Why the Hard Books Matter Most

Let me share something with you that changed the entire direction of my life.

When I was twenty-five years old, I was broke. I was behind on my promises. I was behind on my bills. I was behind on my dreams. And then I met a man named Earl Shoaff, and everything began to shift.

One of the first things Mr. Shoaff told me to do was to build a library. Not a collection of things I already agreed with. Not a shelf full of easy novels that would put me to sleep at night. He said, "Jim, you need to read the books that make you uncomfortable. The ones that make you stop and think. The ones that force you to argue with the author in the margins."

I didn't fully understand what he meant at first. But I do now.

The Comfortable Shelf

Here's what I've noticed about most people's reading habits: they read what is easy. They read what agrees with them. They read what entertains them.

Now, my friend, there is nothing wrong with entertainment. A good story is one of life's great pleasures. But here's the problem: if you only read what is comfortable, you will only become what is comfortable. And comfortable, I'm afraid, is just another word for stagnant.

I've often said, "Don't just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it."

Think about that. Entertainment fills the hours. Growth fills the life. And there is a vast difference between the two.

When I was earning fifty-seven dollars a week, I was reading easy things. Magazines that told me what I wanted to hear. Stories that required nothing of me. I could read them in an hour and forget them in a day. My life reflected exactly what I was feeding my mind: not much.

It was Mr. Shoaff who handed me a copy of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I found it at a used book store for less than fifty cents. It was not an easy read. Every chapter asked something of me. Every page demanded that I examine my own philosophy, my own habits, my own excuses. I had to read some passages three or four times before I understood them. And even then, I wasn't sure I agreed.

But here's what I know: that one book did more for the direction of my life than a thousand easy reads ever could have.

Why Difficulty Is the Point

Let me ask you a question. When you go to the gymnasium, do you lift the lightest weight? Do you walk slowly on the treadmill for five minutes and call it a workout?

Of course not. You understand that the muscle grows under resistance. The strength comes from the struggle. You seek the heavy weight because it is heavy.

Why would you treat your mind any differently?

A difficult book is a gymnasium for your intellect. When an author challenges your assumptions, that is resistance training for your philosophy. When you encounter an idea you disagree with, that is the weight that makes your thinking stronger. When you have to read a paragraph twice to understand it, that is the repetition that builds your mental capacity.

The books that changed my life were never the ones I breezed through. They were the ones that slowed me down. The ones that made me put the book on my chest and stare at the ceiling and think, Is that true? Have I been wrong about this?

The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant. The Story of Philosophy. The Bible. How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler. These were not casual reads. These were conversations with some of the greatest minds in human history. And conversations with great minds are supposed to be challenging. That is the whole point.

The Library That Shows Who You Are

My friend, your library is a portrait of your ambitions. Show me what a person reads, and I will tell you who they are becoming.

If your shelf is full of only easy things, you are becoming someone who avoids difficulty. If your shelf is full of only things you already agree with, you are becoming someone who fears new ideas. But if your shelf shows that you have wrestled with history, with philosophy, with economics, with the great questions of life, well, then you are becoming someone of substance.

Here's what I learned: you don't have to agree with every book you read. You don't even have to finish every book you start. But you must be willing to enter the arena with ideas that are bigger than you. You must be willing to be challenged. You must be willing to discover that something you believed for twenty years might be incomplete, or might even be wrong.

That is not weakness. That is the very definition of growth.

Mr. Shoaff once told me, "Jim, the book you need most is probably the one you least want to read." I've thought about that sentence for decades, and I believe he was right. The book that makes us uncomfortable is usually the one carrying the lesson we've been avoiding.

Your Challenge

So here is what I'm asking you to do. Look at what you've been reading lately. Be honest with yourself. Has it been easy? Has it been comfortable? Has it been the intellectual equivalent of a warm bath?

If so, it's time to pick up something harder.

Go to your bookstore or your library. Find a book on philosophy. Find a book on history. Find a book written by someone whose ideas you're not sure about. Find the book that makes you stop and think, that challenges your comfortable assumptions, that demands something of you.

And when it gets difficult, don't put it down. That difficulty you're feeling? That is the sound of your mind expanding. That is the feeling of your philosophy being refined. That is what growth feels like.

The easy books will entertain you for an evening. The hard books will change you for a lifetime.

Which would you rather have?