A random sampling of the world's most successful people will show one common trait: a love of reading. Reading is the easiest way to <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201401/reading-fiction-improves-brain-connectivity-and-function">continue the learning process </a>, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/oct/08/literary-fiction-improves-empathy-study">increase empathy </a>, <a href="http://www.sparringmind.com/creative-thinking/">boost creativity </a>, and even just <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ibCtsHgz3Y">unwind from a long day </a>. But books can also change the way we think and live.

Benefit of reading

Warren Buffett, who <a href="https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/05/the-buffett-formula-how-to-get-smarter/">says he spends 80% of his time </a>reading and writing, attributes a huge amount of his success to a single book: The Intelligent Investor , by his mentor Benjamin Graham. For Malcolm Gladwell, it was Richard Nisbett's The Person and the Situation <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/books/review/malcolm-gladwell-by-the-book.html">that inspired his string </a>of New York Times bestselling books. These are what economist Tyler Cowen calls " <a href="http://ryanholiday.net/quake-reading/">quake books </a>"-pieces of writing that are so powerful they shake up your entire worldview.

Draw from others experience through reading

Understanding how to get the most out of your time reading starts with understanding why we remember things at all, and then figuring out the best way to use that information. Without purpose and intention, the ideas sparked while reading easily slip away. Learning to hold onto them means understanding how our memory works. For the purposes of reading retention, we can think of our memory as being basically <a href="http://www.oldandsold.com/articles06/memory-17.shtml">made up of three components </a>: When you're impressed by something, there's a <a href="http://www.spring.org.uk/2014/08/how-to-learn-anything-better-by-tweaking-your-mindset.php">much higher probability </a>that you'll remember it. This could mean a phrase or quote that catches you off guard or changes the way you think about a certain topic. Or an interesting fact that you'll want to teach someone later on.

Read with intention impress someone

Just like a teacher is able to master a subject because they know they'll be teaching it later on, attacking a book with the same level of purpose means you'll be able to recall information a lot quicker. A recent study in the journal Memory &amp; Cognition <a href="http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/27160.aspx">showed the effect </a>that reading with intention and purpose can have. Two groups were given the same material to read-one was told they'd have a test at the end, while the others were told they'd have to teach someone the material. In the end, both groups were given the same test. Surprisingly, the group that was told they'd have to teach the material (rather than be tested on it) performed much better:

Reading to teach

Having a clear question in mind or a topic you're focusing on can make all the difference in helping you to remember and recall information. While this can be as easy as defining a subject to look into beforehand, if time is no object <a href="http://productivity.stackexchange.com/questions/8638/what-methods-can-i-undertake-to-ensure-i-get-the-most-possible-information-fro">here's how to effectively "hack" your brain </a>into being impressed with the subject matter:

Question to start reading

A random sampling of the world's most successful people will show one common trait: a love of reading. Reading is the easiest way to continue the learning process, increase empathy, boost creativity, and even just unwind from a long day. But books can also change the way we think and live.

Reading with intention can change your life

Sheng Jie Chia