Let's make it clear that this is not a list of things you shouldn't read in any way.
First of all, anyone who wants to read has the right to choose what to read and what not to read.
Second, any work of fiction, even the great ones, that does not have any unusual plots or a variety of forms of language will have its connoisseurs.
Third, the lists of NOT recommended works provoke a much greater desire to read the books on them than the most carefully thought-out and meticulously compiled lists of recommended ones. And this is perfectly normal. Protest behavior is a characteristic of intellectual people, especially when something is imposed on them.
With this article, we will help you get out of the trouble of having to read something, that in fact, will just be a waste of time. You will learn to recognize the books that will take up more of your precious time than they give benefits to you at the moment. And we'll tell you what to do about it next.
Let's start!
Books That Everyone Reads
Is it worth wasting time on a book that everyone else reads just because everyone else reads it? In the case when this is the only reason that prompted you to take up this book, of course not. It doesn't matter what kind of book it is, a romance novel, a detective story, or even a new story by some famous writer.
If you don't like romance novels or think that its storyline opposes completely with the most dashingly twisted detective's plot that you enjoy, and do not want to overload your brain with redundant experiences, do not torture yourself, nothing good will come of it. Just read a few annotations to keep the conversations going and get the main idea.
As a rule, 3 to 4 reviews made by professional critics on a hotfoot, give a complete picture of the main storyline of the work. And if you read the last 2-3 pages of the book, you'll have a great opportunity to show off by inserting a spectacular quote from them. And, of course, you'll know, eventually, how the story ended from the person who suggested the book.
Thus, spending time reading an entire book just because everyone else is reading it is an unacceptable luxury according to all the canons of modern time management. We are not saying that you should not read it, but if that was the only reason you are doing so, just drop it.
Hypothetically, organizing the process of reading and time spent on selecting books should be the main goal of lists of recommended books. However, in reality, the opposite is often the case.
Recommended Reading Lists
This burden in the form of lists of recommended readings has been haunting us since school. Each student receives a long list of compulsory books to read in the summer plus a list of additional literature 2-3 times longer than the compulsory one. Only the most motivated excellent students can actually finish these lists.
Everyone else simply does not have time for this in the summer. The beach, bicycle, hiking to collect mushrooms and berries, playing football or volleyball, trips with parents to the countryside or, conversely, overseas, take away all the free time for the lists carefully prepared by teachers for reading.
This is generally correct because the summer months are treasured for the sun, the warm sea and river water, the warm air, and the energy that nature gives us. If you read everything that is assigned, you are just going to hurt your mental health, and in the truest sense of the word. Somewhen, of course, children have time to read in between the above activities. But how much of what they read linger in their heads until the beginning of the school year is another question.
Children traditionally solve academic problems as they arise. Good students read a literary critique of the work in question, while C-students simply shut down the learning process when it seems too tedious for them.
With the advent of the fashion for developing a corporate culture, lists of recommended books have begun to be practiced in many commercial structures. The subject matter of books usually goes far beyond the immediate job duties of employees and is usually a list of what the director or founder liked in different years of his life.
It is better not to quarrel with the directors and founders, so in this case, in addition to the abstract and annotations, it is worth studying the table of contents and brief conclusions of each chapter. In business literature, the main points are summarized at the end of each chapter or section, so that one can easily grasp the general gist of what is written, spending only a few minutes studying the material.
Then you will only have to think of where and when to insert ideas from the recommended book in a conversation with the director or founder. But spending time reading all the recommended literature "from cover to cover" is an unproductive idea. Of course, unless the recommended books resonate with your soul, and you read them with pleasure.
By the way, we can help you. We regularly produce book reviews on various topics, and you may find just the right book to read there. For example, you may not want to take the time to read Nine Good Books About Business right now, but you can get a general idea of them. Or to read all in a row "Books about motivation and for motivation," when you can briefly read the whole selection and, perhaps, choose one or two that will not disappoint you.
Books That Were Disappointing After The First Pages
Let's say you are determined to read all the latest works on psychology or marketing. Or you are eagerly awaiting the release of a new book by a famous author. Or sincerely believe that it is time to fill the gaps in the reading of classical literature, which often ignored in school years. However, after the first five pages of reading, there was an insistent desire to close this book. And after ten pages, that desire intensified even more. And after 20 or 30 it became irresistible.
There is no need to overcome anything. You just need to put this book aside and not jump to premature conclusions. You might want to come back to it in a year, two, or later. Perhaps, for your today's intellectual needs, such information is still useless. Or maybe you haven't gotten to this particular book yet. It could also be a failed writing experiment that resulted in a clearly unsuccessful work.
There can be many reasons why you don't want to read a book that you were enthusiastic about. And in this case, there is one way out! Put the book aside and try to return to it after a while. You don't have to waste time and force yourself to read it. This way of reading "by force" is not healthy nor effective, and after such torture, your brain will not process any of its ideas. Any book should be read at the perfect time and place to meet your objectives.
Books That Don't Meet Your Needs
Okay, so you have nothing against reading what others read. You are, basically, in for everything, and your lists of recommended readings don't feel repulsive. You are serious, assiduous, and never jump to conclusions on the first pages you read. You are demonstrating a willingness to continue to move through the maze of the plot or the arguments of a famous marketer on the principles of marketing. Still, at some point, some of the books you discovered don't seem interesting. They're not useful for your professional development or anything else like that.
In fact, anyone who reads a lot will eventually experience a "déja vu" effect. Maybe the collections of humorous short stories do not amuse you anymore. The newly published book on marketing does not contain a single fresh idea. And when you read the latest books on psychology a single question comes to mind: it's all so clear, why bother writing about it further? Note that in this case, it doesn't mean that in the collection of humorous stories, the jokes aren't funny, or that the books on psychology and marketing are written by unqualified specialists, who shared a set of platitudes.
The point is that you are already quite full with information in the direction you are interested in. That is why deep thoughts from highly specialized literature begin to seem banal, and standard life situations, even if they are deployed in a new way in fiction, no longer arouse ardent interest. Of course, this is not a reason to finish reading a book to the end just because you took it. This is a reason not to waste your time and get another book. It is quite possible that the next attempt to extract new knowledge from other works will be more successful.
Summary
So, there are four main cases when it is not worth wasting time on a book:
- A book that everyone read, just because everyone has read it.
- Books from the list of recommended readings.
- A book that was disappointing after the first pages.
- A book does not meet your needs.
And in order to not fall out of society and be ready to discuss a book that everyone has read or that is strongly recommended to read at work, a few reviews of professional literary critics are enough, plus an independent reading of the summary for each chapter and / or the last few pages.
Alternatively, you can master the techniques of fast reading, and then you do not have to spend a lot of time on books, because you will "swallow" them and at the same time easily memorize the necessary information. You can learn how to do this in our article " Fast Reading ", where we will tell you not only how to read quickly, but also how to assimilate what you read as much as possible.
And finally, I want to warn you against getting into "black" lists of educational, methodical, and reference literature. At the stage when you are studying at a university or college, mastering a new profession or improving your skills, you need to carefully study textbooks on all the subjects that you will have to pass, and learn to use reference books so that you can quickly find all the necessary information there.
Reading books gives you the very basic knowledge on which you can then build practical skills. Of course, theory without practice is dead, but practice without theory is no more viable, especially in today's high-tech professions. We sincerely wish you to come across as many interesting and useful books as possible, which give positive emotions and the joy of learning!
And as always...
Many thanks for reading.
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