Are the unread books on your nightstand toppling over because you have no time to read them? Do you have an even longer list of books that are sitting right now in the ‘someday’ pile? Or do you start books and never finish them because you cannot focus? It’s not your fault. At the end of this blog post, you’ll learn about 5 things you never knew about reading books that actually prevent you from achieving your reading goals.
You know you need the information in the books, but they keep gathering dust. I help senior level executives, small business owners, and entrepreneurs to gather the maximum amount of knowledge they need in a very short time, so they can solve their most pressing issues and urgent problems. This will give you a leadership advantage.
Top Reasons Why Professionals Don’t Achieve Their Reading Goals
Professionals consistently tell me that the reason they don’t achieve their reading goals is primarily because they don’t have time or can’t focus. And a few months ago, the CEO of a membership organization mentioned to me that they started a book club for staff and it quickly fizzled because they couldn’t focus on the content of the books they chose to read.
I know, I know, the title of this blog post is “5 Things You Never Knew about Reading Books,” so you may be wondering why I’m talking about not achieving reading goals. I hear you, but the two are very much intertwined and you’ll see why shortly.
5 Things You Never Knew about Reading Books
- Publishers have word counts: This means that authors often have to add extra information to meet the publishers word count. Here is an example to bring this point to life. I was reading a book about Walt Disney, and the author had been going there since he was a kid and had visited the amusement park hundreds of times. It was his goal to one day write a book about Disney.
When the time was right, he sat down and wrote down everything he knew, which was 50 pages. This is roughly 25,000 words, however, the publisher wanted a 100,000-word book. That’s a big gap to fill. You can only have so many case studies and examples. You see the problem here? The book was filled with information that wasn’t important to your understanding of the text. More than likely you’ll lose your focus because most of the information is irrelevant to your situation.
2. Only a small percentage of the words on a page carries meaning: In the book, Teaching Reading as a Thinking Process, Russell G. Stauffer, who was an educator says that only four to 11 percent of the text on a page carries meaning. You read that correctly. The other 89 percent to 96 percent of the text provides context and supports the important information. How much context do you need to understand a book?
3. Treat each nonfiction book individually: This simply means that the way you approach reading a book depends on the book. This quote by Francis Bacon gives you clues on how to read books.
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few are to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.”
4. Nonfiction books aren’t meant to be read cover-to-cover: Think about the last five nonfiction books you read, and be honest when answering my question. Looking back, how many of those books deserved the time you invested to read them in full. That means reading every world. I'm guessing none of them. In my opinion, and others agree with me, most nonfiction books, especially business books, should have been a 25-30 page journal article. And guess what? Most of them started off as a journal article.
5. The 80/20 Rule does apply to reading books: In the context of reading books, the 80/20 Rule means reading 20 percent of a nonfiction book and understanding 80 percent of the text. But the trick is to know which 20 percent of the book to read.
Conclusion: 5 Things You Never Knew about Reading Books
Business Knowledge Accelerator
This post, “5 Things You Never Knew about Reading Books,” is the first installment in a series of blog posts on reading books. At the end of five days, you’ll learn effective reading strategies that will enable you to put a dent in your to-be-read pile of books.
And not only that, you’ll have access to all the information you need to use in business. Remember, you bought the books because you thought they could help you.
Before I end this article, I want you to start viewing nonfiction books as problem solving tools. You have a problem, and you’re reading books to find the solutions to your problems.
