Reading a book vs. working a book

To be clear, we’re talking about non-fiction books here. Please don’t for a second think that I’m for “optimizing” the reading of fiction.

But non-fiction?

That’s another story.

Heh.

I took an excellent workshop today with Nick Milo (the Obsidian and Linking Your Thinking guy).

It’s called How to Work a Book.

It’s built on the idea that non-fiction books are tools, not stories. That their “point” is to help you understand concepts and broaden your knowledge base. And then to apply what you’ve learned to your life.

I loved it.

It helped me detach from the fixed idea I’ve held for so long that you have to read a book in one direction, front to back.

The mechanism for this ‘a-ha’ moment was the idea of scanning and marking up the index and table of contents. You do this before even reading a page to build context around the book.

From there, you can read linearly or pop around, zooming in and out, following the ideas that appeal most.

And if you get stuck or bored, you’ve got a place to go back to for inspiration.

If he runs the course again, I recommend it. If not, even the sales page has some useful big ideas.

By working instead of reading your (non-fiction) books, you might end up reading even more.

I’m working here,
James

Working Effortless by Greg McKeown (a topic for another day)