Mindset and habits

How to read more

I read more once I gave myself permission to stop reading things I was not enjoying.

1. Abandon books without guilt.

   Finishing a book you dislike teaches you that reading is a chore. Fifty pages is a fair trial. Put it down and pick up another.

2. Keep one within arm's reach at all times.

   The book you read is the one that is closer than your phone. This is most of the battle.

3. Read several at once.

   One for concentration, one for the bus, one for last thing at night. Matching the book to your state beats forcing one book through every mood.

4. Twenty pages a day is a book a fortnight.

   Roughly twenty-five books a year, at a pace that never feels like effort. Ambition is what stops people, not laziness.

5. Take the note in the book.

   Underline, fold the corner, write in the margin. A book you have marked up is worth rereading; a pristine one you finished is a blur.

6. Follow the footnotes.

   The best recommendations come from books you already liked. This is a far better filter than any list, including mine.

7. Reread the ones that mattered.

   A good book at twenty-two is a different book at thirty. Rereading is not a waste of a slot.

8. Read the old ones.

   A book still in print after fifty years has been filtered by a lot of people. Most of this year's releases will not be.

9. Write one paragraph when you finish.

   What it argued and whether you believed it. It takes five minutes and it is the difference between having read something and remembering it.

10. Talk about them.

    One person to argue with about books doubles what you get from them. It also makes you finish the ones worth finishing.