Book Reading Goal for 2017
This year I’ve read 14 non-fiction and 10 fiction books. I’m not too happy with the numbers. For 2017, my goal is to read 2 non-fiction books per month, and one novel per month. I’m planning to choose my readings more carefully. I also aim to write a review of the books I read.
How am I planning to read 24 books during 2017? Last month, I’ve been trying Shane Parrish’s suggestion to read 25 pages a day. Let me tell you, reading 25 pages a day takes quite an effort. But having a concrete reading goal helps a lot to allocate time to read, and to measure progress.
For novels, I read for about 20 minutes before going to sleep. It helps me quiet my mind and disengage from work.
Why Read?
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of reading. More specifically, reading for undestanding instead of just reading for information. I’ve written about this before. Reading is a very effective way of standing in the shoulder of giants. As less and less people read books, reading becomes a real competitive advantage. If we feed our brain with mostly social media, news, and other shallow forms of information, we are training our brain for “shallow thinking”.
Below, the list of books I’ve read in 2016.
Non-Fiction (10)
Connect The Dots: Strategies and Meditations On Self-education, Paul Jun. link Steal like an Artist, Austin Kleon. link The Art of Possibility, Rosamund Stone Zander, Benjamin Zander. link Create or Hate. Successful People Make Things, Dan Norris. link Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill. link The Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth, James Altucher. link Managing Time, HBR 20-Minute Manager series. link Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl. link Never eat alone, Keith Ferrazzi. link Triggers. Sparking positive change and making it last, Marshall Goldsmith. link
Fiction (14)
I Am Pilgrim, Terry Hayes. link The Bands of Mourning: A Mistborn Novel, Brandon Sanderson. link Calamity (The Reckoners 3), Brandon Sanderson. link Mistborn: Secret history, Brandon Sanderson. link The Books of the South: Tales of the Black Company (The Black Company Chronicles, Book 2), Glen Cook. link The Return of the Black Company. (The Black Company Chronicles, Book 3), Glen Cook. link Water Sleeps (The Black Company Chronicles, Book 3 of the Glittering Stone), Glen Cook. link Soldiers Live (The Black Company Chronicles, Book 4 of the Glittering Stone), Glen Cook. link Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, J.K. Rowling. link In Real Life, Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang. link Gardens of the Moon. The Malazan Books of the Fallen (Book 1), Steven Erikson. link Deadhouse Gates. The Malazan Books of the Fallen (Book 2), Steven Erikson/ link Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson. link Seveneves, Neal Stephenson. link