5 Tips on How to Find Great Books
You have no time for garbage books
Over the last 2 years, I’ve read around 100 books.
But, that’s not the impressive part. The impressive part is that the majority of them were awesome.
In fact, I’ve only had to put down 2 books that I started reading.
What I’m getting at is that there is a good chance my hidden talent is the ability to find and pick great books.
Here are 5 tips on how you too can find great books.
1. Define what a great book is to you
You need to put filters on what you read. If you start reading every recommendation you get, you will end up wasting a lot of time and get discouraged.
Before you pick what book to read next, decide what a great book means to you.
Are you looking for a fictional story that will make you daydream all day? Or, are you looking for a self-help book that will set your life on the right path?
You can dive further than that too.
Are you looking for a self-help book that will help you put healthy habits in place or one that will help you deal with stress better?
You can even define greatness by how the book is written so you can decide what authors you want to read.
If you want to read a book that is simply written and easy to read, it will be by a different author than if you want a book with complicated words that still read poetically.
So, the first step is to define your great book.
2. Find books related to the ones you already like
Now that you’ve defined your great book, find books that are related to ones you’ve liked in the past.
The easiest way would be to read other books by that same author, but you can go further than that.
Let me give you an easy example.
If you liked reading a recent book by Ryan Holiday, that means you like reading about stoicism. Next, you can read Letters of a Stoic or Meditations.
Those books will similarly satisfy you but are by different authors.
This is one of the easiest ways to find great books. Let your curiosity on whatever topic guide your choices.
3. Look up your favourite authors’ books
Once you’ve run out of ideas on a specific topic, you can look up what your favourite authors are reading. I have found an endless supply of new books doing this.
It’s one thing to look up what Neal Stephenson is reading, but once you start to read what Tim Ferriss or someone like that recommends, your list will never end.
Tim Ferriss also gives recommendations based on what his guests have read. Since he interviews so many people, not only will you see what he is reading, but also what 100s of high-achievers are reading.
Let me put this as simply as possible.
If you like how a certain author (or anyone) thinks, read what they’re reading. Those books have shaped their mind and their worldviews, so they will have a similar effect on you!
4. Explore GoodReads
Goodreads.com is a great place to find highly rated books because a lot of people like going on there to write poorly about a book.
So, if a book has good reviews, it must be really good or the author must have a strong core following.
Either way, the book is likely worth the read.
Spending a few minutes reading a handful of reviews on books from any genre will help you determine if it’s the book for you!
5. Listen to podcasts
Podcasts are probably the most common way that I find new books.
Currently, I mainly listen to Tim Ferriss’ podcast, The All In Pod, My First Million and Lex Friedman’s podcast.
Each of these podcasts is hosted by highly intelligent people and often has highly intelligent guests.
The hosts and the guests give great book recommendations and will tell you why you should read those books.
On top of that, you’ll likely learn a few extra things on those topics because they’ll dive further into what those books talk about and give their points of view too.
Closing remarks
Discovering a new amazing book is like finding a pot of gold. The difference is this gold keeps on giving because the knowledge you accumulate stays with you (almost) forever.
Picking the right book is a valuable skill because it will help you save time and energy!
So, next time you’re looking for a new book, follow these 5 tips!
Thanks for reading