I’ve read books in English, French, and Arabic. Both fiction and non-fiction.
Mostly, I’ll post here non-fiction English books. At least, the ones that I can recommend and might be relevant to most of you.
Also, I’ll skip the books that I read but don’t remember much of them. I spent a decade reading without taking notes. Please don’t do like me. It’s such a waste.
This section is only meant to spark your interest in books. So I’ll only write my impressions and three notes from the books. For more details, summaries and reviews, you can find them on Amazon or any other source.
For a faster research, you can click on any tag below to find the books of your interests.
How to Take Smart Notes
One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers
Sönke Ahrens
My note-taking system was probably one of the worst on Earth. Basically, I just copied and pasted. No wonder that nothing stayed in my brain. I tried in the last couple of years to correct this bad and useless habit. This book describes a more efficient note-taking system. The sooner you learn it, the more you can benefit from your learnings.
Three notes from the book:
1- Writing is, without dispute, the best facilitator for thinking, reading, learning, understanding and generating ideas we have.
2- Studies on highly successful people have proven again and again that success is not the result of strong willpower and the ability to overcome resistance, but rather the result of smart working environments that avoid resistance in the first place.
3- He did not just copy ideas or quotes from the texts he read, but made a transition from one context to another.
The Art of Learning
An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance
Josh Waitzkin
If you saw the movie 'Searching for Bobby Fischer', you know already who Josh Waitzkin is. What's fascinating about him is his performance not only in chess but also in martial arts. This book exposes his methods for reaching high levels of achievement in unrelated fields.
Three notes from the book:
1- If your goal is to be mediocre, then you have a considerable margin for error.
2- A child with a learning theory of intelligence tends to sense that with hard work, difficult material can be grasped--step by step, incrementally, the novice can become the master.
3- I believe an appreciation for simplicity, the everyday--the ability to dive deeply into the banal and discover life's hidden richness--is where success, let alone happiness, emerges.
Marva Collins' Way
Returning to Excellence in Education
Marva Collins
I wrote about Marva Collins in my article "Serving Others Leads To One Result: Winning For Everyone". First I heard her name from Tony Robbins, then I came across her name again in the book 'Mindset'. So I decided to learn more about her. A truly fascinating woman who deserves to be known and her methods spread.
Three notes from the book:
1- "Arnold, sweetheart, from now on you're going to learn. Children don't fail in here because I don't let them fail. You will learn to read so you can have choices in life."
2- While others lowered their standards for inner-city students, I made mine higher.
3- Marva made sure she found something to praise in each of the children every day, even if it was nothing more than the color of their socks, a new pencil, a bright smile, or a good job of washing the back of their neck.
Steal Like an Artist
10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
Austin Kleon
We only steal what we love. In the process of using the object of our theft, we discover both our limitations and our singularity. You’ll become an active thief after reading this book. But don’t worry, it’s all halal!
Three notes from the book:
1- Plagiarism is trying to pass someone else’s work off as your own. Copying is about reverse-engineering.
2- Don't just steal the style. Steal the thinking behind the style.
3- Our failure to copy our heroes is where we discover where our own things live. That is how we evolve.
