How to Get Value From Books Without Reading Them

I have more books than I could possibly ever read and I’m buying more every day. My friend Joe Vitale has so many books he’d have to live 1000 years to read them all. Does that stop him from buying more? Not at all. He buys more books in a week than most people will buy in a year. Far more. And Joe and I are not alone. Many others share this obsession. And of these, many are very, very successful. Others are on their way to becoming so.

But why would anyone buy books they’re not going to read?

I’m sure many are purchased with the intent of being read, but not all. Joe knows he can’t read all the books he buys. Yet he buys them anyway. I know I can’t read all the books I buy, but buy them I do. Others I know do the same.

And yes, I’m sure for some people this is nothing more than an addiction. Yet, those I am referring to here are doing it on their own free will and contribute much of their success to books. Even books they’ve never read.

How can that be? How can people get value from books without even reading them? I know of three ways. First…

I once asked Joe why he buys books he might never read. He said that even if he never gets around to reading a book it is worth having it in his collection. He said he likes surrounding himself with positive, inspiring messages. Even if he can’t read them all, just having these books nearby gives his environment an energy it wouldn’t otherwise have.

His reasoning is sound.

Several months back I removed the “darker” books from my office and placed them in a separate room. I now only keep positive, inspiring books in the room where I work every day. And yes, I have never even cracked open many of these books and yet I can literally feel their presence around me. I cannot begin to tell you the difference this one seemingly insignificant change has made in my productivity and peace of mind.

The truth is, books can affect our state of mind whether we open them or not.

Second…

The fastest, most reliable way to get value from a book without reading it is this: ask yourself what you hope to get out of the book, then go out and live as if you already had it.

What types of strategies would you hope to learn? What would they look like? How would you employ them?

What behaviors and abilities might you gain from the book? Would you be more confident? Would you have greater focus? Would you be more assertive?

How would you see the world differently after reading this book? Would you see others as more friendly? Would you have greater insight and understanding of others?

Whatever benefits you would hope to gain, place the book down, then go out into the world and live as if you already had them.

Be more confident, sensitive, focused, assertive or whatever. It can be done. I’ve done it a thousand times.

Before important meetings and phone calls I often spend a few minutes browsing the shelves in my library. I simply look at the titles and visualize having the ideas and abilities they contain. Without fail, I come away with greater confidence, focus and passion than I had just moments before.

Of course this strategy wouldn’t be appropriate for scientific or other technical books. But for many others (e.g. self-help, inspirational, relationship, business, etc.) it can be tremendously effective. Sometimes even more effective than reading the book itself. Really.

Here’s why…

Since most people who do end up reading books never employ any of the information they learn anyway, simply reading ideas doesn’t make much of a difference. But acting on ideas does.

Imagine them. Act on them. The results will surprise you.

And third…

Skim the book looking for the meat of the message. Browse the table of contents, the index, the first and last pages of each chapter and whatever else catches your eye. If you do this in a focused, strategic way, you can often glean the most important elements of any book in a matter of minutes.

So there you have it. Three ways to get value from books without even reading them. Now don’t get me wrong. People like Joe, myself and others who go through books like this do read many of the books we buy from cover to cover. Probably even most of them. And if we’re lucky, we’ll live long enough to read them all. But even if we don’t, we’re still able to get value from all of them. The trick is simply knowing how to extract it.

Posted on Sunday, October 02, 2005 at 09:57 AM

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