How I Read Over 300 Books This Year

[Siim Land]

I read more than 300 books this year. Let me explain how I did it in my video. I've also included some tips for smart speed-reading.

 

[Progress]

Thats insane

[JKG]

@Siim Land Have you already read all the books from Leos booklist?

[Psychonaut]

Here in my garage.... classic

Nice tips btw

knowledge... lamborghini

[pluto]

RESPECT

Very good points, you can't meditate anywhere and clear your over-thinking but you can most definitely read in most places. I choose wonder and imagination from a book over thinking in my head anyday.

Edited December 29, 2016 by pluto

[Neo]

I have funny shaped eyes that have to refocus every few words. People that have this tend to read a little on the slow side and have to concentrate harder to not be distracted.

[IndependantKouhai]

Speed reading is useless for me, especially if reading self-help/ philosophy books. Loss of comprehension...  And I seriously don't understand how you can even read that fast on a subject that you don't understand. Don't you contemplate what you've just read, try to adapt the information to fit your life or even highlight it and re-read the most important points? 

If I don't do that, after a month I can't remember almost anything. Especially when there is so much another type of knowledge I have to take in.

I have tried everything presented here and over the years picked up the things that worked for me. Still managed to read only 36 books per year.  And that's ok; knowledge is necessary, but for me, awareness and utilizing the things I have learned is the first priority. Sometimes if the book isn't too long, after finishing it I re-read almost the whole thing.

 

Edited December 29, 2016 by IndependantKouhai
typo

[Siim Land]

@quantum I don't think so, I haven't looked into all of the list, but I doubt it because I haven't read that many books abour spirituality.

@Neo That's unfortunate. Is there any surgery or medicine that could help you?

@IndependantKouhai I totally agree with you - you want to understand what you've read and apply it to your life - that's what I'm focusing on myself. However, I feel like it's wrong to get caught up in pure comprehension. Knowing the factual information of the book is only relevant if you're taking a test. What you're really after is wisdom, which is knowledge put into use and gained through experience. And it can't be said that speed-reading neglects comprehension either because you're simply habituating yourself with consistent reading and going through paragraphs faster. You skim through the irrelevant clutter and if you need more time for the harder parts, then you can take all the time you need and write down some notes.

At the end of the day, you don't want to look back at your life and be proud of the books you read or the information you remember from them. Instead, you want to be proud of your achievements and the person you had become. For this, you don't need to read anything. Books are simply great ways of exposing yourself to certain ideas and motivations. 

[Alicja_]

Awesome voice projection. 

 

[YaNanNallari]

@IndependantKouhai @Siim Land I think it depends a lot on the topic of the book how quickly one can comprehend the information read and figure out how the information is relevant. Most of all I'd recommend to not be afraid to skim past the irrelevant parts.

One thing that might cause a negative reaction towards speed reading is that it seems kind of stressful. It easily seems achievement focused, which isn't the thing to go for. It might also creates thoughts like "what if I miss something?" while trying to read fast.

I think speed reading has kind of a gray line with reading as slow as necessary while understanding it as it can only be personally judged if it's working or not. Comprehension also often takes some time between reading and it was left kind of unclear if there's time for thinking about what was said in the book.

4 hours ago, Siim Land said:

What you're really after is wisdom, which is knowledge put into use and gained through experience.

I get a feeling of not agreeing with Siim's goal of gaining wisdom if we think wisdom is what he said. Reading with that mindset might result in easily dismissing information, if it doesn't seem usefull at that moment or you can't see its use. He still definitely still holds a point though. I'd go for compreheding a lot of stuff with any required effort, but afterwards going through those ideas to figure out how they can be used for practical things. This can open new sides to them as well.

These were just some thoughts and I got to say this is an interesting subject to argue for both sides.

To summarize I'd say read as slow as necessary, comprehend with time and depending on what you're reading make notes (or don't) about any practical implementations.

[Morten]

@IndependantKouhai  I agree with you 100%.

@Siim Land Your video is great and I congratulate you on reading 300 books in a year!

Speed reading is amazing and very helpful for books on productivity, popular psychology, novels, autobiographies, history books and so on, basicly on books written in plain words, without allegories and between the lines stuff. Some books require your full attention and even coming back and re reading them in order to grasp what is trully written there. Some books are written that you can read them on different levels of consciousness, in different periods of your life and gain completely different understending.

You can speed read two books a day, for example you can read Tao Te Ching and let's say Meditations and you can say you read them, but have you trully read them and grasped totally what is written in them?

[Taavi]

@Siim Land I think it really does depend on the book. If you are reading a practical psychology book, then you really need read slowly in order to contemplate and make connections to your own life experience. Otherwise it would be a quite useless read, a faster one, but useless nonetheless. Same goes to books on philosophy and spirituality.

If you are trying to understand the author`s point on a complicated subject, especially if it is abstract in nature, then it does take a lot more then just skimming to the "most important parts". 

Well, that is my experience anyway. We are both from the same country btw.

[Siim Land]

@Alicja_ Ye, I need to work on it but hey...at least I'm owning it

@YaNanNallari I totally agree with you, speed-reading can cause a fear of missing out and slight anxiety. That's why it's important to know where your skill level is but to still try to challenge oneself. I'm not skimming everything in the book. I'm simply briefly looking into the context of each paragraph and if I already understand it, then I will move through it at a glance. If there's something I need more time to understand, then I will read as slowly as I need to and will do it several times if needed.
@Morten Thanks! I agree, some books require a deeper state of concentration and enquiry. You don't want to skim through philosophy or science books and I read them as slowly I need to. I think it's easy to be misconceived by the idea that if you're speed-reading, then that's all you do. No, you use smart speed-reading whenever you already can grasp the topic. And for books, such as Tao Te Ching and Meditations, you would want to read those books over and over again because you will still find some golden nuggets from them.
@Taavi Yes, you want to read as slowly as you need to. I read so many books this year not because I skimmed through them without retaining the necessary information. Being consistent and reading habitually every day is a lot more important and that is what I credit my progress to.