Books and the reading strategy
There is so much knowledge that yet needs to be consumed. It just seems that there is not enough time in the day to seize it all. Learnings and experiences by other people, autobiographies, and discoveries that others took the time to put down to words. Books are the source of it all.
Growing up I was never very interested in reading. It was something that I did, because I was forced to it or because I needed to in order to move on with my school or my studies. No one managed to arouse the interest in me and I was so occupied by the deeps of internet — games, videos, websites, chats, social media.
But in the recent years, I feel I have discovered them as the hidden treasure waiting for me all these years. Or it might be that I came across books when I was ready for them. Either way, they have been there all along — waiting.
It seems that now I’m always on the hunt for a new book. And recommendations usually come from the podcasts that I follow, from the blogs that I read or from the close friend’s recommendations that I prefer the most. I’m always eager to buy them. But there’s just so much I can buy during a month not to overwhelm myself with the stack of unread books especially when the laziness strikes me. I had to come up with the strategy of buying and reading them and tricking myself not to get bored.
Reading strategy
I read a lot of different types of self-educational books that help me to improve my mental state, my workflows, and my professional work. Also, I recently discovered that I just love reading a good Sci-Fi book. And to be honest it get’s tricky with keeping up with them when procrastination hits. And it could last for weeks in my world. One of the good advice that Tobias van Schneider gives — read at least 3 books at the same time — helped me a lot to cope with my boredom syndrome. I have tried this strategy for a while and it does work very well for me.
Another story is prioritizing them in terms of what to buy first. If I came across an interesting book, I found myself looking it up on Amazon and then saving them for later. But I do that for so many other things that I want to purchase that these books get lost in the mess of everything. Recently I have discovered goodreads.com (here is my bookshelf) that is working quite well for me. I just used it for a few months now, but it seems that it helps me to organize my reading lists a bit better.
I spend a lot of my time on the commute from one place to another and I believe it’s unavoidable in the world we live in, so I have tried making a good use of that time. I’ve decided to cancel my premium Spotify subscription and replace it with the same cost subscription to Audible.com. It might seem drastic but 3 month in — I totally enjoy it. It’s not that I stopped listening to music, but I am willing to listen to few ads if I in a need for it. Not a big deal, at least for now.
So usually I would read 3–4 books at the same time while listening to 1 or 2 audiobooks on the go, which I change occasionally to podcasts of interest.
If you’re interested in my reading recommendations, I’ve created a list of the books that in one or another way had an influence on my life and mindset.
