I take immense pride in reading books as a source of knowledge, started with fiction during my student days and switched to anthropology, technology, science and leadership during the last twenty years. I usually list down the books I enjoyed reading during a year as blogpost but did not do it last year as I did not read many books in 2022. The same trend continued in 2023 albeit for additional reasons. I will list out these reasons intertwined with my experiments and conclude with my learnings through this process.
- Time at work: During these last couple of years, I enjoyed spending a lot more time than usual at work. I addressed meaningful challenges by applying my past learnings from books and deep thinking aided by coaching that I covered in another blogpost. These opportunities for hands-on learning have been super satisfying, far greater than any book can offer.
- Audible: Due to a couple of eye problems that I was trying to figure out root cause, I subscribed to Audible to check if listening to books can be an effective alternative. I felt good about this option after listening to “Atomic Habits” but did not work for two subsequent books, so gave it up for now. I usually read books before going to sleep and keep aside my book or kindle when I can longer focus on content. But with audible, I did not know when I stopped listening and lose track of the book easily.
- OTT Platforms: The documentaries available over YouTube, CuriosityStream, Netflix and other OTT platforms provide latest and crisp content that are quite effective to acquire quick knowledge at a high level. I have explored these options for more than 5 years but have significantly increased reliance on them. In fact, some of the book references were from here.
- Difficulty with finding high quality books of interest: Finally, I am quite picky when it comes to books and go through multiple reviews before starting to read one. Having read most of the classics and contemporary best books in my areas of interest over the last twenty years, finding new ones is difficult. I don’t mean to be disrespectful to the numerous awesome authors who spend their lifetime writing books. Just that I am a slow reader who takes almost a month for a 300-page book with limited time at my disposal. With other compelling options to acquire knowledge having emerged over the last decade, I need to pick the best horses for courses so that I don’t become a dinosaur.
The books I read over the years have helped me become who I am today and am sure they will continue to play a key role in shaping me in future too. There were times in the past when I felt a sense of accumulating learning debt when I don’t read books for a few months at a stretch. However, I did not feel that way during the last couple of years due to my experiments covered above. Having said that, I want to read at least five books in 2024 to check what I missed during the last couple of years and will start the new year by compiling my reading list!