Comments

Blogging encourages reading and summarizing!

And I agree (from your other book-splurge post) about the importance of getting kids interested in reading from the beginning. Even kids books can be surprisingly informative. My 4-year-old son knows more about Trojan taxation/piracy than my 38-year-old sister. (If it's tied into a war story, any young boy will eat it up.)

Posted by Bill Seitz at December 1, 2004 6:02 PM

I would add "blog loudly" !! After all, "Blog" is the #1 word of the year.

Posted by /pd at December 1, 2004 6:12 PM

I would add "blog loudly" ! After all "blog' is the #1 word of the year.

Posted by /pd at December 1, 2004 6:13 PM

While I agree that blogging/reading blogs is a useful component of the benefit of reading, I think it's less than a third of the benefit. It's what I call Twitch media.

We face decisions (usually our most significant ones) that require the brain to attend quietly to issues and balancing them over long, extended periods. Twitch judgement, which we use all the time too, is a different aptitude.

Blogs/www surfing/video games/"good" t.v. are all Twitch-related and decent exercise to varying degrees for that, but nothing replaces the brain exercise (or brain candy) of a multi-sitting, complex book about something one doesn't already know a ton about. It forces the reader to listen to another voice for an extended period, make internal connections, live in another world that takes effort to absorb for a greater interval than the time between kitchen or bathroom trips.

Twitch media don't engage that full-brain work-out. In working with manager-clients, I can usually tell within about an hour if the client is a reader or not; they just strongly tend to solve a wider range of problems using a wider range of tools.

Posted by jeff angus at December 1, 2004 7:40 PM

Read for understanding and balance with an open mind whilst being aware of the author's POV. Read for learning with no end in sight; like a trail in the woods, searching for paths to the next book in a forest that is breathtaking and never-ending. Read to save your life; fight off dementia as a warrior defends their kingdom. Read……

Posted by Pat O'Connell at December 1, 2004 9:42 PM

One estimate (wild guestimate?) that I recall is that roughly 93% of what we learn in a lifetime (what the psychologists call "explicit learning"?) we learn through reading. I have no idea how one ascertains such a number, but I will accept as an article of faith that those who read a lot know a lot.

Posted by Doug Smith at December 1, 2004 10:24 PM

Pat: Brilliant! "No end in sight" is the great value, for me, of fiction. I "learn" more from fiction than non-fiction; my mind will wander from here to there, and suddenly an insight about something professional will zip across my internal screen.

Also am big on the author's POV part. I purposefully read a lot of stuff I mostly disagree with ... it's my internal form of "debating society." Often I end up taking aboard a chunk of an opposing view, and not infrequently I change my mind--which always pleases me. I fear ruts! Reading is a top flight Rut Eraser.

Posted by tom peters at December 2, 2004 1:36 AM

pd-jeff angus: I am very fearful of the coming communications ubiquity at 37,000 feet. I love to twitch. And I love to focus. Perversely, one of the benefits of flying--London to Boston in a couple of hours--is a place to focus my reading; I pretty carefully select my in-flight menu.

Posted by tom peters at December 2, 2004 1:40 AM

be a nympho for info!!

Posted by fredd at December 2, 2004 4:39 AM

the best advice i was given by a university lecturer we - youre only as good as your book shelf.

It's also important to get the source of an origional idea.. so read some classics!

dont forget to learn how to read. make notes in the books and make them your own

Posted by Paul at December 2, 2004 5:06 AM

I couldn't agree more! It never fails that the highest performers are also those rare individuals who are always reading. They are curious about what others think and are always on a quest for new ideas! I count myself among the few high achievers that work for the Federal government. We could use a lot more! If books are on your Christmas wish list, then you know what I am talking about!

Posted by Terry at December 2, 2004 7:48 AM

In a job interview with Morningstar, I was asked, "What have you been reading lately aside from business books? Can you recommend a good novel and a good nonfiction work?" Great question! Sorts out the intellectually curious. Fortunately, I'm an avid reader and had ready answers. (If you're curious, Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold was my recommended novel, and my nonfiction choice was probably The Outlaw Sea by William Langewiesche.)

Posted by Michael at December 2, 2004 9:32 AM

Amen!

Posted by felix gerena at December 2, 2004 10:04 AM

I typically have three books going at once. Not sure if that is advisable, yet I find that the variety helps me to identify "cross-usability." I often have (1) inspirational - fiction or non-fiction, (1) business, and (1) other going at the same time. This helps me realize how these areas overlap and apply to each other. I'm convinced life isn't as compartmentalized as we view it.

Posted by Dustin Staiger at December 2, 2004 1:29 PM

Clearly this one resonates!

A hilarious thing happened when I worked with a coach to map my perfect job. In so many ways I had been doing things that I said were important, but when it came down to what I REALLY wanted, it came down to "time to read."

The best jobs that I've had allowed me to catch up on my reading, and to explore new sources. In fact I've taken on writing full time so that I could get the time to read! Some might call it finding excuses for hanging out in Starbucks. I call it connection. More connection than when I was "in the trenches".

I once read an article on the habits of most successful executives. Granted, their 16-hour work days were daunting, but I was encouraged by their daily, early morning ritural of READING. Everything.

Want to make me suffer? Put me on a long flight with nothing to read.

Posted by Jory Des Jardins at December 2, 2004 3:01 PM

re Twitch reading/writing - I'll make a pitch here for using a "wiki" as a space to compile and inter-related your notes. My blog is really a WikiLog, and the small notes I take get cross-referenced so that when I want to chew on a particular issue I have lots of mini-thoughts available for integration.
http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/WikiLog
http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/IntroPage
http://www.wikilogs.com/FrontPage

Back on the printed-book side, I've compiled a running BookList of things as I read them, and more recently a shorter list of books that have been particularly significant in shaping my worldview.
http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/BookList
http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/GreatestBooks

Posted by Bill Seitz at December 2, 2004 3:26 PM

Great advice.
I have read that the average person reads only 1 book a year. I read 20-30 books/year and bestsellers tend to sell only 100,000 or so, This tells me that there are two groups a very small group of readers say about 1,000,000 who read several books a year and the other non reader group is the rest of the population. That is scary.

I have been doing a early morning reading program for a while now and it has really helped.

I boosted my reading speed (~2000wpm full comprehension) and that has made a big difference in the amount of learning I can bring to any situation. Up your reading speed. skim or scan if you have to practicing high speed reading on novels is a good way to do it. But also leave a large chunk of uninterrupted time for this. I notice my reading speed nose-dives if I got interrupted a lot.

But I will not finish a book just to finish it. If it doesn't bring something to the table for me, drop it, I don't have the time to waste on retread thinking.

I have found the bib's in the back of really good books to be helps in finding the next thing to read.

Variety is important too, don't just read business books, I also have read books on architecture, photography, history, art, biographies are really good too.

Posted by Stephan Fassmann at December 6, 2004 11:28 AM

Here's my 'Ode' to the Book:)
The Book - a physical entity, a deep bandwidth invention that does not need electricity to run, is portable and can be taken along on our travels or just lazing in bed while transmitting faithfully the wisdom of the ancients or moderns and opening up magical spaces of transformation.
One has to make the effortless effort to read, creating an active conversation with the best that humanity has to offer.
Each of us has our own favourite Book, may this tangible time machine last forever!

Posted by Avi Solomon at December 7, 2004 10:06 AM