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 true. You don’t have time to read everything. The argument, then, is that you should only read the best writers. Why waste your precious time on books that are poorly written or copy the ideas of others (to which there are many)? There’s a benefit to hanging out with history’s brightest thinkers. “Contact withContinue reading Read the Best Writers
I write daily about the benefits of reading, but there is a danger as well. To read a book is only half of the equation. Once you finish the last page and put it back on the shelf, you’re only 50% finished. If, in that moment, you pick up another book, then you’re in dangerContinue reading The Danger of Reading
There’s some great conversation happening today in my private Reading Community. We’re talking about how to set up a personal reading strategy and the question was, “Should we stick to specific genres or should we skip around?” I think it starts with knowing what you want to accomplish. For me, if I’m reading about aContinue reading Designing a Reading Strategy
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
If you’re struggling to build a reading habit, it’s because you’re ignoring the Goldilocks Rule. “The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right” (Clear 231). Applied to our reading goals, this meansContinue reading The Goldilocks Rule (of Reading)
Join a book club if you want to become a better reader. It doesn’t have to be mine, but it should focus on books you find interesting, and it should support open and equal conversation. It must be easy to access, meetings should be recorded for later viewing, and the group should have good ratings.Continue reading The #1 Best Way to Become a Better Reader (In My Opinion)
Because I spend all my time in the reading community, I hear the same proclamation weekly – someone has set a goal to read a certain number of books this year. I often wonder how they decided on 50 or 100 books. Are they basing their goal off an arbitrary internet list? Or did theyContinue reading The Problem with Reading Goals