How I Read Books

In case this is helpful to some of you, here is an explanation of how I read books.1. I only read books I want to read. I let my curiosity, my hunger for learning or enjoyment, guide my reading. I enjoy reading a great variety of books. I've got 10+ books packed for vacation this month and the authors, topics, and genres are all over the place.2. I always write notes and ideas on the back page of a book.The notes are of concepts or quotes I want to remember from the book and the other notes are of all the ideas that pop into my head while reading a book. (The photo above is of the back page of Buffet, an biography of Warren Buffet I recently finished). I also underline and write margin notes while I read, but the back page is the goldmine that I go back to.3. I often pause to pray while reading a book as a way of processing the content.I don't learn well without praying.4. Once I finish a book I take a few minutes to review the back page where I wrote my notes and make some of that content actionable.Generally about half or more of what I've written in the back of the book becomes actionable in some way--I use something in a sermon, have a writing idea, I chase a new dream, I work something into how I lead, etc.Obviously, I don't read e-books. And, obviously, my handwriting is horrible.There you go. That's what I do.