Why I finish books
As most of you know, I love reading. What you may not know is that I have a personal discipline to finish any book that I start. Even if it is bad. There are books that convince me otherwise, but thankfully that doesn’t happen often. In fact, I can remember the last book that I gave up on, even years ago. A lot of times, the book will pick up speed (like my last one), or will at least have something of value buried in it that you won’t catch otherwise.
The downside to this of course, is that sometimes I end up enduring a lot of crap in hope of something of redeeming value that never comes (flashback to Simple Church…) The upside, as marketing genius Seth Godin points out in a recent blog, is that there are a lot of valuable parts of books, or movies, or sporting events, or even TV for that matter that you don’t get by skimming. Click here to read his thoughts on this.
And here is what I’ve noticed: it is the details that set you apart. Most people can summarize a book that they haven’t read (remember your English papers in school?) Most people keep up with the big ideas around them, but fewer keep up with the details that make the big ideas. It is these details that will set you apart. So don’t skim. And keep reading even when it hurts…