BONUS BLOG: Wanna Read More Books? parts 26-29

Ryan Holiday, the author of 15 books, including The Obstacle Is the Way, Ego Is the Enemy, The Daily Stoic, Conspiracy and Stillness is the Key, calls himself a professional reader.“ That’s really what authors are. A book is made of books.” Some reading rules he has followed over the years:

26) You say you don’t have time to read but what does the screen time app on your phone say? What does your calendar say?

27) If you want to understand current events, don’t rely on breaking news. Find a book about a similar event in the past. Read history. Read psychology. Read biographies. Go for information that has a long half-life, not something that’s going to be contradicted in the next bulletin.

28) Examples: Read The Great Influenza to understand COVID. Read It Can’t Happen Here to understand modern threats to democracy. Read First Principles to understand American politics.

29) Ruin the ending. I almost always go straight to Wikipedia and figure out the plot–especially if I am reading something tough like Shakespeare or Aeschylus. Who cares about spoilers? Your aim as a reader is to understand WHY something happened, the what is secondary.