A friend and mentor of mine brought me two big boxes of books a while back, which I appreciated, and I asked him about what the catalyst was for him to give them away. He explained that he realized, based on his age (60s) and the number of books he had, and some of this trends related to interested, these were books that he either read and didn’t plan to read again, or realized he would not prioritize reading before he passed away. It was a surreal discussion, as it was a reminder of his and my mortality and timeframe (check out this great Your Life In Weeks blog post to visualize where you are in your lifetime on a single piece of paper), and also such a great reminder of the important of prioritizing. Life is finite, and instead of just reacting and wandering around various email newsletters, books, streaming shows, and books, there is so much value in being intentional. Especially as you get older, and out of your early life’s exploration/discovery phase and into more intentional depth.

A few book thoughts:

• I love Ramit Sethi’s advice that if you ever see a book that looks interesting, buy it — see Money Rule #4)
• I received great advice in my 20s from a best friend that I should stop reading a book if I want to (don’t keep reading out of obligation) and mark up books with pens/pencils/highlighters/tabs/etc. — books aren’t some sacred thing, they’re tools to learn what you want to learn
• Book Towers are cool
• Blinkist (thanks to Cal Newport for hearing about them through their sponsorship of his podcast) is a great SaaS, where you can listen to 15 minute summaries of non-fiction books, to get the key ideas and determine if you want to read/listen to the whole book