Read Less, Understand More: The Simple Power of Better Books
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
I was doom-scrolling through Instagram earlier this year when I saw someone humble-bragging about finishing their “100 books this year” challenge. And honestly? I felt that twinge of guilt we all get. You know the one: that nagging feeling that you’re falling behind, that everyone else is just zooming through book after book while your to-be-read pile gathers dust.
Every New Year, millions of people set ambitious reading goals. This year, I’ll read 50 books. I’m going to finish one book per week. Bookstagram influencers showcase their towering stacks while Goodreads challenges create subtle pressure to increase our reading count. Even online communities on Reddit like r/52book contribute to this frenzy, turning reading into a quantifiable race. We live in a culture that equates reading volume with intellectual virtue. The more you read, the smarter, more cultured, and more accomplished you must be.
But what if this obsession with reading more is actually undermining the very benefits we seek from books in the first place?
Philosopher and educator Mortimer J. Adler put it best:
“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.”
Don’t get me wrong. Reading remains one of the most powerful ways to gain knowledge, expand vocabulary, develop empathy, and engage with new ideas. The research on reading’s benefits is overwhelming.
The problem isn’t reading itself. It’s our modern approach to it. In our rush to consume more books, we’ve transformed reading from a thoughtful practice into just another form of content consumption. We skim rather than absorb, collect rather than connect, and ultimately remember less of what we read.
But if we’re honest with ourselves; how many of those 100 books truly stuck with us? Can you recall the key arguments from that productivity book you speed-read in January? Or the character development in that novel you blazed through on vacation?
But first, a caveat! There are two types of reading: reading for entertainment and reading for understanding. Reading for entertainment is primarily driven by the pursuit of pleasure and enjoyment, offering a passive escape into a story or narrative. Reading for understanding or knowledge, however, demands active engagement, requiring critical analysis and synthesis of information to deepen comprehension and expand one’s intellectual grasp of a subject.
I’m primarily talking about the latter kind of reading. There’s nothing wrong with reading for entertainment. Different modes of reading serve different goals, and no single style is universally superior. Reading for plot/entertainment is enjoyable and has its place.
There’s a profound difference between reading as consumption and reading as transformation. When volume becomes the metric of success, the actual value of reading (deep understanding, critical engagement, and intellectual growth) gets sacrificed at the altar of quantity. The person who proudly announces they’ve read 100 books this year has likely experienced less intellectual development than someone who thoroughly engaged with ten.
This isn’t an argument against reading. Far from it. Instead, I want to make the case for a more intentional approach: reading fewer books, but choosing them more carefully and engaging with them more deeply.
What I’m suggesting is something that feels almost rebellious in our “more is better” culture: read fewer books, but read the hell out of them.
By shifting from quantity to quality, you’ll not only retain more of what you read but also experience greater intellectual satisfaction, develop sharper critical thinking skills, and ultimately build a more meaningful relationship with the written word.
So yes, I’m arguing for reading less, but reading better. To become a truly better reader, sometimes you need to read less.
II. The Problem with Reading Volume
A. Information Overload in the Digital Age
Remember when we used to just have the local bookstore to deal with? Maybe a couple hundred new titles to choose from? Those days are laughably gone.
Now we’re drowning in content. Over 2 million books are published globally each year. My Kindle has 100+ unread books. My “want to read” list is so long I’d need three lifetimes to get through it. And that’s before we even talk about the endless stream of newsletters, Substacks (subscribe to mine though), blog posts, and Twitter threads all promising crucial insights we absolutely can’t miss.
This deluge creates a weird anxiety: the fear of missing crucial information, of falling behind intellectually. Reading has become a status symbol, a way to signal you’re intellectual and culturally aware.
Adding to this pressure are the influencers, productivity gurus, and business people who somehow read 150 books a year and make sure everyone knows it. Their Instagram is a carefully curated bookshelf, their conversations sprinkled with “I was just reading this fascinating book about…” Every January 1st, they announce their reading challenge for the year like they’re launching a NASA mission.
The “Goodreads Challenge” exemplifies this perfectly: publicly tracking how many books you’ve finished, with the implicit assumption that more equals better. It has turned reading into a competitive sport. And the only metric that matters is quantity.
“The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms
Nobody gets congratulated for spending three months with one difficult but life-changing book. The applause goes to the person who sped through an entire series in a weekend.
B. Diminishing Returns and Cognitive Processing
Cognitive research shows we forget roughly 70% of what we read within 24 hours if we don’t actively work to retain it. Your brain isn’t designed to process infinite information. The human mind has limits. The more books you consume in rapid succession, the less you genuinely absorb from each. This creates the illusion of learning without the substance.
Think of it like eating. One delicious meal? Amazing. Three in a row? You’re not even tasting the food anymore.
When I read three books in a week, I can give you plot summaries or basic arguments. But when I spend three weeks or more with just one book; reading slowly, taking notes, thinking about it in the down moments between working, cooking, waiting in line, folding laundry, or playing peekaboo with my toddler, then I can have real conversations about it. I can tell you how it changed my thinking, not just what the author said.
A couple of years ago, I binged 12 books on productivity. Now they’ve merged into one vague blob of “wake up early” and “use a special notebook.” If I’d read just two and actually implemented their ideas, I’d be far better off.
There’s a massive difference between passive consumption (where you technically read the words on the page) and active engagement (where you’re wrestling with ideas and letting them change you). The first is like pouring water onto concrete; the second is like watering a seed. One just runs off; the other grows into something new.
C. The Time Cost and Attention Economy
Every hour spent racing through a mediocre book is an hour not spent on something that might have a deeper or longer-lasting impact. Is powering through that forgettable thriller really the best use of your finite time?
When you jump from book to book without pause, your brain never gets to do the important work of consolidation; turning what you read into actual, usable knowledge. Information acquired rapidly through shallow processing rarely transfers to long-term memory or becomes usable knowledge.
Then there’s decision fatigue: that paralyzing feeling when you finish one book and face the mountain of options for what to read next. By the time you choose something, your reading time is gone, and you’re too mentally drained to focus.
Volume reading can subtly shape our habits in ways that discourage patience and depth:
- We skip difficult passages instead of working through them.
- We ignore nuance, reducing complex ideas to bite-sized takeaways.
- We train ourselves to value completion over comprehension.
We already live in an attention-fragmented world. Reading should be a refuge from that; not another version of the same problem.
Listen, I’m not suggesting you need to spend a year dissecting a dense classic like Anna Karenina (though if that’s your thing, more power to you). I’m just saying our “more is better” approach isn’t working.
We’re reading more than ever and understanding less.
Maybe it’s time we tried something different.
III. The Benefits of Reading Less (But Better)
A. Deeper Understanding and Retention
When you give a book the time it deserves, you start to experience it the way the author intended. You don’t just skim the surface; you dive in. You start seeing the layers, the nuances, the carefully constructed arguments or narrative arcs that are invisible to the speed reader.
I spent six weeks with Emily Wilson’s translation of Homer’s The Odyssey this past winter. I read it slowly, sometimes just a few pages a day. It revealed Odysseus not just as a legendary hero but as a deeply flawed man. Wilson’s choice of clear, direct language stripped away the epic’s grandeur and made it startlingly human. That book lives in me now in a way no quick read ever could.
Reading slowly and deliberately activates different cognitive processes. When you slow down, you create space for your brain to make connections. You start linking what you’re reading to other books, to your own experiences, to the wider world. That’s when reading becomes transformative rather than just informative.
Studies in cognitive psychology confirm that deeper processing leads to significantly improved long-term retention. According to research on the “spacing effect,” spreading your reading over time dramatically improves retention compared to cramming. Neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf explains that deep reading activates regions in the brain associated with empathy, analysis, and reflection, processes that simply don’t engage when we skim. The book that changes your life isn’t the one you rushed through, but the one you wrestled with, questioned, and ultimately internalized.
I used to forget 80% of a book within a week. Now I find myself accurately referencing ideas from books I read months ago. Not because I have a better memory, but because I gave those ideas the mental space to take root. Without the pressure to move to the next book, you create space for the essential components of learning: reflection, analysis, and synthesis.
B. Enhanced Critical Thinking
The uncomfortable truth about speed reading? It makes you passive. You absorb what the author says without time to question, challenge, or evaluate.
Slow reading strengthens your “reading muscles.” It allows you to pause and ask, Does this argument actually hold up? or Is the evidence supporting this claim as strong as the author suggests? You start noticing the holes, logical leaps, and gaps in reasoning.
Reading fewer books with greater attention helps you develop independent thought rather than simply collecting others’ opinions. You begin to recognize patterns across different works, understand contradictions, and form your own intellectual framework. Instead of piling up disconnected ideas, you build something coherent, something uniquely yours.
And there’s a wonderful thing that happens when you deeply engage with a smaller number of texts: you start seeing the conversations between them. You notice how one author responds to another, where they align, where they clash. You begin reading not just books, but ideas in dialogue with each other; something impossible if you’re racing through.
C. Increased Intellectual Satisfaction
A book that truly impacts you will shift your perspective, influence your decisions, or linger in your mind long after you’ve turned the last page.
When you engage deeply, you internalize ways of thinking. You find yourself using the author’s framework to make better decisions. You catch yourself considering a character’s perspective when facing a moral dilemma. You start seeing patterns in the world you never noticed before because a writer gave you a new lens.
A book that changes how you make decisions, view relationships, or understand yourself provides infinitely more value than dozens skimmed and forgotten.
That’s the difference between reading as consumption and reading as transformation. One leaves you with a longer Goodreads list; the other leaves you changed.
D. Better Book Selection Skills
Committing to reading less but better has a side effect: you become pickier. And that’s a good thing.
You start developing a nose for quality. You begin recognizing the difference between books written to capitalize on trends and those written because the author had something genuine to say. Between thinly disguised TED talks stretched to 300 pages and ideas that actually required a book’s worth of exploration.
You become increasingly discerning about what deserves your attention. I’ve become ruthless about abandoning books that don’t earn my time. Not because I’m arrogant, but because I’ve learned what intellectual nutrition feels like, and I refuse to fill up on empty calories.
You also get better at recognizing true expertise versus clever packaging. That author with three decades in the field writing from hard-earned wisdom? Very different from the one who read ten books on a topic and repackaged the ideas with catchy chapter titles.
When every book represents a significant investment of your time, you develop heuristics for what’s worth your attention. You read sample chapters, check the author’s background, see what other trusted minds have said about it. This discernment leads to a self-reinforcing cycle: better books lead to deeper engagement, which leads to even better selection skills.
And here’s the irony: by reading fewer books, you actually create a richer reading life.
IV. How to Build a “Read Less” Approach
A. Curate Your Reading List
If you’re reading fewer books, choose wisely. Rather than relying on algorithms or bestseller lists, develop a proactive curation strategy :
- Prioritize Transformative Recommendations: I keep a running “book recommendation” list on my phone. When someone I respect mentions a book that fundamentally changed how they think (not just one they enjoyed) I write it down. Those are the books worth prioritizing.
- Use the “10-Year Rule” for Non-Fiction: Focus on foundational texts and classics that have demonstrated enduring value. For non-fiction, I’ve adopted the “10-year rule.” If a book on a trend or current topic is still being enthusiastically recommended ten years after publication, it’s probably got staying power. The best books are often those that have withstood critical scrutiny and the test of time.
- Classics are Classics for a Reason: But don’t just read them because you think you should. Allow yourself to explore areas of genuine curiosity rather than what you “should” read
- Read to Challenge, Not Just Confirm: The most valuable books are often the ones that make you uncomfortable, and challenge your existing beliefs rather than just reinforcing them. I try to regularly read authors I expect to disagree with. Sometimes I still disagree after reading, but my thinking is sharper for having engaged with the opposition.
- Vet Books Before Committing: Research books before committing; read reviews, examine the author’s credentials, and assess whether the book offers new insights
And honestly? Let go of the idea that you “should” read certain books. Life’s too short to slog through books that don’t speak to you, no matter how impressive they might look on your shelf. Not every classic speaks to every reader. I’ve learned to be okay with skipping books that don’t call to me.
You can use these questions to guide you when selecting a book to read.
B. Practice Active Reading
Reading shouldn’t be passive if you want lasting value. Develop active reading habits:
- Engage with the Text: Read with a pencil in hand (physically or digitally), marking passages that provoke thought. Underline, highlight, ask questions, and jot down thoughts in the margins. My books look like crime scenes; my Kindle highlights alone could probably fill a book of their own. But active engagement is how information turns into knowledge. Per George Steiner, “The intellectual is, quite simply, a human being who has a pencil in his or her hand when reading a book.”
- Summarize as You Go: Pause regularly to summarize what you’ve read in your own words. After finishing a section, I force myself to look away from the book and summarize what I just read in my own words. Sometimes I realize I can’t; a clear sign I was reading on autopilot and need to revisit the material.
- Make It Social: I’ll often text a friend an interesting quote from what I’m reading, along with my thoughts. Just the act of choosing what to share and formulating my response deepens my engagement. And often their reply helps me see something I missed.
- Discuss Books with Others: Not in a showoff-y “let me tell you about this book” way, but in genuine conversation. Some of my deepest insights have come not from the books themselves but from discussions they sparked.
C. Re-read Important Books
Perhaps the most counterintuitive advice for those fixated on reading more: read the same book multiple times
- Re-reading = Depth, Not Redundancy: I re-read “Meditations” and “Man’s Search for Meaning” almost every other year. Each time, different passages leap out at me based on what’s happening in my life. The book hasn’t changed; I have. As Heraclitus says, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”
- Think of Books Like Music: There’s this bizarre idea in our culture that revisiting books is somehow a waste when there are so many unread books out there. In a culture obsessed with the new, returning to books you’ve already read seems inefficient.
- But think about music: nobody says, “Why are you listening to that album again when there are millions of songs you haven’t heard yet?” We understand that repeated exposure deepens appreciation. Books work the same way.
- Some books are meant to be lifelong companions. They reveal themselves layer by layer with each reading. Each re-reading reveals layers missed previously, as your expanded knowledge and life experience provide new context. Complex or profound works practically demand multiple readings to be fully appreciated.
- Build a Personal Canon: I’ve started building what I call my “personal canon”: the 15-20 books that have shaped me most profoundly, and that I want to keep revisiting throughout my life. Some are philosophy, some fiction, some memoir. They’re the books I’d grab in a fire (after my kid and my husband, of course).
The truth is, you’ll get more from reading your top five books three times each (or more) than from reading 15 new books once.
D. Learn to “Ditch” Books
Perhaps the most liberating reading advice: you don’t have to finish every book you start. Not every book deserves to be finished.
- Escape “Completion Bias”: Many readers feel compelled to finish every book they start, as though quitting means admitting defeat. I used to be one of them. It’s the literary equivalent of continuing to eat a meal you’re not enjoying just because you ordered it. Life’s too short for books that don’t speak to you. Develop the confidence to abandon books that aren’t serving your intellectual development.
- Set a “Fair Chance” Rule: Give books 50 pages (or 10% for longer works). If you’re not engaged by then (if you’re frequently checking how many pages remain or reaching for your phone), put it down without guilt. Each mediocre book you finish represents time lost from an amazing book you could be discovering.
- Recognize Timing Matters: Sometimes it’s not the book, it’s the moment. I attempted ‘The Odyssey’ twice before it clicked on the third try, when I was in the right mindset and stage of life.
- Read at Your Natural Pace: Some people are naturally fast readers, others slower. The only “right” speed is the one where you’re fully engaged with and absorbing what you read.
- One Book at a Time: I used to juggle 4–5 books at once. Now I focus on one or two. I’ve found that narrowing my focus helps me go deeper. That might not be true for everyone, but it’s worth experimenting with.
V. Implementing a Curated Reading Practice
A. Set Intentional Reading Goals Beyond Numbers
Tossing out your “52 books this year” goal feels like throwing away the scale when trying to get healthy: scary, but ultimately liberating. Instead of numerical targets, consider more meaningful alternatives:
- Theme-Based Exploration: Last year, I explored “the psychology of decision-making” through my reading. No specific number, just a commitment to understanding that topic deeply.
- Learning-Oriented Goals: “Understand economic history” rather than “read five economics books.” The first has a purpose that shapes your selections; the second is just a chore.
- Process Goals: “Spend 30 minutes daily in focused reading” or “Deeply engage with one significant book per month.”
- Setting Intentional limits: “I’ll read no more than 20 books this year, but engage deeply with each.” This constraint will transform your selection process and reading experience.
Before picking up any book, I ask: “What am I hoping to get from this?” If I can’t answer specifically (and “vacation entertainment” is perfectly valid), I reconsider whether it deserves my time.
B. Balance Your Reading Portfolio
A balanced reading life isn’t about stuffing your brain with “smart books.” I’m not suggesting exclusively reading dense philosophy books for the rest of your life. It’s about intentional variety. Think of your reading like a balanced investment portfolio, requiring deliberate allocation across different categories:
- Core areas of deep expertise where you read extensively and repeatedly
- Adjacent fields that complement your primary interests
- Occasional exploration in entirely new domains
- A mix of challenging works that expand your thinking and more accessible ones that maintain reading enjoyment
My “reading portfolio” ensures exposure to:
- Deep, challenging books that stretch my thinking
- Lighter reads that bring me joy.
- New topics to prevent intellectual stagnation
- Deeper dives into areas of particular interest or relevance
Not every book deserves the same level of engagement. Some books you’ll skim, others you’ll study. As Francis Bacon stated, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”
Last summer, I breezed through a thriller in two days, taking no notes. Then I spent three weeks with a philosophy text, dissecting every paragraph. Both were valuable in different ways.
What matters is that your choices are conscious, not compulsive. When you pick up a light romance novel, do it because you’ve decided it’s what you need, not from addiction to the dopamine hit of finishing books quickly.
C. Create Systems for Deeper Engagement
Reading deeply doesn’t happen by accident, especially in our distraction-filled world. You need intentional systems:
- Dedicated Time Allocation
- Time blocking has been game-changing. I don’t hope to find time to read. I schedule it. My calendar says “Reading: 9:00-9:30pm” three nights a week. I usually end up going for longer, and on additional days. But without that commitment, the time is usually wasted.
- Active Engagement Tools
- For physical books, keep a pencil nearby
- For e-books, use highlighting features and export your notes
- For complex non-fiction, read one chapter, then immediately write a one-paragraph summary before continuing.
- Reflection and Integration Practices
- Maintain a physical or digital reading journal capturing key ideas, actions, and quotes
- Schedule regular “reading reviews” to consolidate understanding
- Practice “connection tracking”: noting how books relate to each other. I record overlapping ideas in my notebook via cross-references and an index.
- Application and Teaching
- Share book summaries with others (I post mine on my website)
- Form or join discussion groups for important books
- Teach others what you’ve learned.
D. Measure Meaningfully
If you simply must track, instead of tracking books completed, try these:
- Ideas that changed your thinking
- Concepts you’ve successfully applied
- Connections you’ve made between different works
- Questions that have emerged from your reading
- Hours spent in deep reading
VI. Conclusion
Our approach to reading has become increasingly misaligned with its true purpose. We’ve transformed this profound activity into another productivity metric; another box to check, another achievement to post.
There’s something deeply ironic about consuming ideas faster than we can digest them. We read to become wiser, yet our approach to reading has become increasingly thoughtless.
The most transformative books in your life won’t be those you race through, but those you allow to reshape how you think, act, and see the world. Before adding another book to your cart, consider: Have I fully extracted the value from what I’ve already read?
What if you read just 5 books this year; but truly engaged with them? What if you:
- Underlined passages that resonated
- Wrote thoughtful notes in the margins
- Reflected on how the ideas connect to your life
- Revisited important sections to deepen understanding
- Applied one concept from each book in a tangible way
The selective approach yields profound benefits that volume-based reading cannot match:
- Deeper understanding of complex ideas and their nuances
- Enhanced critical thinking as you engage more fully with arguments
- Greater intellectual satisfaction from mastering challenging material
- Improved judgment in choosing future reading material
- Lasting impact as concepts become integrated into your thinking
The most intellectually vibrant people I know aren’t racing through bestseller lists. They’re the ones who can reference ideas from books they read years ago because they gave those books the space to matter.
So here’s my challenge: Read less, but read better. Select your next book with extraordinary care and engage with it genuinely. Return to it frequently. Allow yourself to be changed by it before rushing to the next.
Ultimately, we don’t remember books; we remember what books made us think about. And thinking takes time.
Read less. Read better.