Whoops, I did it again. I write about deep reading daily and why we should work hard to slow down and learn from our books. But that doesn’t mean I always get it right. In the words of the great William Zinsser in his book, On Writing Well, “You are writing primarily to please yourself,Continue reading I’m a Hypocritical Reader (And It’s OK)
A quick thought on how to finish a book. When we reach the final pages, it’s normal to feel different. Perhaps you feel the urge to “get through it,” speeding up and skipping content. This happens in real life, too. Do you ever find yourself in the last 10% of a project at work, takingContinue reading How to Finish Reading a Book
In her fantastic book, Reader Come Home, Maryanne Wolf describes a time in her adult life when she longed to read books like she had as a child. She was hungry for something substantial after realizing that a life full of 140-character tweets, digital media providing non-stop sensory overload, and “hollow” reading experiences, left herContinue reading How to Fix Your Reading Brain
I heard it again yesterday. I hear it several times a week. People tell me, “I want to read books, but I can’t focus for more than a few minutes.” There’s a reason for this, and it’s an easy/hard fix. Do you want to know how to become a great reader quickly? I’ll tell you. Continue reading You’re Not a “Broken” Reader
There are a lot of ways to “get through” a book. You can buy the Cliff Notes, watch the movie, get a summary from A.I., listen to it 2X on Audible so that the narrator sounds like a chipmunk – but there’s only one way to absorb a book, and that’s by sitting with it,Continue reading Are You “Getting Through” Books?
Becoming a reader takes patience. It’s no different than going to the gym, eating healthy, or waking up early. When we try and do things that are “good for us,” we often start with the best of intentions, but then a few days in, find ourselves in the pantry surreptitiously eating entire bags of OreosContinue reading Day 1 (Start Reading Again)
A friend recently told me, “I struggle to finish books.” I hear this a lot, so let’s talk about it. We want to be better readers, and so we go to bookstores and fill our shelves with shiny new releases. We jump into reading challenges with the best of intentions, join book clubs, and setContinue reading I Struggle to Finish Books
Whether you like the idea of meditation or not, it has something to teach you about reading books. Consider this: meditation is the practice of taming your mind. It’s not about sitting in silence with an empty brain, it’s about recognizing distraction and then training your brain to come back to a point of focusContinue reading Return to Your Book 100 Times
It’s possible to read a book without getting distracted. No matter your background, educational level, or outlook on life – you do have the ability to focus for more than 8 seconds. If you haven’t read a book in a while, doing so will feel like a chore. That’s normal. Even now, reading this post,Continue reading The Untrained Reading Brain
If you spend 30 minutes reading today, depending on the material, you’ll read about 15 to 30 pages of a book. Let’s assume 15 because I teach the importance of reading slowly. At the end of the month, you’ll have read 450 pages. That’s a lot. And that’s the trick to reading many books. AllContinue reading 30 Minutes of Reading Adds Up