If you’re determined to increase the number of books you read in a year, there are lots of strategies, such as rearranging the location of your bookshelves and thinking of reading the same way you think about trying to get in 10,000 steps every day. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “How To Read More Books in a Year”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette, and I keep telling myself that this is the year I’m going to read more books than ever. And my resolve was strengthened when I read an article in the Harvard Business Review by author Neil Pasricha. He said that he went from reading just five books in one year to reading nearly a hundred, and he talked about the benefits. He said, I’ve never felt more creatively alive in all areas of my life. I feel more interesting. I feel like a better father and my writing output has dramatically increased. He said that reading many, many, many more books last year has been a domino that’s tipped over a slew of others. And he’s disappointed that he hadn’t done it sooner.
But then the question is how, given all the other distractions in our lives. And he had some good suggestions, most of which involved behavior modification. They put their television in the basement. Oh, wow. Next to the water heater? I guess so. And it just made it easier because if you wanted entertainment, the first place you were passing by was the bookshelf. And he had ways of making the bookshelf more enticing. And then the other thing that he said was he applies that 10,000 steps rule to reading. You know, the idea of 10,000 steps a day and parking your car farther away from the entrance to the store. So you have to get in just a few more steps.
He was talking about finding little pockets of time to read. And so I’ve been trying to do that too. But I was also reading an article about the whole 10,000 steps rule and how now physiologists are rethinking that and thinking that maybe you just need more exertion rather than 10,000 steps. So I’m thinking, well, maybe I should read something really hard. But I’m trying to find those little pockets and using audio books more and more. I also want to work in some graphic novels because I don’t read them and I’d like to give those a try. Some wonderful stuff out there.
Yeah, yeah. I’ve started John Lewis’s, which is really wonderful, the civil rights hero. And I’m looking at lists of best books and winnowing what I read, dangling these things in front of me. Oh, I see. Providing yourself with temptations where you just can’t resist because the prospect of those wonderful things is too hard to resist.
Yeah, again, behavior modification. So, you know, because it’s just too easy to fritter away your time.
It certainly is, yeah. Checking Twitter or email or whatever.
I don’t know. Do you have any strategies for this kind of thing?
I do. One of them was, well, we don’t watch a lot of TV in my house. One of the things we do is the TV is rarely on during the week. Basically, it’s only on the weekend.
Oh, interesting. It’s only on the evenings in the weekend. The TV is not on all day.
The other thing is for myself, I don’t watch shows on my phone except on the weekend. And even then, not usually. So that leaves time for either work or books. And my main distraction from reading is work. So I’m trying to work less.
Sorry, Martha. What’s more for you?
Oh, that’s all right. Well, I’m wondering if our listeners have strategies for increasing the number of books they read in a year. Give us a call. 877-929-9673 or send your tips to words@waywordradio.org.
