The Challenge: Read One Book a Week

wormhole! (groan) . Do I win anything? Great post. I’d love to read a book a week. Unfortunately I’m addicted to buying new ones, and have a daunting backlog of unread books taunting me from my bedside table. Looks overwhelming at times.

Loved the post, and had to stop by to tell you of my ambitious endeavor. I’ve been a voracious reader since an early age, and have now decided to make my way through “1,001 Books To Read Before You Die.” Surprisingly, I’ve probably actually read less than two dozen, and I’m starting with “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier. I’m trying to decide on a time goal by which I should have this task completed. Two years sounds reasonable.

Happy reading!

I love this post! I’m really going to try to take up your challenge and read a book a week. Right now it is more like a book a month. I’m really bad about re-reading books. In fact I started keeping track of my new reading for 2008 (which is why I know the very sad figure of one a month).

I have a very real problem with #5, offline time. Or should I say online time. You described me to a T. Restless clicking around the internet, checking on sites I just left 5 minutes earlier. Summer is the perfect time for me to break this habit and this challenge is the perfect thing to force me to do it.

Cheers! Time for me to go read (er… after I blog). :-)

I am in the middle of Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins, and I just bought Eat Pray Love and The Power of Now for my upcoming vacation. I average around a book every month or two and I sometimes go streaks where I read a lot, or not at all. I would love to make it more of a habit, because I love reading so much, I just don’t make enough time for it.

I am always reading about 10 books simultaneously. I once counted and I total just around 20 books completed a month.

(I think it helps that I don’t own a television!)

The current stack:

“The United States of Arugula” Kamp
“Why Things Bite Back” Tenner
“A Whack on the Side of the Head” von Oech
“Why Beauty is Truth” Stewart
“T is for Trespass” Grafton
“The 4-Hour Workweek” Ferriss
“Broke-Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in San Francisco” Broke-Ass Stuart (I’m moving to SF soon)
“Uncertainty” Lindley
“Newcomer’s Handbook for Moving and Living in the San Francisco Bay Area”
“Four Laws that Drive the Universe” Atkins

Great idea — especially the non-fiction!

I got really burnt out on fiction after getting a degree in English. The class that saved me was one on non-fiction, and I was hooked. So many great true stories, why waste time on the made-up stuff?

That said, here’s what I’ve just read, and what’s on my to-read list:

Just finished:
The Frozen Water Trade by Gavin Weightman
Train Time by John Stilgoe

Next up:
From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame by Mark Monmonier
The Postal Age: The Emergence of Modern Communications in Nineteenth-Century America by David Henkin

ha…ive been trying to finish the learners by chipp kid for a while now…maybe ill stop surfing and go read :)

ahh.. well.. good idea, good thought, and at the right time.

this really suits me who rarely read books and hardly finish one, plus i spend a lot of time online. and i like the idea in ‘5 tips to become a regular reader | 4. Use the 50 page rule.’ i have a few books at home that i haven’t finished!

thanks and i’ll try.

ps. you also mentioned ‘bangkok.’ hoorey.. that’s where i am ;p

Tons of great info here. Seriously awesome post. I have a hell of a time quitting a book even if I don’t care for it. (The Moviegoer, I’m looking at you!) It seems that once I stop reading one, it takes three or four more misfires before I find a winner.

To find interesting books and deepen the experience, I use goodreads.com to track what I’ve read and vet books if they’re not doing it for me. It’s a pretty honest community, and I’ve had good luck finding appealing books that make me want to keep reading.

Wonderful post, Nick, the concept of which I full-heartedly endorse. What’s keeping me from one book a week? Well, that would be my study of literature, of course! I was one of those who stupidly believed that by studying literature I would get to indulge in my love of reading. And this indeed proved the case for my honours degree and my masters. The phd, however, is a different beast altogether and I’ve had to read the same books over and over and over. One of the things which is spurring me on to submission of the thesis, is that I’ll be able to get back to embracing my reading habit. There are so many wonderful books in the world just waiting for me to pick them up and start turning the pages. Ah, bliss…

@MO – Oh I hear ya re the book-buying addiction!! D’ya think we can just tell Nick we’re doing our bit to help authors even without having to read them all???

(Woops, I didn’t realise that comment was going to be a whole one by itself, sorry!)

Fab post (as always)! And ohmigosh, yes, speed reading fricking SUCKS. I realised the other week that the reason why I haven’t been reading books is because I went to law school. Blerkgh.

So I am highly excited by the prospect of this challenge, and my first two books will be:

- Possession by AS Byatt (which I have been reading for months); and
- Princess Diaries #9 (which I have been meaning to read for months and is on the bottom of the stack of books I’ve bought but haven’t read).

Hurrah!

Oh, Wormhole? Darn, I thought the pun was you were reading the books so fast people observing you would experience some sort of Doppler effect induced READshift (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshift#Mechanisms).

Great post!

I try to read one a month and do pretty well at meeting that goal, though it has suffered some since starting work on my MBA. Once done, though, one a week will be my goal. My wife is a voracious reader, she reads one or two a week.

I like the 50 page rule. I plan on doing this right away.

Reading Now – “Made to Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath.
Hope to read next – A title discovered on a blog post this morning, “What I talk About When I Talk About Running,” by Haruki Murakami.

Well done.

For awesome free ebooks, try changethis.com..

Uhh, ohh.. sorry. I realize my above comment sounds a lot like spam (it’s not). But don’t worry, I’m not affiliated with changethis.com, and only mentioned the site because of the ‘Try ebooks’ in the ‘Quick bonus tips’ section.

@Nick: Thanks for inviting me!

Fantastic post in many ways! Sending it on to my sister, too.

My first choice is *How to Become a Famous Writer Before You’re Dead* by Ariel Gore, and I’m still trying to decide from the many I have in line for the second!

This whole article is invalid because you called Tolstoy loathsome lol!

Love this post, Nick! It makes me feel less like a loser/geek/bore knowing that you and your readers don’t think reading is just for…well…losers, geeks and bores.

However, I already read one book a week, so what the hell do I do now?

Oh…and the physics joke with the worm is obviously the glasses. Worms don’t wear glasses ’cause they have no ears to hold them up. Yeah…that must be it.

@MO – There used to be a bookshop between my office and the bus stop. It was more deadly than costly, but it meant I always had something to read.

When faced with a pile of new books, I’d recommend one of the following solutions:

a) read them
b) give them away to someone who will

Good luck!

@Katy Ryan – 977 books in two years? That’s almost 19 a week, or 2.69 a day! A brave goal, which puts me to shame… Go for it, and make sure you’re doing it for love. (What else could it possibly be? :)

@laanba – Agreed that Summer is a great time to get into reading. I should have added “Read topless” in my list of extra tips to encourage folks to get outside. Thanks for blogging about the post!

@kelly g – You’re right — it can be hard to find the time. Making it a habit is the key; I started by filling ‘dead time’ throughout the day with reading, and built up to actively allocating chunks of my day (early morning, lunch, or bed time) to my book habit.

@Cynthia – I used to be a 10-at-a-time kinda guy. (No, not like that! You’re a filthy bunch. Honestly.)

Dropping the habit of reading in parallel for reading in series did wonders for my enjoyment, not to mention my comprehension. A good list you’ve got there, though — I can see how several would tie-in nicely at once.

@awurrlu – I recently polled my friends to find out how many non-fiction titles they could recall reading. The average? Just one! You’re right — people are missing out on a treat.

@Niki Brown – Go for it! Surfing is fun, but it’s amazing how rapidly the day gets wasted. Whoops! Don’t mind me! As you were…

@EscRiBiTioNiSt® – Ah, a Bangkoker*. Welcome! The 50-page thing is what did it for me. I used to stop at chapter endings like they were some kind of physical barrier, which multiplies the time it takes to finish a book excessively. Give the 50-page rule a shot. It might feel odd to stop mid-chapter at first, but you’ll soon be breezing along (and it’s pretty easy to jump it up to 60 or more).

*If you think that sounds weird, think how the poor people of Hamburg feel.

@Sara – I love Goodreads too. I’ve created a group there and added the link in this post. Do join in!

@amypalko – I once knew a drummer who said that his highly adept percussive mind had ruined popular music for him forever — every piece he listened to became a study in the subtle nuances of syncopation to the point where all other instruments were mentally blotted out! How the learned suffer for their art! (I told him to try Jazz improv.; pure poetry by comparison.)

Thanks for the Stumble, and good luck with the PhD, Amy. I hope that finishing it gives you more space to relax with literature in addition to analysing it. (A warning: you may also find that friends introduce you thusly: “This is Amy. She’s a doctor. But not the type that helps people.”)

@Sunili – Thanks for taking up the challenge with such enthusiasm, for spreading the word, and for pointing me towards Goodreads. Much appreciated, as ever.

@Ben – Additional additional bonus points go to you, sir! If I had a Geek-Out Trophy, I’d be sending it on to you now, probably by quasitronic transmogrification or similarly suitable means.

@Steve – Another with more qualifications than me! I see a market for a new Top Trumps game in these comments alone…

Yes, studying does get in the way of reading for pleasure, but it’s possible to fit it in. The 50 page trick certainly helps. Glad to hear you’re happy to give it a shot!

@Morten – Thanks for the link, Morten. I’d seen the site, but hadn’t leafed through the archives until today.

@steph – Great to have you on board, Steph! I’ve been meaning to check out the Famous Writer title too. Not that I want to be famous before I’m dead of course. I’m a patient man.

@Avid reader – You’ll be interested to hear that I was only using Tolstoy’s own words! In an (unpublished) private letter in 1873, he described the translation (the one I ate) of his original work as “loathsome”. [source]

Perhaps the Russian edition tasted better.

@Charfish Charlie – Losers, geeks and bores? Au contraire, some of my best friends are utter dullards.

I’m so pleased that there are others out there who already read so regularly. Do you review books? It’s great fun to write a concise review that praises (or critiques) a work in 20 words. I’d heartily recommend signing up to Goodreads and giving it a shot.

Unbeknownst* to many, book worms are able to maintain their bespectacled appearance entirely thanks to their invisible noses, which remain hidden by means of a secret passed down through 18 generations of wriggly ancestors.

* A beautiful word. Speaking it aloud makes me feel both double my age and full of flu in just 3 syllables.

I have always felt that I should read a book a week, but I have never had the commitment toward it. I know I am motivated to read books after reading this post, but I am not sure how long I will remain motivated. One of the tips given here may help. As the write-up says it’s difficult to change our habits, we should finish books quick giving ourselves no time to think whether we should do this or not, and by the time we realize what’s happening, we may have turned into a bookworm. I will try this tip. Let’s see how it goes.

Which book are you staring with Nick??

Go on tell the lovely readers which fabolous free eBook you downloaded not but a day or two ago.

There aren’t 2 Nick’s are there? If there are, I’m going to look really foolish now.

I’m definitely going to try this, though I fear I won’t finish a book in a week. Ironically enough, I just purchased two books a day ago. Perdido Street Station and The Book of Joby. Should be interesting!

Ooh, goody! Guilt free reading for pleasure. I mean, I have to answer the challenge. Don’t I?
“Life of Pi”, by Yann Martel (so I can finally give it back to its owner) and “Why Buffy Matters”, by Rhonda Wilcox. How’s that for exposing myself? :)

I’m not an utter dullard (of course, most dullards would say the same, wouldn’t they?), but I do confess to being a bit of a geek…and proud of it.

@Charfish Charlie – When I am reading fiction of my choosing, I often read a book in a weekend. So, there’s your challenge. Join me in the world of the sleep-deprived and slightly cross-eyed (just don’t tell Dave Navarro that I’m tempting you to the dark side). :)

I read a lot of web pages – does that count?

Seriously, I have recently got back into reading, after a brief flirtation last year when I found two books that came free with magazines (yeah, I know…) and thought I should at least give them a go before I passed them on to the local charity shop. They weren’t too bad, if you cared to look past the trashiness!

I am currently on a Terry Pratchett marathon. I have just completed Monstrous Regiment, am about to finish Going Postal, and have got the next two (Thud and Making Money) lined up ready. I like to collect the hardbacks.

*Trundles off to do geek things*

Wonderful reminder, and so good to hear your voice again.

The tips are especially useful. I think I’ll have to begin with something slender (to assure I accomplish the task) and something beloved from my childhood love of reading… hmm… ah-ha! The original Nancy Drew! Friday night will be a good starting line for me — thanks!

I’ve had a Kindle for about 3 weeks and love it. I think I may be reading faster because I’m getting through more books, more rapidly.
I like the continuously available store. I usually buy three or four when I buy any. When I finish or run out, I can reload immediately, any place, any time. Never short on reading material!
I like to have newspapers, blogs, and books available all the time. I can easily jump around based on what I’m interested in, ability to concentrate, etc.
Form factor is great. It’s a one-handed experience, which means I can read while leaning on an elbow, or any other comfortable position, and easily change pages. (I think that might be one of the reasons I’m reading faster.)

Wow, Nick! How do you manage to do it every time? So far, I have marked pretty much all of your posts as starred in my Google Reader – and this one was no exception!

I love to read too – been like that ever since I was a kid. And now I’m trying to get my son excited in this fine life style of devouring books (he’s just 1 year old, so he can’t read yet…though…but maybe he could eat some literature too).

A side note on developing habits:

It takes approximately two weeks to create a new habit, and this two weeks involves dedicated attention to maintain the habit. Critical period.

It then takes approximately another two weeks to establish the habit firmly so that it truly becomes a habit and not just a temporary change.

So… A week isn’t enough ;) But it’s a start.

@mukesh – Good luck!

@Tim Brownson – Ha! I’ve pimped your book in your PTO debut guest post, which is now live here.

@DaFerret – Go for it! Find the time and a week is perfectly comfortable.

@April, the Chief Cook & Bottle Washer – Life of Pi is a good read. Thanks for joining in!

@Hayley – Terry Pratchett is wonderful. Hopefully you’ve not noticed that I pretend to buy them for you and then read them myself. Whoops!

@GirlPie – Thanks! There’s no shame in reading small books to build up the habit. Even kids’ books are fun! A Porcupine Named Fluffy is simply delightful.

@Gary – Great to hear from a Kindle user. You confirmed exactly what I suspected, which is that having books on electronic tap encourages you to read more. I’m looking forward to their UK arrival. Thanks for chiming in.

@Jarkko Laine – Ha! Thanks, Jarkko. I’d definitely recommend the aforementioned Porcupine book for your young one in a couple of years. Right now, though, it’d make good eatin’!

@James Chartrand – Men with Pens – Completely agree. (It’s why I said to read one book a week for a month.) If people keep it up for that long, it becomes a habit much more readily than just reading one book fast!

Now, look. See? SEE? You caught me skimming and scanning. Dammit. I hate when that happens.

Let’s try again.

@ Nick – I completely agree with your post! As you mentioned, developing a habit takes a full month. I’m thrilled that you pointed that out to people.

… who don’t read everything. ;)

@James Chartrand – Men with Pens – Ha! Not to worry. I’ve done exactly the same on your site too. (Not that I’d dare to skim it, of course.)

You always correct me just as artfully too…

I’ve read an average of 5 books a week since I was about 6. (Gosh, that’s over 11,000 books! There were some repeats in there, though). Like other posters, I can do this partly because I have no TV. Most of mine are non-fiction.

Obviously, I don’t buy all these. Apart from the expense of the books themselves, think of all the needed bookshelves and the cost of a bigger house to hold them all!

The library – and especially the Inter-Library-Loan system – is your friend. Most of the books I buy I have already read, so I know they are good and I want to own them. The library also means I can bring home stuff which looks vaguely interesting or even completely off the wall, and if I don’t like it I haven’t wasted hard-earned cash.

Kevin

I love reading too.
I usually read more then one book at a time.
I shopping for new books every month and read them. at the end if the book is boring or if I know I will never read it again I give it to the local library

Tanny
Home Business Ideas

What Kevin said! All of it … except that I do have a TV.

What a novel (no pun intended) idea to read one at a time. It means carting one book around with you instead of picking up the nearest one at various locations around the house. But OK, I’ll do it. 50 pages at a time is a good notion.

I have just started the Complete Poems of Anne Sexton, and about time too (had read far too little of her work before). So that’s my first. And a friend recently gave me Financially Free by Anne Hartley, so that will be the second. (I would probably be financially freer if poetry didn’t take precedence over money.)

As for the huge pile by my bed waiting to be read – GIVE THEM AWAY UNREAD??? You’re kidding!

Oh, and another thing – I love anyone who says ‘contradiction in terms’ instead of ‘oxymoron’. Thank you!

now here’s one challenge i won’t have a bit of trouble keeping up with! i work in a public library, and have the pleasure of handling EVERY single new book headed for our shelves. my to-read list is mind-boggling. i currently have 17 books checked out. a personal tip: rediscover the pleasures of children’s and adolescent literature. start with the books you loved when you were a kid, then branch out. there’s more to children’s lit than Harry Potter (though i remain a dedicated fan).

on the reading stack:

Thunderstruck by Erik Larsen
The Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan
The Chestnut Solider by Jenny Nimmo
The End of the Alphabet by C.S. Richardson
Lady Macbeth by Susan King
Sundays at Tiffany’s by James Patterson
Eternal Lovecraft: the persistence of HPL in popular culture ed. Jim Turner
Voice, Text, and Hypertext: emerging practices in textual studies ed. Raimonda Modiano
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

recently finished:

Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
Love the One You’re With by Emily Giffin
Civil and Strange by Cláir Ní Aonghusa
A Wall of Two : poems of resistance and suffering from Kraków to Buchenwald and beyond by Ilona and Henia Karmel

Dear Emily, I understand perfectly. I was a public librarian for 18 years. Lucky you!

Dear April, Of course Buffy matters! Surely that is one of the Great Truths of our Universe?

Dear Nick, I thought the joke was something along the lines of Bookwormhole. (Covering the serious message about how reading can take us travelling interdimensionally.)

I joined the group and hope to keep up with everyone :) Nice challenge!

Since we last talked, I’ve finished “Valley of the Dolls” and “Rebecca.” On to “Crime and Punishment.” Great to see everyone’s suggestions — I’ve added a lot to my reading list, in addition to continuing to tackle “1,001 books you must read before you die.” If only I could be paid full-time to read!!!

Great post, Nick! I al ready have a (largely unused) GoodReads account so I joined the club. It’s funny you should mention “War & Peace” because I read the most recent translation not all that long ago. It was delicious!

In any case, I think I’ll tackle “Housekeeping” by Marilynne Robinson first, and then on to “Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior” by Ori and Rom Brafman since, like you, I am a big fan of non-fiction. It is definitely far more entertaining and enlightening. Fiction has its merits, but that’s just my opinion.

It looks like my Amazon Wish List is going to grow quite a bit though based upon what everyone is reading/has read. Excellent idea. Thanks again for starting the GoodReads group. Talk to you soon.

Ian

Other than Hairy Maclary and Are you my Mother, I haven’t read a whole book in ages . . . I used to be such a voracious reader too . . . your 50 page rule my just be my saviour . . .

My current read is “Under the Banner of Heaven” – John Krakauer
I have been reading a book (sometimes more! go me) a week for awhile now. I am starting to see the sad reality that I didn’t bring enough books when I moved to Costa Rica with only 2 bags. Unfortunately, I only have two left and bookstores are quite scarce here. I guess beach bums don’t read.
New challenge? Making it through another 7 months with no books! Ah!

@Christina – Dear Christina, buy books online through Amazon and Abe Books. Also Google “Free ebooks”.

This is a wonderful post. I love to read, and I frequented the local library for my books. However, notice the past tense. I have since subscribed to a lot of publications (Time, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, etc.) that I want to read, so it takes time away from reading of actual books. I generally spend a chunk of time on the weekends to read a book, but I don’t finish one a week anymore. I hope to get back to that, which may mean removing a periodical or two.

@Rosemary – The postal system here practically doesn’t exist. Amazon doesn’t ship here anyway…=/ Thanks for the tip though!

I must regretfully renege on this one. Anne Sexton’s Collected Poems needs more than 50 pages a day to get through in a week – and it also needs to be read slowly, with much pausing and pondering. Already it’s overdue form the library and I’m going to have to give it back and take it out again later.

Mind you, it comprises all of her books, so on that interpretation I have already read three of them!

And btw I ALWAYS read books for pleasure. (There’s some other reason?)

@Rosemary Nissen-Wade (aka SnakyPoet) – @Rosemary Nissen-Wade (aka SnakyPoet) –

Sad! A challenge indeed. Hopefully the free downloadable ebooks will work for you.

@Rosemary Nissen-Wade (aka SnakyPoet) – Dunno wot happened there; I was meaning to reply to Christina!

Oh, MAN. Why am I in the middle of my first series-posting when you do this? I would totally rock this challenge OUT. I read practically a book a day, and no, I’m not kidding, and yes, that’s a little sad, and no, I don’t care, and yes, I probably should spend some of that time doing laundry or something but I read pretty damn fast.

Unless it’s something that has to be savored in the mind, like Marquez. Or poetry.

Next up on my list: Ann Patchett’s Run and something new by Terry Pratchett, to whom I have only recently been introduced.

@Rosemary – Buffy – “…one of the Great Truths of our Universe?” I don’t know, but I’ll take any excuse to do my Buffy dance. Dnnn….dnn-dnn-dnn :)

Sadly, I have failed the challenge this (last) week. I inhaled a historical romance (one danger of downsizing is finding books you forgot you had) last weekend, and started The Life of Pi on Monday as scheduled…but haven’t gotten too far beyond starting.

I’m making it my book for the week again, and pushing Buffy back one. This time, I prevail!

Hi! Great idea to ease non-readers into the habit!

Me, I read several books at once, all year round. I’m currently enjoying “Personal Finance for Dummies,” The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War” by Robb Graham, and “To Kill a Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee.

My challenge is to the book readers out there: Know all those books on your shelves you haven’t gotten to yet? How many can you get through by December 31st?

@o – Now that’s a good challenge! Not all of them, I don’t think, but it would be an excellent thing to get through some … any. (I sometimes succumb instead to the great pleasure of re-reading.)

So glad I StumbledUpon this post! I was just thinking about doing something like this. Your post has inspired me to do it. I’ve got a ton of books to read that have just been collecting dust on my nightstand.

Two books I bought over the weekend- “Power Sleep” and “Flow”. Especially interested in reading Flow. I have a 4 hour daily train commute M-Thurs right now to work, so have lots of time to read, so a few months ago I set a weekly goal of 2 books. So far, I’ve been on track most weeks.

Good tips in this post! The speed reading one was right-on… I started learning speed reading, but when I tried using it for pleasure reading, it took all the fun out of it. A couple more tips I would add: 1) When you read a book you really like, take note of the books the author quotes. Then add those to your future reading list 2) If you’re reading at least one book a week, it’s a good idea to keep a list of your favorite quotes/a short summary of each book. That way you can always refer back to it without having to skim through the book.

I actually started doing this recently so I will accept the challenge.

It’s amazing how fast you can read when you really get into a book.

One of the great benefits of commuting by bus is the time available to read. In the current year alone I’ve been accompanied on my journey to work by Liberace, Stalin, Armistead Maupin, Napoleon, Emily Bronte, Mikhail Gorbachev, Terry Wogan and Stephen King.

I’ve battled my way through Stalingrad, parleyed at the summit with Nixon, walked the streets of San Francisco with Michael Tolliver and found solace with Paulo Coelho.

And all from the back of a 66 bus.

@Katy Ryan –
do you think you are able to manage

–> 1001 books in two years
–> 500 books per year
–> 1.4 books per day

??!
(i let the two already-read dozens in, think they doesn’t matter anyway..)

Great post! I’m doing this since 1986, the second term of university – and ever since. I haven’t read through all the comments, so I do not know if anybody already suggested this: I highly recommend a reading journal. Each time I finish a book I make a small notice on the Autor and the title and mark with a plus (+) minus (-) or empty space how I liked it. Funny thing is: For most books, even after more than 20 years, I can still remember at least the most important facts and how it felt reading it. It helps organizing the journal at least by years. However, now I wish that I would have been more verbose straight on.

I rarely get really inspired by a blog post, but damn it – this one lit a fire under my arse! One of my passions is reading/learning, but I rarely see a book through to the end because I lose interest, start another book, skim/skip around, etc. Also, I spend countless hours in front of the boob tube, or surfing the ‘net, when I could (SHOULD) be reading instead.

So, after discovering this post, I decided to commit to reading one new book per week and DRASTICALLY cut back on TV & Internet time.

For starters, I’m reading “A Complaint Free World.” It’s been on my shelf for months and I never made it past page 20 or so. I sat down last night, started at the beginning, and made it up to page 82. So far so good!

Next Monday, I’ll start “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”, and after that, I have “Life of Pi” waiting in the wings.

Speaking of “Life of Pi”, this one is on order from PaperBackSwap.com. What an AMAZING website! I discovered it yesterday after deciding to commit to this new book-a-week thing. I Google’d for “book swap” or some such thing, and up it came.

It’s a free book club where you post your books to trade with others. If someone requests a book from you, you simply pay the postage and mail it to them. Each book you send out earns you a credit for another book from someone else – and those don’t cost you anything except the book credit.

I posted 24 books yesterday, and already mailed out 7 of them this morning! Then I used one of my credits to order “Life of Pi” which I’ve been wanting to read. Oh, you get 2 bonus credits just for posting your first 10 books.

Anyway, if you decide to check it out, use my referral link which I put in the website address for this comment. I get a free credit after you post your first 10 books to the database. :-)

Thanks for the inspiration, and Happy Reading!

Great, started this monday completing a book (~250 pages) I began to read long time ago and finished it yesterday. Will pick up the next one right now.
Stopped surfing the web objectless.

Great post!

The only thing I don’t completely agree with is the suggestion not to force yourself to continue if a book doesn’t feel right after 50 pages. I would increase that limit to 100 pages! Umberto Eco, for example, is notorious for making his novels a tough read up to at least page 100. His motivation: “the reader has to make some effort to conquer my books.”

And thanks for the suggestions how to keep up with reading a lot.

I just “stumbled” upon your website today. I have to tell you that your advice is great! I’ve always been an avid reader. I carry a book with me all of the time. Think of the time you waste sitting in traffic jams…read! Waiting in line? read! The doctor’s office? read!
I normally get my books from the local library “friends of the library” book sale. I live in NE FL and they have what they call here “bag day”. It’s the last day of the book sale and you can buy a brown paper grocery bag for $8 and fill it with books, both hardback and paperback. I’ve learned to watch the paper because I’m lucky enough to live close to the county line and can attend two different county library book sale.
I normally read 2-3 books a week and if I find myself spending too much time on the internet, I unplug my laptop and hide it for the week!

Awesome blog! I am an avid reader and average about 15 books a week, although many are non-fiction and don’t require front to cover reading. For my fictional palate I prefer to savour slowly. Even though it’s been said before, I think the library is the way to go. Our local library is $12/yr and I get all the reads I want. This way we can reduce our carbon footprint, and those books we find so enthralling can be enjoyed by thousands of others. Also a way to reduce the amount of money I spend on entertainment. Happy reading, everyone, all the way from Canada!

I saw your blog on Tomorrow’s Star Bloggers Talk About Blogging- by Jarkko Laine and this post interested me because I have always been an avid reader. I don’t finish a book each week because I tend to like thick epic novels. Currently, I am exploring the classic and reading Charles Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit. What can be better than curling up on the sofa with a good book on a cold wet winter afternoon?

I look forward to reading more of your posts too.

Those are all wonderful tips. Based on my experience it’s tough for me to read more than three or four books in a month. However, in January I run a challenge called National Just Read More Novels Month which seems like a natural companion to your book a week challenge. It also runs through January and encourages people to read as many novels as they can.

Just had to mention that I started using some of these tips a while ago and I’m happily reading exponentially more.

So, thanks for the tips!

Great post. FWIW, I just got a Kindle last week – and the new iPhone app was just released yesterday – and both are going to dramatically increase the overall time I spend reading. I’m never without my book – set to the exact page I need it – no matter where I am. Pretty cool. And of course getting a new one takes 30 seconds.

One thing you didn’t mention is using audiobooks – not sure if it just didn’t fit the spirit of the post or it’s just not your bag. I find I can “read” 4 books/mo using audiobooks easily.

Oddly enough I just hit publish on a similar post earlier this evening before seeing yours (which I found through an ad for your book):

http://www.refocuser.com/2009/03/how-to-read-3-or-more-books-a-month/

Wow!

So cool idea!

I am for itttttttt : )

Just a quick follow-up to say thanks to everyone for the enthusiasm and kind words!

I’m planning to write on a similar theme in order to cover both audiobooks and e-paper readers in a future post.

“Military intelligence”–nice Groucho Marx reference.

Great article. The first comment about piles of books that are unread reminded me of the anti-library introduced to my by Taleb about keeping a large collection of books that haven’t been read so as to show all the knowledge still to be gained and also to taunt you into keep reading and learning.

I already read about a book a week but the two books I am likely to tackle next are:

V. by Thomas Pynchon
Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky

Hey, this is a swell idea!

I’m starting off with Hamlet and Mercy Among the Children. In the past year I’ve only read about 16 books. I can never sit still for long enough to enjoy a book. I don’t buy books, I visit the library and pick some up (the smell from some of those books is enough to turn one off from reading).

eeeehaa…a challenge i can accomplish before i start fretting if i can face the challenge. Books have always been my best friend, my lover, my guide, my muse, my bliss.

Okay…perhaps i am an obsessed book person who should read LESS. I might just get more accomplished if i do.

Loved the topic and your reading input.

Smiles.