Quite a strange title isn’t it? Well those were my exact thought when I saw them in Ryan Holidays article titled ‘How to Read More’. And after reading further on it made quite a lot of sense, considering books are the only medium through which we can understand the values, beliefs and thoughts of those in the past. They may be dead, but their philosophies and memories live on in the pages of books – books we have access to, yet so many including myself ignore them with the excuse of “I don’t have time to read”. Ryan’s article disputed that argument, saying how it’s not the problem of finding the time to read, but instead making the time, because in the end no one is ever too busy.

Another point in the article that really resonated with me was the notion of studying a book, rather than simply reading it. It doesn’t matter if a person read five books in one day, if they never learnt anything from them. Time needs to be taken for one to fully understand and digest the text. I do this through small notes in my journal, highlighting the ideas that struck out. In the future, no one is going to remember every word from that book they read a week ago, but I sure hope they will be able to identify at least one thing that they found interesting.

Lastly, reading should not seem like a chore, it should be considered something as natural as eating Ryan says. We read not to boast about it, but to learn, to reflect, to seek advice from people of the past and some much more.

“It’s not something you do because you feel like it, but because it’s a reflex, a default.”