Thanks for the tips!

I use the principles from the speed reading class to get through dull and tedious material because the biggest thing speed reading does is focus your eyes. By using a pointer and focusing on the first and last words in a line, I can dramatically improve my concentration for difficult material.

I will say, however, that I don’t advocate speed reading for pleasure. Once I put my finger to a line, the enjoyable past time of reading becomes something businesslike and uncomfortable.

Reading quickly, which is something you can do without getting dramatic and pointing at the page, you could definitely read 70 books in a year. Speed reading would just make the getting there a lot less fun.

“I took a speed reading course and read War and Peace in 20 minutes. It involves Russia.”
-Woody Allen

Just what you say in step five, I have found that just by not watching TV I can read tons of books. In 2010, I read 2 books per week, all year long, which really changed me in a fundamental way. I have a goal of reading ten thousand books in my lifetime, so TV was really out of the question:-)

Thanks for an awesome post!

Josip Barbaric

Very nice post with some interesting tasks for me to implement.

I keep track of the number of books read by year only as a general reference. There was a year when I only read “The Magic Mountain”, “Buddenbrooks”, “Rayuela” (both alternative versions made out of the same chapters arranged differently) and a couple of light fiction novels. I feel that it was my best reading year due to the quality of the books read. Last year I read 14 books, but end up feeling half that was a waste of time. Sadly, most of the time you realize that it was a bad reading just after finishing it.

I disagree on the “One book at a time” step. An average reader can certainly read more than one book at the same time while keeping focus. It could even enhance the focus and understanding, as it varies the stimulus over time and help establish connections that are not immediately evident. Reading Tolstoy or even Drucker from start to end easily becomes tiresome and frustrating, as the material is too dense and complex. Some Dilbert in between would help a lot.

As for the speed-reading, it works to improve the speed, but not necessary the pleasure. I enjoy reading, and to use my forefinger to follow the line on the page would make reading a chore instead of a pleasurable time with the author. The first thing you need to increase the number of books you read is to enjoy reading.

Better still, add little post-it notes to mark the ten or twenty paragraphs that really capture the essence of the book. This applies the “80/20 rule” that only 20% of a book typicaly convey 80% of the message
The post-it notes will enable you to brush up on the book’s content in under half an hour, a year after first reading the book.
This greatly aids retention in the long-term.

Amidst the thousands of mediocre books in any particular field are a handful of exceptional ones- perhaps we should allocate our time accordingly.