The best reading strategy I’ve come across is the idea of a wide funnel and tight filter. Be willing to read anything that looks even a little interesting, but abandon it quickly and without mercy if it’s not working for you.

Morgan Housel makes a great point. This is something I really struggle with.

I love the sense of achievement that comes with finishing a book, and that is only tightened when I feel I’ve completed something that was difficult or not interesting to me. But this is surely the wrong approach.

Also quoted in another of Housel’s articles on this topic, Mark Twain said, “the man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them”.

There are far too many books in the world to spend time reading poor ones, so if I am to find and enjoy the good books, I surely have no choice but to leave those not worth my time unfinished.

I need to work past my mind on this.

I need to stop thinking that just because I struggle with a particular book, it doesn’t mean I’m not educated enough, or dedicated enough to get through this otherwise clearly excellent script.

It just means that at this moment, for me, it’s not the right thing to read.

And that’s okay.