It’s okay to not read books cover to cover

Buying books and not reading them is a cliché. It could make you feel inadequate, but there is another side to this story that might change your mind.

Most of the business books are usually bloated blog posts with biased ideas, that are then ineffectively communicated. A requirement of the publishing industry is for your book to be of certain length and a certain wide appeal. There is little incentive for being concise, or talking about something important that only a few can understand.

Secondly, good technical reference books are not meant to be read cover to cover. You refer them depending on where you are in your work or your life.