Every year when I do my book roundup the most common question I get is “how do you read so much?!?” The fact is, some years it's hard to reach 52 books, some years it isn’t. But I’ve made reaching that number nonnegotiable, and that’s helped tremendously.
“One shouldn’t be setting such rigid goals for something you pursue in your leisure time” you might say, to which I respond, “You’re the one asking how I read so much!”
In the past I’ve done posts on the technical how of reading more, but this one is intended to be the magnum opus, the why I read as much as I do, how you can read more, and why it’s totally fine if you don’t read at all.
First, a caveat. There is a lot of online bragging about reading, and you often see silly things like “every smart person I know reads extensively” or “every successful person I know spends enormous amounts of time reading”.
That’s all bullshit.
There are plenty of extremely smart, extremely successful people who read next to nothing, and certainly don’t read for pleasure. Take my boy M. M is much, much smarter than me as judged by raw horsepower. He’s advanced math in his head kinda smart. He also makes much more money than I do and I don’t think he’s read a book in years. While I spent my free time in 2023 reading about messianic cults in medieval Jewish communities, he was reverse-engineering the keyboards Kraftwerk used on Autobahn. He is extremely smart and extremely successful and books don’t do it for him.
Many such cases.
That said, reading widely and for no other purpose than my own enjoyment has been hugely important to me. It has fed my own apparently inexhaustible curiosity, opened me up to countless new ideas, and (I like to think) made me more empathetic and nuanced in my understanding of the world. It's also kept me a bit sane in a world gone crazy for 15 second outrage videos. Reading has reminded me to slow down, take my time, turn the page. Reading takes time, it takes attention. You can think of those as barriers to entry or gifts the experience gives you.
I tend to think of them as gifts.
Still, reading is a skill and one we need to practice. As the world’s distractions become harder to ignore, here's some things I have found have helped me to read more.
Put your phone away.
If you’re anything like me, your phone is the number one thing getting in the way of you reading more. You sit down with a book, a nice cup of tea, and your phone. You open the book and… oh, Joey just texted me. So witty. Let me respond with something witty, and since the phone is open, I’ll just quickly check instagram. Cool video, cool video. Muscle memory to your other app of choice, outrage, laughter, laughter outrage. Oh right, I’m reading. But now it’s been twenty minutes and I’m tired and kinda just want to go to bed… but I’ll check my email one more time…
Stop all of that. Don’t just put down your phone, put it away, in a separate room. Unless you’re a doctor on call, whatever is on there can wait an hour. So let it wait. I find when I consistently put my phone in another room to charge I read more, and better.
Read what you want to read
My reading is a scattershot affair that careens between serious historical non-fiction, to science fiction, to contemporary poetry with stops in crime novels, dad lit, graphic novels, ancient literature, and more. That’s what I like to read, so it’s what I read. Gershom Scholem loved to unwind with a mystery and dude, so do I.
Perhaps you’re different. Perhaps romance is your thing, or horror, or academic monographs on architecture. Whatever it is, do you.
No one cares if you’ve read the latest book by beardo from the Iowa writers workshop or the new tell all about Prince whoever. No one cares what you read at all!
Do it because it brings you joy, or fulfills your craving for information, or whatever. Whatever your reason, follow it and your interests where they take you.
By reading what you want you’ll read more, and by reading more, you’ll discover more, The cycle will carry on.
Finish what you start (or don’t I don’t care)
People who read a lot will tell you to drop books if they don’t interest you. “If you’re not enjoying it, why are you reading it?” They’ll say.
And that’s a totally reasonable position… which I completely reject.
I know me, and I know if I allowed myself to quit on books I’d finish far fewer books.
“That’s fine!” says the well adjusted person, “Just finish less books!”
This way lies failure.
The way to read more is picking books you’re interested in, then reading every page, chipping away at it day after day, until the pages and the books pile up, Milo of Croton style, into at least 52 books in a year.
Read only a couple books at a time (or don’t)
Reading for me works best when it’s immersive, when day after day (or in certain blessed cases) hour after hour I find myself deep in the same world. Others swear by dipping in and out of multiple books but to me, that way lies madness.
Usually I have two, or at most three, books going at once. One in print and one in audio. If the print book is particularly dense I might have another, lighter, book going but that’s rare. The usual tempo for me is a serious rigorous book followed by what I call a palate cleanser, then back to a serious book. Right now, I’m reading a five hundred page book about humanity in the years after the last ice age. After that, probably an Ed McBain book. Maybe you’re one of those folks who keeps a half dozen books going. If so, you’re a mystery to me. I’ve no idea how you keep it all straight and frankly I’m suspicious of your failure to commit. One at a time, I say, that’s the way.
Audiobooks count (or they don’t, I don’t care)
I count audiobooks. I’m specific in what I will listen to (essentially only narrative nonfiction and memoir) but I know people who swear by fiction. One reads different books for different purposes. I read narrative nonfiction largely for the narrative, not the prose, so I don’t feel like I’m missing much of anything by hearing it instead of reading it. You may feel differently, and if so, Godspeed.
One final note on audio books – don’t do that 2.5x business. You’re not reading then, you’re fast forwarding. No way are you retaining what you hear.
Take the time (or don’t)
A central thing about reading is it takes time. Unless you’re oddly gifted (like say Tyler Cowen) in an hour you’re gonna read somewhere between 40 and 60 pages. So the average 250 page novel is going to take you around five hours. To me, that’s time well spent. If it isn’t, if you feel like you need to be pagemaxxing or whatever then god bless you, but you’re doing something differently from what I’m after.
Yes, more often than not, I’m reading for information. I’m not a big prose guy. I don’t really care about how your sentences are structured. I want ideas, facts and emotions and I want a lot of them, but I find when I rush the reading experience I end up with far less of the pleasures I seek by reading.
So in conclusion, to read more, do it more. Do it uninterrupted and with the books you want to read. Or don’t, doesn’t really matter to me.