Reading Skills - How To Be A Book Devourer

[Leandro Oliveira]

When I saw this video, the first thing I thought was: "How tha hell can he read so much!?"

In all my life, reading has never been one of my best skills. I love learning new things and I want to increase my knowledge everyday. And, by chance, the best way to do that is, in most cases, by reading. And, honestly, I suck at it.

I'm still a college student and I have to study tons of pages. What happens is that I can rarely or I never finish reading all the subjects for an exam (for example). I feel like I read really really slow. Sometimes I even get demotivated, because my colleagues are way faster than me. In addition, I tend to get distracted very easily. And the slower I read, the more distracted I get. This also affects my retention... I can't remember anything at all or I have to do great efforts to memorize when I study/read something.

I saw somewhere that there are many ways to improve our reading speed and, thereby, to improve our retention also.

Leo, you say that you read a lot... The main question here is: How? How do you do it? How can I become a book devourer (in a good way) like you? I may be wrong, but you surely know many ways to improve our reading, comprehension, memory and focus skills.

Best regards!

Edited February 8, 2016 by Leandro Oliveira

[Brandini]

With regards to focus, I do recall Leo saying that meditation is great for improving it. (Think it was the do nothing video) Basically it boils down to taming your monkey mind and removing any distractions that could hinder you

[Leo Gura]

I am a pretty lazy and slow reader. For me it's not about some fancy reading skills, it's just a life-long commitment to learning. Over a decade, the books add up.

And lately I mostly just listen to audio-books. Far more efficient.

[WhyteSeal]

Audio books have their defect. There are people out there that cannot concentrate while multitasking. But still a good point!

[Marina]

16 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

And lately I mostly just listen to audio-books. Far more efficient.

Leo, could you please elaborate on that a bit more? What do you mean by saying "more efficient"? The fact that it allows you to multitask or that you retain information better? Cause I remember that in the intro video for your booklist, you've stressed out the importance of reading a book actively (underlining, taking notes, etc.). I myself love listening to audiobooks but have been holding back on that for exactly those reasons. Thinking that it may just go in one ear and go out the other. Literally lol.

Sorry if I flooded the thread, just really wanted to hear your opinion on this.

[INGLEWOOD]

2 minutes ago, Marina said:

Leo, could you please elaborate on that a bit more? What do you mean by saying "more efficient"? The fact that it allows you to multitask or that you retain information better? Cause I remember that in the intro video for your booklist, you've stressed out the importance of reading a book actively (underlining, taking notes, etc.). I myself love listening to audiobooks but have been holding back on that for exactly those reasons. Thinking that it may just go in one ear and go out the other. Literally lol.

Sorry if I flooded the thread, just really wanted to hear your opinion on this.

Think about it. What can it means?

If you are a lazy reader and it's pretty hard for you to read something, audio-files will be more efficient.

It's the same material >>> in audio, so you don't need to read anything.