using your books

When you read, to maximize what you learn: immediately after reading a book write down “ten things I learned”. Else, you won’t remember more than 1 or 2 things at best from the book.

Review books, or write about books you read. In the same mind as keeping an archive of your path, and as a counter to the ‘letting it all wash over you as you go’ mode, taking the time to think effectively about a particular text or series of texts, whether you loved it or not, can be extremely instructive for your own approaches.

-Don’t just build a library, build an anti-library—a stack of unread books that humbles you and reminds you just how much there is still to learn. It’s a sign of what you don’t yet know. It’s also a resource there whenever you might need to do a deep dive into that topic.

Keep track of your progress. I’ve been keeping a list of every book I read since 2001, and I feel great every time I add a title to the current year, whether I loved it or not. In more dedicated times, I made a point to write brief notes about what I did or didn’t like in a separate document as a kind of reading log, to help jog the memory when, as