"The war of art" and other books I did not finish reading
Book

"The war of art" and other books I did not finish reading

You can read more good books if you skip the lousy ones.
Bartosz Mikulski
Bartosz Mikulski – 1 min read

Who should read “The war of art” by Steven Pressfield? It seems that the book is intended to be read by writers. I am not a writer (yet?), so is it for me? I decided to give it a try anyway because I wanted to try something different. This approach worked well when I read about the history of shipping containers.

In the case of “The war of art,” trying something different failed me. I can’t blame the book. The book is not dull. It is quite well written. It consists of tons of short chapters. One page long chapters. If I didn’t like one of them, I could skip it and read the next one. I tried skipping chapters… repeatedly, for almost twenty pages.

What was the problem? I am not the target group. I don’t write books. I don’t write short stories. Well, I did write a short story once, but I don’t do it anymore.

I wonder whether I should feel bad about not finishing a book. On the one hand, I write about it. I have an opinion about a book I have not finished reading. For some people that is a mortal sin. If I told them, I would hear their scream: “How dear you?! You don’t know that book yet.” I used to agree with that point of view.

On the other hand, a bad book is like a disgusting meal at a restaurant. When I eat something, and I don’t like its taste I just stop eating it. Nobody expects from you to wait until you finish eating before you have an opinion about a meal.

I could force myself to read that book from the beginning to the end. I won’t do that. It would take me three times longer to finish it, and I would not remember anything I read.

It would be just terrible time-management. You can read more good books if you skip the lousy ones.

Older post

Prophet plot explained

How to read the Prophet forecast plot

Newer post

Turning greenfield projects into brownfields projects

What happens when the team lacks software craft skills?

Related Posts

Book Learning

How to be happy at work - lessons learned from "Career superpowers" book

What can you learn from the book "Career superpowers" by James Whittaker
Published on: 30 Mar 2020

Book

Four books to boost your programmer career

I quit my dream job because of a book
Published on: 06 Jan 2020

Book

Review of “Conversations On Data Science” by Roger D. Peng and Hilary Parker

Data Science book recommendation
Published on: 03 May 2019

Are you looking for an experienced AI consultant? Do you need assistance with your RAG or Agentic Workflow?
Schedule a call, send me a message on LinkedIn. Schedule a call or send me a message on LinkedIn

>