21 Reading tips from bestselling author @morganhousel: 1) Every smart person I know is a voracious reader who also says “every smart person I know is a voracious reader.” 2) Years ago I heard Charlie Munger say “Most books I don’t read past the first chapter. I’m not burdened by bad books,” and it stuck with me. 3) Reading is a chore if you insist on finishing every book you begin, because the majority of books are either a) adequately summarized in the introduction, b) not for you, or c) not for anyone. 4) Slogging through to the last page of these books – a habit likely formed early in school – can turn reading into the equivalent of a 10-hour work meeting where nothing gets done and everyone is bored. 5) Once you see reading through that lens, your willingness to pick up another book wanes. Which, of course, is tragic. “The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them,” said Mark Twain. 6) My reading strategy is to start as many books as I can but finish few of them. 7) College tuition at $25,000 a year comes out to roughly $100 per lecture. Good books – sometimes written by the same professor – can be purchased for fifteen bucks and can offer multiple times as much life-changing insight. 8) Most books don’t need to be read to the end, but some books can change your life – means you need two things to get a lot out of reading: Lots of inputs and a strong filter. 9) If you only pick up books you know with certainty you’re going to like you’ll confine yourself to reading the same authors on the same topics. 10) It’s better to have a low bar in what books you’re willing to try, and even the faintest tickle of interest should be enough to make the cut. Kindle samples are free, so excuses are minimal. 11) Similar to dating, a book you’re not into after 10 minutes of attention has little chance of a happy ending. Slam it shut and move on. 12) You’re not a failure if you quit a book after three pages anymore than if you reject the proposition of a 10-hour date with someone you just met who annoys you. Lots of fish in the sea. 13) Don't turn reading into a game of trying to read as many books as possible. 14) When you try to read as many books as possible in a month, "You're just doing it for the number because when you blow through books that quickly, you're not thinking about it." 15) "You're not reading a book and then meditating on what you've just read and thinking about the points...You're just like how can I get through this as fast as I can." 16) Now Morgan reads 1-2 books a month. He purposely reads slower and spends more time thinking about the ideas in the book instead of just trying to finish the book as fast as possible. 17) I do all my reading on Kindle and I highlight passages that I think are interesting. 18) When I go back through and read something a second time, I definitely find things that I didn’t pay that much attention to the first time because maybe the first time I read it, I was thinking about work or I was falling asleep in bed. I’m definitely a fan of reading things again. 19) I, like everybody, miss holding a physical book and the smell of a book, but I’m a hundred percent Kindle now just because I can search and archive things so much better. 20) Read more history and fewer forecasts. 21) Reading is a skill most of us stop practicing around 4th grade. But what you read, where you read, how you read it, and how you take extract value from what you read is a serious skill that requires honing throughout your life.