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.
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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.
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!
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)…
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!
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.
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.
Hey you guys are all forgetting the best technique of all! Audiobooks! They allow you to read while operating heavy machinery.
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!
Don’t forget to your forklift safety!
is there a thing to read a book in 1 day quickly?. :-S
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;-)
Umm…
Why?
|-)HOW DO YOU READ A LONG BOOK IN ONE DAY
How do you read a long book in one day? Well… first you have to have the time… which is really hard to do… second you have to really enjoy the book you are reading… I mean really really enjoy the book… every sentence has to be interesting… and there you go… You will have it done in no time :- )
I hope to read a book a day when I retire, but right now I wouldn’t even attempt it. Yet I follow most of the guidelines spoken of here: I read many books at once (usually of different genres, which means they don’t get easily confused – a mystery, hard SF, fantasy, nonfiction, etc., all at once); I set aside dedicated reading time; I read an average of 100 pages each day (not 150, but even so). With all this, I’ve still only managed to read about 60 books so far this year. I think that’s because I read so very many long books! I’d never choose what books to read solely on the basis of their length; that’s anathema to me.
you guys are loosers
Yes, we wish we had half coolness of anonymous snipers who leave drive-by comments on blogs.
Hi guys, I’m currently trying to read a book a day every day for a year. Some of you may ask why, others may think this is a perfectly reasonable endeavour! I’m doing it for fun and a challenge and I’m not finding it too difficult. I think I may have more spare time than some other people (my children are grown up) and I am a fast reader in the first place. I like to read one book at a time and I vary between short and longer books. If a longer book takes me 2 days then I double up with some shorter books on other days as my aim is really to reach the end of the year with 365 books read. As I’m setting the rules for myself I think that’s acceptable! I’ve been blogging about my reading and I find this is a really good way to keep a list of what I’ve read, what people have recommended to me etc. Good luck to anyone with the same aims! Nearly forgot to say, I also work in a library so I can easily pick up suitable books.
I did forget to say, no I wouldn’t choose a book purely by its length – if I wanted to read a shorter book I’d look out for one that appealed to me for other reasons as well!
Breakthrough Rapid Reading by Peter Kump. this would help. I am currently working with this.
In case you all haven’t heard, http://www.shelfari.com is the ultimate social network for book lovers. They’re not paying me to say that, lol. my Shelfari profile is http://www.shelfari.com/imthemanmike
Just what we need, YASN!) (Yet Another Social Network!!!!)
Breakthrough Rapid Reading by Peter Kump. . . I assume this is a title. When was it released, and how informative is it really? Does it truly provide you with tools to develop advanced reading skills?
Second question: When you’re reading so much so quickly how much of the content do you find is retained; say after a week, or a month or longer?
Final question: Purely from an entreprenurial stand point. I’ve been hearing that reading a book a day will provide you with a steady flow of ideas that inevitably can present an opportunity to generate some kind of cash flow. Have you ever experienced this phenomenon, and if you have, have you ever followed through with it?