I thought I knew a lot about reading, then I discovered Naval Ravikant.
If you’re on Twitter you’ve probably heard of Naval, but for those unfamiliar with him, here’s a bit of background:
Naval Ravikant is one of the most respected and successful angel investors in Silicon Valley. He is the founder and CEO of AngelList, and has invested in over 100 startups including several “unicorn” companies such as Uber and Twitter.
Shane Parrish, host of the podcast The Knowledge Project, has called Naval an “angel philosopher” and “one of the most voracious readers” he knows. And this is coming from a guy who reads 100+ books a year.
So what can we learn about reading from Naval?
A lot.
I listened to Naval’s podcast with Tim Ferriss, Shane Parrish, and Joe Rogan, and made a master list of all his reading advice.
Let’s dive in.
16 Reading Tips from Naval Ravikant
1) Read What You Love Until You Love To Read
Naval fell in love with reading as a kid because he was free to read whatever he wanted. He read comic books, mystery books, and anything else that piqued his interest. By reading what he loved, he developed a love for reading.
““When I was young nobody forced me on what to read...I was lucky that there was no one around when I was seven years old or six years old saying, ‘You shouldn’t read that. You should read this instead.’”
2) Eventually You’ll Start Reading The “Healthy” Books
A lot of the books Naval read would, by today’s standard, be considered “mental junk food.” But that’s okay. Eventually, he got tired of consuming junk books and moved on to “healthy” books. First he read comic books, then he read mystery books, then he got into science fiction, and then graduated to math and philosophy books.
““The reality is I just read a lot that, by today’s standards, would be considered mental junk food. Eventually you just get to, like reading, you run out of junk food and then you start eating the healthy food.””
3) Books Are An Investment, Not An Expense
Naval doesn’t believe in saving money on books. Why? A $10 or $20 book can easily change his life in a meaningful way, that’s a fantastic deal. Even when Naval was broke, he still spent money on books.
““Even back when I was broke and I had no money. I always spent money on books. I never viewed that as an expense. That’s an investment to me.””
4) Buy Multiple Copies of Amazing Books
If Naval comes across a great book while reading it on his Kindle, he’ll order a physical copy for himself and extra copies to give away to friends or guests.
““If I read a book and that I know it’s amazing, I’ll buy multiple copies, partially to give away, partially because I have them lying around the house.””
5) Spend More Time Reading Great Books
Naval doesn’t want to read every single book in the world, he’d rather spend his time rereading the 100 best books.
““I would rather read the best 100 books over and over again until I absorb them rather than read all the books.””
6) Most Books Could Be Shorter
A lot of books, especially those in the business and self-help category, are just long books wrapped around a simple idea. They don’t need to be as long as they are so feel free to drop them once you understand the main idea.
““That’s why I avoid the whole business and self-help category because you generally have one good idea and it’s buried in hundreds or thousands of pages and lots of anecdotes.””
7) Treat Books Like A Blog Archive
When you come across a blog, you don’t read every single article. Instead, you find the articles that interest you and read those. Treat books the same way. Skim through the book for interesting ideas, skip boring chapters, and read only what you need.
““I just view it as a blog archive. A blog might have 300 posts on it and you could read just the two, three, five that you need right now. I think you can think of a book the same way. Then that opens the world wide web of books back open to us instead of it being buried somewhere.””
8) It’s Okay To Skip Through A Book
Just to emphasize the last point, don’t feel guilty about skipping through a book.
““Feel free to skip around; it’s your book. There are books that I’ve literally started in the middle. I’ve read near to the end and then I’ve put it down...That liberation, that freedom just allows me to read.””
9) Give Yourself Permission To Quit Bad Books
In school, students are taught to finish the books. However, this is a bad habit. Lots of people come across a bad book and end up quitting reading overall, instead of simply quitting that one bad book. This happened to Naval. Fortunately, he got back into reading later in life and now quits any book he doesn’t enjoy.
““We’re taught from a young age that books are something you finish. Books are sacred. When you go to school and you’re assigned to read a book, you have to finish the book. So…we get this contradiction where everyone I know is stuck on some book. So what do you do? You give up on reading books for a while.””
10) You Don’t Have To Read One Book At A Time
At any given time, Naval is reading between 10-20 books. He selects what to read based on his mood and interests at the moment.
““At any given time I’m reading somewhere between ten and twenty books. I’m flipping through them. If the book is getting a little boring I’ll skip ahead. Sometimes I’ll start reading a book in the middle because some paragraph caught my eye and I’ll just continue from there.””
11) Anytime Is A Good Time To Read
Naval reads after he works out in the morning, when he’s in an Uber, before he goes to bed, when he is on vacation, or anytime he’s bored.
““I don’t really set these hard and fast rules for myself. The good news is I just love to read. Because I love to read, whenever I’m bored and I have time, I just do it.””
12) Reading Increases Your Chances of Becoming Successful
The reality is that very few people actually read books. If you read books, even if it’s only for an hour a day, it will put you miles ahead of your competition.
““The reality is I don’t actually read that much compared to what people think. I probably read one to two hours a day. That puts me in the top .00001%. I think that alone accounts for any material success that I’ve had in my life and any intelligence that I might have.””
13) Developing A Reading Habit Is Important, How You Do It Is Not
Naval says reading is like exercise. It doesn’t make a huge difference whether you’re playing tennis or doing pilates, the important part is that you’re doing a workout you enjoy. If you enjoy it, you’re more likely to do it every day. The same is true of reading, it doesn’t matter what you read as long as you’re enjoying it and developing a reading habit.
““Just like the best workout for you is the one that you’re excited enough to do every day, the same way I would say the books...to read are the ones that you’re excited about reading all the time.”
14) Start Lots of Books But Only Read The Ones You Love
Start lots of books but only keep reading ones that deeply resonate with you. Drop mediocre books, there are a lot of better options out there.
““I think the most important way to read is to pick up a lot of books, start reading them all. Put down any book instantly that doesn’t grab you and you don’t have reading and just keep going until you find something that does speak to you. There are so many choices out there.””
15) Books Understood > Books Read
Naval doesn’t keep track of how many books he reads because it can become a vanity metric. His end goal with reading isn’t to read a ton of books and impress other people, it’s to read only great books and understand the concepts within those books to become wiser.
““I got over this idea of reading a large number of books...It’s a show-off thing, it’s a signaling thing...I no longer track books read or even care about books read, it’s about understanding concepts.” ”
16) Reading Is The Ultimate Meta-Skill
Reading is a powerful skill because it allows you to learn anything you want. You can read books about fitness to become physically fit, books about finance to become financially independent, and so on. You can trade reading for any other skill.
““The great thing about reading is you can use that to pick up any new skill. So if you learn how to learn, it’s the ultimate meta skill and I believe you can learn how to be healthy, you can learn how to be fit, you can learn how to be happy, you can learn how to have good relationships, you can learn how to be successful….You can trade it for any other skill. And that all begins with reading.””