If you’re anything like me, you have plenty of books you want to read but can’t find the time to start and finish.
Over the past three years my reading has focused on the dense, profound works of literature, philosophy, history, and the social sciences.
That’s been great for my self-education, but I recently felt like something was missing.
Back in college when I first started reading I read a lot of personal development, business, and spirituality books — Deep Work, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Carlos Castenada, etc.,
Some of these books really changed the trajectory of my life, gave me helpful new mindsets, and guided me through challenging decisions and life events.
They were solid life advice distilled into easy to read texts.
Somewhere along the way though, in my classic-oriented self-education, I started completely neglecting these types of books, to the detriment of my own personal growth.
The causes of this neglect? I’m not proud of most of them.
- Snobbery at anything coming close to “self-help” might’ve been partly to blame.
- Arrogance that I’d already figured all this handwavy and professional stuff out (which I haven’t).
- Assuming that the only true wisdom about how to live exists inside classic books (not true; maybe the hardest hitting wisdom, but also the hardest to extract).
The major reason, however, for neglecting these books was that I just didn’t feel like I had any time or mental energy in the day.
After 2-3 hours of reading history and a classic novel I usually couldn’t read other books in the personal development genres.
My neck was stiff, my eyes were tired, I couldn’t sit anymore.
Over these years I racked up screenshots on my phone of books people were recommending on Twitter, like Atomic Habits, Four Thousand Weeks, and everything by Ryan Holiday and Alex Hormozi.
But I just kept pushing them off, missing out on the lessons inside that would’ve surely helped me enhance my character, improve my business, and explore the spiritual side of life I’d been mistakenly assuming writing alone would fulfill.
Anyway, several months ago, I finally figured out how to integrate these “life advice” books back into my reading plan.
After being bombarded for years by ads and YouTube sponsorships, I signed up for Audible.
And now use the popular audiobook platform to listen to the easier reads on my list pretty much every day.
Instead of just reading 2 hours per day, I can read for 3 or 4 hours, listening to these lighter books as I do the dishes, take my daily walk around town, or lie on my back in bed.
I can read Don Quixote and Nietzsche for 2 hours at my desk, and then a business book for an hour while I’m playing Fifa 16 (recently dug out my old xbox 360 lol)
I had a 4-hour drive to Vermont last Thursday for my buddy’s bachelor party, and I listened to almost all of Alex Hormozi’s book The $100M Offers (playback speed at 1.25x).
Got through basically an entire book in one drive. Not bad.
Plus, I can listen to Fantasy Novels in bed with my eyes closed, vividly imagining the story as it’s being told to me, like a kid all over again.
With audiobooks, my information diet is varied.
I’m reading those books I knew I should be reading, without sacrificing time spent with denser texts.
I’m happier and growing more because of it.
Anyway, I wanted to share how Audible has helped me in my self-education journey.
If you think it might help you as well, they’re currently offering a 30-day free trial where you get 1 free audiobook (2 if you’re an Amazon Prime member).
Sign up here: Audible 30-day free trial.
Happy reading!
-Sam
P.S. I wrote an article on 7 ways to effectively learn from audiobooks, if that interests you.