Reading is an essential part of human life. We keep it until the educational level. But to restart reading again and make it a daily routine, we need to choose the right one, as the famous Goldilocks rule suggests. For example, some books are good for beginners to keep the habit longer, while others are good for in-depth details, etc. with respect to the way the contents are represented. Each one of these books came out after a lot of hard work, research and experience in different domains, so we aren’t critics of the content.

Do you remember the first book that you enjoyed reading? And Why?

In our childhood, prior to the current digital age, one of the best mediums to track any international event was the newspaper. When newspapers were delivered in the morning hours, we used to collect them and take a quick detour of the sports section and hardly bothered about the other sections like headlines, editorials, business, etc. This section used to be the last or last but one page with cricket match updates, our country’s achievements in international sports, etc. with large pictures and different fonts. As we grew up, we moved from the sports section to the editorial section to improve our understanding of language with parents instruction. But It was not enticing because of the lengthy paragraphs with single or no pictures need more effort with concentration.

This is not related to our childhood behavior, but many researches proved that our brain like visual representation, stories, unlike long monotonous paragraphs after paragraphs. After reading some books, we categorize them into four types with respect to the representation & narration. Furthermore, we start with difficult one, then moderate and finally easy categories.

1. Monotonous:

These books explain a good deal of research and survey findings, contain a lot of data points (mentioned one example below), but are written monotonously with a similar pattern over and over in chapters. We have started some of them but have to finish as they need a lot of attention with focus reading. It is like the editorial section of a newspaper. If we have reading habit and looking for in depth ones, then this is the best category to pick up.

We can observe dilated pupils, when we are involved in complex tasks (using system 2) and pupils contract when we give up or complete the task. Let’s practice this: Take a random 4-digit number with different digits (2916), add 1 to each number without passing it forward. Observe your pupil’s size and output calculation (3027). — Thinking, Fast and slow.

Books:

Thinking fast and slow, Deep work

https://investonself.wordpress.com/2023/10/16/10-subtle-lessons-from-book-deep-work/

2. Highlight Summary:

Under this category, each book contains mainly four different sections with subsections. They highlight the summary of each section in the end one and beginning of next sections. It is advisable to go in sequence with chapters and corresponding sections as they linked one to another. When we reread the book, we get main points from one page summary, which ease the process by not going into details of each and every chapter.

Books:

Atomic Habits, The Power of Moments, Hooked

https://investonself.wordpress.com/2022/12/23/book-atomic-habits/

3. Short Tale:

These books contain many chapters, i.e. more than ten. Unlike previous categories, the contents of all chapters are short with some quotes, not interlinked or not sequential in order. So we can start randomly from any chapter. As chapters are short, easy to finish. If we are new to the habit of reading books, then this is the best category to start with as they are neither hard nor easy but help to sustain the habit.

Books:

Do Epic shit, Wise & Otherwise, The psychology of money, Who will cry when you die (My First Book of reading journey influenced by a colleague).

https://investonself.wordpress.com/2023/06/20/book-the-psychology-of-money/

4. Ease with Visuals:

The books under this category, contain a lot of pictures and diagrams which are almost equivalent to written paragraphs. Like previous categories, the contents are really short with real life examples and not sequential. We can finish reading the books in this category within some days.

Books:

Show Your Work.

This is our personal perspective and can be different from others. But we are open to know the types of book you read and tell us in which category they fit in.

If you want to know why we finish the boring movie in a movie theater, for which we bought a ticket?

Then click Key Behavioral Questions and Strategies.