My feeling is that both are necessary, and finding the right things to read in both categories isn’t all that easy. For example, I don’t need to even glance at, much less read, a book on IIS server configuration if that’s not the technology my organization is using or contemplating. If it’s an area we are using, though, and maybe one where we’re struggling, and I want to get the issues straightened out in my mind, I’ll consider picking it up. I probably spend hours a week in bookstores and/or online, figuring out what I should be reading.

Equally, I try to stay abreast of the classic and current management and leadership books (by the way, airport bookshop browsing is astonishingly useful for figuring out what’s current in that category), but I read quite selectively in that arena.