All growing up you are told to read books and the expectation, especially in college, is that you finish the book you are reading. When I was at North Central University, you even had to sign a piece of paper saying that you read 100% of the book.
The older I get the more I realize how much of a waste it is for me to finish a book. Don’t get me wrong, I love reading and even more than that, I love learning. I just don’t think that you need to finish books in order to learn. At some point over the last several years I just decided that I’m not going to feel guilty anymore for starting a book and not finishing it.
I have never been able to master any speed reading techniques, but what I have learned to do is get what I want to get out of a book. Looking through the chapter titles and the section headers in those chapters I can usually easily recognize what I want to gain out of that particular book.
I thought since I am advocating not finishing books I would give you a couple of my great learning resources that have completely changed the way I view personal growth.
1. Executive Book Summaries–This is one of the greatest learning resources ever created. Every month I get the top three business/leadership books delivered to my door in print and audio. I can honestly say that I truly learn from these and they are easily accessible to me because they are tabbed with their subject for filing purposes. This $200 yearly investment is well worth it to anyone that wants to be in the know on the most current leadership thinking.
2. Google Reader–I know blogging has been around for a long time now, but for some reason I was late in the game on being a subscriber. Everyday when I have down time I open up my google reader and read the latest from everything from well known authors to unknown productivity guru’s who share their daily nuggets of insight.
My favorite right now is Seth Godin’s blog. I have read his books for years, but nothing is better than 250 words a day that are as up-to-date as they possibly can be from him.
For all those who have anguished in the guilt of not finishing books for years I hope this has been an encouragement to you.
I’m a huge fan of RSS feeds and google reader. I scan about 15 blogs and 20 twitter feeds in about 15 minutes. By favorite blog is lifehacker.com
Justin,
Great post. The first part, I mean. I never got around to finishing it….
When are you going to be back in Chicago?
Justin, you are so smart. Having to finish a book, or having to read every part of the book has to do with perfectionism, which is a recipe for self-defeat.