(Old blog post, written: 2023-05-28)
Author: Beaver Master
How much power does reading have for you?
The author of the book “Elite Are All Reading Enthusiasts”, Masanori Kanda, is a marketing consultant, management master, and founder of Japan’s largest book club “Reading for Action,” as well as the inventor of the whole-brain thinking method, with rich practical experience in management and reading fields. I gained great inspiration from this book. However, many of his content examples are centered around Japan, such as some cases and workplace experiences, which readers might find difficult to relate to, but it doesn’t affect much. Next, I will excerpt the key points of this book, mainly the parts I find worth sharing.
Are Books Outdated?
Many people think books are already outdated things, the publishing industry is declining, especially in the generation of smartphones and internetæ®å. To get information, you can just Google or even ChatGPT. If you want to learn something, you can also go to MOOCs platforms like Coursera. Books’ updates are completely incomparable to the internet. But the author doesn’t think so; instead, he believes books are the driving force behind trends.
In the early 2000s, the “Rich Dad Poor Dad” series of books sold well, selling over 1.8 million copies in Japan. This trend indirectly led the entire society toward the mindset of “If I don’t do something now, I’ll never be able to turn my life around.” Coupled with Japan’s workplace culture, where most people stay at one company for their entire life, seeking stability in today’s fast-paced world has actually become a form of instability. No wonder it formed a powerful trend in Japan. Influenced by this atmosphere, starting around 2007, it also drove the “New Women’s Working Method” for Japanese women’s economic independence and managing beautiful lives.
The author says that except for recent technology-related topics like cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence, many trends and social movements are driven by books. Even television and internet can at most “promote”; what can truly make people change their thinking and undergo “paradigm shifts” are books.
Books Have Quality Assurance
Just like this article you’re reading now, before I publish it, I only need to review it myself. Even though I’ve done it perfectly (what I think is perfect), it’s inevitable that there might be some omissions or errors that I might only know through reader feedback. This is the risk of getting information from the internet. Why can books always have a place among various media? Because of their “authority.” Television and internet media don’t necessarily do fact-checking. Even ChatGPT can make mistakes, but books are different. For a book to be published, besides the author’s self-review, it needs to go through many people’s reviews.
Those classic works are recorded in books because these books have proven they can withstand the test of time.
Knowledge-Creative Reading Methods
Because the author has deep research and experience in reading methods, the book also mentions his unique reading methods, which can be roughly divided into two:
- Image Reading Method
- Goal-Oriented Reading Method
The full name of “Image Reading Method” is “Whole Brain Image Reading Method.” Honestly, I think this method is not suitable for everyone. Its concept is somewhat like speed reading, claiming a speed of one page per second. The book describes this method’s steps in detail, so I’ll leave that for everyone to read themselves!
Goal-Oriented Reading Method
However, the “Goal-Oriented Reading Method” can be very helpful for me and even everyone. Its core concept is that we cannot read blindly; we must read with purpose. This has many benefits: besides saving your time, it can also make your brain more focused during reading. And setting goals is like the law of attraction - in life and work, you might get what you want (find the book you need in a bookstore).
Because you focus on specific topics, you actually “don’t need to read the entire book.” This concept was hard for me to accept at first, thinking that don’t you have to finish a book to count as “really reading it”? But thinking carefully, it’s also right. If you’re halfway through a book and find you can’t learn valuable things from it for you, then just stop and find another book. Time is the most precious thing. Setting goals for reading allows the most important information to emerge.
The author also mentions books for different age groups, which are very good suggestions. After reading this part, I feel that compared to choosing books, for modern people, just developing the habit of reading is already great. Book selection can start with books that help your work and self-improvement, then advance to history books (ages 36-42), philosophy and natural science (after 40), and art books (product aesthetics). The author also encourages everyone to read foreign language books, with many benefits.
If you just want to read for fun, that’s also great. Just make your goal to have fun, and you can still read very “efficiently.”
The Era of Co-reading
The author is the founder of Japan’s largest book club “Reading for Action.” He spends a lot of space emphasizing the importance of co-reading: one person walks fast, a group walks far. Today is an era where problems cannot be solved alone and is highly divided. If you want to improve communication skills and expand your social circle, go join a book club. Or, you could consider starting one yourself!
Benefits of Book Clubs
In the knowledge creation chapter, the author mentions information (internalization) and exformation (externalization). Information refers to absorbing information from the outside and forming understanding in your mind. After inputting new information, you shape yourself into what the world requires; exformation is about innovating your understanding in the external world. Besides output, you also create what you want in this world. To conduct knowledge creation, exformation is indispensable (after all, it’s called “creation”). Before publishing, you must first clarify the information yourself and absorb others’ feedback, deepening your thinking and entering a positive cycle.
There are many benefits to joining book clubs, such as “getting different perspectives” and “leaving your echo chamber.” Joining book clubs is also a good way to expand your social circle. Compared to social activities with uneven quality, the temperament of people who attend book clubs is generally quite good. The key point is that you can use the fame of books and authors to gather many people. Compared to clubs with specific interests, you have a chance to meet people from completely different fields and life circles.
The force that drove Japan’s Meiji Restoration was book clubs. In the late Edo period, many private schools appeared one after another, and many great figures participated in them. These private schools were actually book clubs.
The author also mentions that many companies have drinking culture, especially in Japan. This is actually to eliminate communication barriers between company levels and shorten the distance between each other. But in recent years, it seems to have decreased; everyone has their own things to do. Sometimes we also need to communicate with people from different departments in the company. Without understanding the domain’s language, communication misunderstandings become more frequent. Therefore, the author also encourages companies to hold book clubs. Some companies even directly hire the author to hold book clubs, hoping to get some guidance on book clubs.
“Reading for Action” Book Club
The author’s book club is quite special, claiming to finish 1000 pages in three hours. When I saw this, I was actually a bit stunned - can you really absorb it this way? But the author emphasizes that they use the “Goal-Oriented Reading Method” and have dedicated “Reading Instructors” leading participants to read. In such an environment (the author says this is good social pressure), combined with the “Image Reading Method,” you can truly absorb completely, and even more new ideas are sparked.
Book clubs inevitably have those people who don’t talk (stop saying you have social anxiety, even Little Solitude formed a band). Their approach is to directly ask them to leave. It might seem cruel and heartless, but there’s a reason for this. People who don’t express opinions are not just in book clubs; they’re the same in various seminars. They’re like a moldy apple that will affect the overall atmosphere. Truly for everyone’s good, the best approach is to let everyone participate.
My Perspective: The Magic of Reading
Shamefully, it’s only recently that I gradually fell in love with reading. For me, reading was always associated with words like exams, rankings, etc. Maybe it was because I wasn’t focused enough, I could never experience the joy that reading brings. After reading this book, I’m even more convinced that the power of reading is beyond what I imagined, and the goal-oriented reading method is very helpful.
Because I’m usually quite busy, I probably won’t find a book club to join in the short term. But I will still try to practice exformation. I can still output my thoughts by writing reading notes. Writing to this point, I also feel that this book is gradually becoming a part of me - that feeling of “really reading it.”
I think this book is very suitable for recommending to people who “don’t know what to read” and consider themselves “reading beginners.” The author spends a lot of space, using his own experiences and participated projects, to tell you that reading is a very worthwhile thing to do (especially co-reading), and you can even “change the world” through reading. I’ll leave that part for everyone to savor themselves.
Unexpectedly, this should be the first reading note, and I hope it won’t be the last:).