Farnam Street
Mastering the best of what other people have already figured out
The 19th century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer would have recognized the problem of clickbait. In his essays, On Authorship and On Reading, he identified two types of authors: those who write for the sake of the subject, and those …
It happens all the time. You read an amazing book, one so packed with wisdom that you think it’s going to change your life forever. Then…it doesn’t. Why? Because when you’re finally in a situation where you could use its insights, you’ve …
The late Harold Bloom, literary critic and professor, may well have been one of the most prolific readers of all time. Given that, Bloom was uniquely well positioned to answer the question of why we should read and how we should go about …
Why is it that some people seem to be able to read a book once and remember every detail of it for life, while others struggle to recall even the title a few days after putting down a book? The answer is simple but not easy. It’s not …
While our system for reading 25 pages a day has been adopted by many of our readers and members to great success, a couple points have been misinterpreted. Let’s clear them up. Reading opens windows into other worlds. While most of us …
How many situations will you face that have not already been experienced by someone else? Billions of people, thousands of years … probably not too many. It’s been done. Luckily, sometimes those experiences are captured by history, …
We all have a feeling that literature is important. And yet many of us avoid the category altogether, feeling it’s a waste of time to pick up literature when we can learn so much more from non-fiction. Literature, however, isn’t …
One of our goals when reading is to find and elucidate the key sentences in a book. Independent of whether we agree with these key sentences, we first need to digest them — to capture the author’s meaning. This is easier in …
Every two weeks, from 2007 to 2011, Yann Martel sent a book to then Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper. Each book was accompanied by a letter telling the PM why he might enjoy that particular selection. Martel, author of Life of Pi …
During the Q&A for How to Read a Book, someone asked whether reading a lot makes us better writers. The short answer is yes. Reading and writing are two sides of the same coin. As Anne Lamott points out, the converse is also true …
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) might have been the original essayist. George Orwell before George Orwell. Montaigne was well-read, smart, critical, and possesed a tendency to write in a personal tone—with references to and reflections …
There is a Buffett & Munger interview from 2013 that we reflect on frequently. They discuss how they’ve leaped ahead of their peers and competitors time and time again: Munger: We’ve learned how to outsmart people who are clearly …
“All the books we own, both read and unread, are the fullest expression of self we have at our disposal…With each passing year, and with each whimsical purchase, our libraries become more and more able to articulate who we are, …
I love bookshelves. I love the physical act of having the books on the shelves to be looked at, admired, and remembered. When I was younger, I really enjoyed the library, and I still do. But I learned over time that for me to own a book …
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) remains best-known for Civil Disobedience and for Walden, a beautiful ode to simplicity and self-sufficiency. Thoreau moved into a cabin he built by Walden Pond to extricate himself from social life and …
One of the most timeless and beautiful meditations on reading comes from the 19th-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860). For me, reading has always been about our tagline: Mastering the best of what other people have …
Marginalia—those tiny notes in the side margins of a book—is a contentious subject. Some people view this as a necessary part of the reading process. Others view it as sacrilege. This beautiful excerpt from Mortimer Adler’s How To …
Francis Bacon once remarked, “some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” Reading and writing often go hand in hand. Reading is not a passive skill but rather an active one. One of the ways …
One year I read 161 books cover-to-cover. And that doesn’t include the ones that I started to read and put down. In the process, I learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t work. Here’s some of what I’ve …
“A book must be interesting to the particular reader at that particular time.” *** Theodore Roosevelt was perhaps the most well-read president. On a normal day, he’d read a book before breakfast with another two later in the day …
There are three steps to effectively taking notes while reading: At the end of each chapter write a few bullet points that summarize what you’ve read and make it personal if you can — that is, apply it to something in your …
Neil Gaiman, who brought us one of the best commencement speeches ever, chimes in on with a lecture explaining why using our imaginations is an obligation for all citizens. The correlation between illiteracy and prison growth. I was once in …
There is no question I’m asked more often than “how do you find the time to read so much?” or “how can I find more time to read?” Let me share with you how I find time to read, learn, and give myself an …
Improving what you get out of reading starts with choosing the right books. Most books are a waste of time. This article gives you two simple ideas that you can stop wasting time on books that you forget in a few days and pick the most …