Reading books out of order
Many books open at once, opened at whatever section fits your mood that day
Dozens of books stay permanently in progress. Instead of starting at page one and working through to the end, you open whichever book matches your mood and read the part that looks most interesting. Most books get a skim. A few get close attention. Some stay unfinished for good, and that counts as normal rather than as failure. The claim from people who read this way is that it removes the sense of obligation that stops most adults reading, so total pages go up even as the completion rate falls. It works badly for a book with a single argument built in sequence, and well for essays, philosophy and reference.
Who backs it
Sorted by strength of stance
- Naval RavikantDoes it
Angel investor · AngelList and the Naval podcast
Sequence plays no part in it. He opens the Kindle, finds whichever book matches his mood, jumps to the part that looks most interesting and reads that. The payoff, he says, is that it keeps him reading on a regular basis.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show transcript: Naval Ravikant“Based on my mood, I’ll flip through to whatever book matches my mood. I’ll flip to whatever part of it looks the most interesting, and I’ll just read that part. I don’t read in the sequential order.”
The Tim Ferriss Show transcript: Naval Ravikant (opens in a new tab) · 2 May 2016
Aimed at the same thing
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Habit entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.