This article is by Rebecca Livermore. Rebecca is the content manager here at PatrickBetDavid.com and the owner of Professional Content Creation. She invites you to connect with her on LinkedIn.
How many books did you read this year? Hopefully reading is a regular part of your daily or at the very least, weekly routine. If you're struggling with developing the reading habit, or if you want to read but aren't sure which books to choose, this article will point you in the right direction and help you read more books.
Why You Should Read More Books
The title of this article published on Entrepreneur.com is a bit misleading: Reading Books Makes You Smarter, Richer and Surprisingly Healthier. It's misleading because I expected to see some hard evidence regarding that in the article, and instead found a big focus on why it's better to read physical books, than eBooks, such as Kindle books. So if that's what you want to learn more about, then by all means, check out this article.
If you want a better listing of the actual benefits of reading, here's one worth reading. It dives into the following benefits of reading:
- Enhanced smarts
- Reading reduces stress
- Greater tranquility
- Improved analytical thinking
- Increased vocabulary
- Improved memory
- Improved writing skills
- Helps prioritize goals
How to Read More Books
I'm pulling this video from the archives because it has a lot of great tips for finding the time to read. So if you don't think you have time to read, be sure to check this one out.
What to Do if You Don't Like to Read
A very real problem for some people is that they simply don't like to read. If that describes you, here are a few tips:
Read More Books
Admittedly, that's probably not the advice you want if you say that you don't like to read. But the reason why I started with that is because often we don't like to do the things we're not very good at. And the more we do things, the better we tend to get at them. If you dislike reading because you have poor reading skills, reading more frequently will help.
Now this doesn't mean that you have to all of a sudden read a book every day, or even every week. You may instead start off by reading one or two pages per day, and gradually increase your daily page goal. Even if it takes you a month to read a book, but previously you weren't reading at all, then that's progress.
Listen to Books
My husband fits into the slow reader category. The best solution for him has been to purchase the Kindle version of books and then listen to them while reading. That keeps him moving forward; he now often reads multiple books in a month, whereas before it took him a month or longer to read a single book. As an added bonus, he takes the information in two ways simultaneously, since he reads along with the book while it is being read out loud to him.
You can also purchase books on Audible and listen to them while driving, exercising, etc.
How to Remember What You Read
The article and video 12 Tips to Retain More Information isn't specifically about how to remember what you read, but the tips in the article certainly apply to reading. Here's a list of the 12 tips.
- Ask Yourself Why You Remember What You Do
- Repetition
- Debate the Topic with Two or Three People
- Share It
- Teach on It
- Link it to Stories
- Look Things Up
- Implement What You Learn
- Energy and Stamina
- Focus Energy Into One Subject
- Focused Attention
- Play the Memory Game
Out of those 12 tips on how to retain information, here are my personal favorites:
Debate the Topic with Two or Three People
Book clubs are great for this, because then everyone has read the same book. I've also discussed books with my mastermind group. While my mastermind group isn't a book club, we are all readers and often choose to read the same book. We then discuss it in our weekly video chat.
Teach On It
If you've ever tried to teach something you don't really understand yourself, you know how awkward that is. Because of that, most likely you now prepare well any time you plan to teach, or else you teach things you know inside out. For that reason, teaching is one of the best ways to internalize the knowledge you take in. One thing to keep in mind is that you can teach in multiple ways. You don't have to be a public speaker with a large audience, and you don't have to have a formal teaching position. In addition to more traditional teaching formats, you can also teach by recording and uploading videos to YouTube, writing blog posts, have a podcast, etc.
Implement What You Learn
If you really want to not just remember, but get the most out of the books you read, implement what you learn. While it may feel overwhelming to try to implement everything in every book you read, reduce the overwhelm by picking one key point to make a part of your life. If you're like me, the books that impact you the most may have one big takeaway. Make that takeaway something you do on a regular basis and you'll never forget it.
While those three are the ones that stood out to me the most, there may be different points that really impact you. Because of that, I advise you to check out the post or video in its entirety to get the full impact.
How to Choose the Right Books to Read
Reading books does indeed take time. The time is well worth it, assuming that you read worthwhile books. If you've ever spent hours reading a book, continually hoping the book gets better (but it never does), this article and video published right here on PatrickBetDavid.com is worth checking out.
It starts off by naming two types of readers:
- Accidental
- Intentional
And then gives four reasons why people read:
- Entertainment
- Inspiration
- How-To
- Knowledge
Finally, it then gets into the following four ways to select the right books to read:
- Author
- Reviews
- Subject
- Recommendation
Seriously, if you want to avoid reading a bunch of duds in the coming year, be sure to check it out.
Patrick Bet-David's Top Reading Picks
The article and video linked to above is a great way to evaluate whether or not the books you come across are worth reading. If you want a bit of additional help, be sure to check out Patrick's list of the top 100 books for entrepreneurs.
If you want to pare that down even more, check out this article and video with Patrick's top 10 books.
Your Favorite Book(s) and Tips
We'd love to hear from you. Share your favorite reading tips along with your favorite business books in the comments below.
