What is The Avid Bookreader?
It is a little corner in the massive World Wide Web where I hang out and share my love of learning and reading and hope to find a community of others just like me to hang out with.
Why did I start The Avid Bookreader?
The short answer is – I love learning and I love reading. So why not share my learning and my love of reading?
My mission?
If I could just help one person each day learn one new thing, that would put a smile on my face knowing I’ve helped a person improve themself, if only just a little bit.
But if you want the slightly longer answer, read on ðŸ¤
I’ve been reading a long time and taking a lot of notes for awhile now.
Over the years, lots of people have remarked that
- I take really good notes; or
- I take way too much notes.
Having gone through law school I never really took that as a compliment nor an insult, more as a necessity for survival on those horrific “open book” law exams.
The habit caught on and permeated every other aspect of my life and today I am a bit of a sucker for journaling and logging and documenting things.
Once my wife casually remarked, “you should start a blog since you read and write so much.”
I was like, “hmm good idea I can’t believe I’ve never really thought about that.”
Little wonder, as I didn’t know the first thing about blogging. I had my doubts.
- There’s no way people will be interested in what I have to say. 😞
- I don’t have the technical skills to start a website. âš™
- There are already so many blogs on reading and learning out there. Plus I am not as smart as many of those guys. 🥱
But three things happened:
- I read Austin Kleon’s eye-opening book Show Your Work and was very inspired to take action on this front. It was a big paradigm shift for me. This idea of simply showing your work as you go. Documenting and sharing your journey along the way. As opposed to just waiting until “you are ready” or you have “arrived” (which is why most people don’t start).
- I realized it resonates with the whole spirit of learning. You learn and you give back by sharing what you learned. This in turn takes you to the next level of your learning journey.
- I read about the Feynman Technique which suggested that I should try to express what I have learned in order to better understand it. The implication was powerful: that if you teach what you’ve learned, you learn even more.
To cut a long story short, after of course reading up on the topic of blogging and starting a website and so on… I finally took the plunge.
So here we are.
What The Avid Bookreader is Not
Despite its name, I don’t intend it to be just a book summary and review site. I simply picked this name because my learning mostly takes the form of reading and because of my love of books.
In short – I love discovering new things each day and I share my learning journey on this blog!
What kind of content can you expect?
Currently most of my content falls into one of three series.
- Avid Weekly Ideas – Each week I publish an idea or two either from a book I am currently reading or from my backlog of book notes. 📚 Of course, this isn’t intended to replace book notes or reading the book itself. Instead the aim is to extract a key idea or two from a book that struck me as insightful and share-worthy. Then I package it into a bite-sized digestible chunk. I hope these little nuggets of insight will spark some inspiration or ideas in your own mind. 💡
- 1% Smarter – This series is based on the concept of continuous improvement and compounding gains which have their roots in the fields of manufacturing and finance respectively. My goal for 1% Smarter is to apply these concepts to learning. Keep making 1% improvements and before you know it you’ll have made a significant improvement in your life.
- I am Still Learning – (exclusive to paid newsletter – see below) – We live in the Information Age, where we are inundated with information and drowning in data. Just navigating this Tangled Web of All the Knowledge in the World gets tiring and wearies the mind, body and soul. I am Still Learning is my curation service. Every week I send out a list of 7 things I think are worth sharing – the 7 coolest things I learned or found interesting during the week.
Sometimes I may have posts of a more ad hoc nature which may not fall into any of the three categories.
Why the choice of slogan?
Michelangelo, famed Italian Renaissance artist, seems like he was a pretty cool guy.
I mean just have a look at his bio.
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, known best as simply Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet of the High Renaissance born in the Republic of Florence, who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. His artistic versatility was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival, the fellow Florentine, Leonardo da Vinci. Several scholars have described Michelangelo as the greatest artist of his age and even as the greatest artist of all time.
Despite his great works and achievements he never lost his fiery desire to learn. These were reputedly his famous last words (apocryphal) and it captures the essence of what I hope The Avid Bookreader can become (an exhortation and encouragement to stoke the fire of learning in others).
I am still learning.
Free and Paid Newsletter
Besides blogging here, my other main form of communication will be through my weekly newsletter.
There is a free and paid option.
- Free newsletter – most of my content right now is free as I’m taking Gary Vaynerchuk’s advice on giving away your best content for free. To sign up simply enter your email in the form below or on the sidebar. On the subscription options page simply select None. That’s it, you’re now on the list!
- Paid newsletter – is mainly a curation service. I call it I am Still Learning and it is optional for those who enjoy my work and would like to support the publication, which would go a long way towards helping me devote more time towards my pursuit of lifelong learning and enable me to create more content. 📚 To sign up simply enter your email below or on the sidebar. On the subscription options page you can select a paid option.
As always,
Happy Reading 📚