Stop reading Non-Fiction books
I see a race among people to read as many books as possible. Every interesting discovery and every research paper has turned into a book these days. There are thousands of books on just one topic — Focus. There are a million books on another topic — Happiness.
There are too many books on too many subjects with too little substance. We don’t have a book we can refer to in times of distress. A book we can re-read. Or maybe our distresses are too exaggerated and too short-lived. That’s why there are so many books and more coming out.
I haven’t read many nonfiction books in my life because I believe it adds zero value to my life. If your life could change by listening to clever hacks and methods it wouldn’t be so screwed. We have encountered many successful people in our lives, heard their journey of progress, and heard all sorts of advice, and yet if we have to buy a book on happiness then the problem lies much deeper.
Some people will swear that they have benefited extremely from an XYZ book. There is always a possibility of rare instances where a book full of advice helps someone. My essay is not about the book. The writer writes the book with the intent to pass on the best possible advice he has discovered. My problem is with the people who read it.
Some books provide specific knowledge, a unique insight that wasn’t discovered before. Such books are valuable because they can be re-read. These studies have left a major impact. Now think about it, how many books qualify for this criteria?
At this point the books are only useful to create content on social media. There is only a finite amount of knowledge you can absorb and a finite number of things you can implement from those books. Everybody’s reading the same set of books. Those who aren’t reading are in a rush to read those books.
We can learn a lot about our lives if we only sit down and meditate.
Stop with the madness of reading every book that comes out in the market hoping it will have new research to make you happy.
The books will keep coming out and you will always be in quest of happiness.