The Mission of Profound Reading
I read too many books.
It goes without saying that I read too many blogs, too many tweets, too many news articles.
But books, too? Do you read too many books?
Reading too many books is surely better than reading not enough.
However: maybe it’s not all that different.
Do you flit from book to book like a busy bee?
Do you fail to return to the books that resonated the most?
Do you apply what you’ve learned haphazardly and inefficiently, if at all?
Then yes. You read too many books.
Why Do We Read?
To see that this is true, let’s return to first principles.
Here’s why I read:
I read to learn new things about myself, so I can improve myself.
Improvement doesn’t result from shallow knowledge. It requires deep study.
But I do get obsessed with the number of books I read. I set a goal every year. I try to read more than I did the last year.
It’s not a terrible impulse — unless left unchecked.
I could read a book every single day. But how firm is the knowledge I gain from this (unless I am a genius)?
Even for a genius, a day of study does not an expert make.
If a stray breeze knocks a book’s lessons out of my head, what good is all that reading?
Knowledge is useless if you don’t implement it.
And you can’t implement ideas that you don’t deeply understand.
Let’s Implement Ideas Together
I plan to present in-depth studies of the books that change me.
Instead of leaving it at that, and plowing on to the next one, I want to explore what changes, and why.
This is a personal project, but I hope that if you enjoy reading and writing, you’ll want to contribute to these stories.
Are you tired of “book summary” culture? Do you want to improve your life and your world through patient and thorough study?
Most importantly: are you looking for others like you?
Perhaps you’ll find them here.
