With regard to almost any topic, you're 3-5 books away from having a productive conversation with a foremost expert and quite possibly teaching him or her something new. And this compounds — forever

A big problem is that most people are only on formal handshake terms with their books, which are mostly selected for them in the first place. You have to go Bonnie and Clyde with a good book, people. (Yes, I mean non-fiction!)

Calling the proper way to read "critical thinking" is like calling sex "recreational copulation." It's not wrong, but it's definitely not going to put you in the mood to do it right.

So if you'd like to read for expertise, my advice for you is that you approach your next book like an incredibly sexy enemy, anticipating a battle of wits that's going to leave some battle scars

Bet you didn't see where this thread was going

Another thing: plenty of "good" books are just... bad. They won't play with you. They're so concerned about giving you the wrong idea that they'll hardly give you any ideas at all. I think you should almost always just move on. Maybe go for something somebody'll try to get burned