with his sci-fi, the Hyperion series which is also amazing. What I am amazed with is Dan is able to write across many different fields. Here, historical fiction with a twist. While I thought the AMC series on TV was decent, it just couldn’t do justice to the coldness that the book made me feel, the wussiness I felt compared to these sailors and so much more.
Not something that can be read quickly, which is how I read most of it. Nietzsche tends to use long sentences, like 30 to 50 words long, so grasping what he is actually saying is tough to do. I’m guessing I may revisit this in a couple decades and get more out of it.
Reading Plans for 2019
I realized with doing this list, keeping track of books in this way, it was “forcing” me to finish books I wouldn’t otherwise have finished. Not so great. To read a book cover to cover is great…if the book is worth reading cover to cover. Not all of them are.
I will be “speed reading” a number of books were I skim and dip in as things look interesting. This may end up being most of a book, or even just sections. And I will be keeping this as a list of books speed read as such separate from the list of books fully read to see what happens.
This plan is already underway as we’re a month into 2019. Doing so I figure my list will be even bigger next year.
Questions about any of these books? How I read so much? Use the comments section below.
At last, the final part of the 72 books in 2017 analysis. Spent more time on this than I initially planned, but I learned some things along the way…and I hope you did too.
In the previous articles – Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – I mentioned each category of books. And there are different ways I can categorize besides topic. This article looks at this list in a few different ways.
Re-Reading Books
Another category I can look at is which books did I read, that this wasn’t the first time reading.
If a book is really good, you can’t possibly get everything out of it, in one read.
It was necessary for me to read this book for the second time, in help with writing the chapter on heart intelligence and perception for my book, Powered By Nature. This book is not an easy read, but is very dense in both some of the science, and the meaning behind it.
I believe this book would change most people’s view of nature if they read it, as it’ll open you to a new way of seeing the world that is downplayed, or said not to exist, in the standard Western viewpoint.
I think this was my third read of Essentialism. It’s a pretty quick read with an important topic, especially in this day and age. It’s all about getting down to what is essential in business, in life, in everything you do. There is a good chance I’ll be reading it again in 2018, as each time I do I feel like it helps me to strip away another layer of un-essential things.
This book is a roadmap to running a successful business. It is dense with specific things to do, recommended resources and examples. This was my second time reading through it and I’ll definitely be reading it again this year.
Basically, we’re using it as our bible for growing Lost Empire Herbs and have been since I started using it. It was also great to hear a fellow business owner I know that had just sold his business for 9 figures that he also used this as his main roadmap.
If you’re aiming to build beyond a small business this can be a great help. (But it is not good for lifestyle type businesses…just too much that wouldn’t be relevant.)
This was my second read through. I was looking for just a refresher around money and liked this book the first time through. I figured I had grown since several years ago when I read it, so it would reveal something new to me.
I hadn’t actually read this translation before, but I had read a different version of the Tao Te Ching. I was beginning my day with a passage every day, which is not a bad when to start the day.
A quick read, but full of wisdom. Although it is mostly about fighting, of which Musashi was one of the greatest ever, the principles apply to many other areas of life. But you’ll have to do some work in translating it to those areas.
Reading Multiple Books by an Author
Comparing how many authors I’ve read multiple books versus a single book I come up with the following for authors I’ve read two or more books from:
Dan Simmons
Richard Louv
Stephen Harrod Buhner
Rupert Sheldrake
Yuval Noah Harari
Perry Marshall
Douglas Adams
Steven Kotler
Tim Ferriss
Michael A. Singer
Russell Brunson
Les McKeown
Nora Gedgaudas
Dave Asprey
Dr. Joseph Mercola
Napoleon Hill
Michael Masterson
That’s 17 authors out of 63 or about 25%. (I counted two or more authors for one book as one author.)
Some of them were first time and multiple books this year (Louv, Harari, McKeown). Others I had read before and read new or different books this year.
Late in 2016 I remember going back to Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. That’s when I thought, why haven’t I read everything this guy put out. So I did. If you like and author, and gain from their material, why just read one book?
Authors I Have Met
It was interesting to look at how many of these authors I have met.
Kevin Feinstein
John Perkins
Tim Ferriss
Rick Smith
Dave Asprey
Bryan Franklin
Michael Ellsberg
Richard Branson
Charlie Engle
Russell Brunson
Dr. Mercola
Looking over the list all of them were at various events, from small foraging classes with Kevin Feinstein, to traveling to the Amazon and Guatemala with John Perkins. Most of the others were at various conferences and were mostly brief meetings, like a hello and a handshake.
On that note I have also seen Greg McKeown and Verne Harnish speak at events but didn’t have a chance to meet them.
And while I’ve never met with Elliot Hulse in person, I have spoken with him for an interview.
Reading Plans for 2018
I hope you enjoyed this five-part breakdown. It was interesting for me to do as spending this much time analyzing what I read revealed a few ideas to me that I otherwise would not have had.
Here are some of my plans for what I’ll be reading throughout 2018.
More fiction. I’ve got no plans to stop or slow non-fiction, but aiming for a stronger fiction:non-fiction ratio than 5/72 this year.
More diverse reading covering a wider-range of topics.
More biographies.
More re-reading. I like new books as I get the joy of learning something new, but with all that I have read I have a really good idea of which books are worth re-reading. So, probably more than 6 re-reads in the next year.
Since in previous years I had read sooooo much on the topic, recently I’ve got away from reading much about strength and fitness. In 2018 I’ll bring it back in.
And since I’m having a baby, while I’ll shoot for 72 books or more, I fully recognize that I may not have as much reading time as I did in 2017. So I will be gentle with myself if my list next year is only half as big.
On that note I plan to be reading a few books about parenting too.
Jim Kwik, the memory expert, has said that “Readers are Leaders.” I fully embrace that statement. I feel like the reason I have been successful in many areas of life is because of my constant learning. Not only that, but I enjoy reading. When joy and learning go together big things can happen.
What about you? What are your reading plans for 2018?
I’ve always been a reader (at least since I learned how).
If you like learning things, I think there is hardly a better way then to get someone’s distilled wisdom in a book. Being an author, I’m biased. But I think it was my love for reading that turned me onto writing in the first place.
Based on hearing some people talk about how many books they read in a year, I decided to actually keep track over 2017.
In the end I read 72 books!
This is cover to cover and this is actual reading. (For audio I tend to do podcasts, rather than audio books. Just a personal preference.)
I did not count any books that I only read part of.
I also did not count my own book, Powered By Nature, that I read countless times as I was writing and editing it either.
If you look through the list, you’ll see a fairly wide variety of topics, but certain focal points as well. In this and the following posts, I’m going to dive into my own analysis of this list.
The 72 Books I Read in 2017
This list is in chronological order of when I finished the books.
01 The Nature Principle by Richard Louv
02 The Lost Language of Plants by Stephen Harrod Buhner
03 Psychonavigation by John Perkins
04 The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope
05 The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons
06 Succeed and Grow Rich through Persuasion by Napoleon Hill
07 Ensouling Language by Stephen Harrod Buhner
08 Primal Fat Burner by Nora Gedgaudas
09 The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho
10 The Great Disruption by Rick Smith with Mitch Free
11 The Book of Joy by Douglas Adams, Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu
12 King by Elliot Hulse with Chris Barnard
13 The Fourth Phase of Water by Gerald Pollock
14 Illumination by Alberto Villoldo
15 Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits! by Greg Crabtree
16 The Man in High Castle by Philip K. Dick
17 Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff and J.J. Sutherland
18 How to Live a Good Life by Jonathan Fields
19 Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard
20 Hacking Marketing by Scott Brinker
21 The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
22 The Tao of Power by Lao Tzu and R.L. Wing
23 Scaling Up by Verne Harnish
24 Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson
25 Ilium by Dan Simmons
26 The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi
27 The Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Keith
28 Eating on the Wild Side by Jo Robinson
29 What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz
30 Stealing Fire by Steven Kotler & Jamie Wheal
31 Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
32 Vitamin N by Richard Louv
33 The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
34 Expert Secrets by Russell Brunson
35 Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
36 Head Strong by Dave Asprey
37 Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
38 Maxims and Reflections by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
39 Daily Rituals by Mason Currey
40 Essentialism by Greg McKeown
41 The Secrets Teachings of Plants by Stephen Harrod Buhner
42 The Bay Area Forager by Kevin Feinstein and Mia Andler
43 Rigor Mortis by Richard Harris
44 Slow Death By Rubber Duck by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie
45 Who by Geoff Smart and Randy Street
46 Move Your DNA by Katy Bowman
47 The Vaccine Friendly Plan by Paul Thomas, MD and Jennifer Margulis, PhD.
48 Evolution 2.0 by Perry Marshall
49 In the Dark by Jason Bawden-Smith
50 Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
51 The Rebirth of Nature by Rupert Sheldrake
52 Trust Us, We’re Experts by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber
53 Fat for Fuel by Dr. Joseph Mercola
54 The Sale of a Lifetime by Harry S. Dent Jr.
55 The New One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
56 Olympos by Dan Simmons
57 Predictable Success by Les McKeown
58 No by Jim Camp
59 The Surrender Experiment by Michael A. Singer
60 The Last Safe Investment by Bryan Franklin and Michael Ellsberg
61 The Art of Living by Bob Proctor
62 Automatic Wealth by Michael Masterson
63 Running Man by Charlie Engle
64 The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri
65 The Synergist by Les McKeown
66 The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer
67 Key Performance Metrics by Bernard Marr
68 Survival Handbook by Peter Darman
69 Buffettology by Mary Buffett and David Clark
70 Magicians of the Gods by Graham Hancock
71 Why Science is Wrong…About Almost Everything by Alex Tsakiris
72 Science and Spirituality by Rupert Sheldrake
Fiction vs. Non-Fiction
In breaking down these into categories I come up first with the following:
Fiction (5 books)
Non-Fiction (67 books)
The five fiction books are:
The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons
The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho
The Man in High Castle by Philip K. Dick
Ilium by Dan Simmons
Olympos by Dan Simmons
You’ll notice Dan Simmons features prominently on this list. These are 3 of his science fiction books (The Rise of Endymion being the final book of 4 in the Hyperion series). The Ilium and Olympos being a two part series. Amazing writer! I was recommended his work last year and glad I read it. Will probably read more from him in 2018.
I kept hearing about The Alchemist so I finally got it and read it. It’s a good parable. Didn’t do a whole lot for me.
The Man in High Castle was probably the only book I read on Kindle this year. I liked the movies based on Dick’s work, but this was my first time reading him.
Overall, I feel this is too little on the fiction side. In the coming year I’ll aim to increase the ratio somewhat.
In the next post, I’ll be going over the non-fiction breakdowns.
Nature (9 books)
Shamanism (2 books)
Science/History (10 books)
Self-Help (8 books)
Business (13 books)
Health (9 books)
Biography (4 books)
Ancient Wisdom (3 books)
Writing (4 books)
Finances (5 books)
How many books did you read this year? Answer in the comments below…