Don't Read Books

In a recent post, I wrote about solving your problems. 

The core message of the post was to highlight the value of balancing - in a disproportionate manner - reading and applying things learnt from reading, where applying things read took the bigger share of time invested.

In this post, I propose you should entertain the advice that you should read books with deaf ears.

It's easy to heed to advice such as read books! read books! read books! without understanding why or how to go about executing such advice for optimum return on investment. 

Our culture seems to fan the habit of reading as a sacred activity to engage in; an activity quite meditative when compared to the other "mindless" media engagements (think Twitter, Facebook and watching T.V).

The reason I advocate the "deaf ears" approach to entertaining the read books advice is because there is a level of guilt that comes with hearing advice (that you should read) and not heeding to such advice. Also, most people don't enjoy reading. 

What this advice (read books!) does is: it compels you to reading books for the sake of reading, rather than for specific ends such as solving your problems or for recreational ends. 

Your approach to reading should be as instinctive as breathing.

Virginia Woolf, in her book The Second Common Reader, put it beautifully in a context in which she addresses how to read. Quote: 

The only advice … that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions. [...] To admit authorities, however heavily furred and gowned, into our libraries and let them tell us how to read, what to read, what value to place upon what we read, is to destroy the spirit of freedom which is the breath of those sanctuaries. 

I am an avid reader. I take to books to ease seething in a caldron of boredom. I aim to read four books a month.

In Feeding The Mind, Lewis Carroll gives an interesting advice. He writes:

It is one’s duty no less than one’s interest to ‘read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest’ the good books that fall in your way.

However, he addresses the proportion in which we read by writing that "mental gluttony, or over-reading, is a dangerous propensity". 

The reading habit - when not balanced properly with action - puts us in a continuous loop of seeking information, easing us into the trap of becoming information junkies. 

Also, it's easy to look to books to find "the right way" when, in fact, books don't always show the way. Most times, we have to find our own way. 

In Mastery, Robert Greene sounds a warning. He writes: 

To follow precisely the lead of others or advice from a book is self-defeating.

This tells us to move further from gathering information, and in addition to testing the information we gather, add our individual approach into what we hope to achieve.

Every remarkable person words the read books advice. Leaving us to figure out why or how to engage in the activity for optimal return on investment. 

A better advice would be: solve problems and look to books for answers, because they might contain answers you need. (In other words, reading books is not an end in itself but a means to an end). 

What this perspective does is that:

1.   It takes you faster to the solutions to ease the source of your difficulty.  

2.   It saves you time. 

3.   It sheds away the guilt of engaging in other media activities to solve problems

3.   You become more purposeful in knowing that you are doing task A (reading) to handle task B (source of problem). 

4.   And, most importantly, it prevents you from falling into the trap of being an information junkie -who has tonnes of information but nothing to show that he has information).

The bottom line is: don't read book for the sake of reading, or because you have been told to read books. Figure out why and how best to engage in an activity before investing the time in pursuing such activity.

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Post Author: P. W. Uduk
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Photo Source: www.theguardian.com