In 2025, I “read” 3-5 books a week using an app called Blinkist.
Basically, it summarized a book’s core concepts down to a 10-15 minute podcast that I could squeeze in during my morning walks. Life was super busy, and I was jealous of the “thought leaders” that somehow managed to read 100 new books a year. So I gave it a go for six months.
It felt… productive?
And yet, I can’t recall a single book from that list. NOT ONE!
Obviously, I needed a different approach. It hit me to try and follow these words of wisdom from Tim Ferriss (paraphrasing):
What if you tried the 180-degree opposite strategy for the next 48 hours?
Bingo. Here’s how that played out.
Two Decades Later: Strong Recollection
I was an atheist in college, but I was always willing to spar and debate on any topic.
So when Tony Cappaert organized and invited all the fraternity brothers at Phi Delta Theta to a bible study (I was the GRA), I said, why not?
Spoiler alert. It didn’t convert me to Christianity (I remained an atheist), but I became a HUGE fan of Pastor Don McClure’s sermon series. We worked through a 67-part series on The Sermon on the Mount. It was so detailed that Don would spend an entire sermon, sometimes 45 minutes, dissecting one sentence.
I listened to the entire thing end to end… twice.
I can still remember and cite not only the passages, but the stories he told, the examples he used, and the historical context behind it all.
It was the 180-degree opposite of Blinkist. It was full immersion and internalization of the message.
Back to Books
What does this have to do with business books?
Well, it’s the same thing you’re seeing with all the AI buzz on social media. People are running around trying tools and screaming about how great they are on LinkedIn… but when you press them to share details, they admit they usually stop after a superficial demo and don’t have much depth behind it.
So I decided to spend an entire year with ONE book. One of my 3 Words of 2026 was 10X, and so I have been reading Benjamin Hardy’s 10x Is Easier Than 2x. And I’ve been going 1-2 paragraphs at a time for 5-10 minutes a day.
But that’s just the reading. I’m also forcing myself to slow down in three important ways.
Writing: After reading, I force myself to write down 10 ideas that I could apply.
Committing: I select one thing that I can and will get done by 5 PM.
Action: I actually follow through!
See, that’s the hard part everyone skims and skips: the doing.
Results
It’s October 2nd, and I’ve only missed two days this entire year. And… I’m only midway through chapter 3 of the book! 😅
That’s ok, because unlike my time with Blinkist, I am actively internalizing this book every. single. day. And best of all, I’m seeing the changes happening in my life.
So maybe the better way to read a book is like the Bible. No, I’m not trying to convert you to Christianity! What I am suggesting is that you adopt a Focus and Followthrough strategy for books you really want to read, instead of just getting the dopamine hit of zipping through a hundred titles on Blinkist.