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The truth about book reading and self-development

First of all, it's ok to be a slow reader. It's ok not to finish all the books on your list at the span of your lifetime. It's also ok to read ancient, difficult books nobody's heard of and having to look up words at the dictionary all the time. What's not ok, is to rush the reading process just to be able to announce to the world "I've read 400 books in 6 months" but taking nothing of value from them, and worse -- applying none of it to improve your life.

If even all you have learned in those 1357 pages of that one book from the 3 books you read in 5 years, was just one small sentence, that book was worth reading. And most of the times, summaries of books (whether AI or human-made) are not going to be enough to discover that sentence, let alone allow you to grasp its full meaning. Sometimes you need those 263 pages of detailed context leading up to that sentence, in order for that sentence to have a permanent impact on you and to give you strong enough reasoning to apply its teachings to your life.

Now those book summaries, and the note taking apps for hoarding quotes and thoughts extrapolated from those books, the act of note taking itself, and all that time spent categorizing everything, the task managers holding the reminders to not only rigidly read 20 pages a day, but also to remind you that those notes you took exist and you should go back to wherever it is you buried them, are all going to stand in your way of learning. There are certain things you shouldn't be assigning a "second brain" to. If you use that second brain to remember stuff for you, then you'll never pay real attention to them yourself. You're just rewriting the books in an ever-so growing pile that you will never go back to. 

And forcing yourself to read (or stop at) 20 pages per day? Let your mind naturally absorb knowledge in its own pace. Maybe it's 3 pages today, 91 pages tomorrow, 7 pages the next day. And let your mind take in that knowledge all on its own. Even if you forget most of the book, at least one thing from it will stand out to you that could prove highly valuble, if you just focus on the book itself and forget about all the busywork most YouTube "productivity" influencers tell you to do, that ultimately distracts you from the real joy of book reading.

Also, you can't expect to gain wisdom from books if you cherrypick them. Open up your mind. Read books you never thought you would be reading. Books that you wouldn't admit a soul that you've read. As a Christian, you could read Islamic books for example, not just Christian books. I've done that. As an atheist, I find myself enjoying (and learning a lot) from Buddhist books even though I know for a fact that I will never convert to Buddhism. I will read Carl Jung, then I will read Freud to see why he disagreed with him, and make up my own mind about both arguments. I will read the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius and then I will proceed to read Can't Hurt Me from David Goggins, and then 12 Rules of Life from Jordan Peterson, and then On the Shortness of Life from Seneca, then the Book of Life by Jiddu Krishnakurti, then The Complete Works of Hippocrates, and so on. And just like Seneca said, “I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.” I don't care who these authors are or what people's distanced (and most oftentimes, uninformed) but strong opinions are of them. My motive for reading another human being's writings is to gather insights. To learn more about life. To use that to improve that life. And to learn more about myself.

This is the essence of book reading. To open up your mind. Use critical thinking. Take what is useful, discard the rest and move on. None of it was a waste. That I can assure you. Because now you know where you stand. You find out more about yourself on the things you disagree on than the things you do agree on. You now know what you are, and what you're not. Embrace it. Be proud of yourself for getting closer to knowing who you are every single day.

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