“I’m Going To Read More This Year” and Other Hilarious Jokes You Can Tell Yourself
The average reader reads between 4 -12 books but many people aren’t satisfied with this number, not satisfied with being average and actually plan every year to read more, a cruel joke they play on themselves because both they and the books on their shelves know that’s not happening. 50 books a year seems like an impossible task for so many people I meet and when I tell them I read more than 50 books a year, they look at me in awe, as though I were citing some deep magic, but little do they know of how ashamed I feel of reading only 50 or so books when I know people who read 100 or 200 books (some even read 2 books in a day while managing their daily lives!).
So how can you read 50 books a year?
Firstly, let me tell you that reading fifty books is a very achievable goal, I know people who think 50 is less (I’m one of those people), so don’t worry, if you don’t read often, 50 is a good enough goal to start with.
- The Black Hole Phase
Every avid reader knows (and fears) this phase. It basically refers to the period where you have to choose the book you want to read and trust me, avid readers have a weird relationship with this phase. I, personally, love this phase and love looking for new books to read. I’ll spend hours on amazon or keep checking the sites of different book stores, selecting a good read, but I also hate this phase for that very reason, it takes hours to select a good book (one that you will connect with), considering that there are so many good books out there.
It’s at this point that you need to choose a good book that you will actually enjoy and not something that’s popular. Don’t be afraid to say you don’t like some book, it’s just what you felt and that’s okay. For example, I don’t get the hype about Murakami. He’s okay, I genuinely didn’t find him to be worth the hype. There, I said it. Go ahead, sue me!
2. But Everything Else Seems So Interesting
When you try to read, everything else seems interesting. Oh, look at that flower pot, damn interesting man. Woah, check out this ant, look at him move. I wonder what’s for lunch. I wonder what I should wear in the evening.
It’s just so difficult to read without getting distracted because we are so used to giving our attention to items that are eye-grabbing, the one that gives me most dopamine!
If you really want to read then you need to focus and stop getting distracted. It usually helps to read books you actually like, otherwise, you’re more likely to get bored. An ant will obviously seem more interesting than a boring book.
3. Sisyphus’ Loop
Do you know that phase where you keep reading the same line again and again when you keep going back to the section you read? Ain’t that annoying? The urge to go back to those lines is just too strong!
The way I deal with this (and the problem mentioned in #2) is :
AUDIOBOOKS
So I don’t only listen to audiobooks, I read while listening. This prevents you from getting distracted and even gets rid of the ‘Sisyphus Loop’ problem.
Recently Audible made a site that allows you to listen for free (due to the quarantine). Click here to check that out.
My recommendations from there:
You can even find many audiobooks for free on Youtube. But the problem is that many aren’t available for free, so I use this app called TTS reader.
Another good site for audiobooks is Librivox :
4. More Speed
The way to read more is by increasing your speed. The average individual reads at 250 wpm (Words per minute). There are amazing free courses out there that help you read faster. Try increasing it to at least 350 or 400 wpm.
Try increasing the speed on the audible to 1.25x or 1.5x or to 300 or 350 on the TTS reader and accordingly try to read. If you can’t understand or keep up, try to reduce the speed and work your way up.
You can see how the TTS app allows me to control the speed at which it reads
The above site is a nice one that allows you to check how long it will take you to finish a book and at what speed and you could accordingly decide how you want to read it. For example, if a book takes you 2 hours, you could either split it half an hour every day for four days or 1 hour every day for 2 days.
This a site where you can find ebooks for free if you don’t want to buy it.
I hope this article helped you. Happy Reading!