Title: I have read less than 50 books in my life and probably less than 5 books in the past 10 years.<p>Growing up with the Internet, I always assumed that everything could be found for free online.<p>I spend most of my day reading online articles&#x2F;conversations, watching videos, and listening to podcasts. I have thousands of non-fiction (mostly self-improvement) books in my reading list on GoodReads, but almost never bother to read any. I assume that the best part of the best books will surface in daily conversations, YouTube videos, CliffsNotes, podcasts, Reddit posts&#x2F;comments, blog articles, etc. I even find myself reading the comments and not reading the article most of the time. I&#x27;m fine with bullet point style summaries and don&#x27;t care much about the fluff that fills most books I&#x27;ve read in the past.<p>Up until recently, I didn&#x27;t think I was missing out. I thought that online content was roughly equivalent to 80% of what I&#x27;d get from reading actual books for 20% of the effort. I also thought that most books probably don&#x27;t age very well and that most of the bleeding edge stuff could only be found online. But I&#x27;m starting to wonder if that&#x27;s true. I&#x27;m starting to see people online mention that books are infinitely better than online content. I read that millionaires and billionaires read tons of books. I wonder if I&#x27;m missing out?<p>One issue for me is that books are a very big time investment. I read very slowly and I don&#x27;t remember everything I read either. The last few books I read were mostly filled with fluff, anecdotes, stories, jokes, and trivialities. Even if I wanted to read books, I just don&#x27;t know which ones I should start with, out of the 1000 &quot;must-read&quot; books in my reading list.<p>Are books worth it? Is it more true for some fields than others? Is it more true for older books? Isn&#x27;t most of the information from books freely available online? Am I missing out?
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