I ruin books. I fold pages, I write in them and I underline. I take my time with a book. There isn't a time frame to finish. There isn't a number of books per year. Just a dedicated and conscious effort to focus, on the material. To linger on the works of the master thinkers. In 2023 the decision was to read less books, in quantity, and focus on quality.
To really digest the text in front of me. As Bismarck is quoted, "fools learn by experience, I prefer to learn from the experience of others." My quest in my reading is that. My mission in my writing is to share what I've found.
Zeno in the ancient world was a merchant and visited the Oracle of Delphi. He wanted to learn about the best way forward, in life. The Oracle told Zeno that a good life will come when he starts to have conversations with the dead.
In many ways, if we read a book old enough, we're engaging with a dead author. Maybe even engaging with dead ideas that have been put aside for newer, pop-culture trendy ideas. Even if the author is still alive, the ideas we get from reading the text are dead, until they live through us. Until we bring them to Life. Which is the most important part of reading, the application of what we learn.
I love physical books. I don't let anyone borrow a book nor do I borrow from someone else. I prefer new books, a clean canvas for me to create on the page of the book I read. It is through the pages I read that I get the ideas and material for what you're reading, right now.