These are excerpts from the author’s book “Deep,” which contains eight of his small books published in the form of Wisdom Literature covering different aspects of life: Facing troublemakers, dealing with pain, personal financial issues, gastronomy, reading, criticizing, inspiring, and feeling always good to go.

Series 5: Reading

Reading Cover to Cover

• There is no reason for you feel forced to read cover to cover unless you are going to sit for an exam and want to get full marks.

• In your reading in general, do not take upon yourself the need to finish reading a book that you are bored with and your only motive for reading it is an obsession to add it to the list of books you have completed.

• It’s important to go through the book quickly so you can better decide if you need to read it cover to cover or just read some chapters or parts of it.

• Reading cover to cover does not necessarily mean that you have to stick to the order it is presented. In many cases, depending on your need or mood, you can start from a chapter in the middle of the book and then go back to the first and jump to the end, and so on.

• The best books are not necessarily the ones that motivated you to read them from cover to cover. Rather, they are the ones that left a deep impression on you and kept inspiring you even with a single sentence.

• If you can’t read every book in life, why do you insist on reading every book that lies in your hands cover to cover?

• Even when you decide to read a book cover to cover, that doesn’t mean you have to finish it in one session or even in several successive sessions. Let the book take its time. Give it the attention it deserves, even if you have to intersperse your reading with a few other urgent or necessary readings.

• You can still cover what the book is intended for without reading it cover to cover. Learning to focus on the important parts by jumping over redundant paragraphs, or even jumping over the less important pages, is an important skill. But it needs the parallel skill of determining what should be skipped accurately and quickly.

• Even when you come back to a book you haven’t read cover to cover, it doesn’t mean you should read the parts you missed if you still think they are worth skipping. You can still then focus on what you liked and felt important for you and just reread it.

• The main reason not to read every book cover to cover is to save your time and energy for other readings that are more pleasant and beneficial for you.