--- --- **Title: ** How to Read More: 8 Reasons and 7 Strategies to Read More Books **Source:** https://ryanholiday.net/how-to-read-more/ **Author:** [[Ryan Holiday]] **Type:** #litnote **Topics:** [[Books]] [[How to Read More Books]] ---- When people ask you how you do something. They are not really asking you about you. They want to know how they can do that thing. The short answer is just do it. Like nobody asks 'How do you find time to eat?' you shouldn't ask for reading either [[I Don't Have Time to Read]] is a common excuse people make. What you lack is a priority, not time. # Reasons to Read ### [[Reading is Your Moral Duty]] “Why did the slave masters hide their money in books, George?” she asked the young boy, standing together in her kitchen. “I don’t know, grandma,” he said. “Because they knew the slaves wouldn’t open them,” she said. Knowledge is power and lack of knowledge is weakness. Being ignorant and not reading is not just being weak, It is to ignore the people who have fought so hard, struggled to such a great cost to read and provide for the future generations the right and ability to do so. Reading makes us powerful while not reading makes us ignorant, easy to manipulate and less than what we are capable of. ### [[Everything's Already Out There]] As humans, we crave newnewss. But the turht is that the most truths are very old. Ofcourse you should look for new research and books but you shouldn't miss the wisdom from the wisest minds who ever lived. The future is all repeated past. There is no escape from the rythm of events. ### Reading Prevents You From Being Functionally Illiterate It's amazing that you are reading this story, but there is more demanded of you. Drink deeply from history, from philosophy, from the books of journalists and the memoirs of geniuses. ### Reading Makes You an Informed Citizen Epictetus said “If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters.” It's fine to be ignorant to silly things. What you need to do is go deep, find the real truth. ### Books Solve Your Problems Whatever problem you have, they are not new. Someone else have already had that problem, looked for solution and written down somewhere. All the problems of present are the problems of past just dressed up in modern language ### Reading is a conversation with the wisest to ever live "To live the best life, you should have conversations with the dead" # How to Read More ### Read first thing in the morning Reading is something that is concerned with yourself. If you can't do things that you are doing for yourself, first thing in the morning. It's easy to lose sight of them. The day gets away so easily. Even well intentional plans fall apart. So, it is important to prioritize and habitute doing them early. ### Read a Page a Day Don't think in terms of reading deeply not widely. ### Read while you eat Every time I get a second, I crack it open. I don’t install games on my phone—that’s time for reading. When I’m eating, on a plane, in a waiting room, or sitting in traffic in an Uber—I read. If there’s any trick, it’s to stop thinking of reading as some activity that you do. Reading must become as natural as eating and breathing to you. It’s not something you do because you feel like it, but because it’s a reflex, a default. ### You Don't Have Time, Are You Serious? People much busier than you have prioritized reading over any other activites for centuries. They have been doing it no matter what's going on with their head. > There is no good life without study and practice and wisdom. Don’t find the time. Make the time. You’re not too busy. >