Recently someone said to me - rather than think of books as milestones to be completed, think of time spent with a book as a goal in itself, not a cost. This ap

Recently someone said to me - rather than think of books as milestones to be completed, think of time spent with a book as a goal in itself, not a cost. This applies to lots of 'improving' books. If you spend an hour reading one of the books the article cited, you've spent an hour analysing detailed arguments in biology/history/psychology. An hour on a technical book, is an hour considering the problems and issues related to using that technology. An hour with biography or narrative history is an hour imagining what it would be like to be someone else or live in a completely different era. An hour with a self-help/motivational book is an hour thinking about yourself and what you achieve or overcome. An hour with a book of argumentative reasoning is an hour trying to argue with the author in your head. And so on.