How to find good books to read?
Whenever I bring up the topic of reading books, this question almost always pops up. I used to wonder about it too in the past before I stumbled on a way. The concern is understandable. We all have limited time and most people don’t prefer spending this limited time reading books. Their preferences are different. But for those who want to read and who have a voice in the back of their mind telling them to read, the concern is genuine. What if we read a book and it turns out shitty and we just wasted our time at best or lose the interest to read at worst?
This same question plagued me before starting any new book a few years ago. But as I kept reading books that were seemingly random, I began to find out that I was enjoying almost every book that I read. It was very rare that I started some book and it turned out boring and I had to quit reading it. The choices were not random at all though. I was following wherever my curiosity led me. It was unconscious but I was figuring out a way to find good books to read. And then I came across a book called Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon. It is a tiny book with loads of insights which I highly recommend. And in the book, in one of the chapters, Austin writes:
Instead, chew on one thinker — writer, artist, activist, role model — you really love. Study everything there is to know about that thinker. Then find three people that thinker loved, and find out everything about them. Repeat this as many times as you can. Climb up the tree as far as you can go. Once you build your tree, it’s time to start your own branch.
That was like a Eureka! moment for me. I had been unconsciously converging on a similar idea for selecting books to read and this explained the process to me and made me conscious about it with a much better method. And once you become conscious about something, you can use it better and more often.
So following Austin’s advice, here is how I find books to read:
- I read some book by some author. I mostly read non-fiction nowadays. In that book, the author references many different books from where he got his material or he says something that piques my curiosity.
- I note down the books that I find interesting from the referenced ones and add them to my Goodreads “to-read shelf”. That is a very handy website/application to keep track of books.
- I note down mentally or on pen paper which things aroused my interest. I then look up the best books on that subject.
- I start a new book and it is Step-1 all over again.
This is how I have fallen in love with Biology, Anthropology, Astrophysics, History, Computer Programming and Entrepreneurship.
I cannot believe that I was capable of having interests in such a wide variety of subjects. My education system was really effective in stamping out my curiosity. Now that I have found it back though, I am hooked.
Keep reading!
If you want me to suggest you a book to read, feel free to contact me :)
