Never check the price on a book. Just buy it if you think you’ll read it. — Ryan Holiday

Never check the price on a book. Just buy it if you think you’ll read it.

Author: Ryan Holiday

Insight: Most of us have been trained to calculate before we consume. We compare prices across websites, we weigh whether we'll "get our money's worth," we hesitate at checkout. But books operate differently than most purchases because the barrier to entry is already so low compared to almost any other learning investment. A thirty-dollar book might save you from years of costly mistakes, or crack open a way of thinking you needed your whole life. The real insight here isn't that books are cheap—some aren't. It's that the decision should be made on one question alone: will this change something in my head? The price becomes noise. When you start factoring cost into whether knowledge matters, you're already thinking like someone who doesn't read much. Voracious readers know that indecision kills momentum. You spot something promising, and you move. The friction of debate—especially about money—stops the action before it starts. There's also something freeing about permission to be inefficient with books. Not every one you buy gets finished. Some disappoint. But that's part of how you find the ones that reshape you. The failed purchases are part of the system, not failures of the system. Treat books like oxygen, not like luxury goods, and you'll end up wealthier in ways that actually matter.

Source: Stillness Is the Key, page 131, 2019