Tag: reading

Top Books Read from 2019

Out of the 111 books I read last year, here are some of the highlights. I’ll be saving my #1 book of the year for the following post. And if you missed it, the full list can be found in the previous post here.

With reading this many books it is possible to read quite a few around different topics. I like to consider these “Deep Dives“. These included:

  • All of Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s books (and I’ll likely re-read some next year)
  • Masculinity
  • Magick, specifically chaos magick
  • Systems thinking (including reading Thinking in Systems twice)
  • Conspiracy (aka history and biography)
  • Habits (in preparation of my release of HabitsOnDemand.com)
  • Medical intuition

A number of these will be addressed a bit more below.

Favorite Fiction Book of the Year

I only read ten fiction books this year. Most of which were Sci-Fi but not all.

It’s hard to call out a favorite of these as there were some great ones! Notable runner ups were Gates of Fire, Blood Meridian and Pandora’s Star. (The Brothers Karamazov was really good too…but it did take several hundred pages before I was really hooked. Actually the same for Pandora’s Star but the payoff at the end was worth it.)

But the award goes to Daemon by Daniel Suarez. (With the sequel Freedom™️ being right up there.)

This book has a bunch of themes that are currently present in our world and seeing them play out in a really fascinating way was great. It was also relatively short compared to some of the other monstrous novels I read.

Tip: A while back I searched for a list of top 100 science fiction books and used that to identify many titles, I’ve been reading the past couple of years. Working my way through the books that stood out to me on such a list is one reason I’ve been reading so much science fiction.

Favorite Book on Masculinity

King Warrior Magician Lover by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette

In the early part of the year I felt drawn to dive deeper into the topic of masculinity. One of my favorite articles I wrote all year was Masculinity Forged in the Gym. It’s worth reading, and covers the four archetypes mentioned here too.

I re-read a bunch of books I already had on the topic and got some new ones. Of them all, this one is my favorite. I find it a useful framework of archetypes to work with. (And truthfully, it can work for women just as well too, simply sub out King for Queen.) This led me a bit deeper into Robert Moore’s work including the topic of initiation which is interesting too.

Favorite Books on Systems Thinking

Thinking in Systems by Donella H. Meadows

2019 was the year I got into systems thinking. And I’m kicking myself for not diving in sooner! For a long time I have thought about systems, but I finally found some great books on the topic.

Thinking in Systems is a short read. But it is so good that I read it twice in 2019. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book twice in one year, so that is saying something. I’ll be working further to understand and utilizing the Systems Traps/Opportunities and Leverage Points covered here.

The Fifth Discipline by Peter M. Senge

And I can’t not mention The Fifth Discipline as well. This is a business book and covers other topics too, but the section on systems thinking here is worth it alone. It gives a bit of a different take on the systems, diagramming them differently as well.

Systems thinking is so important it should be taught in school. Since for 99% of people it was not, I would encourage you to educate yourself on the topic now.

Best Book on Parenting

Becoming the Parent You Want To Be by Laura Davis & Janis Keyser

I haven’t read a whole lot on parenting, but of what I’ve read so far this is my favorite. It covers a lot. One tip I heard from another parent was to read a book about development. This helps you to know what is coming. Well, this book covers that topic quite well. And on that note, I’m sure I’ll be referring to it again and again as new ages occur and new strategies are needed.

Best Book from Taleb

Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

I would say that all of Taleb’s books are worth reading. I read them all this past year and there is a good chance I’ll be revisiting at least some of them in 2020 as well. Highly entertaining while being highly educational.

I’ve heard several people say that different books of his are there favorites, but for me the concept of antifragility was a big aha. I’ve been talking about it ever since, like in the health sovereign podcast. It applies to strength. It applies to health. It applies to so much. And it’s not like this book just covers the one concept but so much else.

Taleb gets a high recommendation from me!

Most Useful Business Books in 2019

I’ll cover three different books here. By most useful I mean that I took the ideas and put them into action.

One to Many by Jason Fladlien

This book is about webinars. I did two webinars in 2019. One was before I got this book and it was all over the place. The second one was much more tightly focused using the model Fladlien lays out in the book. That was The Art and Science of Habits On Demand that I did in December.

I’d like to say I crushed it and sold a boatload…but unfortunately the audio cut out during the close which, needless to say, was not the best way to sell. Still I think the webinar went really well.

Deep Work by Cal Newport

There is a lot going on in life these days. This book, is about stepping away from activity, in order to really focus on what is important. Reading this, along with some other situations, has led to me doing computer-free work days which have thus far been quite amazing. Without using a computer I’m able to focus on deep thought. I’ll likely be reading this one again at some point.

The Bezos Letters by Steve Anderson with Karen Anderson

This book shares principles gleaned from Jeff Bezos’ letters to shareowners of Amazon. There’s some great stuff in here. The distinction between type 1 and type 2 decisions (primarily, those that are reversible and those that are not) was very helpful.

In addition, it got me focused on figuring out the Flywheel for Lost Empire Herbs, which I’ll be sharing in an upcoming post. (Which happens to be a systems diagram!)

Best Science Book

Dance to the Tune of Life: Biological Relativity by Denis Noble

“There’s no privileged level of causation in biology.” -Denis Noble

I got turned onto the work of Noble from Perry Marshall (whom I interviewed recently surrounding such topics here and here.) He shared that quote at one of his seminars and I new it was important for me to learn more about.

Of Noble’s two books, this one is more recent and better. It covers a lot of similar information as Perry’s Evolution 2.0, which I highly recommend (and re-read this year). But this is a bit more technical though not overly so. And you see that a systems approach is necessary here, rather than reductionist science.

Best Mind Stretching Books

A Brief History of Everything by Ken Wilber

I found myself coming back to this distinction multiple times since reading this book. That is the four quadrants of the individual vs collective and the internal vs external. (The common thread of systems thinking runs through this, but is only a part, i.e. the external and collective.)

These in turn leads to the Good, the Beautiful and the True. This shows why Sam Harris trying to derive values from facts will not work. Incompatible quadrants.

That’s far from everything covered in this book, but a critical distinction, like I said, that I’ve been reflecting on a lot.

The Watchman’s Rattle by Rebecca D. Costa

Collapse. It’s something we are quite likely facing. So much of what we humans are doing right now is unsustainable. By definition, that means it will not sustain. We must either change such things…or we will go into some form of collapse.

This book takes a look at past civilizations, which pretty much all have collapsed to see why that happens. And basically the answer here is that the people stop being able to make sense of what is going on. Do you perceive that as going on right now? I sure see it.

I’ll be returning to this topic, but I did find this book a great way to dive in.

Best Biography Book

The Devil’s Chessboard by David Talbot

This book is about Allen Dulles, one of the early heads of the CIA.

It details how much he worked with Nazi’s after the war in his fight against the threat of communism, along with his brother John Foster Dulles, the Secretary of State during the Eisenhower administration.

It covers the CIA coups against democratically elected leaders in Iran, Guatemala and elsewhere. (Are you aware of these? They’re common knowledge outside of the US, but for some reason aren’t taught in our schools.)

This stuff is disclosed nowadays and out in the open. But it also goes into detail of some of the stuff still hidden. Seeing Truman’s response to the CIA, when he was the president that created it, was eye-opening.

“I never would have agreed to the formulation of the Central Intelligence Agency back in forty-seven, if I had known it would become the American Gestapo.”

“Now, as nearly as I can make out, those fellows in the CIA don’t just report on wars and the like, they go out and make their own, and there’s nobody to keep track of what they’re up to. They spend billions of dollars on stirring up trouble so they’ll have something to report on. They’ve become…it’s become a government all of its own and all secret. They don’t have to account to anybody.”

Former President Harry S. Truman, regarding the CIA he started

So that’s just some of my top picks from the year. Like I mentioned at the beginning, I’ll be sharing my top pick for the year in the following post.

I Read 111 Books in 2019

As I’ve done in previous years, I’m sharing my reading list from 2019.

So without further ado, the list from this year…

  1. The Millionaire Master Plan by Roger James Hamilton
  2. Meaningful Work by Shawn Askinosie
  3. The Bed of Procrustes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  4. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
  5. The First Year IBS by Heather Van Vorous
  6. King Warrior Magician Lover by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette
  7. Becoming the Parent You Want To Be by Laura Davis & Janis Keyser
  8. Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  9. The Magician and the Analyst by Robert Moore
  10. He by Robert A. Johnson
  11. The Symbols by The Heavenly Hosts, the Servents of Creator
  12. Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  13. Viriconium by M. John Harrison
  14. Deep Work by Cal Newport
  15. Magic Power Language Symbol by Patrick Dunn
  16. The Mask of Masculinity by Lewis Howes
  17. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
  18. The Chaos Protocols by Gordon White
  19. The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  20. Sovereignty by Ryan Michler
  21. The Future of Man by Teilhard de Chardin
  22. Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
  23. The Awesome Science of Luck by Peter Ragnar
  24. Life After Google by George Gilder
  25. Living the 80/20 Way by Richard Koch
  26. Condensed Chaos by Phil Hine
  27. One to Many by Jason Fladlien
  28. Skin in the Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  29. Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
  30. The Music of Life by Denis Noble
  31. Profit First for Ecommerce Sellers by Cyndi Thomason
  32. The Master Works of Chaos Magick by Adam Blackthorne
  33. Holistic Dental Care by Nadine Artemis
  34. Deafness of the Mind by Kevin Fitzgerald
  35. Dance to the Tune of Life: Biological Relativity by Denis Noble
  36. Pandora’s Star by Peter F. Hamilton
  37. Thinking in Systems by Donella H. Meadows
  38. The King Within by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette
  39. Liber Null & Psychonaut by Peter J. Carroll
  40. The Direct Mail Revolution by Robert W. Bly
  41. Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke
  42. How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling by Frank Bettger
  43. Shaman, Healer, Sage by Alberto Villoldo
  44. The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida
  45. The Alter Ego Effect by Todd Herman
  46. Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold
  47. Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein
  48. The Archetype of Initiation by Robert L. Moore
  49. Brutal Wisdom by Master “Dutch” Hinkle
  50. Overdeliver by Brian Kurtz
  51. Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller
  52. Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damndest Thing by Jed McKenna
  53. The Fifth Discipline by Peter M. Senge
  54. 45 Master Characters by Victoria Lynn Schmidt
  55. The Sayings of Vikings by Havamal
  56. A Brief History of Everything by Ken Wilbur
  57. Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton
  58. How to End the Autism Epidemic by J.B. Handley
  59. Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
  60. Conspiracy Theory in America by Lance deHaven-Smith
  61. American Cosmic by D.W. Pasulka
  62. The Integral Vision by Ken Wilbur
  63. Ordinary Men by Christopher R. Browning
  64. The Dark Path by Isaac Weishaupt
  65. Conspiracies Declassified by Brian Dunning
  66. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
  67. Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
  68. Evolutionary Herbalism by Sajah Popham
  69. Atomic Habits by James Clear
  70. Triz for Dummies by Lily Haines-Gadd
  71. Supernormal Stimuli by Deirdre Barrett
  72. The Watchman’s Rattle by Rebecca D. Costa
  73. Population Control by Jim Marrs
  74. Limitless by Laura Gassner Otting
  75. Conscious Men by John Gray and Arjuna Ardagh
  76. Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got by Jay Abraham
  77. Murder by Injection by Eustace Mullins
  78. High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard
  79. Medical Medium by Anthony William
  80. The Franklin Scandal by Nick Bryant
  81. Native Son by Richard Wright
  82. The Master Keys to Strength and Fitness 2nd Edition by Logan Christopher
  83. The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin
  84. Everybody is Sick, and I Know Why by Peter J Glidden, MD
  85. Radical Brilliance by Arjuna Ardagh
  86. The Cancer Industry by Mark Sloan
  87. None Dare Call It Conspiracy by Gary Allen with Larry Abraham
  88. Medical Intuition by C. Norman Shealy, MD, PhD
  89. Perfectibilists by Terry Melanson
  90. Programmed to Kill by David McGowan
  91. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
  92. Discovering Joy in Parenting: The First Seven Years by Cindy Brooks and Joya Birns
  93. The Candida Cure by Ann Boroch, CNC
  94. The Habit Forming Guide to Becoming a Systems Thinker by Tracy Benson & Sheri Marlin
  95. The Republic by Plato
  96. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
  97. The Bezos Letters by Steve Anderson with Karen Anderson
  98. Becoming Us by Beth McCord and Jeff McCord
  99. Virtual Summit Launch Formula by Eric Z. Yang
  100. Rewire by Richard O’Conner, PhD
  101. Evolution 2.0 by Perry Marshall
  102. The Spiritual Journey of Joseph L. Greenstein by Ed Spielman
  103. The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier
  104. Daemon by Daniel Suarez
  105. The Devil’s Chessboard by David Talbot
  106. Freedom TM by Daniel Suarez
  107. Cancer: The Metabolic Disease Unraveled by Mark Sloan
  108. Discovering Your Soul Signature by Panache Desai
  109. Thinking in Systems by Donella H. Meadows
  110. Develop Your Medical Intuition by Sherrie Dillard
  111. The Healing Organization by Raj Sisodia and Michael J. Gelb
Just a handful of the books read this year…

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.)

These were the two biggest changes. Otherwise I am still following all the steps I outlined last year in this article, as for how I read.

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.

How to Read a Lot to Learn a Lot

“Readers are leaders.” – Jim Kwik

My Library

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 wrote a bit about how too read a lot of books in a year in this earlier post, but figured it was worth diving into more detail into.

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.