For the last three years, I’ve read...a lot. Since making it a consistent part of my lifestyle in 2016, I’ve read 113 books in 2017, 86 in 2018, and 101 in 2019.
Total number of books can be misleading - some are quick manifestos under a hundred pages others over a thousand including one over 1,600 pages long - but my number of pages read has stayed consistently between 26,000 and 31,000 per year.
A little more math. Let’s take the low end of a year and call it 26,000 pages. Divided equally across an entire year that comes out to an average of nearly 70 pages a day. That sounds more than a little bit daunting, but let me explain a little more about my system and how it can help you.
Here’s another caveat. Many of these books are actually listened to as audio books. There’s fierce debate about this counting as “reading” a book. But since we’re not competing for any cash prizes, I couldn’t care less whether anyone else considers it “read”, but I do. In fact, I often feel like I take more from books that are listened to on my commute. I tend to listen to long biographies, history, and fiction books. For books I want to take a lot of notes from (industry, technical, or professional development), I prefer a Kindle version.
For details on my digital note taking and storing process, see this previous post. Shane Parish also outlines an interesting note taking technique here.
As to reading such a large number of books, I have a couple of tips that I think can help anyone read more than they are now. We all say we want to read more, and I believe everyone can benefit from it. I also believe anyone can read substantially more with just a few tweaks to your routine.
Find the Medium That Works for You
The great thing about today’s landscape is that there are so many ways to ‘read’ nowadays. From traditional printed books, to e-readers, to smartphone apps, to high quality audio books that can be downloaded at the drop of a hat.
I’ve found that I read substantially faster on Kindle (and remember Kindle books can be read via apps on practically any smartphone, tablet, or in a web view). I believe this is because the Kindle app now allows vertical scrolling instead of page flipping. Kindle books are also often deeply discounted. I keep a running list of books recommended to me as an Amazon Wish List and sort by price every day to see which books have dropped down to a buck or too.
There are also great services like Scribd, which is essentially an unlimited, Netflix-style site for e-books, audio books, documents and magazines. Use this personal link of mine to try it out for two months free of charge.
And don’t overlook the old-fashioned Library. Many library systems also include free digital resources (check out Libby) as well as checkout privileges for regular books. There are also many free sites to get digital books as PDFs or formatted for Kindle - Standard EBooks, the Gutenberg Project, Springer, and Open Culture are among those I’ve used.
Figure out what works best for you and dive in.
Schedule Your Reading
To read substantially more than you currently do, you have to make it part of a regular habit. It can’t just be when you feel you “have time” - how often does that happen anyway?
For me, I read a bit every night in bed before going to sleep. We don’t keep a television in the bedroom and this is my unwinding routine. I’ll often be surprised at how often I end up reading an hour or more.
I also read after my shower each morning. This is typically not a very long session but one I almost always do. What times can you make this part of your habit? Is it during your lunch hour? Your commute? Your workout? We all have rituals, find a way to get reading into yours.
Steal Reading Time
In order to super-charge your reading time, shift time spent on your phone to time reading. I feel much better when I use my iPhone to quickly read through some content on Kindle, Blinkist, or Pocket, than scrolling through social media or playing a mindless game.
Use these little pockets of 3-5 minutes to knock out a few pages of an e-book. They’ll add up.
Make it Social
Reading, like most things, can be even more fun when it’s social. I use the social media site Goodreads to track my reading, read reviews, and follow along with friends. I’ve also tried to share my books on social media and strike up conversations with other people. Both these also lead to great recommendations.
Or even go back to analog. Find a book that you and a friend can read simultaneously. Suggest a reading group or book club to your co-workers. I bet you’ll get more out of the reads and keep on top of the habit when you have accountability.
Learn How to Quit
I’ll be the first to admit, this is not a strength of mine. I have trouble not finishing a book that I start. I’ve slogged through more than my share of books that didn’t hold my interest or weren’t as valuable as hoped for. I’m trying to do better with this - I’ve started to realize even at a 100/year clip I’m never going to read everything I’d want to. Sometimes bailing on something is for the best.
I’ve actually made it a goal to read more Blinks (book summaries from a great service called Blinkist) and book summaries to retain key information from non-fiction books. An unfortunate side effect of the publishing industry is that many of these books could be 50 pages long and provide the same level of value, but to be published they must be 250 pages.
Bottom line, don’t let a goal of reading X number of books per year get in the way of the true goal, which is learning and retaining what you’ve read.
In conclusion, reading a hundred books each year might not be realistic for your lifestyle. But I guarantee you that however busy you are, you can read substantially more than you do today. From Bill Gates’ secluded “Think Weeks” to Warren Buffett’s estimation that he spends 80% of his time reading and thinking deeply, some of our society’s greatest thinkers reserve time to read and reflect.
How to Read 80(ish) Books a Year (And Actually Remember Them), GQ