How many professional reading books do you read in a year?
Our reader poll today asks: How many professional reading books do you read in a year?
- None. I read other forms of content (blogs, magazines, journals): 39%
- A few: 1-4: 33%
- Several: 5-9: 13%
- Many: 15 or more: 5%
- A lot: 10-14: 5%
- I don’t really do any professional reading: 4%
Short form doesn’t beat bookworms. Clearly a large portion (39%) of you eschew books in favor of short-form content. That’s a sign of the times for busy professionals. That said, a healthy portion (56%) of you are still hunkering down with a good business book on a regular basis. For those who aren’t reading books, I encourage you to pick up the habit. Short-form content is great but isn’t lasting. Books are more comprehensive in their thinking and can more fundamentally alter the way you look at the world because they give you a broader context and deeper insights into issues than a 600-word blog post can. Books are also a great way to decompress and get away from stressful screen time, bouncing from one site to another. The best way to get started on this habit is to ask your friends and co-workers for recommendations. They’ll know you well enough to recommend things you’ll enjoy.
Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!
– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.
Hi:
It’s a wrong question to ask. You should ask, how many good ideas from your reading sojourns have you put to work in your life? That’s to create productive outcomes or construct concrete deliverables that can eventually add/compound/multiply value to your life, or to your work, or to your business, or even to your clients. In a nut shell, the production:consumption ratio matters a lot in the real world. My two cents, anyway.
I think your question is a fair one too. I don’t see the question I asked as “wrong” though. I was seeking to measure a different behavior. I was getting at a leader’s habits and how they prioritize their own development and make time for it. I also wanted to gauge how consistently they’re acting on that habit. If you don’t have good habits and a mindset toward professional development (i.e., if the “consumption” side of things is dysfunctional) then the likelihood of finding ideas to put into practice is much lower. I like your question paired with the question I asked. Hope that clarifies.