📝 Book Time #26: How I Read (Aaron Gordon / Book Time). My process for selecting books is very different from Aaron's, but it's nice to see someone else's process.
Mine:
- I get recommendations from friends, colleagues, podcasts, and other books.
- I add them to a list (currently an Amazon Wishlist). I prefer digital books over physical books because I can make them into audiobook (at 4x) and they take up very little physical space.
- When I get to the end of the books I have in my queue, I sort the wishlist by price (lowest to highest) and buy everything under $5. That keeps me busy for about 3 months.
- I take all the books that I've purchased and sort them by the number of pages (lowest to highest). This is my new reading queue.
There are only a couple of exceptions for me to deviate from this order:
- My wife recommends I read something next, especially as it may impact our kids. This bumps the book to the top of the list (both for purchase and reading).
- I'm about to meet someone who recently published a book. There have been a few times where I got through their most-recently published book the day before meeting them. HT: Ramit Sethi who teaches the importance of being overly prepared for certain kinds of meetings.
I often get asked how much I retain from the audio versions of books. My informal tests show no more or less than most people when they read books. I don't remember every detail, but neither do most people. HT: Mike Masnick who introduced me to the idea of listening to podcasts at greater than 2x.