Is reading books over-hyped?

***Please note that I’m only referring to reading in the context of non-fiction***

“Reading is a powerful tool to sharpen the mind”, “Bill Gates reads 50 books a year”, “All successful CEOs read”. You’ve heard all these clichés before. However,is reading this game changer that pop culture claims it to be?

My thoughts on reading books

I read sometimes. I’d say I find it useful half of the time. One major issue I find is that there are too many books out there. They range in thousand topics and in one topic there are a million books. And many of the so called bestseller books nowadays are filled with mediocre information that can otherwise be summarized to a 5000 word essay.

But there are great books out there. You just need to do intentional searching to find them. And reading does train your brain to operate better in my opinion.

I think reading could be beneficial if you do it intentionally. The world moves very fast now. Time is very valuable and reading takes up considerable time. So you should make sure that allocating time for reading serves a purpose.

Should you read?

I think you should put more focus on the pursuit of knowledge than reading itself. There are many mediums that deliver good knowledge now. YouTube, blogs, streaming services and podcasts to name a few. There are downsides in each of these mediums but they each can serve in useful way in providing you with information you need.

Many YouTube videos and podcasts are inspired by information in books and research papers. So you are looking at a bit messy yet summarized and edited version of books.

And since I talked about the pursuit of knowledge-which can be an article on itself, just think about it. There are countless ways you can pursue knowledge every single day while going on about your day. You can talk with people about good topics, observe how people behave, look at news and think about how the society is operating, go to the supermarket and think about the supply chain network there. I can go on. But you get the point.

Pros of reading books

1. You get more time to think on the topics and internalize them
2. You can refer back to the book in the future if you need
3. It improves your cognition skills

Cons of Reading Books

1. Time Consuming
2. Mediocre content

Weighing in on the Pros and Cons

For me, the two Cons mentioned above have given ‘reading books’ a bit of a bad rep over the years. But this can be easily fixed if you research and find books that are suited to your particular requirement at the time. Once good books are selected the conversation changes. Then it can be very beneficial.

What do you want to explore

If you do want to read and see if there are benefits, find some topics that interest you. Watch some YouTube videos. Read a couple of blog articles. Get the feel of the topic. If you think you’ll benefit from diving more deep look into reading books in that topic. Because there are many things you just don’t need a 600 page book to figure out.

I recommend starting with topics that you can also relate to through your belief systems. So you’re not a complete alien to the information.

But most importantly find a topic that will match with your current lifestyle and mental state at the time. Make sure the content you’re reading and you internalizing the content does not affect your lifestyle in a negative way. This has happened to me a couple of times.

Always look at reviews and get other peoples opinions

If you want to start reading more often you I suggest you find some people who have similar interests who also read and get recommendations from them. Discuss with them about what the books contain, how it’s presented, is it more fiction than facts etc.

You can look at reviews at the Amazon Kindle store and goodreads.com too. This is good but better to speak with your friends as I think it can give a better context. Book clubs could also work but I personally don’t know how they operate.

Don’t just pick up books that you see on random lists on blogs and YouTube videos. You’ll for sure make some disappointing purchases.

Final Thoughts

I firmly believe reading is over-hyped in the sense that if you get on the hype just for the sake of getting on the hype, you’ll lose most of the benefits of reading. I know this because I have done that, fallen victim to it.

So if you want to read more, be intentional about it. Be aware about the quality of the content. Talk to people, get good recommendations. Just don’t do it for the sake of doing it. And a bonus tip, don’t believe every positive thing you see on the internet right away. Think about them and weigh in real pros and cons.