Monday, June 9, 2008

How to be selective about what you read, and why.

I have recently been rather busy, and I've been feeling like I haven't been having enough to really read the books that I really want to read. In the precious time that I do have to read, I want to read great stuff, soI've made some criteria, for selecting material.
I'll start with why. I've heard that the brain retains everything you hear, read, experience etc. and it affects us unconsciously. I'm going to try and find a link to an article, but until then...
If we retain every thing, then thats great for all the great stuff, but what about the bad media? We are retaining all that too! Thats not so great! So I've decided to be more selective about what I read and make sure I'm not retaining any junk!

So heres the criteria that I'm going to push a book through.

  1. Reputation. Do I know any one thats read it? Did they have favorable reviews? Even they didn't like it, I'll still ask if it was well written and if they think its well written.
  2. Did they learn anything? If they didn't learn anything, I will definitely reconsider if its worth reading.
  3. Relevancy. Is it relevant to where I am in life right now, what I'm interested in at the moment or whats happening in the world? If not, it may have to wait.
I'll likely keep refining this, but its just a basic idea. And this isn't set in stone. Just because it doesn't mean I won't read it. I'm just trying to be more selective, so that I'm only reading the best.

-Dan

2 comments:

Rain-girl said...

Mm, interesting! I've always chosen books by reputation and by what others learned from them(and if I think they sound really interesting), but I've never even thought of relevancy! I think I will have to add that to my book selecting criteria.

Unknown said...

Interesting, though picking a book that you learn something is awesome and I do that a lot my self. But it is definitely nice however, to find the whole another side of the universe to read something purely for joy.