April 21, 2025

Well, a couple of things. First, I don’t feel right sharing the full contents of Ryan Holiday’s Reading Challenge, it’s a paid course so that doesn’t feel ethical. I will say I’m disappointed in the course. I signed up hoping it would help me improve my reading and comprehension skills, but so far, it doesn’t seem like that’s what the course delivers.

That realization sent me back to my own bookshelf, where I pulled out Mortimer J. Adler’s How to Read a Book. This is my third try with it. The first two times? Practically unreadable. But this time, it’s working for me.

I’m not reading it cover to cover and that probably helps. I’ll read everything, probably more than once, just not in the order delivered.

March 25th, 2025

As I read, highlight, take notes, and attempt to post about what I’m reading, I feel increasingly challenged to get more out of the reading I’m doing. That’s what Ryan’s course is all about. I’m going to go ahead and post about the whole 5-week experience here, and we’ll see if I feel like I’m a better reader at the end. The cost was $99. We shall see.

Mar 26th, 2025

The first email and the first challenge. There was a lot in this email – 2 or 3 videos and lots of reference material. I spent about 90 min with it this morning. The first thing is to start a Commonplace Book, or if you already have one to, use it differently. I, of course, have my Zettlekasten, which serves the same purpose. However, I am considering using it differently, more actively than I’m currently using it. Ryan is a big fan of analog notes – I am not – but I may try them for one book, The Laws of Human Nature – I will probably also add them to my digital Zettlekasten. I don’t want to write off a practice that is used by the likes of Ryan Holiday, Robert Greene, and Ronald Reagan.

Ryan H. writes his notes by hand a couple of weeks after he finishes a book – I will probably do it chapter by chapter.