---
title: Advice: What You Didn't Know About the Act of Reading Books
description: "Bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind"
canonical: https://time.com/3993897/schopenhauer-reading-books/
author: Shane Parrish
article:opinion: true
article:content_tier: free
article:published_time: 2015-08-24T04:07:19.000Z
article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:49:32.848Z
article:section: Ideas
og:title: What You Didn't Know About the Act of Reading Books
og:description: "Bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind"
og:url: https://time.com/3993897/schopenhauer-reading-books/
og:site_name: TIME
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og:image:width: 1200
og:image:height: 675
og:image:alt: Painting of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), German philosopher.
og:type: article
twitter:card: summary_large_image
twitter:title: What You Didn't Know About the Act of Reading Books
twitter:description: "Bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind"
twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12c08d3443815db5/69885ecff887dc83d2e91d22/arthur-schopenhauer.jpg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9
---
# What You Didn't Know About the Act of Reading Books
## Video: Best Free and Cheap Ebooks Sites
[Watch (HLS stream): Best Free and Cheap Ebooks Sites](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/35n2mZWt.m3u8) (1:42)
_Published 2014-06-25. Some of our favorite places to go for summer reading on the cheap._
by
[Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/)
## Shane Parrish
Aug 24, 2015 4:07 AM UTC
Painting of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), German philosopher.
Painting of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), German philosopher.Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
by
[Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/)
## Shane Parrish
Aug 24, 2015 4:07 AM UTC
[Finding time to read](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/09/finding-time-to-read/) has never been an issue for me. I read different [books at different levels](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/how-to-read-a-book/) — you don’t put the same effort into Harry Potter as you do Seneca. Reading is [the best way to get smarter](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/05/the-buffett-formula-how-to-get-smarter/). And while I’ve always [taken notes while reading](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/11/taking-notes-while-reading/) to improve my ability to [remember what I’ve read](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/05/remembering-what-you-read/), I’ve had a nagging feeling that I was missing part of the work.
Perhaps, I’ve been [reading too much](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/reading/) and reflecting too little.
As I reflect more on the relationship between reading and acquiring wisdom, I discovered Schopenhauer’s classic [_On Reading and Books_](https://goo.gl/q0wHdv).
For me, reading has always been about this website’s tagline: _Mastering the best of what other people have already figured out_.
In [The Prince](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199535698/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fsp%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0199535698&linkCode=as2&tag=farnamstreet-20), Machiavelli offered the following advice: “A wise man ought always to follow the paths beaten by great men, and to imitate those who have been supreme, so that if his ability does not equal theirs, at least it will savour of it.”
Seneca, writing on the same subject, said, “Men who have made these discoveries before us are not our masters, but our guides.”
So it makes sense to start with the people that came before us. No matter what problem we face, odds are someone has faced it before and written about it. No need to start from scratch right?
\*\*\*
We return to the fundamental questions. What does it mean to read? Is reading the path to acquiring wisdom? If not why?
These are the questions that Schopenhauer attempts to address in [On Reading and Books](https://goo.gl/q0wHdv).
Mortimer Adler believed that reading is a [conversation between you and the author](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2015/05/reading-a-book-is-a-conversation/). On this Schopenhauer comments:
---
> “”
---
It’s important to take time to think about what we’re reading and not merely assume the thoughts of the author. We need to digest, synthesize, and organize the thoughts of others if we are to understand. This is [the grunt work of thinking](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2015/01/how-to-think-2/). It’s how we acquire wisdom.
This is how we acquire foundational knowledge. The knowledge that allows us to pull forth relevance when reading and bring it to consciousness. Without this foundational knowledge, we are unable to separate the signal from the noise.
---
> “”
---
Reading consumes time. And if we equate time with money, it should not be wasted on bad books. In an argument that pulls to mind [two filters for what to read](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/08/what-should-i-read-two-ideas-to-help-guide-us/), Schopenhauer writes:
---
> “”
---
Knowing what to read is important but so is its [inversion](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/10/inversion/)— knowing what not to read.
---
> “”
---
In [Norwegian Wood](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/030795062X/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fsp%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=030795062X&linkCode=as2&tag=farnamstreet-20), Haruki Murakami makes the argument that “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” On this Schopenhauer said:
---
> “”
---
On the two types of literature, Schopenhauer comments:
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> “”
---
Commenting on why we learn little from what we read, he writes:
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> “”
---
But reading good works is not enough. We must re-read important works immediately because it aids our understanding, a concept that [Mortimer Adler echoes](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/how-to-read-a-book/).
---
> “”
---
And the final part of the essay I want to draw your attention to speaks to [how advancement happens](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2011/09/how-scientific-advancement-happens/) in a flurry of false starts, and answers the age-old question of why so many luminaries — whether scientific or even artistic — fail to be recognized in their present age as they will later come to be seen by the world.
---
> “”
---
If you think Schopenhauer is for you, pick up a copy of [The Essential Schopenhauer: Key Selections from The World As Will and Representation and Other Writings](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061768243/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fsp%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0061768243&linkCode=as2&tag=farnamstreet-20&linkId=7TJSISIKVC6VW6OP).
**_This piece originally appeared on_** [**_Farnam Street_**](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2015/08/schopenhauer-on-reading/)**_._**
**Join over 60,000 readers and get a free weekly update via email** [**here**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/newsletter/)**.**
### 15 Best Books Under 100 Pages
Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton, 77 pages. The title character of Wharton’s novella gets caught in a love triangle between his wife and her cousin. The resolution, as any high school English student can tell you, is tragic. Charles Scribner's Sons
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass By Frederick Douglass, 96 pages. Considered the foremost autobiography of a former slave, Douglass’s Narrative was a major credit to the abolitionist cause. It’s also one of the strongest testaments to the power of reading. Dover Publications, Inc.
The Metamorphosis By Franz Kafka, 44 pages. In the original case of waking up on the wrong side of the bed, salesman Gregor Samsa finds himself transformed one morning into a giant vermin. Kurt Wolff Verlag, Leipzig
The Old Man and the Sea By Ernest Hemingway, 96 pages. Hemingway’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novella follows fisherman Santiago as he battles alone against an enormous marlin. Charles Scribner's Sons
The Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 48 pages. The Communist League commissioned Marx and Engels to write this political pamphlet that revolutionized the way the world thought about class and capital. International Publishers
Anthem Ayn Rand, 80 pages. On the opposite end of the political spectrum, Rand’s dystopian novella about a man who would not conform to his society’s regulations celebrated fierce individualism. Cassell
Heart of Darkness By Joseph Conrad, 72 pages. Protagonist Marlow, working for an ivory-trading company, travels up the Congo River in search of renegade Kurtz in this story that probes the truth about civilization. Norton Critical Edition
Symposium By Plato, 80 pages. Partygoers take turns giving speeches on the nature of love in this philosophical work that originated the concept of the Platonic relationship. Oxford
The Awakening By Kate Chopin, 96 pages. Edna Pontellier realizes her life as a wife and mother has left her grossly unfulfilled and attempts for the first time to liberate herself in this early feminist novel. H.S. Stone & Co.
The Prince By Niccolò Machiavelli, 80 pages. The political treatise that drove home the point that the ends justify the means—giving us the handy term “Machiavellian.” Antonio Blado d'Asola.
The Art of War By Sun Tzu, 68 pages. The cunning yet ruthless ancient Chinese military handbook has proved instructive for centuries—Tony even made use of it in The Sopranos. Nabla
The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 70 pages. A woman goes slowly insane after being confined to a creepy attic room by her husband. The New England Magazine
The Little Prince By Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 96 pages. A boy from a mysterious planet teaches a pilot stranded in the desert about love, imagination and the tragedy of adulthood. Reynal & Hitchcock
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man By James Weldon Johnson, 92 pages. The narrator of this 1912 novel is a black man with fair skin who decides to “pass” as white after witnessing a brutal lynching. He accordingly gives up his dream of creating a new African American musical genre, and looks back years later feeling that he made the wrong decision, “that I have sold my birthright for a mess of pottage.” Sherman, French, & Co.
The Turn of the Screw By Henry James, 96 pages. Two children and their new governess are at the center of this chilling ghost story. The Macmillan Company
_Read next:_ [_7 Summer Reads for the Curious Mind_](http://time.com/3993881/summer-reads/?iid=time%5Freadnext)
[_Download TIME’s mobile app for iOS to have your world explained wherever you go_](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/time-mobile/id328218429)
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