SF Signal: How To Read a Book A Day

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How To Read a Book A Day

SFBC editor Andrew Wheeler shares his tips on how to read a book a day. In a nutshell:

Have lots of books around you.

Read books of varying lengths, especially short ones. (The real key to keeping book count up if that's what you want.)

Read more than one book a time; read several short books while reading a longer work.

Read every chance you get - computer maintenance, standing in line, bus rides, etc.

Set aside dedicated reading time.

For biblioholics like me, this is interesting because it offers ways to turn my book-buying obsession into a book-reading obsession. One book every day sounds like a lot to me, but Andrew's target is 150 pages a day which sounds more than do-able. I currently average about 1 book a week even though I seem to follow all the tips... Yes, I have piles and piles of books (and the accompanying guilt of having more than I could possibly read in my lifetime). I read short fiction as well as novels (thanks to my 2006 Resolution) and that helps me squeeze short reads over lunch and other stolen moments (online version of stories that I can carry on my PDA helps tremendously in this regard). Dedicated reading time is a bit tougher. I tend to read late at night after (hopefully) quality family time, house-related minutia, etc. Like Andrew, I tend to favor reading over other entertainment activities like TV, movies, gaming, etc., but the late-night reading means I'm usually reading less than 150 pages - though even that depends on the book. Some books are faster reads than others.

If you're reading lots of short fiction, you may want to use a different metric. (I know I tend to avoid short fiction, since it generally doesn't count as a "book" in my scheme.)

Before I went to my current plan (which isn't book-a-day most of the time; I just do that when I want to motivate myself), I kept track of pages read in a week. I stopped doing that because I kept trying to beat my previous record, and that got tiring. But something like that -- don't you give yourself "points" from short fiction? that's very similar to what I used to do -- can be useful to keep track of things, and, most importantly, to add to the I-should-be-reading guilt.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler on Friday February 03, 2006 at 2:43 PM

Good point. When I refer to short stories, I actually mean an anthology or collection.

And of course, it helps if reading is part of your day job!

Posted by John on Friday February 03, 2006 at 3:11 PM

Ummm...aren't you guys taking this too far? Shouldn't reading be about the quality rather than the quantity? Of course, I'm failure on both accounts. As for reading multiple books, I've tried that with just two books in the past (distant past since my current level is squarely at zero books a day/week/year...). I found out that I seem to mix up the characters from the different books. I guess that's more of an activity for the professionals (read: biblioholics)...

Posted by Peter on Friday February 03, 2006 at 4:02 PM

I tend to read multiple books at the same time. If I'm working on a really long series (The Baroque Cycle), I'll break it up with shorter works or works in a different genre, etc.

Once upon a time, I did read a book a day. But books were shorter, I was working as a security guard and was not married or have a child or a house, etc.! And there was no easy internet access either. Amazing what a time sink this infobahn is!

Posted by FredKiesche on Friday February 03, 2006 at 5:22 PM

I can't read more than one fiction book at a time, either. The books interfere with each other's "mood." On the other hand, my girlfriend can read up the three mysteries simultaneously!

Wheeler missed one way (for guys, at least) to read more: become a sitzpinkler.

Posted by PapayaSF on Saturday February 04, 2006 at 1:51 AM

I'm with Pete - life is too short to read just for quantity. But there are so many good books and if you love reading, you want to try to read them all.

Posted by Scott on Sunday February 05, 2006 at 1:02 AM

Hey you guys are all forgetting the best technique of all! Audiobooks! They allow you to read while operating heavy machinery.

Posted by jesse on Wednesday February 08, 2006 at 12:53 AM

I have to say Jesse, that is the best reason I've heard yet to buy audiobooks. Now I just need to get me a forklift!

Posted by jp on Wednesday February 08, 2006 at 8:40 AM

Don't forget to your forklift safety!

Posted by John on Wednesday February 08, 2006 at 9:01 AM

is there a thing to read a book in 1 day quickly?.

Posted by LaughItNow on Tuesday February 05, 2008 at 11:23 PM

I'm trying to do this in a year, not necessarilly a book a day but 366 books this year. Keeping a book diary helps if you try this approach- it tells you what books you've read and how many you have left to read until you reach your goal.
Quality DOES matter but you can get very fussy about what you read/don't read so sometimes it's good to read a lot instead of just what you like. You might find something new

Posted by ZB on Saturday March 08, 2008 at 3:07 PM

Umm...

Why?

Posted by segue on Saturday March 08, 2008 at 10:47 PM

HOW DO YOU READ A LONG BOOK IN ONE DAY