Write in Your Books (Yes, Really)

I used to treat my books like museum pieces. No folded pages. No pen. If I had seen someone write in one of my books, they would definitely have been downgraded from friend to acquaintance.

Today I read between 50 and 100 books a year. And my books are full of notes. Younger me would call the library police.

Here is my uncomfortable opinion for this week: if you are learning English, you may be treating your English like a museum piece too. You look at it. You admire it. You are afraid to touch it. And almost nothing stays in your head. Let's break three myths.

Myth 1: "Reading it again is studying"

You read the article. You read it again. Everything feels familiar, so you think you know it. Then someone asks you a question in a meeting, and the words are gone.

Familiar is not the same as known. The book Make It Stick, by scientists Henry Roediger and Mark McDaniel, makes this point clearly: effort, not familiarity, is what helps information stay in your memory. The methods that feel hardest are often the ones that work best.

The fix is simple, and a little uncomfortable. Close the page. Write down what you remember. Then check. Wrong answers are fine. They show you exactly what to learn next.

Myth 2: "A good reader keeps the book clean"

I believed this for years. Then I got older, and I saw the value in writing notes inside my books while I am learning.

A pen changes the way you read. You stop being a visitor and become a participant. You have to decide: what matters here?

You don't need a system. Start with three marks:

• A question mark next to anything you don't understand or disagree with.
• An underline under one phrase you want to steal and use yourself.
• One sentence in the margin that says the idea in your own words.

This works on a printed report, a contract, or a long email. If you are really against marking up your books, put a Post-it note inside the pages and write your three marks on that instead. A Post-it also works for a library book or a shared document. Page or Post-it, you are doing the same thing: deciding what matters.

Myth 3: "I must understand every word"

You don't. Many people read in English like they are crossing a river: one stone at a time, afraid to fall. Then they are tired by page two.

Skim first. Read the title and the first lines. Guess what the next paragraph will say. Then read to check your guess. Even a wrong guess prepares your brain to notice the right answer. (This is lesson 4 of my Make It Stick course, one of the 27 books in Life Optimization.)

Here is something important: most native speakers learn their vocabulary through context. They don't study word lists. They meet a new word in a sentence, guess its meaning from the words around it, and meet it again later. Slowly, it makes sense. You can learn the same way.

So don't open the dictionary at the first new word. Circle it, keep going, and look at it later. If it appears again, it matters.

Trend Watch: Fewer Readers, More Shortcuts

Reading is under pressure. According to U.S. government time-use data reported by Axios in September 2026, just over 16% of Americans read for pleasure on an average day last year. In 2005, it was 27%.

At the same time, AI tools can summarize any chapter in ten seconds. That is useful for deciding what to read. It is risky as a replacement for reading. A small 2026 study of 15 university students found that they often read through AI rather than with it, using summaries to decide which parts of a text deserved a closer look. It is easy to feel you have read something when you have not.

So be honest, and say it honestly in English:

• "I've skimmed it, but I haven't read it in detail yet."
• "I only read the summary. Can you walk me through the main points?"

Those sentences build trust. Pretending does the opposite.

English Upgrade: Talk About Your Reading Like a Pro

✗ "I read it, but I don't remember."
✓ "I've read it twice, but I can't recall the main points."

✗ "I didn't read all."
✓ "I only skimmed it. I haven't gone through the details yet."

✗ "Can you tell me shortly what it says?"
✓ "Can you briefly tell me what it says?" or "Can you give me the gist?" (the gist = the main idea)

Want English That Sticks?

I built my book courses on one idea: great books give you something worth saying. Each lesson takes one big idea from a classic business or life book, gives you the words to talk about it, and asks you to say it out loud. About 15 minutes a lesson. Every lesson follows my Mindful Learning Process: priming, scanning, reading, quizzing and reflection. In other words, the same things you just did with a pen. If you can read a simple news article with a little help, you're ready.

Don't take my word for it. Join the free waitlist and start a full course for free first (The Personal MBA or Mindset). Waitlist members get early access from Friday 20 November, 3 days before everyone else, with the lowest prices of the year. If you decide to buy later, you have 7 days to ask for a full refund.

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