At some point earlier this year I realized that I’m not too far off from reaching 2,000 books on my “Books I’ve Read” list.
If someone asked me “how’d you do it?” I’d jokingly respond: live a lot of years and keep turning pages!
Seriously, though, here are some tips I’d give for those who want to read more books for personal or professional reasons:
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Embrace plodding. Forget about speed, find a pace that works for you, and stick with it. Many steps in the same direction go a long way
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Mix it up subject wise. I love reading books on software development, but I would probably give up on reading if I were forced to read 15 development books in a row. Change it up. Also, even when mostly focused on a narrow field of interest, try to better understand some disciplines that are a bit “downstream”–it will likely pay off.
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Mix up the medium. I know there are “paper book” purists and “ebook” fans. However, sometimes if you haver a mental block about your reading, it helps to switch it up and try something different. You might not love ebooks but sometimes it’s nice for a change, or vice versa with paper books.
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Socialize. Sharing with others can draw you in when the sledding is rough. For some it might be an in-person book club. For others it might be Goodreads. Asking “Read any good books lately?” Is a great way to not only get recommendations but also to get drawn into the orbit.
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Embrace ephemerality. It’s okay to forget the details. Many of us have been conditioned to believe that learning things that we soon afterwards forget is bad. But why? When we learn and read, we often synthesize and assimilate context in ways that can’t be measured by a rote memory test. The books we read change us and evolve our understanding–even when we leave the details behind. So we shouldn’t beat ourselves up because “we will just forget most of it.” If it’s not important, it’s ok to forget it. If it’s important, you will probably remember it when you need it–or integrate the context into your broader understanding–which is probably more important that regurgitating the details anyways.