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Took me three months of daily writing to finish this blog post. 90 Personal Development Books and their reviews

BrunoRastablasta

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Everyone laughed at me here when I started reading 20 pages of a book a day. They told me it was useless and that it will never amount to anything. And not only that, they told me that my failure at that habit will be a reflection on who I am as a person.

After I flipped them the middle finger, I went on my own way - as Scott Peck would say "I took the road less traveled." You guys get it, you0re on the same path.

Two years later, I read my 90th book by reading 20 pages a day.

Now, it was time to show to the world what I had done.

So I sat down and created a massive blog post, reviewing every single book I've read (business, motivation, education, finance)

The format follows:


1.TITLE
Amazon link
My Book notes
Rating: X/10
Date of reading:
Description:
Impression:
Quotes:

If you click on the book notes, you will get the extensive review of the book you want (there are 90 of them).

How I Read 90 Books In The Past 2 Years By Reading 20 Pages A Day
25018
How I Read 90 Books In The Past 2 Years By Reading 20 Pages A Day

It took me three months to finish this piece so have a look at it, you will find many useful books :D

Cheers,
-Bruno
 
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gryfny

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Your plan to read 20 pages a day is a great example of how people (including me in this case) underestimate what can be reached in the long term, while overestimating what they can achieve in the short run. I would never think I have time to read 90 books in 2 years, but 20 pages each day seems easy enough (I could probably do 50!). It's great to see how a seemingly small daily goal can have a big result.

But I'm wondering, why are you not spreading out the blog posts with the reviews a bit more? In theory these 90 book reviews can be used as content for months, but it seems you are posting multiple a day.

I've bookmarked your post and will check out some reviews later. Great stuff!

But let's talk about what gets ME excited.... how much money did you make from doing this in 2 years?
And yes, curious about this as well!
 

Roli

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Everyone laughed at me here when I started reading 20 pages of a book a day. They told me it was useless and that it will never amount to anything. And not only that, they told me that my failure at that habit will be a reflection on who I am as a person.

After I flipped them the middle finger, I went on my own way - as Scott Peck would say "I took the road less traveled." You guys get it, you0re on the same path.

Two years later, I read my 90th book by reading 20 pages a day.

Now, it was time to show to the world what I had done.

So I sat down and created a massive blog post, reviewing every single book I've read (business, motivation, education, finance)

The format follows:


1.TITLE
Amazon link
My Book notes
Rating: X/10
Date of reading:
Description:
Impression:
Quotes:


If you click on the book notes, you will get the extensive review of the book you want (there are 90 of them).

How I Read 90 Books In The Past 2 Years By Reading 20 Pages A Day
View attachment 25018
How I Read 90 Books In The Past 2 Years By Reading 20 Pages A Day

It took me three months to finish this piece so have a look at it, you will find many useful books :D

Cheers,
-Bruno

Hang on a sec, something doesn't quite add up here... I'm not exactly calling bullshit, but I'd love to hear your explanation for the following.

20 pages a day is only enough to read just over 15 (Sapiens length) books per year. Now I know some of them are shorter than Sapiens, and a couple are longer. Whatever the case, there is no way you can read 90 books in 2 years by just reading 20 pages per day.

Even allowing for the fact that Sapiens is a long book, let's say the average length of book is 300 pages.

So 300(page book) / 20(pages per day) = 15 (days to read a book)

So 15 days to read a book, let's see how many chunks of 15 in a year, to get the amount of books you could read at that 20 p/pd rate.

365 (days in a year) / 15 = 24.3

x2

= 48.6

So in conclusion, unless you were reading children's books, which the list shows you clearly weren't, it is physically impossible to read 90 books in 2 years by just reading 20 pages per day. In fact the number would be around 48 300 page books in 2 years.
 

BrunoRastablasta

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Hang on a sec, something doesn't quite add up here... I'm not exactly calling bullshit, but I'd love to hear your explanation for the following.

20 pages a day is only enough to read just over 15 (Sapiens length) books per year. Now I know some of them are shorter than Sapiens, and a couple are longer. Whatever the case, there is no way you can read 90 books in 2 years by just reading 20 pages per day.

Even allowing for the fact that Sapiens is a long book, let's say the average length of book is 300 pages.

So 300(page book) / 20(pages per day) = 15 (days to read a book)

So 15 days to read a book, let's see how many chunks of 15 in a year, to get the amount of books you could read at that 20 p/pd rate.

365 (days in a year) / 15 = 24.3

x2

= 48.6

So in conclusion, unless you were reading children's books, which the list shows you clearly weren't, it is physically impossible to read 90 books in 2 years by just reading 20 pages per day. In fact the number would be around 48 300 page books in 2 years.


Just open up the document and you will see my reading chart (Reading tracker).


Take notice that I bought these in an online format so certain books have different page numbers.

For examples:
Contagious. Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger has 256 pages on Amazon.
The online format condenses the pages (more words on the page than the physical book). So the book in the format in which I bought it has 142 pages. That's why the discrepancy.


Also, if you check out the tracker, I didn't always read just 20 pages a day. Sometimes it was 30, sometimes 25, sometimes 0, but sometimes 50, but the goal was 20 a day :D
 
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BrunoRastablasta

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But let's talk about what gets ME excited.... how much money did you make from doing this in 2 years?

to be honest, not much. After 100 books and two years of reading and writing, it kind of became like action faking (Unscripted readers know this quite well).

But I started this out with my platform on local language (Croatian) where the purpose was completely different. I have quite a big readership there (100K people a year which is enormous here), but my vision for it is the following:

„ I stand for Mostar and BiH, a place that will be changed from a constant hate, fear of „others“, disrespect and bullet holes on windows and walls; to a place which will flourish with love, joy, empathy and respect by sacrificing everything, including my life, in achieving a better future for the people that will come after me.“

The market is quite f*cked up so didn't really profit much from it, but at the moment taking steps in creating an email list on growthabits.com to help people create reading and writing habits via online courses (that's my plan and the thing I'm working on).

So yeah, not much....yet! :D
 
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BrunoRastablasta

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Your plan to read 20 pages a day is a great example of how people (including me in this case) underestimate what can be reached in the long term, while overestimating what they can achieve in the short run. I would never think I have time to read 90 books in 2 years, but 20 pages each day seems easy enough (I could probably do 50!). It's great to see how a seemingly small daily goal can have a big result.

But I'm wondering, why are you not spreading out the blog posts with the reviews a bit more? In theory these 90 book reviews can be used as content for months, but it seems you are posting multiple a day.

I've bookmarked your post and will check out some reviews later. Great stuff!


And yes, curious about this as well!

Thanks for bookmarking! :D

To be honest, I want to finish up the book notes and have them as a SEO lead gen tool while I write articles and post them on the website.

Currently, the book notes are taking a massive time toll and I just want to get them have,have google index them and then continue writing articles :D :D
 

Roli

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Just open up the document and you will see my reading chart (Reading tracker).


Take notice that I bought these in an online format so certain books have different page numbers.

For examples:
Contagious. Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger has 256 pages on Amazon.
The online format condenses the pages (more words on the page than the physical book). So the book in the format in which I bought it has 142 pages. That's why the discrepancy.


Also, if you check out the tracker, I didn't always read just 20 pages a day. Sometimes it was 30, sometimes 25, sometimes 0, but sometimes 50, but the goal was 20 a day :D

Ah fair enough. I'm such a real paper book junkie that I often forget there are alternatives :-D
 

Thiago Machado

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But I started this out with my platform on local language (Croatian) where the purpose was completely different. I have quite a big readership there (100K people a year which is enormous here), but my vision for it is the following:

Have you tried getting those people onto an email list?

If you like reading this much and want to make money off of it, why don't you create the "blinkist.com" of Croatia?

The reason I say this is because if a concept has been proven in one country - it can certainly work in another (especially in tech / online businesses).
 
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Thiago Machado

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In theory these 90 book reviews can be used as content for months

at the moment taking steps in creating an email list on growthabits.com to help people create reading and writing habits via online courses (that's my plan and the thing I'm working on).


Have you thought about building your email list by providing 1 book review per day via email?

You can create a 90-day autoresponder email sequence.

Here's how it works:

Everyday someone who signs up for your list will receive a book review that will help them.

If you think about it... that's a great way for YOU to help THEM build the habit of reading.

All they need is 2 - 5 minutes every day to read and learn new concepts.

For your business, this will help you establish trust, goodwill, and you provide value every day.

It helps build a relationship with your list too.

There's a company that does this for a small fee: gohighbrow.com

Just some thoughts.
 
Last edited:

BrunoRastablasta

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Have you tried getting those people onto an email list?

If you like reading this much and want to make money off of it, why don't you create the "blinkist.com" of Croatia?

The reason I say this is because if a concept has been proven in one country - it can certainly work in another (especially in tech / online businesses).

Yeah, I completely get it and we had a similar idea. But then we ran the numbers and they were just horrible.


Here, a book gets a bestseller status if it sells more than 1000 pieces.
The record seller was Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules For Life last year with 1400 sold copies.
On average, less than 30 000 books are sold per year here so the market is just too small to make something like blinkist.

A friend helped me out and we created a course for my target audience a year ago. At that time, I had around 60K visitors a year and 120 people on my email list.

We created a five-sequence email funnel, a marketing strategy with FB videos and adds on top of a previous lead nurturing process.

In the end, it got 4 sales.

So yeah, I tend to skip the market here for making any real money.
 

Thiago Machado

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So yeah, I tend to skip the market here for making any real money.

Ah, makes sense!

In some countries, economics don't line up.

I guess it's better to make a couple of sales in USD than thousands in Croatia.
 
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BrunoRastablasta

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Have you thought about building your email list by providing 1 book review per day via email?

You can create a 90-day autoresponder email sequence.

Here's how it works:

Everyday someone who signs up for your list will receive a book review that will help them.

If you think about it... that's a great way for YOU to help THEM build the habit of reading.

All they need is 2 - 5 minutes every day to read and learn new concepts.

For your business, this will help you establish trust, goodwill, and you provide value every day.

It helps build a relationship with your list too.

There's a company that does this for a small fee: gohighbrow.com

Just some thoughts.

"Have you thought about building your email list by providing 1 book review per day via email?"

I haven't :rofl: :rofl: and it's a great idea! Thanks! :D :D I know about highbrow, they do like a 5-10 day long email sequences and I've used them before. This could be great and I will start writing out the forms for this sequence :D
 

BrunoRastablasta

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Ah, makes sense!

In some countries, economics don't line up.

I guess it's better to make a couple of sales in USD than thousands in Croatia.
Yeah, the average salary here is $485 so just skip. But the highbrow idea is awesome! Can't thank you enough :D
 

Thiago Machado

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his could be great and I will start writing out the forms for this sequence

I had a look at your blog post.

Honestly, I would just get 1 book review and put it in the email sequence.

1 book per day

1 big lesson / main idea

1 actionable step at the end.

Create a 90 day sequence.

That seems pretty good for someone who wants to get into the habit of reading.

The daily emails will definitely build a relationship too.

Should be easier to sell to your list afterwards.
 
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BrunoRastablasta

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I had a look at your blog post.

Honestly, I would just get 1 book review and put it in the email sequence.

1 book per day

1 big lesson / main idea

1 actionable step at the end.

Create a 90 day sequence.

That seems pretty good for someone who wants to get into the habit of reading.

The daily emails will definitely build a relationship too.

Should be easier to sell to your list afterwards.


I will create 2 variations of this.

Would you mind checking them out to see which one is better? I could send them via Linkedin
 

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Strange you seem to finish books you rate as bad, wouldn't it be better to drop or just skim them ? Your system works though so keep it up.

I do something similar but instead I do 4 chapters per day. This was based on math specifically the number of average chapters per book / by the number of books I'd like to read per year plus margin of error.

You may not have internalized Checklist manifesto to a full extent. You should apply it to almost everything, from driving to business research. It's one of the most valuable books I've ever read. Make checklists for everything important.
 

BrunoRastablasta

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Strange you seem to finish books you rate as bad, wouldn't it be better to drop or just skim them ? Your system works though so keep it up.

I do something similar but instead I do 4 chapters per day. This was based on math specifically the number of average chapters per book / by the number of books I'd like to read per year plus margin of error.

You may not have internalized Checklist manifesto to a full extent. You should apply it to almost everything, from driving to business research. It's one of the most valuable books I've ever read. Make checklists for everything important.

Well, when it comes to leaving the books unread after a certain amount, I guess my Zeigarnik Effect comes into play after just 30 pages so it's easier for me to finish them than to leave them half-read.


And yes, you're 100% right about Checklist Manifesto. As soon as I read it, I made a checklist about my personal blog publishings and it really does work. For business, it does work but in the optimization phase. I haven't still found a way how to integrate a checklist during research/start-up phase.
 

Joost11

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OP that is pretty inspirational I must say. Even if you don't make much money off of this thing, you certainly have my respect
 
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