Too many books, not enough time
Tags: books, career, discuss
Published: 2019-11-21 20:51:12

---
title: Too many books, not enough time
published: true
description: Too many books, not enough time
tags: books, career, discuss
cover_image: https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/dxdofr18qm12iqt9iu3j.jpg
---

## TL;DR

> I had reached a juncture in my reading life that is familiar to those who have been there: in the allotted time left to me on earth, should I read more and more new books, or should I cease with that vain consumption—vain because it is endless—and begin to reread those books that had given me the intensest pleasure in my past.
>
> ~ Lydia Davis

How about instead of just adding more new books to our `read` pile (and even more to the never-ending `to-read` pile), we revisit our list of the books that we've read and in 2020 we not just re-read them, but study them?

## !TL;DR

### Quotes are great

> “The greatest satisfaction comes from mastering something that is truly difficult.”
> ~ Abraham Maslow

### A positive fact

All of us are readers in this group, and we had to go through a lot of content to find the one that’s valuable. We can think of that as a process of getting the **signal from the noise**.

### A sad fact

Even though we read a lot of books (and we may be looking into techniques to increase that number), we are not oblivious to the fact that there are just **too many books and not enough time**.  Moreover so, we realize that after a certain amount of books that we've read in a certain category, the new ones are just not yielding the same **ROI** (**I** being the ever so slightly limited time). Most of them feel like they’re rehashing the ideas and are just geared toward the ‘current’ generation.

### A little bit of math

Consider for a moment that we read 60 books per year (_A lot, right? Well, here's the [math behind reading 30 in a year](http://www.nikola-breznjak.com/blog/books/math-behind-reading-30-books-per-year/)_). What if, in 2020, instead of just adding new books to the read pile, we set a goal only to read 30 (half of that, so adjust your math accordingly, please). But with a twist.

### The twist and the ?

**What if we revisit all the books that we’ve read in our career so far and commit to not only re-reading them in 2020, but actually studying them**? So that we won’t just know ‘oh, yeah, I read that somewhere in the XYZ book,’ but instead we’ll have the actual book in RAM if you will (with UPS, of course). Sure, I’d reserve a slot for 10 new ones just in case 🙂

### For added points, please proceed here

I’d love to hear what you think about the idea presented above 🙏. And also, I’d like to learn what were the `signal vs. noise` books in your career so far? To not make this into some long list, let’s cap it at five books.

### So how about you, mister?

OK, OK, thought I’d get away with it 😎, here’s my entry:

- Leadership and self-deception
- Time management made simple
- How to win friends and influence people
- Think and grow rich
- Little prince

## Conclusion

One thing is definite: our time. Let’s use it as effectively as possible by reading the books that bring the biggest bang for the buck.