I largely agree with you on efficiency. For topics you're familiar with, papers and high-quality blogs are more efficient. Still, I like nonfiction books for a

I largely agree with you on efficiency. For topics you're familiar with, papers and high-quality blogs are more efficient. Still, I like nonfiction books for a few reasons: (1) Audiobooks. Sure, I definitely don't retain as much as reading a paper book. And many books are poorly suited for audio (books with lots of foreign proper nouns, books with tables and figures, etc). But I take time that would otherwise not be productive and turn it into learning time. Walking, working out at the gym, and cleaning house become a classroom. (2) Books provide context. Wikipedia works too, but a book is usually more detailed. I have a degree in economics, so it's usually more efficient for me to read papers than to read popular economic books. But when I want to learn about theoretical physics, I'll read The Universe in a Nutshell, not the most recent paper. (3) Books force you to meditate on a topic. Certainly, not everyone requires such concentration. For me, I remember more if I spend a few hours reading a book rather than < an hour reading a paper.