Choosing your next book or knowing what to read can be challenging. We all know the feeling of buying a book and being super excited to read it, only to get 50 pages in and get bored.
This typically will cause you to put it down and never pick it up again. With millions of books already circulated and 600,000 new books being published every year, choosing one can be extremely difficult.
In this article, we are going to walk through 7 tips to pick the best books. By the end, you will be able to formulate a strategy that will not only help you pick great books to read but also make it so you finish.
What is your purpose for reading?
The first thing you need to understand is the reason why you want to read. Reading is discipline. Not many have the patience and discipline to read every single day.
Jim Rohn in the book The Power of Ambition says, “The first lesson on discipline, is that it isn’t the easiest option.”
Having a purpose for reading, whether it is for fun or learning, will ensure that you enjoy the book you are reading. This will also help you have the discipline it takes to do it every day.
Let’s face it. Reading takes time out of your day. In some cases, if you aren’t the fastest reader, it could feel as if you are never going to finish a book. Believe me, I was there. But once I decided the purpose of my reading was to learn as much as I could about everything, that is when my reading leaped.
So, make sure you know why you want to read. If you want to understand what your purpose should be check out this article The Purpose Creator Method: 4 Steps
book recommendations: People you know or Admire
Some days, I would just scroll through amazon looking at different books and would struggle to decide on which one looked the most appealing. In the end, it always ended in the same result. With me closing out the app and not buying anything. We don’t want that.
When I first started building my library, I only read books that were recommended to me. I didn’t know what I was interested in.
Anytime, anyone whether online or in person recommended a book, I would go online and purchase it. It got to a point where I was getting 2 or 3 books every couple of days or so. Now, I am not saying to purchase every book that someone recommends to you. You still must have a desire, or it must fit within your purpose of reading.
For me, it was just a way to start building a library because I was so new to reading. If someone you are talking to or someone you admire recommends a book, I would suggest purchasing it. If you are friends with said person, then they know you and odds are you will most likely enjoy it. I mean you are friends because you both have similar interests.
The same goes for people you admire. Like celebrities, influencers, your boss, and anyone else you look up to. You look up to them because you in some way shape or form want to be like them. To achieve that you have to read what they read, and learn what they learn. And do what they do.
Picking the books with the best Reviews
Now, if none of your friends read, then you may need to find new friends. Or you could be the friend that inspires others to read.
The next best thing to receiving a recommendation from a personal friend or someone you admire is to read the reviews of books. Typically, I will not purchase anything that is under a 3-star review and has less than 100 reviews.
This is my threshold and what I deem to be a suitable read. Now your criteria may look a little different. When you read more and more, you will start to know what books will be good and which ones won’t. Picking the best books will be easy.
But for now, just go based on reviews.
Picking the books with the right Page count
I can just see it now. One of your friends recommended a book. You go online, purchase the book and it arrives. Excited to dive in. You open the package and pull out what appears to be a book that looks like it has the entire world’s content in it.
It is absolutely massive!
You open to page 1 and start reading. You get about 50 pages in and it still looks like you have an eternity left to read. Little by little your confidence in being able to finish it diminishes. More and more time passes in between readings. Until one day it is 2 years later, and you find the book hidden in a cabinet and say “oh yeah, I never finished this book.”
That is a true story. The book that was found in a cabinet was roughly 350 pages but to me when I first bought it, was huge. Since reading was not my strong suit, 350 pages was a heck of a lot.
The first book that I read to completion, was about 200 pages. The more I read, the more I was able to increase that number and finish it promptly.
Pick books that you know you will be able to finish. The more you read, the more you will be able to increase the number of pages you can handle. Nothing detours people more than thinking they will never have the time to finish a book.
What do you want to learn?
Let’s first understand why reading was invented. “Around 2600 BCE, the cuneiform script developed, and writing became more versatile. It was used to document laws and narrate the deeds of kings, in addition to keeping records of transactions. In the cuneiform script, each syllable was represented by a different sign, and the number of characters one had to learn to be able to read ran into hundreds.” A Very Brief History of Reading – Sanjuti Patra
Reading was invented for kings to document their laws and the record of their lives. Kings wanted people to be able to read about their lives long after they were born. If a king could read and scribe, they would often boast about it, because it wasn’t something many knew how to do in those times.
In other words, reading was created for learning.
Now, reading is very widely accepted and taught to all children once they start kindergarten. Sometimes even earlier than that.
Nowadays, people don’t read to learn. They watch videos on YouTube.com to get the answers to their questions. There are no benefits to learning this way. Yes, you get the answer quicker, but do you understand it?
It would be like a doctor who watched a video on doing surgery and then 5 minutes later was in your chest cavity giving you open heart surgery. A lot of reading, memorization, and learning from past experiences of others leads to confidence in an operation.
There are many benefits for the mind as well when you read.
So next time when you are trying to understand something. Don’t think about what I can watch on YouTube to give me the answer quickly. Instead, switch your mind to think, what can I read?
Picking the fun books
Aside from reading books to learn new topics and new skills in life. Reading for leisure and enjoyment is also a good way to pick the best books to read.
Take out a sheet of paper and draw a line right down the middle. On one side write hobbies and on the other write down genres you like. Things like thrillers or comedy or maybe romance.
This will give you a baseline of what books you may enjoy reading. You then could search “books on knitting with a murder mystery” You can find a book out there for anything. Explore different topics and hobbies you have and see what is out there. Read the synopsis and if it looks good, then get it.
Book Generator
Lastly, right here on www.wakeandbook.com starting Feb. 1st, we will be launching a book recommender. This app will allow you to enter your favorite subjects or genres and get recommendations based on the criteria you entered.
This app will be linked to the ISNM database. You will have access to the largest book database on the internet right at the tip of your fingers. Subscribe to be notified when it is launched.
Conclusion
Key Takeaways:
- What is your purpose for reading?
- Ask for recommendations.
- Read Reviews
- Page Count
- What do you want to learn?
- Hobbies/Novels
- Book Recommender
These 7 tips will help guide you to your next great read. Now you don’t have to use all these guidelines. Figure out what works best for you and put them into practice. Now go out there and get some reading in.