Read Like a Thinker
The Filtered is a growing reference library for learning better and thinking deeper.
Members get full access to all stacks and artifacts as the archive expands.
From the Reading Life Collection: Stack 1
This stack brings together three pieces that outline the foundations of a mature reading practice, all from prolific writer and longtime reading obsessive Ryan Holiday. Holiday is one of the only modern writers who has written extensively about the craft of reading itself — how to approach a book, what to pay attention to, and how to transform reading from consumption into understanding. Read together, these pieces give you a small but sturdy toolkit for improving how you engage with books and getting more lasting value from what you read.
These 38 Reading Rules Changed My Life
Ryan Holiday | ryanholiday.net | 2023
Holiday’s reading philosophy — the heuristics, frameworks, and guiding principles he uses. “Reading is wonderful in and of itself, why would I try to rush through it? No, I try to do it well. I try to enjoy it.”
Marginalia, the Anti-Library, and Other Ways to Master the Lost Art of Reading
Ryan Holiday | Behance | 2015
This is about reading practices and reading infrastructure — active reading, note-taking, keeping a personal library, how to think with books. “Creativity comes from combining old ideas into something new.”
How to Digest Books Above Your “Level”
Ryan Holiday | ryanholiday.net | 2007
This is about reading for growth: tackling difficult texts, improving comprehension, pushing intellectual limits. “You ought to ruin the ending — or find out the basic assertions of the book — because it frees you up to focus on your two most important tasks: 1) What does it mean? 2) Do you agree with it?”
This stack is part of the Reading Life, one of three ongoing collections inside The Filtered. As this collection grows, you’ll find stacks on deep reading, re-reading, and meaning-making, developing a personal canon, note-taking, and building a steady, healthy reading practice.