My mix is 60% pre1950, 30% 1950-2010, 10% new. Nonfiction and poetry, English language.

Archive.org or any other public domain pdf source is great for pre1930 texts and I often end up buying them used in paper form. (They are very cheap in Fair/Acceptable condition...university paper libraries are shrinking...now is the time to buy them)

For PD texts, the author will often cite one or two other works in the body of the text. If you liked the original work, you will probably like the in-body cited texts. And you can quickly download a copy for free and see. Spider along the recommendations. This is great for “many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore”.

For favorite authors, there are usually interviews, or even whole books, available where the author describes works they like. You would probably like the same works too. Nowadays, you may be able to contact the (living) author directly for suggestions. Works about literature, writers, genres are another source. And bibliographies for more academic writing. Sometimes someone has written an annotated bibliography on a subject if you want to be thorough.

Please don’t “optimize” reading for pleasure. The heart chills at the word.

I have never, in my 60 years of reading, ever bought a book because it was on a bestseller list. When I see that monicker on a book, I instinctively avoid it unless I have already discovered it in some other way. It reminds me of junk food advertisements and they can be gamed. I have never regretted following that policy. Nor have I ever been interested in, nor would follow, the book recommendations of celebrities outside of their expertise.

First off, counting books you’ve read is a bit like counting lines of code. Sure it measure output in some fashion, but is a pretty fallible proxy for the real thing we’re after: knowledge.

But the question remains. There’s so many books and only so much time. For myself after years of taking a haphazard approach (bill gates list, stuff recommended on blogs, economist books/arts,etc) I’ve been working on a new strategy for the past few years and it feels like it’s working out well.

There is a 10-year reading plan for the “Great Books of the Western World. Within each year the books progress chronologically, and each year supposedly gets a bit more difficult.

Using that as a baseline does a few useful things for me.

- I never need to figure out what book is next.

- I can be reasonably confident that reading the books won’t be a waste; even if I don’t dig a particular book it provides context since, it being an important book, it likely influenced others.

- related to the above, I feel like reading the classic books gives me a better understanding new books; either because of a direct reference by the author or because the author is trying to dress up a not-so-original idea.

Of course the Great Books are not the be-all and end-all of human knowledge, so I make space for modern books, eastern books, etc. for that it’s as haphazard as before, the only difference is I’m more comfortable about skimming a book in(preface, conclusion, index, ToC, random chapter) and tossing it away if it doesn’t jump out at me.

I’ve actively worked on getting better at this. Excited to see other comments in this thread.

Also I recommend underlining and making notes in a book. This way when you go back to it you can engage with the ideas more efficiently.

EDIT: I also want to plug “how to read a book” which I feel like I do a lot on here. Really really good

I'm a library fanatic, so I usually end up browsing at the local library until I find one or two books that look interesting. My local library actually has an "Undiscovered Gems" section that has lead me to some interesting reads from authors I'm not familiar with. I also keep a running list of interesting titles on my library account, putting holds on them as I finish books.

I'm like you, I usually bounce around between fiction and non-fiction to keep my reading balanced. For me, half the fun of reading is simply exploring and discovering new books/authors/series!

I'm a big fan of rereading the same books that I found super helpful/useful, vs reading a lot

Used to do the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge for multiple years, until I felt I was just padding my stats with books that weren't useful

Then I saw a Naval tweet that was: "I would rather read the best 100 books over and over again until I absorb them rather than read all the books.”

And I adopted that strategy, which has been more useful for me

129 books in one year is quite something. Is reading part of your job? I felt like I spent a decent amount of my free time reading this year, but I’ve completed only 23 books so far.

A very strong input into my book choices is reading the ‘classics’ in various domains. I will make frequent use of “Top 100 X books in Y” and “best X book of all time” queries.

I very much subscribe to the idea that selected books form a cultural and intellectual endowment of society to its members. Reading these selected books allows me to competently participate in society, as so much of our communication, institutional structure, and culture is downstream of these works. Examples of such works would be Shakespeare, Dickens, Silent Spring, The Intelligent Investor, Manufacturing Consent, Plato’s Republic.

I watch a lot of courses at thegreatcoursesplus.com. Each course comes with a PDF outline that has recommended reading to accompany each lecture. If that lecture interests me I use Overdrive / Libby to search for the titles in either ebook or audiobook form.

120+ books a year! I’m astonished. How do you achieve this? I struggle to read one a month.

I should probably turn off WiFi.

I browse indie bookshops, talk to colleagues and friends, read reviews and I’m on GoodReads. People know I like books so they buy or loan me books sometimes. I keep a list of loads of books that sound good, then chip away at it. The list is always growing so things fall off it, unread, eventually. It’s more of a stack, but with occasional queue behaviours.

I will typically always have about 10 unread books in a pile that I haven’t yet started. Which one I pick up next depends on mood. If I’ve just read an amazing novel I’ll probably choose non-fiction next as another novel immediately will often never feel as enjoyable.

For non-fiction I'd usually go to the bookstore and pick the thinnest book on the subject. I don't like filler in nonfiction books. My favorite thing about them is if I don't understand a difficult passage I can go back and read it again until I do. Among others, this technique has gotten me Relativity[1] and QED[2] to name just a couple.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15852.Relativity

[2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5552.QED

Hack for you: add all the books you want to read in blinkist, listen to the summary (2-10m in 2-3x mode), then you can classify them as:

A) Not interested --> nice, you saved yourself some time B) Interesting, but feel like the summary is more than good enough, so no need to read the book C) Interesting and you want to learn more because it just scratched the surface --> Read the book!

You can test this framework by listening to the summary of books you've already read that fit into these buckets.

I won't claim my method is any good, but what I do is keep track of every book I come across in Goodreads if I have the slightest inclination to read it. As you might imagine, this ends up being a lot of books (more than 5000 at the moment I think).

When it comes time to choose a new book to read, I'll select a category (e.g., history, fiction, etc.), sometimes just by picking one, other times by randomly choosing. Then I randomly select 20 books from that category and decide which of the 20 books I am most interested in reading. I also roll a die and 1/3 of the time I will use the same method to pick a book that I've already read to reread. I feel like it gives me a nice diversity in the books I read, but gives me enough choice where I am really interested in the books that I'm reading.

I will follow threads, too. If I liked a book by an author I may continue reading a few more books by the same author. Or if I liked the subject I may read a few more related books on the same subject.

1. Hacker News, Reddit

2. Recommendations from public figures I trust (e.g., Tim Ferriss, Derek Sivers, others)

3. References in books I've read

4. Random references in conversation

A lot of modern business/popular psychology books are rehashed ideas of older books and concepts. For example, almost every book on mental toughness is based on Stoic philosophy and being present/mindful. Almost every book on effective learning is based on deliberate practice. And so on... When you understand these fundamental concepts, you only need to read the best 1-2 books on the topic to grasp the idea so that you don't need to read the other 20 popular books that all repeat the same idea using different words. Unfortunately you have to read a lot to figure out the underlying concept of these books in order to figure out if a book you haven't read before is based on the same thing.

I do the following for non-fiction titles:

Make a list of book titles from the footnotes of books I am currently reading. Then just check the average review on Goodreads, if it is over 3.5, I give it a go. This allows me to read about different subjects from respected subject matter experts (since they have been cited in a book I enjoy) while also making sure that they are well written and accessible to a noob (3.5+ rating).

For fiction, I just pick a random book from my local library. Surprisingly, this has served me well so far.

Every time I come across a book I might want to read I add it to my amazon shopping list. When it's time to read a new book, first I check which titles the library has a kindle loan available for. If none, I go in order of cheapest first. Sounds silly, but it really does add up if you read a lot of books to spend so much money on them.

One way I've found fiction books that I wouldn't have otherwise read is to find High School curricula and go through the required/authorised/recommended books. Neighbouring school districts, other states, and even other Anglophone countries will give you a broad list.

I find the more important question to be "how do you remember what you read?". I think (at least in my case) remembering more of what I've read would be a better investment in time than reading more, or better directing my reading. I would love to hear tips people have.

I dont read that many books but I try to put effort in the decision of what not to read: if a book does not interest me, I drop it.

If you know what you want to learn it's easy to choose books, like you did with Cold War/Atomic Bomb. Healthy curiosity and research skills (to find the books worth reading for a topic) are all that's needed.

Most of mine are non-fiction and related to something that I'm working on or a skill I think I will find useful. I don't read very many books though.

This reminds me of the Einstein quote posted on here about reading too much.

I just read what interests me and inspires creative think about a historical era.

I typically listen to audiobooks and I usually choose them from author, or narrator.

I drive a lot.