10 Things You Can Do to Raise a Reader By: Reading Rockets Read from day one. Start a reading routine in those very first days with a newborn. Even very young babies respond to the warmth of a lap and the soothing sound of a book being read aloud. If you need you can buy reading materials here. https://linktr.ee/tranceprolibrary Share books every day. Read with your child every day, even after he becomes an independent reader. Reread favorites. Most children love to hear their favorite stories over and over again. Rereading books provides an opportunity to hear or see something that may have been missed the first time, and provides another chance to hear a favorite part. Send positive messages about the joys of literacy. Your own interest and excitement about books will be contagious! Visit the library early and often. Public libraries are great resources for books, helpful advice about authors and illustrators, storytimes, and more. Make visiti...
WHY AM I WRITING THIS?
I get some form of the following two questions a lot from readers:
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How do I pick what to read and consume?; and
Which medium offers me the highest ROI?
I found that each time I answer this question, no matter what I say, we'd inevitably end up on the question - books or articles? I figured there'd be a litany of writing on the topic and while I'm sure it's been debated over decades, I surprisingly found little to no writing that encapsulated how I'd address the topic. I typically hear individuals vehemently defend one approach or the other but never make the case for both.
I spend a lot of time reading and listening about successful people - CEOs, athletes, investors, politicians, etc. and one of the only surefire commonalities between them all is a voracious appetite for reading. Furthermore, a lot of the people I follow online and writers that I admire also read both books and articles prodigiously. To be transparent, from my perspective, there's a clear bias that reading long-form essays and books are more valuable than articles - and I’d agree. However, I don't think anyone has tackled the issue the way I'd like to see it presented, on the merits of both approaches - each of which has compelling arguments.
Quick disclaimer: I want to preface this post with the clarification that I am assuming readers are debating high-quality articles vs. books. For the sake of this discussion, I am bucketing shorter-form (<15 min), scholarly pieces, and long-form essays (e.g. Wait but Why, Ribbon Farm, etc.) as articles and excluding [Insert Buzzfeed Quiz] or [Insert Clickbait] articles, which are much lower value-add options. If you are looking for something to defend you from reading minimal value nonsense, that is absolutely fine but this post is not for you. I hope you one day find enlightenment in the form of astrology sign blog posts or quizzes that tell you what type of pizza you are.
Second disclaimer: This post does also NOT cover alternative mediums (e.g. podcasts, documentaries, academic papers) that I find are incredible resources for learning. If this post generates significant interest/dialogue from readers, I can expand to later include.
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THE BENEFITS OF READING IN GENERAL.
I shouldn't have to tell you, nor am I qualified to speak to, the scientific reasons of why reading should be so important to you but I felt the need to address some of the benefits upfront. Reading stimulates your mind, increases your vocabulary, introduces new viewpoints/perspectives, improves memory/concentration/focus, enhances your imagination, and will make you a better reader/writer the more you do it. Reading leads you to have more fulfilling conversations and lead a more interesting life as you explore the topics you spend time reading about. Reading ultimately helps you build an analytical mind and think clearly as it forces you to critically think about the world around you and constantly reevaluate your most strongly held beliefs and values. It can trigger new thoughts, lead to new insights and broaden your horizons. Reading is an activity that has minimal negative consequences and unlimited potential upside. In investing, we call that an asymmetric return profile - one that is imbalanced or skewed toward the upside than the downside. You might be like, “great, how incredibly boring of you” so let’s try this instead:
Warren Buffet reads 500 pages a day and estimates ~80% of his working day is dedicated to reading
Bill Gates read 50 books a year
In 2015, Mark Zuckerburg started a book club where he read a book every two weeks
Mark Cuban reads 4-5 hours a day
A self-made millionaire who studied 1,200 wealthy people and found they all have one — free — pastime in common: they self-educate by reading
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