Mastering the Art of Reading: 8 Game-Changing Rules by Ryan Holiday ...

It's a collection of reading strategies taken from history’s greatest readers which will help me become a productive and effective reader. By following these rules, you will be able to set the right reading goals and become a lifelong reader.

Rule 1: Try to find your next book in the footnotes or bibliography of every book you read. This is how you build a subject knowledge base this is how you trace a subject back to its roots and the same goes when you find an author you love, read them all.

Rule 2: Good books deserve to be read multiple times. Reading once isn't enough. We are constantly evolving, so when you reread a book at a different phase of your life, you are bound to discover new lessons and gain fresh perspectives, and new ideas.

Rule 3: Stop reading a book if it's bad. The best readers really discard a large number of books. The rule is ‘one hundred pages minus your age.’ Say you’re 30 years old—if a book hasn’t captivated you by page 70, stop reading it.

Rule 4: Embrace serendipity. So many of my favorite books are just random things I grabbed at local bookstores and picking out books randomly by exercising my free will is a discovery engine better than any algorithm.

Rule 5: Build an anti-library instead of a library—a stack of unread books that humbles you and reminds you of how much you still have to learn. It's a sign of what you don't know yet. It's also a resource for when you need to do a deep dive into that subject.

Rule 6: Productive readers ask themselves a question before even starting the book; What do I plan to do with this information? When we read, we aren't doing so to impress others. It's to improve and find stuff you can utilize in real life.

Rule 7: Read widely and from people with whom you disagree. The Stoics thought that we should actively engage with everyone who can provide us with insight, regardless of origin. If there is wisdom to be had, we would be smart to take advantage of it.

Rule 8: If a book is good, recommend it and pass it along to other people. When you read a book that can change lives and perspectives or someone might be benefited from it, don’t just keep it to yourself, share it with someone.

When you share what you’ve read with others it multiplies your understanding of the concept. Not everyone will share the same perspective as you do on that topic and when you get to hear those different perspectives your mindset tends to grow as well in the process.