New Book Section

Introducing my book section 🙂

Every year I try to read as many books as I can. There are hundreds of articles saying that you should do it a lot to be successful, but that’s not why I do it. I want to be successful, don’t take me wrong, but I like to read a lot, so the more I read, the happier I am. It’s a habit that I’m developing this year, and you can check why here and how to develop them here.

With all of this in mind, I want to provide a place where I collect the books that I read from now on, so that you can take some ideas, be inspired and, who knows, find your next great book to read.

Define “reading.”

I have the main three ways of reading books:

Physical books – This is less and less frequent. I used to buy a lot of books. Going past a bookstore, I ended up buying one or two books that I liked, but all changed when I needed to make my first move. Carrying the heavy boxes made me go past bookstores fast so as not to buy them anymore. Besides, we’re getting to a point where ebooks are getting a lot cheaper than physical books
Ebooks – I bought a Kindle, and since then, most of my books come from there. I like that there are no interruptions; the screen is almost like paper (I keep my Kindle at 0 brightness), and it’s light and compact. No more caring boxes from one side to another (I still have my old books, but they will end up either donated or re-sold).
Audiobooks – I spend a lot of time commuting, so audiobooks are fantastic for these times. Also, running with an excellent book is a fantastic way to do two things that I love at the same time. And get a lot of reading also done since I can spend much more time listening to books.

Multiple Books

Another trick to read more is to read more than one book at a time. I recommend different genres so as not to get confused, but this can be super useful depending on your sate of mind. If you’re reading a dense and complex book, you’ll only read it when you’re well-rested and have the mental energy to spend. But if you also have a silly or fun book that doesn’t require much attention, then you can read that instead when you’re tired of going to bed, for example. Having multiple books for multiple levels of energy can help you learn a lot more than you expect.

Backlog

Always have a backlog of books. If you see somewhere a book that you would like to read, add it to your list of books, and then you won’t need ideas when you run out of stuff to read.

I have a virtual one on my Kindle and a physical one on my desk.

Note: Some of the books are in Portuguese, but if you find something that piques your interest, please let me know, and I’ll translate the title for you.

When you finish one, grab the next one in line and start reading.

A new section

My last post of the year and the first one of 2020 were all about forming habits and making things that you want to improve part of your daily life. Creating a book section is a new habit for me. Last year I read when I could, but now I’m making an effort to form the habit of reading daily in any of the mediums described before. So here’s the thing. I want to share those books with you. If I like them if I don’t if you should read them, etc. As soon as I finish a book, I’ll post it here with a spoiler-free small review and links to the book if you want to check it out for yourself. I read what I want, so I expect to publish all kinds of books here.

What about other stuff?

You may have noticed by now that I’m not talking about any other kind of reading like magazines, blogs, RSS feeds, etc. While I like them, I don’t have time to go over most of them. I tried to send to Pocket all articles I wanted to read, but it became more wishful thinking than something else. The list kept on growing without I read any of the items. I also listen to a lot of podcasts, but that’s an entirely different section altogether that is coming soon.

Want to contribute?

Tell me a delightful book that you’re reading and are enjoying. Or let me know a book that you liked and I should read. Just interact and comment below so that other people can benefit from it. I’ll think about a way to create a more organized way for everyone to interact but, for now, the comment section is available to you.

Want Free Books

There’s a fantastic community on Reddit that posts free books from multiple sources, but mainly amazon, where you can get amazing books for free. If you have a Kindle, this is a the community to subscribe. Do yourself a favor and go, once in a while, to this community and get your free books. Unfortunately, Power Automate doesn’t support Reddit (hopefully yet), but I use IFTTT to deliver the new books automatically to my Reminders list. Then I pull them automatically to Things 3 and parse them. IFTTT removed the ability to share, but you can create your own effortlessly by following the steps and get something like this: