3 ms·

Logistical part of reading 200 books a year seems like a bigger challenge than actually reading the books. I'm not sure I could find 200 good books to read. Bas

Logistical part of reading 200 books a year seems like a bigger challenge than actually reading the books. I'm not sure I could find 200 good books to read. Basically I would have to find new books at the same rate I read them. Also, I would probably have to pre-order a month worth of books and find a place to store them after I have finished reading. Then, of course, I could go to library, but that takes a lot of time, given that I'm reading most of my free time. Seems like a headache and I need to hire a personal secretary who would provide me with a steady stream of good books. EDIT: Just realized that there already might be some kind of service, that does just that. If not, it might be a good business idea.

alexhutcheson 7y ago
Tyler Cowen's "What I've been reading" blog posts[1] have been a great source of book recommendations for me. He reads an unbelievable number of books across a lot of fields and topics, so it's likely that you'll see something that interests you at least once every couple posts. Once you've identified interesting books, you also have to do some "triage" to identify what to actually read now. My strategy: Every time I find a book that looks interesting, I use Amazon's "Send a free sample" feature to send a sample chapter to my Kindle. Whenever I finish a book (or get bored with the one I'm reading), I'll flip through the samples I downloaded until I find one that holds my attention, and then I'll buy the book (or get it from the digital library if available) when I get to the end of the sample chapter. Goodreads also purports to provide book recommendations based on the reading list you've uploaded, but I haven't had good experiences with that so far. [1] https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/category/books https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/category/b...
antisthenes 7y ago
I think in the context of wanting and being able to read 200 books, they are way overrated. I probably read 200 books in my entire life, trying to be quite selective. Looking back on it, maybe 30-40% of them were worth my time. And the ones that changed my outlook on things and actually enlightened me? Maybe 10 books out of 200. I'm excluding pure textbooks here though. Reading books, for the most part, for most people is just another form of entertainment. Sure, it's probably better than social media.
cafard 7y ago
In some cities, you can use the library as this service. They will store the books before and after you read them, and often they will provide suggestions.
- nacs 7y ago
  Or the modern equivalent -- a Kindle tablet. If you have Amazon Prime they even give you a selection for free and then theres Kindle Unlimited, a subscription that lets you rent a ton more books.

alexhutcheson 7y ago

Tyler Cowen's "What I've been reading" blog posts[1] have been a great source of book recommendations for me. He reads an unbelievable number of books across a lot of fields and topics, so it's likely that you'll see something that interests you at least once every couple posts. Once you've identified interesting books, you also have to do some "triage" to identify what to actually read now. My strategy: Every time I find a book that looks interesting, I use Amazon's "Send a free sample" feature to send a sample chapter to my Kindle. Whenever I finish a book (or get bored with the one I'm reading), I'll flip through the samples I downloaded until I find one that holds my attention, and then I'll buy the book (or get it from the digital library if available) when I get to the end of the sample chapter. Goodreads also purports to provide book recommendations based on the reading list you've uploaded, but I haven't had good experiences with that so far. [1] https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/category/books https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/category/b...

antisthenes 7y ago

I think in the context of wanting and being able to read 200 books, they are way overrated. I probably read 200 books in my entire life, trying to be quite selective. Looking back on it, maybe 30-40% of them were worth my time. And the ones that changed my outlook on things and actually enlightened me? Maybe 10 books out of 200. I'm excluding pure textbooks here though. Reading books, for the most part, for most people is just another form of entertainment. Sure, it's probably better than social media.

cafard 7y ago

In some cities, you can use the library as this service. They will store the books before and after you read them, and often they will provide suggestions.

nacs 7y ago
Or the modern equivalent -- a Kindle tablet. If you have Amazon Prime they even give you a selection for free and then theres Kindle Unlimited, a subscription that lets you rent a ton more books.