How to find the time to read an actual book, if you really want to!?

Debunking the Harvard Business Review’s article on 8 Ways to Read More This Year!

We read all the time, yet everyone is telling us to read more. They use examples of smart people who read all the time: Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and other successful, well-read people to make us feel guilty about not having read enough.

Still we are reading constantly — tweets, blogs, emails, even Medium pieces are being read all over the world. What more do they want from us and why does this not count?

I adore reading an actual book, actually! When I go on holiday, half my weight allowance is used up on the ten hardbacks I insist on bringing with me. (Funny — I spend my whole adult life writing on a computer, I have never have gotten used to reading on an e-reader.)

A few months ago, Harvard Business Review (HBR) got involved with 8 Ways to Read (a Lot) More Books This Year by Neil Pasricha and, although I think they are worthwhile, I see how they are bound to fail.

Let’s begin with the assumption that you WANT to start reading more in the first place. I guess if you are reading this article, you do…so we will take that for granted. We’ll go point by point.

HBR begins with “Centralize reading in your home.”

SLS (me) — Do they believe that all potential readers have enough room in their house to put the TV in one and make reading in another? Not all of us have “dark unfinished basements.” Also loads of us LOVE TV and don’t want to get rid off it.My suggestion is that you make a plan with yourself, one ep of The Good Fight to 15 minutes of reading.

HBR— “Make a public commitment.”

SLS —Are your friends down the pub really going to care if you have decided you need a bit more Crime & Punishment in your life? Buy one book you’ve never read and start reading 15 minutes of it a day.

HBR — “Find a few trusted, curated lists.”

SLS — Whom should you trust, that’s my question? Maybe Bill Gates or Tim Ferris have crap reading lists. Judge a book by its cover! Go to your nearest bookstore and pick one whose cover and title seem interesting! You have to start somewhere. Or join a library! They need us, as they are dying out fast!

HBR — “Change your mindset about quitting”

SLS —They may have the luxury of quitting three or four books before getting it right, but you might not. It can get pretty costly. I say — try and damn well finish the book you chose by its cover. Otherwise you will never pick up another book again. If it’s really not your thing, go, give it to Oxfam and pick up another.

HBR — “Take a “news fast” and channel your reading dollars.”

SLS —He was spending loads on magazines and newspapers. You read tweets and emails. I am sorry, but this bit of advice is totally archaic. One thing he does say is use the library, but it took him a while to mention it . Still almost no one is reading magazines and newspapers (unfortunately), so I doubt many of you are spending money on that. If you are I commend you, keep reading them!

HBR — “Triple your churn rate.”

SLS — Give away more books than you read is their thinking. Well, maybe you don’t a dedicated bookshelf, because you read everything online or this is the first time you started reading. Read your one book and after it’s done — either keep it as a reminder of the first one or take it back to the library and pick a new one.

HBR — “Read physical books.”

SLS — OMG I agree with him. Get your hands dirty and read an actual book! It’s so much more satisfying. You can feel how much you have left and see how much you’ve read in that 15 minutes before MasterChef begins again.

HBR — “Reapply the 10,000 steps rule.”

SLS — You want to do something because you want to do it, not because someone’s told you it’s a good thing to do. People are always wanting to change other people, but it almost never works. The whole 10,000 steps or hours to people in their 40s feel like we already failed in the first place, so why bother.

So I know it’s not as simple as saying get a book and start reading it for 15 minutes a day but it seems a lot easier than following eight steps that might not really apply to you in the beginning.