I tend to finish the books that I read. It’s sometimes a good habit, but it depends.

The important thing about reading is the experience. You can learn from, and get entertainment value from both fiction and non-fiction. It’s important to know why you’re reading what you’re reading. If it’s no longer meeting the objective you don’t need to feel obligated to finish it.

I enjoy reading as a past-time sometimes, but usually am reading to learn. My default in the past has been to consume, quickly. You learn more this way then if you didn’t read, but not too much more. The learning pyramid idea puts reading alone at 10% retention.

You can get more out of living one line of a book then finishing ten books.

I’m reading Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations right now and Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. It won’t be the last time for either of them. Meditations is abundant in phrases of wisdom worth contemplating throughout a day, week, or even month or year. Think and Grow Rich has exercises I haven’t completed that will be helpful in self development and financial growth.

To get the most out of my reading I’m implementing a “Daily Dose” (focus of the day based on my reading) and “Weekly Focus” (same idea).

Because it’s more important to live one great book than consume ten.