Thanks for the recommendations, I already got Poor Charlie’s Almanack, but didn’t start to read it yet. Will take a look at Influence as well. Now I have something to read for my vacation next week.
Do you also have any tricks for reading faster? I always feel like there’s soo much to read and not enough time. I struggle to get faster, especially as English is not my native language.
Great topic! I’m also a bookaholic 
As someone said, if you take at least one good idea out of a book, it was worth reading it. Here my two cents:
To read books and take notes, take a look at “How to take smart notes”. It’s one of those guides very easy to read, but the best are the fundamentals behind it and the story of Niklas Luhmann. Luhmann had a very specific way to read and organise knowledge with his Zettelkasten method. He organised what he read by topics/themes, and kept them in slip boxes. I was a very prolific writer. (The book “How to take smart notes” is available at that known website where knowledge (aka books) flow freely). There are some free note taking apps that simulate the Zettelkasten method. As @Julianek I also use Obsidian.
When it comes to buy books, as I (still) enjoy paper (a lot), I use GetTextBooks, a platform that compares and shows the best prices available. And I also use abebooks, either .fr or .de, the search results and availability can be different. At Abe, most of the books are second hand books from different sellers and/or bookshops. Two years ago (very recently!) I also started to e-read, using the famous kindle paperwhite combined with calibre.
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- Practice, practice, practice. If you struggle with the language, then having more exposure is probably one of the most useful ways you can improve. As far as I can tell, your English is perfect, you probably just need to train it some more.
- Mindset, environment. If you can’t focus on the book and need to go back all the time, you’ll be much slower. Reading in a distracting environment or when your mind is in a state of distraction you’ll be much slower and won’t remember anything.
- Read/watch reviews beforehand that explain the key concepts. This allows you to start reading with some prior knowledge. With that you’ll have fewer misconceptions that need to be cleared up and you already know what you want to focus on since you’ll have a clue as to what is important and what not.
- Speed reading. Warning: Expect a few weeks (months?) of hard work to really learn it. It’s probably the ‘nuclear option.’ That said, I recommend “The only Skill that Matters” by Jonathan Levi. The speed reading itself is almost trivial, but he teaches you a lot of memory techniques so you will actually remember something. Otherwise speed reading is drinking from a fire-hose while you only have a straw to extract information.
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Thanks a lot, highly appreciate your “tricks”!
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Almost everything I had to read in university and also for the CFA exams was in English. Now in my job I use English on a daily basis as well. So I have no problem understanding the stuff I read and seldom need to look up a word in the dictionary.
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I had this problem in the past. Nowadays when I notice that I have to go back and re-read stuff a few times, I stop and do something else instead.
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That’s a fantastic tip, never thought about it. Definitely going to try this.
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I read a bit about speedreading and as far as I could tell, one of the most important steps is to stop reading words aloud in your head, because this limits your reading speed to your speaking speed. I find this really hard, especially in English, as it was indoctrinated from a young age to read the words aloud in your head.
Just discovered the app Pique while listening to a super interesting episode of People I (Mostly) Admire.
The idea is to take key concepts from books and create learning experiences that help you internalize the new ideas.
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This is an old topic but still related to the discussion, I would like to add a link, with a text that works more like an introduction, and then the book I’m starting to read:
Remembering More of Everything: The Memory Palace in the good Farnam Street Blog
Moonwalking With Einstein by Joshua Foer
BTW, what are the non-fiction books you’re reading or recently read?
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Does anybody know Blinkist?
Could be helpful here, maybe, as it (promises to) give concise summaries of books.
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Yep I am liking it.
For now just using the free version.
So you read a book and then you read the summary again to refresh the memory? Never tried myself but it would maybe be a good option when for some reason (like I am biking while listening to an audiobook) I don’t take notes while reading a book.
For me it serves the reverse purpose. 
If I hear something interesting and want to dive deeper into the matter, I go and reach for the full book itself.
But that’s not on this topic. 
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