Choosing a good book, which is deep and requires focus, and taking the time to fully appreciate it, is much better than reading 10 other books. If you go by the numbers you'll never set aside the time for reading Dostoevski or Proust or Yourcenar's Memoirs of Hadrian. It's not about the numbers.<p>In the same way, it's much nicer to have a good dish from a good chef than chucking down 10 burgers.
I would think it would depend on the books and their genre. I just finished <i>The Dark Forest</i>, which is 512 pages, in a few days:<p>* <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Forest" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Forest</a><p>Meanwhile <i>The Medieval Origins of the Legal Profession</i>, at 560 pages, took me two weeks:<p>* <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3624887-the-medieval-origins-of-the-legal-profession" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3624887-the-medieval-ori...</a><p>* <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Brundage" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Brundage</a><p>It depends on what you want out of the book(s).<p>It's nice to have a goal, especially if you want to build a habit, which allows you get a reward-stimulus for hitting a magic number, but don't let that arbitrary digit dictate things <i>too</i> much.
I see a lot of comments with "it is not about numbers but quality." Well, this is akin to a rich person advising the poor, "It is not about money."<p>Getting someone to start reading or read more, let them start with the easy target -- numbers. It is in-fact the best way to start off, "I will read 10 books this year" is way better than "I will read high quality books on life philosophies." It is difficult to quantify the second and will never make it easier for a non-reader to start off.<p>Start with the numbers, then the quality will eventually follow.<p>I'm an avid reader, and many have asked me, including quite a few from HackerNews on the topic of reading. I have been giving out this link from my Digital Notebook -- <a href="https://oinam.fyi/books/" rel="nofollow">https://oinam.fyi/books/</a><p>During the 2020 Pandemic, too many things blew up for me at once and I ended up reading over 100+ books. I slowed down to less than 50 in 2021.
What's the point? If you enjoy reading and reading for fun then you'll just read as much as is fun for you.
If you're reading professional books, then the quantity doesn't matter. I would rather spend a year with a single book like "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" revisiting chapters and reiterating same things to really absorb that knowledge than rush 1 book per week/month/whatever.
The question is whether why you would ever want to read 50 books a year; as if reading as many was an indication of... of what, exactly?<p>My take is that it is more worth to read 10 books year you learn / get something for you from rather than 50 just for the sake of ticking a checkbox off the list.
I want to learn to read programming books, but it is utterly boring for me... I like programming. But reading books about it is, meh. May be a sign of ADHD, dont know...
If someone has to read a blog post to tell them how to read more books then I'm not entirely sure that person is of the correct mindset to read many books a year.<p>If one were feeling particularly philosophical, one might also ask "what is a book worth in the 21st century ?". In an era where one can follow many high-quality blogs and Twitter feeds, in an era where one can watch in-depth YouTube videos on an unimaginably vast range of topics, it begs the question... is it really still right and proper to rank someone's supposed intellectual superiority based solely on the number of dead trees they have on their shelves ?
“Tip #2: Finishing a book is optional”<p>So we’re not talking about reading books, we’re talking about “how to be exposed to 50 high-level perspectives a year”. At which point you may as well read one of those “executive summary of this year’s 100 business books” and claim you read 100 books a year.<p>This isn’t to say this isn’t necessarily valuable but claiming this is “reading a book” degrades the value of actually reading a book. Next tip will be “get your College degree by going to one class per course”
For me, reading is about acquiring knowledge for change. The “for change” part is critical. I worry that by spending so many hours acquiring knowledge, I would have not nearly enough time to put it into practice.
For the last couple years, I’ve set my reading goal on Goodreads to 1 book per year.<p>Trying to read a certain number of books is meaningless. Reading Proust’s <i>Remembrance of Things Past</i> is nothing like reading the latest 250-page blogpost-turned-popsci-selfhelp book.<p>Don’t worry about how many books you read. Just read good books you like.
Author is a content marketer, I assume this article is more part of his content strategy than being something which I'm a target audience.<p>The "why" of reading the book is maybe the only thing I care about here. Depending on the why, maybe I wouldn't read a book for a certain thing which interests me. If it is something which interests me, then I want to understand the message of the author. And then I may want to build on that message and work to connect it to the web of my other interests. The pace of the reading becomes irrelevant. Or you could become faster as you get more skilled with this process.<p>I just just assume that people growing their social profile read bestseller books as something to talk about to become part of that culture. It's like a bookshelf rolodex or something. Read the book, Tweet about it, maybe get the author's attention. Write a post about how to grow your book rolodex at 50 contacts a year.
Step 1: no kids<p>Crap! Failed at step one! (I say this with all the love in the world for my kid.) Since having a kid, my personal time has reached near zero (kid + pandemic + chronically I'll wife with unknown systemic problems + startup life). When my kid is older and more self sustaining, I hope I can set aside time to read more.
> Non-books count too<p>> Magazines, scripts, newspapers, digital newsletters, poetry, letters... The list is endless.<p>Well, sure, if your main goal is to reach a number.<p>But if your goal is to become edified or entertained, maybe don’t stress so much over the number of books or pages. Scheduling is a good advice, as is not fussing over medium.
Do you have 1 hour per day for reading? Can you cover 100 pages in that hour with good comprehension and enjoyment? For me the answer to both of these questions is no, unfortunately.
I have read 50 books in a year, but once I took on a fair time-intensive exercise hobby (cycling), that number dropped by about half.<p>I'm content with that, at least until I retire.<p>I track it because I want to encourage myself to read things that matter more than just garbage online. I DO try to AVOID picking books to, as Prez said on the Wire, "juke the stats".
this is my new year resolution. to read a book a week. i got loads of time-life science/nature and other culture/civilization/art books 2nd hand for cheap and then i had my own collection of unread books taking up a huge shelf. books i read since the new year:<p>ancient egypt: as it says on the tin :)<p>in search of the holy land
about jesus and the place(s) he lived/traveled/preached and crucified. i finished it around christmas and had a moving experience though i'm not christian.<p>storm: a time-life book about hurricanes and tornadoes.<p>coming to life: how genes drive development (reading but almost gonna finish)<p>coming up:
reactions by paul atkins<p>this blog post was good for me. thanks OP for the pointer.
I read 111 books last year (completely). However, while I'm somehow proud of that number, who cares? Read whatever makes you happy. If that means reading one book a year? Fine! If it's 50? Well done! Just enjoy reading.
I set a goal of reading 20 books last year, having read maybe 1 the following year. I ended up reading 11. #1 definitely resonates with me. I spent 3 months drudging through The Plague by Camus in particular.
The points outlined can be applied to any skill no? "How to get better at guitar/piano/running/drawing/painting/sculpting?" There's only so many hours in the day!
Depends on “books” and “easy”, how you define these terms. 50 children comics books can be easily read I suppose. But 50 Ben Hur, Odyssey, Ulysses … is a different proposition.
Boy, it’s really clear from the comments section no one is actually reading the article. There are some good tips and ways of thinking differently here.