What Books Actually Taught Me About Reading Books

For most of my early reading life, I finished books and immediately forgot them. I could tell you the title and author. I could not tell you what changed in how I think.

I was reading for the feeling of having read, not for the understanding that reading could give me.

The Forgetting Problem

The problem with most reading is that we don't process what we encounter. We move through words too quickly, don't pause when something matters, and never return to what we've read.

What I Changed

I started asking one question when I finish a chapter: "What's the most important idea here, in my own words?" Not a quote, not a summary — an idea restated from my own understanding.