“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” — Harry S. Truman

“Man is what he reads.” — Joseph Brodsky

“Books are the mirrors of the soul.” — Virginia Woolf

“I am a part of everything that I have read.” — Theodore Roosevelt

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” — Mark Twain

書中自有黃金屋

“Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.” — Jim Rohn

“There are so many people who have lived and died before you. You will never have a new problem; you’re not going to ever have a new problem. Somebody wrote the answer down in a book somewhere.” — Will Smith

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.” — J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

Books are repositories of hard-won wisdom

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” — George R.R. Martin

Keep in mind that whenever you pick up a good book to read, you are taking an extensive journey into the mind of the author. You have immediate access to the greatest minds of the past and present, and can absorb decades of their toiling research and experience in just a matter of hours/days/weeks!

The amount of value you can get from a book is astronomical. You’ve got years, if not decades, of someone’s research compiled down into something that will only take you a few hours to read.

Reading is a conversation. All books talk. But a good book listens as well.

See also: Learning is the single best investment that you can make for your time

Naval Ravikant

“Never feel obligated to finish a book—treat it as a piece of information on the web.”

• Treat books as blogs and chapters as blog posts by roaming/stopping at will.
• When deciding what to read, just read whatever grabs you. When it stops grabbing you, put it down.
• Ruthlessly quit a book you’re reading whenever it no longer inspires/resonates you. (必要時要勇敢地放棄正在讀的書)

“Read what you love until you love what you read.”

“I skip 2/3 of my books. The reason I skip 2/3 is because they’re embarrassing. They don’t sound like good books to read. They’ll sound trivial or silly. Who cares? I don’t have to tell everybody everything I read. I read all kinds of stuff other people consider junk or even reprehensible. I read all kinds of stuff I disagree with because they’re mind bending.”

“The truth is, I don’t read for self-improvement. I read out of curiosity and interest. The best book is the one you’ll devour.” ¹

“I always spent money on books. I never viewed that as an expense. That’s an investment to me.”

“Read enough, and you become a connoisseur. Then you naturally gravitate more towards theory, concepts, non-fiction.”

One sign you haven’t done enough reading is if you find yourself agreeing with whatever book you read last. At first, it’s easy to be swayed by any reasonable argument. Once you’ve read a lot, you can see that even the best arguments have limitations.

“If you’re trying to learn how to drive a car or fly a plane, you should read something written in the modern age because this problem was created in the modern age and the solution is great in the modern age. If you’re talking about an old problem like how to keep your body healthy, how to stay calm and peaceful, what kinds of value systems are good, how you raise a family, and those kinds of things, the older solutions are probably better. Any book that survived for two thousand years has been filtered through many people. The general principles are more likely to be correct.”

Prioritize books that have stood the test of time

They are more likely to contain enduring truths.

• Do not read books in the same year they are published.
• Not all books are equal. Have a reading razor / quality filter for books. (永遠都有讀不完的新書，所以要慎選！)
• Use “The Lindy Effect” to guide your reading choices: a book that has lasted ten years will likely last ten more; one that has endured for millennia will probably endure much longer. Time is the ultimate filter for lasting value. (時間是考驗一本書能否傳世不朽的試金石。)
• Quake Books are books that have:
  • had the most profound impact on me
  • changed me at a deep level
  • “shaked” my view of the world → “View Quake”
  • opened up my mind to something new
  • given me many ’aha!’ moments

Reread/Revisit your favorite books annually (or at different points in the lifetime)

“Fools read fast. Geniuses reread.” — Maxime Lagace

• Quality Over Quantity: It’s better to deeply understand a few transformative books than to skim hundreds superficially.
• The beauty of a great book is that it changes with you. As you grow, your perspective shifts, and the same book reveals new meaning each time you return—what you see at 35 is not what you saw at 25. You will either find more resonance or pick up new ideas.
• A good book gets better at the second reading. A great book at the third. Any book not worth rereading isn’t worth reading at all.
• 好書重覆讀過無數遍後，文字就會：
  • 像血液般流入體內，深入骨髓。
  • 如魔音穿腦般，在腦中反覆迴盪。

Passive Leisure Reading → Proactive Information Processing & Extraction

“One should not read like a dog obeying its master, but like an eagle hunting its prey.” — Dee Hock

以終為始：Active reading begins with asking questions and seeking answers. Books are most useful when they solve a problem you’re facing now. The best book for you is the one that speaks to your current situation.

To truly internalize what you read, write about it. Highlighting or scribbling in the margins isn’t enough—you need to synthesize, connect, and get to the core of the ideas.

Reading without taking notes is useless. Smart readers synthesize and apply what they read—not to memorize, but to refine their worldview and extract actionable insights. (閱讀的目標不是確認舊觀點，而是拓展新視野。)

Actionable Tips

1. Use information dense areas ² or sight words ³ to fill/prime your brain with the relevant context/patterns.
2. Find IQ + AA = Insights, Quotes, and Actionable Advice

   • An insight (洞見、洞察) is a realization that changes the way you think, ideally changes the way you behave.

     “Insight is the smallest unit of truth that is actionable. If you cannot act on it, it is just an lifeless abstraction.” — Kunal Shah

   • 畫重點時，專注在讓你有「醍醐灌頂、腦洞大開、被敲到頭、觸電感」般感受的文字段落：

     1. 顛覆你舊有觀念、讓你改變看法及反思的句子：「原來還可以這樣想！」
     2. 能夠解決你當前困惑的觀點：「這正是我需要的答案！」
     3. 讓你內心激動或強烈共鳴的語句：「就是這個！」
     4. 引發新想法、啟發新思路的概念
     5. 簡潔有力的金句

Tangential Reading

Incremental Reading

• Meaning “reading in portions”
• Instead of a linear reading of articles one at a time, the method works by keeping a large reading list of electronic articles or books (often dozens or hundreds of them) and reading parts of several articles simultaneously in each session
• Similar to “Syntopical/Comparative Reading by Mortimer Adler, the synthesis of a certain idea/concept/topic drawn from multiple sources.”

Speed Reading (速讀)

• Unit: words-per-minute (wpm)
• Inefficiencies (to be voided/minimized)
  • Fixation
    • The positions where your eyes stop as you’re scanning a line of text
    • We don’t read in a straight line, but rather in a sequence of jumping snapshots (called saccades). Each ends with a fixation.
  • Subvocalization
    • The process of internally pronouncing the words in a text while engaging in silent reading
  • Back-skipping
    • Subconscious re-reading via misplacement of fixation
  • Regression
    • Conscious re-reading
    • Going back and reading the same stuff you just read
• How?
  • Begin/end each line focusing on the third word in from the first/last word
    • This makes use of the horizontal peripheral vision span/field that is otherwise wasted on margins
      • Untrained readers use central focus and spend 25-50% of their time “reading” margins with no content
      • 不要讀每一行的第一個字和最後一個字 → To reduce eyeball movements
  • Use a pen (with the cap on) or finger as an visual guide/pointer/pacer/tracker/indicator to trace underneath each line
  • Read words in chunks. Don’t focus on just one word at a time, but take in multiple words at once. The goal is to increase the number of words registered per fixation.

Read from books. Not read through books.

For non-fiction and self-help, don’t feel bound to read cover to cover. Jump around, follow your curiosity, and actively connect ideas across topics (主題式閱讀 Synoptical/Comparative Reading ⁴)—you’ll gain far more value than reading straight through.

But if a book is highly recommended or grabs you from the start, read it cover to cover. Some chapters may drag, but the real gems often come at the end—don’t skip the final pages.

The best reader with the best comprehension with the best focus.

Book readers tend to live longer than non-book readers. (Bavishi, Slade, and Levy 2016) suggests that reading books may not only enrich the mind but also extend life—giving readers more time to enjoy them.

Prefer “audiobooks” over “physical books”. Research shows that listening is a better way to absorb information.

「雜食」：It’s important to read unconventional books as well, not just New York Times Best Sellers.

To judge a book, open to a random page in the middle and see how you like it. I recommend page 87. Close enough to the beginning that it’s still written for a beginner, but deep enough that you’re well past the introduction.

Reach out to writers—whether bestselling authors or niche bloggers—whose work resonates with you. This helps deepen your understanding. Additionally, you foster real human connection and open unexpected doors to potential mentorships, collaborations, or friendships. Most readers remain silent, your gratitude will be rare—and memorable.