Thread by @AlexAndBooks_

50 of the best quotes about books & reading from @naval: 🧵

“Reading is the ultimate meta-skill that can be traded for anything else.”

–Naval Ravikant

"The genuine love for reading itself, when cultivated, is a superpower."

–Naval Ravikant

"Read what you love until you love to read."

–Naval Ravikant

"Reading a book isn’t a race—the better the book, the more slowly it should be absorbed."

–Naval Ravikant

"If you can speed read it, it isn't worth reading."

–Naval Ravikant

"If they wrote it to make money, don't read it."

–Naval Ravikant

"I always spent money on books. I never viewed that as an expense. That’s an investment to me."

–Naval Ravikant

"If it doesn’t grab my attention within the first chapter in a meaningful, positive way, I’ll either drop the book or skip ahead a few chapters."

–Naval Ravikant

"I don’t believe in delayed gratification when there are an infinite number of books out there to read. There are so many great books."

–Naval Ravikant

"We live in the age of Alexandria, when every book and every piece of knowledge ever written down is a fingertip away. The means of learning are abundant—it’s the desire to learn that is scarce."

–Naval Ravikant

"Learn to love to read, and all human knowledge is available to you right now."

–Naval Ravikant

"A vacation is a very expensive way to schedule the time to read a book in peace."

–Naval Ravikant

"The truth is, I don’t read for self-improvement. I read out of curiosity and interest. The best book is the one you’ll devour."

–Naval Ravikant

"The smarter you get, the slower you read."

–Naval Ravikant

"Read enough, and you become a connoisseur. Then you naturally gravitate more toward theory, concepts, nonfiction."

–Naval Ravikant

"Listening to books instead of reading them is like drinking your vegetables instead of eating them."

–Naval Ravikant

"It's not about 'educated' v 'un-educated.' It's about 'likes to read' and 'doesn't like to read.'"

–Naval Ravikant

"No book in the library should scare you...You should be able to take any book down off the shelf and read it. A number of them are going to be too difficult for you. That’s okay—read them anyway. Then go back and reread them and reread them."

–Naval Ravikant

"When you’re reading a book and you’re confused, that confusion is similar to the pain you get in the gym when you’re working out. But you’re building mental muscles instead of physical muscles. Learn how to learn and read the books."

–Naval Ravikant

"Read originals and read classics. If you’re interested in evolution, read Charles Darwin. Don’t begin with Richard Dawkins (even though I think he’s great). Read him later; read Darwin first."

–Naval Ravikant

"I came up with this hack where I started treating books as throwaway blog posts...I felt no obligation to finish any book. Now, when someone mentions a book to me, I buy it. At any given time, I’m reading somewhere between ten and twenty books."

–Naval Ravikant

"If the book is getting a little boring, I’ll skip ahead. Sometimes, I start reading a book in the middle because some paragraph caught my eye. I’ll just continue from there, and I feel no obligation whatsoever to finish the book."

–Naval Ravikant

"There is ancient wisdom in books."

–Naval Ravikant

"Any book that survived for two thousand years has been filtered through many people. The general principles are more likely to be correct. I wanted to get back into reading these sorts of books."

–Naval Ravikant

"I have very poor attention. I skim. I speed read. I jump around. I could not tell you specific passages or quotes from books. At some deep level, you absorb them, and they become threads in the tapestry of your psyche. They kind of weave in there."

–Naval Ravikant

"Read books, avoid news."

–Naval Ravikant

“I probably read 1-2 hours a day, and that puts me in the top .00001%. I think that alone accounts for any material success that I’ve had in my life and any intelligence that I might have.”

–Naval Ravikant

"Assigned reading is propaganda."

–Naval Ravikant

"If you are the hero in the story of your life, realize that the best books and movies aren’t the longest books and movies."

–Naval Ravikant

"To write a great book, you must first become the book."

–Naval Ravikant

"Study logic and math, because once you've mastered them, you won't fear any book."

–Naval Ravikant

"Number of books completed is a vanity metric. As you know more, you leave more books unfinished. Focus on new concepts with predictive power."

–Naval Ravikant

"Reading a book isn't a race - the better the book, the slower it should be absorbed."

–Naval Ravikant

"Any book that can be easily summarized isn't worth reading."

–Naval Ravikant

"I don't actually read a lot of books. I pick up a lot of books and only get through a few, which form the foundation of my knowledge."

–Naval Ravikant

“The reality is I just read a lot that, by today’s standards, would be considered mental junk food. Eventually you just get to, like reading, you run out of junk food and then you start eating the healthy food.”

–Naval Ravikant

“Even back when I was broke and I had no money. I always spent money on books. I never viewed that as an expense. That’s an investment to me.”

–Naval Ravikant

“If I read a book and that I know it’s amazing, I’ll buy multiple copies, partially to give away, partially because I have them lying around the house.”

–Naval Ravikant

“I no longer track books read or even care about books read. It’s about understanding concepts.”

–Naval Ravikant

“I would rather read the best 100 books over and over again until I absorb them rather than read all the books.”

–Naval Ravikant

“That’s why I avoid the whole business and self-help category because you generally have one good idea and it’s buried in hundreds or thousands of pages and lots of anecdotes.”

–Naval Ravikant

“A blog might have 300 posts on it and you could read just the two, three, five that you need right now. I think you can think of a book the same way. Then that opens the world wide web of books back open to us instead of it being buried somewhere.”

–Naval Ravikant

“Feel free to skip around; it’s your book. There are books that I’ve literally started in the middle. I’ve read near to the end and then I’ve put it down...That liberation, that freedom just allows me to read.”

–Naval Ravikant

“We’re taught from a young age that books are something you finish...So we get this contradiction where everyone I know is stuck on some book. So what do you do? You give up on reading books for a while.”

–Naval Ravikant

“At any given time I’m reading somewhere between ten and twenty books...If the book is getting a little boring I’ll skip ahead. Sometimes I’ll start reading a book in the middle because some paragraph caught my eye and I’ll just continue from there.”

–Naval Ravikant

“I don’t really set these hard and fast rules for myself. The good news is I just love to read. Because I love to read, whenever I’m bored and I have time, I just do it.”

–Naval Ravikant

“Just like the best workout for you is the one that you’re excited enough to do every day, the same way I would say the books...to read are the ones that you’re excited about reading all the time."

–Naval Ravikant

“I think the most important way to read is to pick up a lot of books, start reading them all. Put down any book instantly that doesn’t grab you and you don’t have reading and just keep going until you find something that does speak to you.”

–Naval Ravikant

“I got over this idea of reading a large number of books...It’s a show-off thing, it’s a signaling thing...I no longer track books read or even care about books read, it’s about understanding concepts.”

–Naval Ravikant

“The great thing about reading is you can use that to pick up any new skill. So if you learn how to learn, it’s the ultimate meta skill."

–Naval Ravikant

"I believe you can learn how to be healthy, you can learn how to be fit, you can learn how to be happy, you can learn how to have good relationships, you can learn how to be successful….You can trade it for any other skill. And that all begins with reading.”

–Naval Ravikant

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Here are 5 bonus reading tips from @naval:

https://twitter.com/AlexAndBooks_/status/1260392438688026626