Reading fast, reading well, and reading widely (2020)
> People feel compelled to finish books they’ve started – that’s just a tax on your reading. Why would you do that to yourself? Imagine a world where any restaurant you tried you had to keep on going there for days or weeks, you’d hardly ever go out to eat.<p>I got this advice from an English Lit professor 20 or so years ago. His advice was: "Read the first 50 pages, if the author hasn't earned your attention by then, you can stop reading. You'll never read all the good books anyway, don't waste your time on the bad ones." A literature professor, mind.<p>It's among the top pieces of advice I've ever put into practice. It's liberating. I try to pass on this advice, but it's rare that anybody sees the wisdom there.