To read more books, read fewer of them
Just stick with me here
As the holidays approach and, I hope, you get some time off from work, you may be wanting to dive into a great book.
But is your current read holding you back?
About 5 years ago I rediscovered a love of reading.
I went from reading a few books a year to at least four every month. I wanted to read everything I could get my hands on and was constantly looking for tips to help me read more.
That’s how I discovered speed reading and learned about Howard Berg, the fastest reader in the world. He’s been clocked at over 20,000 words (~80 pages) per minute!
I thought learning this skill would supercharge my reading.
It didn’t.
(I’m still not convinced it really works for anyone. Sorry, Howard).
I’m no Berg, but even at my average pace of around 200 words per minute, reading is one of the highest-leverage activities I’ve found. An author can spend a decade learning important lessons, then a few years writing it down so I can read it all in under a month. A pretty good trade if you ask me.
Speed reading didn’t help, but I did wind up learning a counterintuitive technique to boost how much I was reading.
To read more books, read fewer of them.
Let me explain.
A major problem with our reading habits
I’m stubborn. Like you, I’ve been told all my life not to quit. Once I picked up a book, I’d force myself to finish it no matter how bad, boring or useless I found it to be.
Looking back, I have no idea what I was thinking.
I spent so much time reading thousands of words that had no interest to me simply because I’d started the book.
Do you suffer from this problem too?
How to read more by reading less
If you’re also afflicted with book-completionitis, here’s the remedy.
Quit what doesn’t capture your attention.
Read the first few pages. If it doesn’t grab you, skip ahead a few chapters and read a few more pages.
Still not interested? Ditch the book.
These days, for every book I finish, I stop reading at least 2 of them.
I find keeping a backlog of books I want to read next also helps me put down books more easily.
A well-informed idiot?
As the world’s fastest reader, Howard claims to have read over 30,000 books. He often tells people that even if he’s a total idiot, at least he’s well-informed!
Don’t be an idiot.
Stop reading anything that isn’t capturing you.
When you do, you’ll spend more time enjoying what you are reading, and the more you enjoy it, the more you’ll read.
Try it yourself: If you’re not truly interested in the book you’re currently reading, choose to stop reading it now.
You’ll read (and enjoy yourself) more this way.
I’ve recently stopped reading these books. I’m sure many find them great, but they just didn’t work for me:
What have you stopped reading lately?
😂 P.S. A terrible joke, try not to laugh…
I’ve been reading a book about anti-gravity…
I just cannot put it down!
One quick note
Enjoy your holidays. I’ll be back with more helpful tactics to quietly crush it at work and in life on January 2, 2024.
Leap by Tess Vigeland. The writing style didn’t capture me and there was far too much repetition - the book could’ve been far more concise.