A note on reading big, difficult books
Here&#x27;s the thing: most books, for most people, don&#x27;t <i>need</i> to be absorbed or understood in their entirety.<p>If you&#x27;re a professional in your field and ought to be expected to be able to write a similar book? Then sure, you should understand it 100%. But this is a very rare circumstance for most people.<p>For most books, the reality is that you only need to know the Big Idea and its main justifications. Or that, depending on your needs, there are a few additional details that might come in handy. But that reading the whole book a) really ensures you&#x27;ll remember the big idea and its main justifications, in a way that a one-page summary you might totally forget later, and b) lets you skim for specific details that might be especially relevant to you personally.<p>You shouldn&#x27;t generally feel guilty that you don&#x27;t remember enough from a book. You&#x27;re not <i>supposed</i> to. (Again, unless you have a very specific and necessary professional reason to.)<p>Fully understanding a book might take 100 hours. In that time, you could read 10 other books in 10 hours each and get the main gist of each. Which one do you think is going to be more productive for your life?