I read 18 books in 2015. Here are some things I learned from increasing the amount I read over the past year.
- Speed reading is counter-intuitive. Reading something twice as fast doesn’t matter if you don’t retain the knowledge.
- Highlight and take notes while reading. After finishing the book, put it down and don’t touch it for a couple of weeks. Then come back to it and re-read your notes.
- Physical books > audio/digital books.
- Know what the book is about before starting it. Read reviews, read the back cover, read about the author. Your time should be spent agreeing/disagreeing with the author, not figuring out what the book is about.
- If you buy a book and start reading it only to find it’s horrible – stop. Time is more precious than the $15 you spent on the book.
My Top 5 Books of 2015
- Art of Plain Talk
- Confessions of an Advertising Man
- Man’s Search for Meaning
- The Unpublished David Ogilvy
- The Circle
Biggest take away for me was that anyone who is thinking clearly and honestly can express his thoughts in words which are understandable, and in very few. Also, writing/communicating poorly is an insult to other people.
Biggest takeaway for me was that no corporation ever got rich by underpaying their agency. “Pay peanuts and you get monkeys”. I also liked this quote – “Don’t let men write advertising for products which are bought by women”.
Biggest takeaway was the most important thing you need to keep going when everything else stops is something to believe in. The author survived the Holocaust/Auschwitz and gives his firsthand experience. Great quote – “After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord’s Prayer or the ‘Shema Yisrael’ on his lips”.
This book was so good. My favorite quote from it was – “Men die of boredom, psychological conflict, and disease. They never die of hard work.”
One of the only fiction books I read the entire year (and it was one of my favorites). It definitely has some nonfiction aspects to it (kind of like 1984). The biggest takeaway for me was to be cautious with how I use technology. It can be a double-edged sword.