Why Reading Books is a Waste of Time
If we were not in such a technologically advanced age, I would not be able to say reading books is a waste of time. However, reading books today is a waste of time today because audiobooks can be absorbed up to three times faster than a casual reading speed.
How Books Waste Time
Depending on how you interact with books, it can be a waste of time. Here are a few wasteful book interactions.
Fictional Books Waste Time
If you are someone who values time and would like to gain something useful from a book then, you may want to stay away from fictional books. Fictional books are books that are not real and thus may not relate to real life. Unless you are looking for imaginary concepts or out of the box ideas, you will not likely get any real value from imaginative stories.
Books with Poor Reviews Can Waste Time
Now that we are avoiding fictional books, we can read any non-fictional book and have it be more relatable right? Although this can be more likely true, if you go through a book with poor reviews, you will likely have the same experience as others who did not value the book.
Look for books that have four or more stars on a five-star rating scale. This will limit the amount of books with wasteful information. After all, you got into a book for a desirable result. Those who have read the book before you did not get there expected result if the reviews are below three stars.
Reading Slow is a Time Killer
Reading speed can be a challenge for a few different reasons. One, you need to read a book at a pace where you can absorb the message. If you read to fast or scan, you may have to retrace your words several times to understand the message in the sentence.
On the other hand, if you read the book too slow, you are witnessing the true mean argument of books being a waste of time. Reading too slow can just drain your time. Find that happy balance if you want to attempt reading and not wasting time.
Hunting the Library can cost Time
When is the last time you have been to a library or book store? Did you find the book you were looking for quickly? Unless you are just browsing, you will likely need the help of an employee to find the book you want locally. With the vast number of books in a store, it can be difficult to find the book you want and cost you time.
I would say searching in a library would be especially true in the case because the book you are looking for could be checked out. At least if you go to a typical book store like Barnes and Nobel’s, they will typically have copies of books for sale.
Out-Dated Information
Books can be a waste of time if you are looking for specific information but the info is outdated. For example, if you read a book that says you should write letters to find leads for your business. The book may say this is the best way to market but, little would you know that marketing online is a formidable opponent to mailing letters.
Retrieval and Delivery of Books
Let us say you have the best-case scenario and you know exactly what book you want and the clerk has it in their hand for you. Did you drive to pick it up? Driving would be the fastest but it could have been a bus ride or bicycle ride for others. That time was wasted just to pick the book up as opposed to just reading it online.
Even if you did not have to physically pick up the book in person, shipping the book will still take at least a day or two. With digital books now being readily available, you are wasting time if you need the book to be physically in your hands.
How to Save Time with Books
In this post, we have been going over how books are a waste of time. However, books can be great time savers if we do not physically read them. Let’s look at some examples of how books can be worth your time.
Using Audio or E-Books
As your answer stated, listening to audiobooks is the way to go. This is really great because you do not have to read the book with your eyes. Today, you can listen to the entire book without having to turn a single page. If you are not taking advantage of audiobooks, you are wasting time.
One of my favorite places to get audiobooks is Amazon’s audible app. They have tons of books on there and they are all in audio format. Just find a book, pay with points or cash, and dive into the audio.
Another reason why audiobooks are great is because of the flexibility. When you read a normal hard copy book, you have to sit or lay and read. When you are using audiobooks, you can be exercising, driving or on your way to sleep and still be absorbing the content. It does not get much better than that.
Search Online for Books
As a direct opposition to going to the library or a local book store, with audiobooks, you can shop online. This allows for audiobooks to be at your fingertips at all times. No more having to travel to get to your books. Just open an app like audible and grab the book through your mobile device. In the time that it takes you to get dressed to go pick up a book, you can already have one started from a book you found online.
Use Books for Answers
One of my favorite ways to use books is to use them for answers. For example let’s say you wanted to learn how to start a blog, instead of just guessing, you could just get the answer from a book. Long gone are the days where you had an idea and had to figure it out on your own. Most things have already been done before, all you need to do is learn from someone else.
I highly suggest using books in this way, especially as an entrepreneur. This works great as an entrepreneur because most business people just want to get a return on investment. So what do they do? Pay someone to write or narrate their book. Moreover, most business people share how to get to their level. A great example of this is Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.
Get Recommended Books
Another great way to save time with books is to get recommendations. Just like I recommended Rich Dad Poor Dad, I had a positive experience with the book so, there is a likely hood you will too. At the time of this post, Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad has a 4.5-star rating out of 5.
With that being said, even if I did not recommend the book to you, others will. If you were searching online, you can clearly see the ratings and gamble less on a good book by knowing others have liked it. This is as opposed to going to a local store, finding a hard copy book, then having little to no one to tell you if the book is worth it.
Conclusion
For the reasons listed above, you now know why reading books is a waste of time. However, you now know how to make them worth your time. At the very least, if you really just love hard copy books, try to get one that will give you answers and has been proven to help others. Now you will take less risk of wasting your time.
