There are many ways to read more books; like sticking to a favourite genre or author, or simply by completing your reading more often. In this post, I will talk specifically on the THREE methods to help you read more books. If your 2020 resolution is to read more books, the technical methods below will help you with your target.
The question I get often is how to read more. I was asked because I had achieved the target of #fiftybooksayear in spite of ‘life’ happening around me.
However I doubt that #fiftybooksayear happened ‘in spite’ of it all, I would say #fiftybooksayear happened ‘because’ of it all.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by ‘life’ all the time, you DO need to crack open some books to find answers and solutions! The answer always lies between the pages, somewhere between the lines, lurking up just at the right moment for you.
Having a good solid reason to wanting to read more definitely helps. But as mentioned earlier, this post talks about the technical ways to read more. And that involves a little bit of a skill called speed reading.
Although I hate to break it that reading 50 books a year should not require speed reading. Because, books are best enjoyed at leisure. Improved reading speed is a bonus that a consistent reader gets with his/her habit. This skill comes naturally, organically, with the amount of reading done. But of course, this skill can be learnt. Let me show you how to read more books in these three simple methods.
METHOD 1: SKIM OR SCAN THE BOOK
Whether to skim or scan the book depends on your purpose of reading. Personally, I use the skimming technique more often than scanning. When I skim through a book, I can finish a 300-pager in one day. I often do this when rereading a book or at the bookstore when weighing a purchasing decision. I recommend skimming through non-fiction if you trying to build interest in this genre. To skim through a page, I would skip about every three words and grasp the structure of the sentence. This means my eyes would dart along a sentence, picking up the gist ONLY.
Else when I scan a page, I would run my index finger in the middle of the page. My eyes would pick up words that stand out – words that resonate with my purpose of reading the text. When I find that word, I would pause and read the entire sentence.
That said, this isn’t a normal way to enjoy a book but it helps speed up reading. If you are new to reading, I recommend using these methods when you find a few paragraphs hard to bear. This will help you move along!
METHOD 2: READ TOGETHER IN A GROUP
Believe it or not, there are reading groups that tackle one book at a time TOGETHER! It was about two years ago when I joined The Classics Challengers and have reaped a myriad of benefits.
The Classics Challengers have their reading list well in advance. So you may select the books you are interested in and plan ahead as well. In addition, The Classics Challengers also supplement your reading with related articles, fun facts and sometimes audio/video aides that help your comprehension.
But that’s not all, the best part is when the book discussion happens. The two-hour discussion would float by just like that! And you would leave feeling regaled, renewed and re-energised.
Subsequently, the feel-good hormones released into your system would naturally help you to read more. You are inclined to pick up the next book for your meet up with The Classics Challengers. And reading shall become an enjoyable affair you look forward to.
METHOD 3: MASTER THE LANGUAGE, MASTER THE BOOKS
Truth be told, there is a prerequisite to the skim or scan method above. Skim or scan is only helpful if you master the language of the book you are reading. But don’t let that dampen your spirit! Reading more books would improve your language skill. Thus allow you to deploy the skim or scan method in no time.
Under the same note, I would like to emphasise that language mastery requires you to be choosy of the quality of books that you read. Buy from reputable publishers and writers because God knows how many books out there that weren’t edited well.
Mastering a language would not only make reading more enjoyable, it hones a skill that makes the language more instinctive. Language mastery allows a person to instinctively know which words can be skipped. As observed when using the skim/scam method for speed reading.
Other than that, mastering a language creates an appreciation for sentences. For example, have you read a quote and thought it so beautifully expresses your thoughts? Don’t you want to be able to express yourself as beautifully too?
Mastering a language helps a person to cultivate interest in reading. Therefore, prompts a person to read more books. Further down the road, you may find that you’d like to sustain your reading habits. If that’s what you’re into, go ahead and read about how to cultivate sustainable reading habits here.
So there you have it, THREE methods to read more books. Now, I would like to hear from you. Was there any particular incident that caused you to abandon reading? Did any of the reason can be helped, had you used the methods mentioned above?
Let me know in the Comment section below. Or if you subscribe to The Baini Mustafa Weekly Email, you may reply to my email directly. From there, we can start our conversation. Or, if you would like to receive weekly emails from me about stuff that I don’t share anywhere else – you may subscribe here.
