I enjoy reading non-fiction books. I finish about 30–50 non-fiction books a year (a book every one or two weeks) and out of the 30–50 books I read, maybe only 3–5 of those books seems to be life-changing for me. When it comes to reading and benefiting from a book, I am a get-to-the-point type of person. My preferences for non-fiction books are focused on the most amount of new ideas with the least of unneeded content Books that go against this preference create limited success from me in an reread or a recommendation. Here, I will discuss the top six issues I experience when opening/reading a new book.
1Advice or Ideas Are Too Vague/General
This is the common mistake I’ve experience in most of the books I’ve read. The advice is often very vaguely worded. Let’s take the common given advice of “be yourself!” What does “be yourself” exactly mean?
It’s too open to interpretation and can infer different ideas to different people. This example piece of advice provides almost no value to the recipient except a little more encouragement. Of course, even some of the best books I have read have advice that’s too vague. However it’s not just the vagueness that decreases a book’s value, but also the generalizations. When a piece of advice is general to the point that it’s supposed to be applied to “everything”, it can cause issues.
Let’s take another example, another piece of advice I’ve read in business interactions is “be supportive”. Raising the issue that some advice is too vague/general again, what does “be supportive” mean? Does it mean financial support or in-person listening? What if the person decides to abuse the support to a company’s lost?
2Repeated Content
This is another common mistake. Although I can personally understand why this happens due to how the publication industry works.
For starters, books in the same field/industry can be near-identical copies of each. When one author writes knowledge in one industry, it is nearly impossible for another author in the same industry not to repeat the same content. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve reread the same knowledge throughout different books in the same industry.
Another issue I have is a single author with multiple published books. The issue? Some of their books repeat each other’s contents. I’ve read some books where one book was essentially 90% copy of another of the same author’s other book. The only thing that changed was probably a few additional chapters that covered something else.
In both cases, it would’ve helped if the author added some extra perspective or content to the repeated knowledge. To at least provide some extension and a greater depth for the same content.
3Easy to Mention, Hard to Actually Apply
People often have good intentions, but it’s hard to follow through on their intentions with meaningful commitments. The authors are often in situations that enable them to apply the knowledge they’re talking about. The problem with some of the knowledge I’ve read in books is that they have certain implicit prerequisites that the author assumes the reader can fulfill.
Here’s an example, an author might propose for an reader to visit certain locations to apply their advice. Now, here comes the reader’s dilemma : what if the reader do not have the time/money to visit that location? what if the location is not in a place the reader is comfortable with? There’s endless of “barriers” that the reader may be facing the author do not help address.
4Outdated Knowledge/Ideas
I have recently learned from one of Robert Greene’s books that society occurs in generational waves of prosperity and poverty. Nothing in human nature is fixed and perspectives on what’s best can easily differ between generations. A common inter-generational clash arises when one generation tries to apply the advice and wisdom of one generation to their own. Just as technology that was perfect a decade ago, can easily become replaced in the present, so can knowledge. Some books that were perfect in the past can be counterproductive in the present.
5Political Pressure
Some books are banned in certain regions. The politicians or activist groups/movements restrict the flow of certain banned knowledge. There are also books that have certain content that seems to push the reader into different political agendas. Likewise, the wording of some books I’ve read seems to have been exaggerated in certain ways to avoid political stigma instead of telling the important truth that help the reader become better people.
6Too much content
I found this to be an issue for writers who are highly educated. Maybe this is my own lack-of-post-graduate education but some books have excessive content. The books seems to be more about the author trying to show off their own smarts or to have an audience for their books than the reader’s own personal interests. The extra and excessive content do not provide any additional value to the reader, it instead only distracts to the knowledge the author is trying to distribute.
