Reading for volume

This is not a how-to guide to read faster. Or to comprehend more. It’s what I’m doing.

Last year I “read” over 50 books. The quotations are there because I’m never sure how to qualify audiobooks. About half the books I “read” were audiobooks. Let’s say I finished 50 plus books last year.

My goal is to do at least that this year. At my current pace I could do 65–70. It depends on book length and what life has in store. It’s achievable.

I’m sure there are a lot of good reasons why I shouldn’t try and read that many. As there are many reasons I should.

What I found last year was that about 90% of the books I read were forgettable. Not worthless wastes of time, but at the end of the year I had to look back to remember what I read.

There were about 5 that were absolute gems. Open my eyes, change my perspective, brilliant works.

I’m not sure I would have read any of them if I was selective with my reading list and only read 5–10 books last year.

I only found them because I knew I was going to read a lot of books, so I was more open to giving them the time.

That’s my goal again this year. I discover most of my books through Goodreads and only read those with very high ratings. But others criteria is not my criteria. So, while many books come recommended, I only find the meaningful ones by reading a lot of ok ones.