Tip for turning reading into learning - think hard about where you will place a newly read book on your mental bookshelf.

I mean by this that there is great value in considering the relationship between a new text and others you have read.

What other book supports this book's perspective? What other book opposes it?

What ongoing arguments or discourses does this book contribute to?

What underlying beliefs would the author need to hold in order to have written this book? What priorities would the author need to possess in order to have bothered?

The best reading is cumulative. It's possible to gain great value from an individual book, but even the best book is a point in a larger space.

If you take a little time to situate a new book relative to others you know, you will gradually map out the space and achieve an awareness you cannot obtain from processing one book at a time.

One benefit of this approach is that you do not need to agree with or even like a book for it to enrich your understanding.

Another is that it's easier to recall a position or argument when it's held up by a web of connections to other things you know.

Perhaps most importantly, you are less likely to be taken in by plausible fallacies if your friends from reading past are there to take you in hand when you are led astray.

So don't just drop a book when you hit the back cover - think about where it should go on your mental bookshelf and what other books it should nestle up against.

Thread inspired by @old_sound's peak performance. https://twitter.com/old_sound/status/1339858269834231809?s=09