How I read books
I've always been fond of books, even before I could read.
At the weekends when I was small, I would tag along with my sister and my mum while they did their shopping. My mum—bless her—would pick up a book for me so I could join in without getting in the way.
At every major turning point in my life, I've turned to books.
Stressed out? I picked up Återhämtningsguiden and Mark Williams' Mindfulness: Finding Peace in a Frantic World.
Looking to be more productive? I devoured Eat That Frog!, Getting Things Done, and every other productivity system on Earth. (Ironically, you reach a point where obsessing over systems becomes... well, dare I say unproductive?)
Books are patient companions, echoing years of accumulated experience and hard-won expertise. They never judge you, they aren't impatient with your pace, and they never mind if you re-read the same page three times.
Reading well isn't an accident; it takes deliberate habits. Inspired by writers like Wes Kao, Ryan Law, and Morgan Housel, here are a few principles I try to follow:
1. Count what sticks, not the books you finish
Reading more books is never the real prize.
During my "productivity phase", I used to set an annual reading target and keep a tally. The list was long, but what actually stayed with me was thin.
Real knowledge doesn't come from counting book spines on a shelf. It comes from soaking in good ideas, turning them over, and working out how to apply them to your own life.
One book that deeply changes how you think is worth twenty you skimmed just to tick a box.
2. Sample widely, quit without guilt
Give yourself permission to abandon a book when the fit isn't right.
School taught many of us that once you open a book, putting it down halfway through is a failure. For your own reading, that mindset does more harm than good. I now start as many books as catch my curiosity, but finish only a handful. Usually, fifty pages—sometimes as few as twenty—are plenty to tell whether an author has something for you.
If a book isn't working, leave it behind and pick up something else. You can always return to it later!
3. Read with a pen in hand
Passive reading evaporates within forty-eight hours.
When I read non-fiction to learn, I read with a pen. I underline good points, write questions in the margins, and keep a notebook beside me. If an idea is confusing, I draw a wavy line under it. If a claim feels doubtful, I put a question mark. Later, I turn the best thoughts into permanent notes.
If you're reading a novel or memoir for pure pleasure, do the opposite: put the pen away, slow down, and savour the pages. It isn't a race.
4. Step outside your intellectual neighbourhood
Real insight rarely comes from staying inside your comfort zone.
I make a habit of reading far outside my daily work in psychology.
In The Act of Creation, Arthur Koestler noted that major breakthroughs in science usually happen when ideas from one discipline cross into another. The same is true for everyday thinking. Fresh ideas in one area are often just old lessons borrowed from another.
5. Spend freely on good inputs
I was a proper cheapskate while going through the psychology programme, but I was never cheap with books.
If a fifteen-pound paperback has even a small chance of shifting your perspective on health, relationships, or work, I'll buy it in a heartbeat. It's so worth the investment.
Public libraries make this even better. There is something wonderful about sitting comfortably on a library sofa with newspapers and magazines.
One of my favourite little rituals is to visit the counter and ask the librarian for the book that has impacted them the most. It has led me to remarkable books I would never have picked up on my own.
6. Read in good company
Joining a regular book club in 2022 completely changed my reading.
Reading alone is always limited by your own background and blind spots. When you discuss the same chapter with a group, you get five different perspectives on the exact same page. It makes reading far more fruitful, and a great deal more fun.
Mortimer J. Adler captured this spirit best in How to Read a Book:
In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.