There's a book on my shelf I've owned for 8 years and still haven't read. Tried twice. Bounced off both times. It just sits there, waiting.
Maybe I'll never be ready for it. Maybe next year something will click. Books are patient like that.
I forget almost everything I read
This used to bother me. What's the point of reading if I can't recall the details?
Then I heard someone compare it to eating. You don't remember every meal you've ever had, but that food still became part of you. You're nourished even without perfect recall.
Reading works the same way. The ideas integrate. The perspectives blend into how you think. You become a different person than you would've been otherwise - even if you can't cite specific passages.
So now I don't worry about retention. I just read.
The 30-minute rule
I read for about 30 minutes a day. Nothing heroic. Usually first thing in the morning with coffee, or before bed.
Some days I barely manage 10 pages. Some days I get into a flow and read for hours. The 30 minutes is just the minimum - low enough that I hit it even on terrible days.
This adds up to something like 25-30 books a year. Not a crazy number, but way more than I read when I was trying to read "more" without a specific system.
How I actually read
Multiple books at once. I know some people hate this but it works for me.
Something dense for mornings when I'm sharp. Something lighter for evenings when I'm tired. Something on my phone for when I'm stuck waiting somewhere.
I quit books that don't grab me. Life's too short. Good books are too abundant. There's no virtue in finishing something that's not doing anything for you.
I underline stuff. Fold corners. Take notes sometimes. These books aren't collectibles - they're tools.
The long game
I started reading consistently about 10 years ago. Didn't notice much change at first.
But looking back now? I think differently than I used to. Make connections I wouldn't have made. Have language for experiences that would've stayed vague.
Hard to attribute any of this to specific books. It's more like... the accumulated effect of thousands of hours spent in other people's thinking. That does something to you.
The anti-recommendation
I'm not going to tell you what to read. Those "top 10 books everyone should read" lists are mostly useless. Different books hit different people at different times.
Just read something that seems interesting. If it's not interesting, stop and read something else. Follow your curiosity instead of someone else's curriculum.
The specific books matter less than the habit.
If you don't read much: start with 10 minutes a day. One book that looks interesting. Permission to quit if it's not working.
That's it. No reading challenge. No public commitment. Just... books, regularly.
The compound effect takes years. But it's real.
(Currently reading: three different books I keep rotating between. One's about systems thinking. One's a novel. One's been on my nightstand for a month and I might finally finish it this week. Probably not though.)