I like reading lists. Especially reading lists from creative, thoughtful people. Especially successful,  creative, thoughtful people. I was looking at a recent post from Matt Mullenweg. I started going down the list and seeing if any of the the books made sense for me. I ran across one title, Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, that might be for me. I looked in my local library online catalog and noticed that there were 45 people waiting on 6 copies. A light went off. Maybe I should read this book. I checked Audible. Yep, they had it and I have credits. However, I use my credits sparingly. I only get two a month. I now go to Amazon to see if they have a summary of the book on Kindle Unlimited. They did. Three of them. So Kindle Unlimited it will be.

There are actually several takeaways from the above segment of this post. I list them because that’s really what this post is all about.

• Reading lists are good. They help me find books that I might like. They’re like a filter. They give you more choices and save you time. If you find reading lists from other people that seem to make sense for you consult them periodically like you would the more popular lists such as the NY Times Bestsellers list.
• You need a variety of resources. I went to my public library first. It’s free. That’s always my first choice. When I saw overwhelming demand, I then went to Audible to see if they carry the book. It’s almost certain they would. Audible tends to be my last choice as I only get two books a month. Not all great reads come in audio format. A high percentage do, however. I went to Amazon to see if they had the summary in Kindle Unlimited as the above book is more of an educational as opposed to a purely entertainment choice. Summaries are great and Kindle Unlimited makes them a very, very viable choice for me.
• You do not have to pay a lot of money for books every month. My Audible and Kindle Unlimited subscriptions set me back about $33 a month, but I get the ability to consume an enormous amount of material when you combine that with my public library access. Hoopla and Overdrive are Godsends.
• Summaries work. The concept works for some books better than others but, essentially, it works for all books. Think Cliff’s Notes. Sometimes I check out the summaries before I actually get the book to see if I really want to invest the time into the material. Sometimes I get the summary after I listen to the book to see if the book was as good as I thought it was.