- Thanks to The Great Courses Plus
for sponsoring this video.
You know, I should read more books.
It's something I occasionally
say to myself with a sigh
and then refresh Twitter.
Refresh, refresh.
Ah, sweet miscellaneous surface level
overly reductive hot takes on issues
about which I didn't even know I cared,
and I probably don't,
but I'm still doing it.
And I wanted to do something else?
I don't remember or care.
(lively retro music)
Refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh. No!
Because for the past several weeks,
I have actually been reading more books.
This is fake sweat.
How did I do it?
Good old-fashioned research!
I compiled a list of ways to do it
based on the things that I googled,
and now I'm going to
list that list at you.
How to read more books.
One. Why?
Answer this question first.
This is the most important thing.
The rest is basically just filler.
So you can go back to your Instagrams.
Why do I even want to read more books?
Do you need to read more books?
I don't think you do, but I want to,
so I need to identify why,
so that when I decide "Ooh,
I don't want to read,"
then I need to remember
my reasons why I should,
and so then I do it.
And here are my reasons, in this sublist
(victorious music)
One.
What is it?
Increase knowledge, duh.
You read stuff, you learn stuff.
♪ You read, you learn,
you dream, you learn ♪
True, you can learn stuff
on the internet too.
Like watching videos about
how to read more books.
Ha ha, meta joke!
Not all the information on
the internet is reliable,
but not all the information
in books is reliable.
But there's another
danger with the internet.
And that is that you're more prone
to fall down rabbit holes.
It's a danger with
working in a garden too.
More on that in my gardening
series that I will never do.
But the internet can pull
you in to learn stuff
you didn't even know you wanted to learn.
And then you're learning
more, and more, and more,
and then you end up in
a Russian prison, again.
Point is, the internet,
depending on how you use it,
can be a distraction filled cesspool
of trendy, hot takes
and superficial factoids
devoid of value.
My nickname in high school.
Whereas books are a focused
cesspool of pages and pages
of words around the same topic, usually.
And it's information that
you're actively seeking out
that will always be
there and not pushed down
by new stuff being posted.
If it is, then you might have a magic book
and you might be a wizard.
If so, stay tuned for my
series on how to wizard better,
which I'll never make.
Second reason I want to read more books,
a good book is really,
really, really, really good.
Now, my first love is movies,
actually, probably Popples.
Remember Popples?
For some reason, I really
liked them when I was little,
but next is movies.
But getting into a really good book,
which is more rare for me, is the best!
It's like it's being
made inside your own head
with your own words being
created in your brain,
or just happening in there
and blossoming into images.
You're a wordmancer.
Three, helps me sleep.
Yeah, I often have a problem sleeping.
Throw a good book in
front of me and, honestly,
this is just filler, I
needed to say something
after I listed the thing.
Four, it relaxes me.
Looking at my phone these days, it's like,
"Now, now, what's next?
Ooh, what's going on right now?"
And about reading a book, it's like,
"Yeah, these are the thoughts
of a person from a while ago."
It's nice.
Five, creative inspiration,
otherwise known as stealing ideas.
Six, a change in perspective.
A good story can offer you
an alternate point of view
from your own stupid worldview.
And there are many books
I've read that have taught me
some things that I've still
think about to this day.
Books like "Start with Why,"
"Decisive," "Fifty Shades of,"
There is the list.
Now I just need to remember,
this is why I'm doing it,
so then it will be easier
to do the rest of the things
on the list, which leads to number two.
Have a book everywhere.
Have them in your backpack,
eBooks on your phone,
audio books for when you're doing stuff
and you want to keep out the bad thoughts.
Carry books around the house with you
as you stumble in the zombified stupor,
like the oafish old man that you are.
And on coffee tables, nightstand,
day stand, poop stand.
All of this leads to number three,
read multiple at the same time.
What, more than one book? What?
Maybe that doesn't work for you.
Well, it works for me.
If you make them different types of books,
you can tailor them to
different situations.
Easy-breezy novels for
when you want to kill time.
Motivational nonfiction for
when you're having midlife crises.
Historical nonfiction for
when people are around
and you want to look really smart.
Nonfiction for when you want
to read about Indian bread.
(audience laughing)
- Pun!
- I've been reading Dr.
Aaron Carol's great book,
"The Bad Food Bible,"
while I've been sitting on the toilet,
expelling my bad food.
I listen to audio books
when I go for a run.
Read a book on Kindle when I wake up
in the middle of the night,
and I don't want to wake
Chyna by turning on a light,
so I use the light from the Kindle.
How many of you are going to
be saying that the blue light
might be keeping me awake,
but I don't really think
so because I lay awake
without it all the time too.
And I just have a book
next to me everywhere I go,
which is within this house these days.
I just finished "The
Splendid in the Vile,"
a book about Winston Churchill
during the bombings of London,
during World War II, so fun.
Now, after a week, I'm already
three quarters of the way
done with this book.
This is a high rate of reading for me.
When I started reading this book
right after I finished this
one, because number four,
have a book ready for
before you finish a book,
or whatever I wrote.
Yeah, that.
Having a book ready is
good because something,
something, filler, filler.
Number five, read little bits at a time.
This is very useful for me.
It's like that 10-minute rule
I talked about, but for books.
It could be like a one-page rule
or whatever length you want.
I think one problem I've
had is assigning too much
importance on books.
It's just a bunch of stupid
words on stupid pages
made from wood.
Wood!
Stupid.
I get to thinking that
reading supposed to be
some grand ritual like,
"Oh, welcome to the reading room, sir.
Here's your robe, your pipe,
your snifter of cognac.
Now sit back, relax.
As you immerse your soul
into literature, literature."
It's just a bunch of words.
You can just grab it, pick
it up, read a paragraph,
read a sentence.
The book police are not
going to come banging in.
They'll usually knock first.
Six. Don't be afraid to quit a book.
There's a book I should read.
Oh, this is what everyone says is good.
I can start that book 'cause
I'll forget about this book.
Sometimes it's a problem
because it takes a little while
before a book really gets good.
You know what happened if you quit
before you let it get good.
Nothing.
You just read another book. So what?
I'm pretty sure there
are other good books.
Let me check. I'm gonna google.
How many good books are there?
Oh, it turns out a lot.
Seven. Grab a book instead of your phone.
Here's what I've been doing lately.
"Oh, free time. Better grab my phone,"
and I'll go from my phone,
and then I think through,
what am I going to do on a
open up my phone exactly?
And I usually don't have
a good answer other than,
"I dunno, see what's going on."
Which is basically me saying,
"Hey phone, tell me what to do and think."
And then my phone is
like, "Sure thing, bro.
Think about everything all the time!"
Every time I grabbed a book
instead, I didn't regret it.
I don't lack any current
event information that I need.
And I get to read a book.
It's like gaining time.
Eight, learn how to find a good book.
"If thee yearnest to read,
thee must'th enumerate thine books,"
Shakespearean-sounding
quote, Craig Benzine.
This one was going to
be called make a list.
But then I realized that I
make lots of lists of books,
and I usually don't go
to them to read them.
So I don't know if that works.
But you can do a Google, go to Reddit,
find out what people like.
In the olden days we had
these things called libraries
that were open, that you
could find out stuff at.
One thing to be wary of
though, is when you do that,
you're going to find a lot
of people talking about
their favorite books, or
classics that you must read,
that you should read.
That's putting books up
on a high pedestal again.
Kind of makes the whole
idea of reading the book
less fun, when you feel
like you should read it.
Another thing you can do
is just find random books,
briefly read the back, and
if it sounds good, grab it.
One of my best reading experiences was,
I picked up the book,
"The Kind Worth Killing,"
from a bestseller shelf at an airport.
It was a best seller.
So yeah, a lot of people liked it,
but no one told me it was their favorite.
No one was talking about it.
I'd never heard of it before.
I read the back, it was
kind of a suspense thriller,
grabbed it, and I read it in a few days.
It was a wonderful experience.
No one told me to read it.
No one knew I was reading it.
It felt a little naughty and
also kind of felt unimportant.
So maybe that's why I read it.
It's not to say you
shouldn't read classics
or try out someone else's favorites.
But if you're always saying,
"Oh, I should read this,
I should read that,"
and then you never do read anything.
Maybe to get the ball rolling,
just grab some smut or something lighter,
or less important, or whatever.
There's my list.
It has been working for
me for the last month.
I'm more excited about reading now
than I've been in a long time.
So yay, I'm...
It's fine.
Sick those videos where they're like,
"Ooh, I read a book a day
and it's changed my life."
Maybe it has. I'm glad for you.
But you live, you learn.
♪ You dream, you learn ♪
Now I would like to thank
the sponsor of this video,
The Great Courses Plus.
It is way better than
the crappy courses minus
I've tried that,
turned out way worse than,
well, as bad as I expected.
But The Great Courses Plus
is the antithesis of the way
I described aspects of the internet early.
The distraction filled cesspool
of surface level trendy
hot takes and superficial
factoids devoid a value,
my nickname in high school.
This is where you can go
to get deep knowledge.
Full courses of lectures from professors
from top schools and experts from places
like National Geographic.
Technically not a place.
I mean, it does have offices,
but it's kind of an organization.
But you know what I mean.
They have over 11,000 lectures
on all sorts of things.
Math, science, history,
literature, how to play chess,
how to cook and "Everyday Guide to Beer,"
how to sing, which something
I obviously don't need.
(vocalizes)
This isn't just a bunch
of schlubby influencers
on the internet telling
you how to do stuff,
like this guy.
This is people who have been studying
and teaching this stuff their whole life.
Well, maybe not when they're
like 10, but come on.
Speaking of books, I'm
working my way through
"How Great Science Fiction Works,"
because sci-fi is usually
my genre of choice.
And it is incredibly interesting.
I'm learning how Mary Shelley
may arguably be the person
who started the whole
science fiction genre
when she wrote "Frankenstein."
And finding out about
a lot of new old books
that I want to read.
And this is going to be a great
resource for future videos
that I'm going to make.
Normally I'll find
articles on the internet
and people to interview.
And sometimes I'll read a
book and I'll do napping.
I'll do a lot of napping.
Dreams are a good resource.
But this is a better place to start.
Just good way to slow the
constant barrage of headlines,
a nice focused discussion
on a topic for awhile.
They're giving away a
free trial for just you.
If you go to
thegreatcoursesplus.com/wheezywaiter,
click the link right down
there in the doobly-doo
to start your free trial today.
And that is all video-wise.
I mean, for this video.
I'll make more videos later.
I'm assuming you continue watching videos,
and you may want to quit
and start reading books
after you watch this video.
Maybe I shouldn't have made this video.
You're like more life tips about stuff,
I have a playlist of
those kinds of videos.
YouTube thinks you'll like that video.
At Patreon, where you can support me,
I make a week daily vlog, a
video every single weekday,
in which I'm talking about
the things I'm working on
and my thoughts and stuff.
Subscribe, like, comment.
Read, read, read, read, read, read, read.
My dreams are a good resource.
