These 21 Reading Rules Will Change Your Relationship With Books 📚
Issue #86: My 21 Rules For Effective Reading. An App to Monitor Your Net Worth. Two Types Of Ego.
💡 Here are 3-tips to help you learn, grow, and be inspired this week!
🎓 Learn
To be honest, I wasn’t really into reading books growing up, apart from those required for school.
The first book I read voluntarily was "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson in 2011. I knew that reading was important for personal growth, but it initially seemed slow and tedious, especially since I wasn’t fond of reading.
However, everything changed in 2020 when I suddenly got hooked on reading! That year alone, I read 42 books. Within the next 5 years, I had breezed through over 130 books. Now, I average 25-30 books a year.
Reading has profoundly influenced my growth. Books have become a reliable mentor, guiding me through my personal and professional development.
"In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn't read all the time — none, zero."
— Charlie Munger (Vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, net worth $2.1 billion)
Here are my 21 reading rules that changed my relationship with books.
1: Reading should be a daily practice, not a goal. Make reading a daily habit and part of your routine. Commit to reading a few pages, a few chapters, or for a few minutes daily.
If you just read 30 mins every day, that’s ~30 pages of reading.
In 1 week, that will be 210 pages of reading, which is one book.
In 1 month, you will read 900 pages, around 3-4 books.
In 1 Year, you can read ~36-48 books with daily 30 mins reading.
2: Read different books for different moods and times. Instead of waiting to finish one book before starting another, I now read multiple books throughout the day based on my mood. In the morning, I go for motivational books or biographies of my role models. During the day, I focus on skill development and personal growth. At bedtime, I prefer books on spirituality, relationships, or something fun and entertaining. I call this a sparkle reading approach.
3: If reading feels boring, try this: Feel free to skip a chapter or section if you don’t find it enlightening. If you are not hooked after two chapters, pick another book. Your taste and interest in books change over time; go back to old books. Make reading a fun experience and adventure by going to a coffee shop, library, or some cool place.
4: Read all formats of the books. Paperbacks are perfect for weekend lounging, reading at home, and books filled with charts, stats, pictures, and visuals. Audiobooks are ideal for biographies and novels, especially while traveling, commuting, or engaging in routine tasks. Kindles are great for reading at bedtime and during travel, offering convenience and portability.
5: Audiobooks are a great way to read books. If you're new to reading, audiobooks can be a more effective and enjoyable option compared to traditional books. They're very convenient because you can listen to them virtually anywhere and anytime—whether you’re walking, biking, commuting, or even eating. I recommend starting with biographies and novels in audiobook format. Here’s a list of my favorite audiobooks to get you started.
6: Listen to audiobooks at 1.25x or 1.5x speed. Listening to a 10-hour audiobook at 1.25x speed can save you 2 hours. Use this calculator to explore more time savings at different playback speeds. Also, reading fast doesn't mean losing out on quality. Actually, it's quite the opposite. The faster you read, the more focused your attention is, and the better your retention—similar to how driving faster requires your total concentration.
7: Don’t just read books, re-read books. There’s a great line the Stoics loved— ‘we never step in the same river twice’. The books don’t change, but you do. Usually, every December, I re-read a few of my favorite books.
8: Read your book highlights as your bedtime reading. When I'm tired at the end of the day, it’s hard to focus on reading and processing complex concepts. So, I read highlights from the books I have already read.
9: Ten minutes is plenty to start reading. We often wait for at least an hour (or more) time slot in our routine to start a book. However, you can do a lot of reading in just 10 minutes. An average reader can read six pages in 10 minutes. In a year, you will have read 5 to 10 books. Don’t try to time the reading. Just start reading.
10: Always have a book with you. I always have books downloaded on my Audible app and a few books in my bag when I’m traveling or commuting.
11: Always read a book with a highlighter, a paper, and a pen to take notes.
12: Create a dedicated music playlist to listen to while you read. Over time, your mind will associate this music with reading and quickly get you into a great flow state as soon as you start listening. If you’re curious about how this works, look up Pavlov’s Dog experiment and the concept of flow states to understand the psychology behind it.
13: Make it a habit to ask everyone you meet for their favorite book recommendations. Books have the power to transform lives, and sometimes, a single book can have a profound impact. I always ask my podcast guests and people I meet at events or family gatherings about their favorite reads. Here's a list of my favorite books that have shaped my own journey.
14: Books are inexpensive yet invaluable gifts. In 2019, one of my team members gifted me a $3 book called The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning Elevate Your Life. This book inspired me to establish a growth routine. As a result, I developed several new habits, such as meditation, reading books, practicing yoga, and napping, which helped me achieve a balanced life. To this day, I consider this book one of the most remarkable and life-changing gifts I have received.
15: If a book sucks, stop reading it. The best readers actually quit a lot of books. Life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy reading.
16: Never think twice about buying a book. I do buy more books than I’ll ever get to read. Just one right book at the right time can change your life. In 2020, I bought a book, The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. This book provided valuable insights into Warren Buffett's life values and philosophy about money. Applying the learnings from this book to my own life and business has yielded amazing returns. This $50 book is my best Investment to date.
17: Don't feel guilty about reading book summaries. Reading book summaries is not lazy. In fact, reading short book summaries before or after you finish reading a book is a smart way to retain and refresh the learnings. Short summaries are like a movie trailer, if you like the trailer then read the book. Check this guide on how to use ChatGPT for effective book summaries. And this YouTube channel for visual book summary.
18: Always look for additional resources on the book’s official website. Particularly if you're reading a non-fiction book. You'll often find a wealth of supplementary materials like PDFs, videos, and infographics that can deepen your understanding of the book's key concepts. Also, check out YouTube for videos of the author discussing and explaining some of the concepts from the book. These resources are invaluable for reinforcing what you've learned.
19: Read from three Authors and three Decades. If I’m interested in expanding my knowledge on any topic, for example, spirituality. I’ll read the best spirituality books by three different authors. That way, I’ll have a different perspective on the topic. Also, I will try to find books that are launched within 10 years (for a fresh perspective) and older than 10 and 20 years to cover different time horizons.
20: Curate a reading list based on the topics you want to learn. Each year, I make a list of topics I want to learn. Then, I find books to read on these topics. There are two types of reading/learning: “Just-in-case” and “just-in-time.” When you prepare your reading list based on the topics you are interested in learning to achieve immediate personal or professional goals, it is an example of “Just-in-time” reading. I prioritize the “Just-in-time” reading list over the “Just-in-case” reading.
21: Listen to an audiobook and also read the physical copy. Since last year, I've developed a system where, after finishing an audiobook, I buy the physical version. This lets me quickly go through the book again, allowing me to review and highlight important concepts and ideas in the book. I also save all the highlights, notes, and key insights from each book into my Notion notes. I find it easier to retain and apply what I've learned both personally and professionally.
Reading daily grows your knowledge and allows you to transcend hard situations, make fewer mistakes, and predict the future.
The human who reads the most, wins.
🚀 Growth Tip
I use the Kubera app to track my net worth.
I really love that Kubera supports a variety of global banks, currencies, and stock markets. Plus, it offers one of the simplest and most sophisticated interfaces I've seen.
If you're looking for a smart way to manage your global assets and net worth, I highly recommend Kubera. (Just so you know, this isn’t a sponsored endorsement.)
Also, if you mention my referral when signing up, we both will receive a $100 credit towards our paid subscription.
🤩 Inspiration
There are two types of ego:
Ego #1: When you think others are smaller than you.
Ego #2: When You don’t allow anyone to make you feel that you are smaller than them.
Maintain #2, Get rid of #1.
Anil
May the Peaceful Growth be with you! 🪴
P.S. I just completed my 100-day streak of learning Spanish in the Duolingo app, all from my toilet. 🚽
