Great article! A really important topic! Spending a decade in advertising taught me a lot about how people process information -- and that people themselves rarely understand it.

A short way of putting it is the wine in a bottle can't be poured out instantly, and if it did, straight into your throat, your body would reject it.

I'm an info junkie too. I'll pick a random interesting topic in Wikipedia, read it, following its links wherever they lead, reading some or all of many articles.

Two thoughts:

I favor reading books that tell the history of humanity -- not the events and people so much as the developments over time that illuminate human nature -- like "Guns, Germs and Steel" or "The Silk Roads."

I think below the surface of "The Lord of the Rings" are some deep meditations on good and evil. Other books might go deeper, but they might be more challenging to read. It's not the most read and loved book of the 20th century for nothing.

Thanks for your article, Erik!