Business books are entertainment, not strategic tools

I believe that almost every single thing you read has some worthwhile knowledge or wisdom, as well as a slew of material that is wrong or irrelevant or based on values that I don't carry. This includes books, blog posts, and sometimes even short form social media posts.

The key is to read with an open mind BUT don't blindly take everything as gospel. Ask yourself "is this surprising?", or "is this new?" and filter it through the "does this apply to me now?" or "is the person who is saying this worth listening to?".

Throwing out any entire book is shortsighted. Even "bad" books have nuggets of wisdom or new ideas or concepts. Not everything applies to your situation. Some things might apply now. Some things might apply at some point in the future, and having read the book you have an arsenal ready to be deployed when the time comes. Some things will never apply.

If I read a book and have one new original perspective or "aha" moment, it's a net positive.

This is true, nearly every book has at least some useful or insightful bits, but our time is limited. If you're reading one book that's mostly uninteresting, you're also not reading all the other books that you could be reading instead. Now I'm not advocating for minmaxing your life down to the point of insanity, but I do think it's sensible to try and pick up good books over bad books — whatever that means to you.

Sorry to be blunt, but this is not a good take at all, because of one simple fact; time is limited.

What you’re saying basically translates to “read everything”.

That's an excellent point.

The last part is most important: whatever that means to you.

I've read books that I thought were great at presenting some key concept. Other people would disagree. The key thing is that different people perceive and absorb information in different ways, no one book will appeal to everyone.

Time is limited. But I am not saying "read everything."

I'm saying "read".

If they happen to pick the books from that list, they won't walk away empty-handed. They will learn something. These books happen to be popular, and they are not worthless. They are written in an approachable style that might be more easily digestible than the other books the author recommends. He said that himself -- the books he recommends are not easy reading.

If someone decide to not read these books because of this article, but does not read others about similar topics either, they lose out.

The title says that "business books are entertainment" which on the surface makes it seem like the whole category does not have value. By extension you can extrapolate that reading about business in books is JUST entertainment, hence has no merit value.

I'm not familiar with the books the author recommends, but they made it to my reading list. I think that I might be less entertained by them than the ones he critiques, but I'm sure that they contain some good lessons as well.

Where did you get “read everything” from?

Isn’t it just “read”?