I read 60+ books every year. AMA.
Why I'm Doing This
I frequently talk about books and reading, so I get a lot of DMs (5+ per week) from people who are curious about my reading habits.
Problem is, I don't like spending time answering one-off DMs. Especially when they're about something as dear to me as reading, where I'd love to put more thought into my answers.
Hence this AMA:
Ask me anything about book reading. I'll give my best answers and eventually I'll update the body of the post with Q&A content from the comments.
Live Updates
This is a lot more fun and challenging than I thought it would be, so I'm going to answer 3–5 questions per day for the next few days. Some of my answers are basically small articles. But since I've got a business to run, a book to write, and books to read… be patient with me. I promise not to disappoint.
The Adjacent Possible is where I share my most useful insights in bite-sized posts. One email per week. Many insights per email:
Go here for more posts in the series.
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Wow, 60 books a year, that is impressive! However, I'm curious about how you process and retain that much information, considering the limitations of working memory and the forgetting curve. Could you elaborate on any strategies you use? E.G. Spaced repetition, or a second brain?
As per Goodhart's Law, when a measure becomes a target, it can cease to be a good measure. In your case, do you ever feel that the goal of reading a certain number of books a year could detract from how much you gain from each book?
What's your key purpose for reading so many books? Are you aiming to memorize or learn specific information, use the knowledge in your writing, build mental models, or something else? What is the output you're seeking?
I don't have one key purpose ™️ for reading books, nor do I think it would be a good idea to have one. The complexity of solutions should match the complexity of the problems they solve. And we should learn to live with that complexity. I'll unpack this idea a lot further when I answer your question about Goodhart's Law — which, imo, is a very bad law.
Let's call my reasons for reading "the 5 Ps": I read for propositions, procedures, perspectives, provocation, and pleasure. Few of the books I read have all of these qualities, but most have at least two.
1. Propositions
To learn some general set of facts about a subject. Usually because I'm curious about a topic and suspect informing myself will help me in my work. The way I see it, every set of facts is also a messy set of instructions.
An example is How China Escaped the Poverty Trap by Yuen Yuen Ang. I picked it up out of curiosity and out of a nagging since that I should know at least something about China. What I came away with massively exceeded my expectations: a playbook for making something out of nothing; a good primer on the rules of economic growth and how nations can become exceptions to those rules; an inspirational and actionable case study in leadership; even a couple systems-theoretic mental models that I've applied to running IH. Arguably my favorite book from this year.
2. Procedures
To learn the specific how-to steps for solving a problem I have. For example, The Cold Start Problem by Andrew Chen.
3. Perspectives
To explore a new way of framing the world. Maybe out of curiosity. Maybe I'm stuck and want help solving what amounts to a nine-dot puzzle in my life.
For example, The Society of Mind by Marvin Minsky or Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse. These are often works of innovative genius and they're generally my favorite books.
4. Provocation
To feel motivated to do something. Sometimes akrasia gets you: you know what to do but can't get yourself to do it. So you go pick up a self-improvement book or a biography about a titan of your field that lights a spark.
I almost always have at least one provocative arrow in my book quiver. Currently I'm reading about Deng Xiaoping, the "needle inside a ball of cotton" who turned China's economy from a communist backwater into the fastest-growing economy in the history of the world. For me, it's not about ideology transfer. It's about energy transfer. Robert Moses is up next, then Frederick Winslow Taylor.
5. Pleasure
To feel good. Fiction does a good job of this but I'm a novelist so I usually read fiction for 1+ of the reasons above.
How I read a book depends on why I'm reading it.
If I'm reading a "procedural book", I'll expect a lot from the author, and if they don't clearly know more about the subject than me I'll discard the book immediately. But if they're legit, I'll take my time. I'll take a lot of notes. Sometimes I'll convert insights into standard operating procedures within my personal productivity systems.
But if I'm reading for perspective, say, I'll read with a lot more patience and open-mindedness. I'll also go quickly. More quickly than with a propositional or procedural book. Come across a new term or concept I don't understand? No matter. I just forge ahead and work out the bigger picture as I cover more ground. These are the books I'll re-read from cover to cover when they're really good. Usually more slowly with each successive read.
Etc.
Thank you for your detailed response. I'm glad you appreciated my questions; I'm learning much from our exchange.
note: I could ask many more - like your perspective on Andy Matuschak's 'Why Books Don't Work' or how you go about surfing vs delving knowledge - but I'm mindful of your time.
Your 5 Ps framework for reading resonated with me. Regarding Provocation, I find the motivation from books fleeting, but I see the potential of using this inspiration as activation energy for habit formation.
Reading explicitly for adding to your Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) is also intriguing. I am new to the idea of SOPs, but I am starting to wonder how this relates to complex vs complicated decision making domains.
Tangential questions-
Also, I assume the clockmaker analogy with SOPs relates to the relationship between procedures like higher-order procedures. So, do you have procedures that operate on other procedures? (I suppose this may be analogous to the strategy pattern in OOP.)
Also, how do you decide what goes into the SOP store, considering the trade-off between external storage and memory? Is there a meta-procedure for choosing which procedures go into your SOPs instead of memory?
Thanks again for your time.
Love that you make this distinction. It makes it a lot easier to reason about systems.
Yes. The simplest example is that I have a procedure for creating a new procedure.
To your point about higher-order procedures: I have plenty of procedures that consist of multiple subordinate procedures. For example, "within" my procedure for finding/selecting a book to finish by the end of the week, I have one subordinate procedure that guides me through the process of choosing the book and another subordinate procedure that guides me through the process of pre-reading — explained in this comment — the book I've chosen.
Memory doesn't figure into the SOP tradeoff for me at all. I'm free to ignore an existing SOP and just use my intuition instead (thereby reinforcing my memory of how to do it).
An SOP isn't something you have to use even when you don't need to; it's something you get to use when you do need to. Sometimes you're tired. Sometimes you're forgetful. Sometimes you're distracted. Sometimes you just don't feel like working. In situations like these, procedures are a godsend.
In my book, there's literally one downside to creating an SOP: time. It takes time to write these things. It takes time to keep them up to date. Time you could be spending doing the thing you're writing the SOP about. So I generally only invest time into developing procedures when the processes they document are somewhat "painful" (e.g. hard to remember, really boring, etc.) and recurrent.
The focus I place on retention depends on the reason I'm reading a book. If I'm reading for provocation (i.e. motivation), pleasure, or a new perspective on something, I don't fuss too much about it. But for books I really want to learn from, I have a pretty well-oiled system for processing information.
I'll break it down into two parts: Structure and Function.
Structure: organizing books in Notion
I'm a Notion power user. Especially in the way that I use Notion databases.
I don't want to get too nitty gritty, but tl;dr:
I add every book I buy to a Notion database called "Media Content", and that database is connected to 5+ other databases, including "Topics", "Quotes", "People", "Terms", "Ideas", and "Flashcards".
Ultimately, this network of databases is where all of my book-related information flow — i.e. archival and retrieval — takes place. That said, Notion is slow and clunky sometimes, so I also use Obsidian and ReMarkable to capture on-the-fly ideas when I'm away from my computer.
Function: my pre-reading, co-reading, and post-reading processes
To retain information from books (or any other source), you can't just read the information. You have to work with the information. I saw your mention of Andy Matuschak's Why Books Don't Work. And he's spot on. The latest neuroscientific data point to "4 pillars" of learning:
Books don't accommodate these pillars out of the box, so readers who really want to retain information have to design their own reading systems. My own "pre-read, co-read, post-read" system is based loosely on Mortimer J. Adler's insights from How to Read a Book from 1940.
Here's a tl;dr:
Pre-Reading Process
First, I add the book to my "Media Content" database in Notion, and I add the author to my related "People" database.
Second, I set aside 45 minutes to "pre-read" the entire book using the THIEVES method, the idea of which is to "steal" the gist of the book in advance. You can read more about it here, but here's a tl:dr of my modified version:
Co-Reading Process
It's very disruptive to take notes. Really kills the flow of reading. But sometimes you come across really powerful lines that give you an "aha" moment. If you don't make note of these lines or the insights prompted by them, you can lose them forever. Ideas are perishable!
So. Say I decide I want to listen to the audiobook version of a book while going for a walk. (I always buy books in every format: audiobook, e-book (via Google Play Books usually), and print.) Before I hit play on the audiobook for a session of reading, I make sure two other apps are open in the background: the e-book version of the same book and Obsidian, where I jot down random thoughts. That way, if I hear a great quote in the audiobook or if the content prompts a sudden insight in me, I pause it and a) highlight the quote in the e-book version or b) jot down the thought in Obsidian, respectively.
This sets the stage for future learning, but it also gives me tiny, real-time reps of active engagement with the material.
Post-Reading Process
After I finish the book, I go back through all of my notes and archive them in my relational database network in Notion. For each highlighted passage in the e-book, I'll create a page in the "Quotes", "Terms", or "Ideas" database and manually import the passage by typing it out on the page. In cases where this would take too long (e.g. I have dozens of highlights from a particular book or a few highlighted passages are really long, etc.) I'll simply paste them into Notion. But in these cases I try to use a memory technique I've personally developed called the "paste-and-edit learning technique." I'll write a full post on the paste-and-edit technique soon, but tl;dr: instead of pasting the original passage as-is, I first use a 3rd-party app to transform the text into lowercase letters. Then I go through and manually line-edit the passage to turn it to sentence case. The app — convertcase.net — is embedded directly into the templates for my Notion databases, so it's effortless to transform notes. (Here's a screenshot of me transforming the first lines of Wikipedia's Growing Pains article).
Sometimes this takes 30 minutes. But sometimes it takes like 3 hours and I chip away at it over a week or two. Not only is this a natural way to leverage spaced repetition, but the effort and friction involved in Notion data entry is a pretty good way to engage the neural circuitry for learning.
My "Flashcards" database is for stuff I want to really internalize and be able to recite verbatim. I set aside 5–10 minutes every day to review pages in this database as part of my morning routine. It's rare that a person, place, or idea from a book merits entry into my Flashcards database, but if this happens it happens during the post-reading process. I don't have time to get into the details of how I study flashcards or approach memory training, so let me instead recommend Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horseley.
Final thought on Andy Matuschak's "Why Books Don't Work"
From your latest reply:
I believe that everyone wants personal growth, but few can tolerate the growing pains that enable it. Likewise for reading. Everyone wants to go around quoting one-liners from books they've read, but few would pay the price of admission if they saw what people like me go through.
So my vote is to keep books the way they are. Let people enjoy the process of reading. Let them fool themselves into thinking they're retaining 85% of the information when in reality they're closer to 5–10%. Because the alternate universe — where books are designed to make people work for their knowledge — is a place where few people even bother trying.
I wanted to go on a long rant about Goodhart's Law (and I possibly will in a standalone post), but that's not really the point of your question.
No, my reading quota (1+ new book per week) doesn't affect how much I gain per book because I'm free to revisit books and dive deeper on subsequent reads.
In fact, Mortimer J. Adler's classic "How to Read a Book" explicitly instructs readers to superficially read books cover to cover before circling back to give the books an "analytical reading."
For my part, I'm usually reading 3–8 books at any given point in time. One of them is the one I have to finish by the end of the week, and I rush through it without stopping to smell many roses. But the others usually include a couple books I've already read and want to study, savor, or cross-reference.
Great questions.
Is it worth investing (purchasing a plan) from those companies that give you book summaries instead of reading 80% filler to get 20% knowledge? If so, if you tried any of those companies, what's your personal recc?
Maybe? Probably? But I don't know. I don't do it. Leonardo da Vinci once said "He who can go to the fountain does not go to the water-jar."
If a book devolves into filler, I discard it. Or burn through it in like 20 minutes and then discard it.
That said, I've considered signing up for one of those services for vetting books in advance.
My personal fave hack for vetting in advance: listen to a podcast from the author. They usually give away their best ideas and you hear it in their voice.
From there you can decide to go deeper or not.
100%. I've found some of my favorite non-fiction authors this way:
So since people are not really asking many actual questions I have three.
Do you speed read and if not why not?
Do you write in the books, take notes, highlight? How are you working to maintain the knowledge you consume?
Are there books you reread, if so what are they and how does one of those books work it’s way onto your shortlist of consistent study?
1 more to be cheeky. In the 3 pillars that generally could be considered the pillars of a happy life. (wealth, health and relationships) which books stood out to you/ had the biggest impact on those pillars?
I find your efforts inspirational. Thanks for taking the time.
Yep! I read multiple books at a time, but at the beginning of the week I choose a book I need to finish by the end of the week. Then I speed read that particular book throughout the week while taking my time with the others and savoring them.
I've considered writing a post about speed reading but I'm not sure how much interest there is in it. So I'll share my favorite technique here, cooked up by a guy named Kam Knight. It's called "space reading." Basically, you read the spaces between the words rather than the words themselves. There's a lot of theory behind why this works, but I'll keep it short and sweet. When you look at each individual word in a sentence, your eyes frequently and unconsciously fixate on certain words, even when this isn't necessary for processing the meaning of the sentence overall. This slows you down. Space reading nullifies this by leveraging your peripheral vision to process the words on either side of a space.
You can try out space reading right here in this comment. Check out the two paragraphs below. They're partial duplicates of the previous paragraph above. Try reading them by looking only at the dots between the words rather than at the words themselves. And try to go fast. In the first sample below, the dots fall between each word just to give you a taste. But in the second sample, they fall between every 4 or 5 words, which is how I actually do my space reading. (You get better with practice.)
I've • considered • writing • a • post • about • speed • reading • but • I'm • not • sure • how • much • interest • there • is • in • it. • So • I'll • share • my • favorite • technique • here, • cooked • up • by • a • guy • named • Kam • Knight. • It's • called • "space • reading." • Basically, • you • read • the • spaces • between • the • words • rather • than • the • words • themselves. • There's • a • lot • of • theory • behind • why • this • works, • but • I'll • keep • it • short • and • sweet. •
I've considered writing • a post about speed reading • but I'm not sure how • much interest there is in it. • So I'll share my • favorite technique here, • cooked up by a guy • named Kam Knight. • It's called "space reading." • Basically, you read • the spaces between • the words rather than • the words themselves. • There's a lot of theory • behind why this works, • but I'll keep • it short and sweet. •
Yes, I take copious notes. First off, whenever I buy a book I buy it in every format: audiobook, e-book (via Google Play Books usually), and print. Before I hit play on the audiobook while walking/eating/exercising/etc, I make sure two other apps are open in the background: the e-book version of the same book and Obsidian, where I jot down random thoughts. That way, if I hear a great quote in the audiobook or if the content prompts a sudden insight in me, I pause it and a) highlight the quote in the e-book version or b) jot down the thought in Obsidian, respectively. When I read print books and want to take notes, I use a ReMarkable e-ink device to take notes.
I don't usually take immediate action on my e-book notes. Instead, I wait until I'm finished with the book and then I circle back and paste most of them into a Notion database of book quotes. This is a sneaky way to leverage spaced repetition for better memorization while also maintaining the flow of reading the book (rather than constantly stopping to process text). Notion databases are a can of worms I won't open here. But I've got one for books, one for authors, one for quotes, one for topics, etc.
I'm very into complexity science and cognitive science. Four books I return to often are:
What they have in common is what I call "toolbox thinking" — they start from first principles in order break complex topics down into their component parts and forge a lot of new insights from the process. In other words, they turn black boxes into toolboxes.
Also, all of the authors are incredible synthesizers of great thoughts that came before them. So you can both learn from the authors' thoughts and double click into the thoughts of the thinkers who influenced them.
My personal pillars are different: 1) character, 2) connections i.e. relationships, 3) craftsmanship, and 4) contribution. And what I read and work on reflects my pillars.
But I'll play ball anyway! Grain of salt on "wealth" since it's far from a core value for me:
I love the reMarkable! I really wish they had a two-pane view for easier taking notes while reading books. Do you use two readers or just switch docs?
Same. Maybe they'll get there someday but I honestly have very few complaints.
TBH I have like four readers. I'm weird. When I'm reading a book, I want to have it everywhere, in every format, across all my devices.
My note-taking process is a bit complex. You can read about it via this comment.
Do you recommend Indiehackers to spend more time reading books, or working on their products & talking to customers?
Incoming boring answer: it completely depends on their situations.
Indie hackers are a pack of cards with different suits, and there's an ace in every suit. Book reading is one of my ace cards, but others who don't share my suit shouldn't chase my ace.
In this comment I broke down my 5 separate use cases for reading books. I think the best approach for others would be to start from those use cases and see if there's a match.
Come across any books with stories about indie hackers? I’ve read billion dollar app, levels maker book and lean start up but any others focussed on bootstrapping?
Yes: I highly recommend Company of One by my friend Paul Jarvis.
Here's a profile I did on him. He's as legit as they come.
Nice, thank you for sharing this. I decided this year to drop Netflix and other distractions and to start reading again. Goal is 1+ book a month atm. This article greatly inspires me. However, I've read your other posts as well and one question is popping up in my mind.
How do you deal with burn out? It looks like you are living quite a high performance life. Don't you at some point loose energy?
Suuuuper late reply here. Sorry.
By default I'm lazy, unfocused (ADHD), and very susceptible to games and shiny objects. This led me to many rock bottoms in my late teens and early/mid 20s.
Eventually I'd had enough so I became obsessed with turning things around for good. I developed a system for "scientifically" evaluating my performance, and brick-by-brick I tweaked the way that I do things.
At first (for 6–12 months), this process was painful, unproductive, and socially embarrassing: I documented just about everything I did; I wrote "standard operating procedures" that seemed overly rigid to casual observers; I turned down a lot of social engagements. But I knew I was investing in a process that would eventually yield worthwhile returns, and I was right.
I've been living this way for many years now, and performing well across different fields is almost effortless. This newsletter and another one (Performance Design) are where I plan to keep sharing some of the principles I've learned, and I'm also considering writing a book about it.
Is there a single thought, idea, or tidbit that has stuck with you over all the others from all your reading?
Yes: it is recursively true that every system you don't understand is made out of subsystems you do understand.
Understanding anything, then, is a matter of having the patience and grit to drill down to the parts you understand and then building back up to the bigger picture.
Do you finish all the books that you start?
I currently do but sometimes I feel I am wasting time on books I don't really enjoy/find interesting.
I finish about 95% of them. It used to be much lower, but over time I've gotten very good at vetting them in advance.
But to be clear: I strongly recommend that you avoid powering through a book you aren't enjoying. When people do this, they tend to build negative emotional associations with reading.
How do you decide what to read?
Multiple approaches:
Nice. Thanks for sharing!
The most valuable book?
This is tough. I'll give the book I believe is the most valuable to the general public rather than to me specifically, since people shouldn't chase my aces:
The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman
What do you do when you’re halfway into a book and not enjoying it? Power through and finish it or stop reading it and move on to read something else?
In my opinion, the impulse to power through unenjoyable books is the main reason people don't read a lot of books.
A line from Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Antifragile really resonates with me here:
I know: easier said than done. In my case, I read multiple books at a time. Always more than two. Never more than eight.
There's always book in the rotation that holds my interest, and I never feel bad "firing" a book when it starts to suck.
Congrats, that's pretty awesome. On top of everything plus distractions, how do you find the time to commit to reading 60+ books in a year?
In a different comment I mentioned that I break down that large commitment into smaller commitments like "Get to the end of 1+ book every week" and "Read 1+ page of a book every day."
This clause about "distractions" is really important. If I hadn't done so much work to design how I spend my attention, I wouldn't have time to read.
My list of tools and techniques for fighting distractions is extensive. Here's a taste:
That's wonderful. Your list of fighting distractions is important and explains how you free up time to read more. In addition to freeing time to read, you might say that you could replace "read" for other goals you want to accomplish.
When do you read? Do you have a daily habit, i.e. one hour in the morning, or do you just read as you go?
Do you read blogposts and articles as well? Do you treat them the same as books?
The sculptor Elizabeth King once said "Process saves us from the poverty of our intentions." Like her, I'm a creature of habit.
Every morning I go for a 20-minute walk to set my biological clock for the day. While I'm walking, I'm reading an audiobook.
Every afternoon(ish), I do about 20–30 minutes on my indoor bike to hit the goldilocks zone for exercise (~150 minutes of zone 2 cardio per week). While I'm biking, I'm reading an audiobook.
This is my baseline. I don't have to think about it. It just happens.
On top of this, I'll sometimes do a bit of "improv" reading when eating alone or taking a break between work sessions.
I read them but I don't treat them the same as books. Books are like water for me in that I won't go a day without them. Blogs are more like booze. If the situation calls for it, I'm game.
That said, I'm running a media company so I do find myself reading a lot of Indie Hackers articles and plenty of off-platform articles to keep up with industry trends, etc.
Thank you for the reply!!
What are the best books you've read this year that can help someone build an indie business?
There are plenty of books for funded startups or large business leaders, not so many for small, indie businesses. At least that's my feeling, I may be wrong.
I didn't read it this year but for your use case I'd recommend Paul Jarvis' Company of One.
Years ago I fielded a round table where I asked over a dozen successful indie founders about their favorite books re: business. Click here to read it.
If you want their summaries and reviews you have to go to that post, but here's a simple list of the books if that's all you're after:
I would personally add the following books to this list (in no particular order):
Love it.. thanks for sharing Channing.. I've read at least half of these.. Will jump to the other half now.. have you read Rob Walling's latest? I think that might be a great new book to read.
Are there any genres that you choose not to read at all? I have heard everyone has a not-todo list. Is there any book or genre that you choose not to read?
I'm very picky about fiction. Generally I'll stick to literary stuff with some occasional high-quality science fiction thrown in.
With non-fiction I'll read just about anything. Ironically I'm kind of over "business books." If a book presents itself as a "business book" it's probably too basic or general-purpose to solve the specific business problems I'm trying to solve these days. When I asked a bunch of successful founders for their favorite business books a few years ago (via this post), it came as no surprise to me that most of them answered with books that were only peripherally about business.
Since I think this question (made popular by Tim Ferriss) is a great filtering function:
What's the book you've gifted the most?
(Also in true IndieHacker fashion - shamelessly plugging my side-project NotionReads - it's perfect to keep track of all your books in Notion and you can generate a public page to share your bookshelves:
https://notionreads.com)
Probably "So Good They Can't Ignore You" by Cal Newport.
I spend about 10 minutes every day, I'm not a book worm as you can see, but I value reading!
10 is better than 0!
As a lit grad, I think that's amazing! We had to read 10 books a week at Oxford and i found it so unenjoyable - but today I'm finally getting back to loving reading.
How do you track your reading? Goodreads? I've recently discovered storygraph which i think is so much better.
What? That's brutal.
I do it all in-house using Notion databases. Check out this very long comment I left describing my entire process.
What would get you to read less and work on Indie Hackers more?
I would do this if I measured success in dollars. But I measure it in decades.
We'll build an empire little bro, just be patient.
What's your re-readable list? Books you've read multiple times and would read again?
I'm particularly interested in novels/fiction, but also non-fiction...
Nice, didn't think anyone would talk fiction. Here are some novels and short stories I've circled back on. Don't know what genre you like so I'll keep it diverse:
Novels:
Short Stories:
What are 5 must-reads for engineers turned Indie Hackers?
Would love to see an updating recommended reading list!
I don't remember you talking about this on your podcast, but given all that you have on your plate, what is your process for reading so many books in a given year?
From listening to the podcast, I know you're all about optimizing your time and productivity; how does reading fit into that?
A couple years ago I made two commitments related to reading, and I've honored them ever since:
Over the months I've figured out lots of tactics that make it easy(ish) to hit these targets. Two of my tactics, which I'll explain below, are to stack reading with other activities and read multiple books at a time.
Stack reading with other activities
Basically, multitask. This is probably the most important tactic. You can read audiobooks while walking, eating alone, working out, cleaning the room, taking the trash out, etc.
So in my case, I don't leave this up to chance. I've written about it before, but I break up my days into a few three-hour work sessions that are each followed by one-hour breaks. During the breaks, I do activities that allow me to stack audiobook reading on top of them.
Read multiple books at a time
This one intimidates some people, but for non-fiction books I highly recommend giving it a shot. It intimidated me too at first, but then I found it was surprisingly easy to hold the information in short-term memory as I moved from one book to the next.
Books are like school courses or blogs in this way. If you can jump from a science class to a math class to an english class in a single day, why wouldn't you be able to do something similar with a handful of books you specifically chose because you were interested in them?
Anyway, there a lots of problems this solves. The main problem is that a lot of people feel they have to finish a book once they start it, which is a terrible habit. Some books just aren't worth it. But when you put pressure on yourself to finish a book you aren't interested in anymore, you create negative emotional associations with reading and it can become a long slog.
Reading a diverse rotation of books — even if it's just 2 or 3 — nips this in the bud. First, there's always book in your rotation that holds your interest. Second, you don't feel bad "firing" a book when it starts to suck. And third, you don't have to add interesting book recommendations to a "backlog" that everyone knows you'll never get to. Instead you get to say say, "Ah, nice. I'll check it out tomorrow during my morning walk."
Thanks, Channing! :)
What kind of books? What was your favorite last year?
All kinds, non-fiction and fiction. Lately I've been diving very deep into neuroscience and complexity science.
I'll do two: one fiction and one non-fiction.
My favorite non-fiction book last year was probably How China Escaped the Poverty Trap by Yuen Yuen Ang, and my favorite novel was Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy, who just died last week.
Thanks! I've loved every Cormac McCarthy book I've read. I'll check that one out next.
Where did they DM you?
mostly twitter, sometimes linkedin, sometimes email
Sounds really good!
The purpose for reading many books it to enrich your knowledge and make your life easier.
TOP 5 advices from the books you read regarding indie hacking, startups etc?
I'm striving to be more like you! What kind of genres have you seen yourself reading more of lately?
One step at a time!
Complexity science and systems theory.
The more you read, the more you begin to notice patterns between different domains. Complexity science is all about breaking down the artificial boundaries we impose on the world.
A good 101 book on systems is Thinking in Systems. A couple examples of the "graduate-level" stuff that I currently like to wrestle with are Alicia Juarrero's two books on complex dynamical systems: Dynamics in Action (2002) and Context Changes Everything (2023).
Absolutely crazy number. A lot of the time I try to stop reading the book if I realize if its not worth keep reading. I was wondering if you do the same as well and if it helps to cover more relevant books? I firmly believe that not all books are for me even if they have a lot of the reviews.
Yep, if I stop enjoying a book I stop reading it
that number is insane to me. do you believe in re-reading?
I do a lot of re-reading. Rarely cover-to-cover, but I'll hunt down a quote here, a passage there, etc.
yeah, cool
What are your favorite fiction books of all time?
Tolstoy's War and Peace soars higher than all the others but since that's on every website about the best novels I'll recommend a few lesser-known miracles:
Form what I can read, I feel like booksbank would be the perfect project for you to get involved into!
Let me know if you want to have a chat and have any chance of being involved.
https://booksbank.co.uk is a free marketplace aimed at sharing/giving away books to people in your community.
Nice speed, however when we talk about books is not about quantity is about quality, both – quality of the book and quality of your reading comprehension.
I think a lot about both speed and reading comprehension.
Check out this comment to see the system I use for internalizing information from books.
Skimming some of the other comments it looks like you read a mix of fiction and non-fiction. What's that balance look like? I sometimes wonder if I should read more non-fiction (fiction books tend to be more "fun" for me to read). I'm currently mostly settled on the idea that it's better to be reading regularly than to worry too much about whether it's fun or learning - curious your thoughts!
This. I can name 101 justifications for reading whatever it is that I read these days, but the deeper truth is I do it because I love it. The second you strip out the "fun," your reading days will be numbered.
Wait… is 60 a lot?
According to my library app, I’ve read 240 books so far this year. 648 last year, and 547 in 2021. That doesn’t include Audible.
I try to read a diverse selection of hard sci-fi, business, psychology and behavioural economics, biographies, satire and essays, good fantasy (think Stormlight), and I try to keep up on the current popular zeitgeist, whatever that means right now. Basically everything but romance, though I’m not snobby if that’s your jam.
Favourite recent book for me was Project Hail Mary. I recommend that as an audiobook.
Note, this comment might seem like a flex. I don’t think reading 60 books a year is bad or not enough. I know that it’s more than usual! I just also don’t think it’s a shocking number to people who read a lot. When I first saw the heading, my honest first reaction was that you were looking for more books to read! 🙇♂️
First of all congrats! How do you read so many books? On average, I average about 15- 20 pages per hour, depending on the complexity of the book. Is there any techniques or useful tips you would like to share?
Thanks! Books bring a lot of joy into my life.
The main answer to your question is that I’ve leaned heavily into audiobooks, for everything that isn’t super technical. If there’s a downside, it’s that I don’t seem to listen to music nearly as much anymore and podcasts are, for the most part, not a thing. I have definitely prioritized books over other media, though I still watch too much YouTube IMO. 🤓
I listen during my bathroom routine, while I’m travelling, while I’m exercising, while I’m cooking, while I’m cleaning, while I’m soldering, while I’m buying groceries. If I’m awake and not coding or spending time with someone, I’m reading.
I listen at 1.75-2.25x speed, depending on what kind of book it is. Anyone can easily train up by increasing 0.05x a day, until you hit the point where you aren’t absorbing anything. I suspect that it’s different for everyone.
The primary enabling factor is a great set of earbuds. What I have found is that my comprehension at higher speeds drops precipitously as the sound gets further from my ear. This can only partially be fixed with volume. Your family will hate this/you.
Also, get a library account. They are very likely a customer of Overdrive, who make the Libby app. It is excellent. There’s simply no way I could read so many books if I was buying each one. I’d be far less likely to take chances on random finds; also, I’d be very broke.
I can see how you would cover a lot of ground by having a 2x audiobook going constantly (you must do it while at work as well? Is soldering your work?). Even so, 600+ seems really high.
We read similar stuff, and my average book length on audible is 18 hours. So even at 2x, to do 648 books in a year you would have to have a book going 16 hours a day. That would leave zero time in your life to do anything that requires attention, like post here, talk to people, have a job, or watch YouTube (unless you literally do have one on all the time and just half listen when something else requires your attention?). Or maybe you do a bunch of short stories as well and that gives you a little buffer? Still curious how you're managing that pace.
Fully reasonable questions! The short answer is that most of the books I read are simply not 18 hours long. Business books tend to clock in around 4-7 hours, maybe 10 for longer things. There are certainly exceptions (looking at you, Principles by Ray Dalio!) but most are more like 5.5 (I just checked Post Corona by Scott Galloway).
That said, it’s distinctly possible that the counts I gave are exaggerated because they include either renewals or books I didn’t enjoy and bailed on half an hour in.
But yeah, if you consider that I’m generally listening about 70% of the time I’m awake, it’s very likely that I’m doing 12 hour days, more or less. I recently decided that I needed a break from coding and started building stuff. So, while I’m often writing microprocessor code, it’s just as likely that I’m soldering, cutting, drilling or sanding. All things which seem to be improved by a great book!
I just finished 1Q84, the last Murakami I hadn’t read. I liked it; a bit slow in parts, and not as good as Wind-Up Bird Chronicles or Killing Comendatore… but even his weakest is still a wild ride.
Okay, it makes more sense now, thank you!
It's all relative of course. Saw in a nested comment you spend 12 hours per day reading, which explains the massive gap. I probably hover around 30–60 minutes per day.
What do you think of book listenning (eg. Audible) ?
If you were put in a situation you can't read the book, but only listen to it ? Would you still enjoy it ?
I love audiobooks. They're the main way I read books. Granted, I pause them frequently to take notes.
Good to hear.
I mostly listen to audio books in my car, can't take note sadly.
This is amazing, Channing! I gave up on reading in high school when I picked up a book I couldn’t finish. I’ve seen your tip on reading multiple books to avoid this and how you recommend we quit books that lull.
Thanks for this! Off to read before bed :)
Please recommend a book that will help me advance in my career.
Can you get more specific about where you are in your career? Or better yet: can you articulate a specific problem you're trying to solve? Otherwise it's too broad for me to offer a helpful suggestion.
Difficult Conversations by Roger Stone
How do you apply your learning from these books to grow Indie Hackers?
What are your top 10 books recommendations each on
Trial and error. Encounter a problem at IH, read info (sometimes from books) on how to solve that problem, try out what I read, and then evaluate the results. Rinse and repeat.
Well, let's start with one recommendation each and see how we feel afterwards.
"They're mostly children's and comic books and this is a picture of someone else's library I found on the internet"
jk!
I tried reading 60 books every year but gave up because I don't know how to read.
Wow! That's amazing
It's great to see your passion for reading Channing. How do you decide which book to read next? Do you follow a specific method or is it more spontaneous?
Multiple approaches:
Top 3 books?
Where do you go to find out about books you might want to read?
Are there any books that were/are helpful to you as you work on Indie Hackers?
Suggest me 5 books out of 60 the books that one should never miss.
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