10 Things I did to read 68 books in a year
Written By: Nick Nguyen | Read full profile
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I went from 0 to 68 books read in a year.
Okay, to be fair, I only finished 44 of them from cover to cover, but you’ll understand why in a moment. The main takeaway is that it’s possible to start reading again, and it really does change your life.
And remember…
““Start more books. Quit most of them. Read the great ones twice.””
Let’s get started!
1. Accept that you may not finish a book in one sitting...or ever.
Most people don’t even get started because they feel they can’t commit. All that’s going on in their minds is…
“The book is like 400-pages! I can’t finish all of that this week! I’ll start next month”
That last part is like the kiss of death. Something will always come up. You’ll always have a reason to not want to start. So instead of fantasizing that you’re going to read the book cover to cover and remember every single word you read, just get over it and open one up.
2. You won’t remember EVERYTHING you read, just the things that resonate with you.
This is so important to keep you moving. Reading for fun and self-improvement shouldn't be the same way we read for school. Take it from me, in college, I was “reading” (emphasis on the air quotes) chapter upon chapter of science textbooks, French literature, and a few books on Health Insurance and Public Health interventions here and there.
Even when I needed to remember everything for class, I honestly didn’t. In fact, I just jotted down the highlights and things that I really loved to discuss and chat about in class.
When reading for pleasure, you can be even more lenient about this! If you have to re-read a part 2-3 times before you get it, then it might not be something very important. If you’re re-reading something 2-3 times because you’re so fascinated by how that made you feel, how it made your mind take a step back and say “wow, that’s deep, I need a minute” then you’ve hit the jackpot!
Write that quote down, and feel accomplished that what you read was worth your time. The way I look at things, there’s just so much content in the world, and the sad fact is we’ll never be able to consume all of it. But if I can learn, experience, gain 1 thing from what I’ve read, it was worth the time and investment.
Let your mind naturally remember what was important to you!
3. It’s okay to ‘break-up’ with a book.
I learned this one the hard way.
For years, I would wait to start a book because my naturally neurotic tendencies made me feel so bad when I didn’t like the book. I remember in 6th grade feeling so guilty about this one book I ordered because it was chocked full of cussing. My young mind was much more innocent back then, and it just wasn’t ready for the crude language that went with a very pertinent story on family and abuse.
““Life is too short to not read the very best book you know of right now.””
What I want you to takeaway is that maybe in that one moment, the book just isn’t right for you. Maybe you’ll never want to pick it up again. That’s okay, who cares?
If you get the chance to finish it, think about all the reasons why you hated it, and DON’T do that in your own writing. You’ll still gain something out of it!
4. You can have an open relationship with books.
To play off this theme of books and relationships, there’s no such thing as “cheating” when it comes to reading.
In fact, it’s even better if you can juggle several books at once. Read several books on the same topic and read several books from different genres. It keeps things interesting.
Plus, you’ll be so surprised at how many elements of different books within the same niche get talked about over and over again. The Power of Habit, Atomic Habits, Ultralearning, The Happiness Advantage, and Smarter Faster Better, all talk about similar stories but from a different perspective.
If you hate getting your facts all jumbled up, don’t worry! The simple solution is to take it slow and to take notes! I like to do it using Notion.
This idea is definitely endorsed by one of my favorite Youtubers, Ali Abdaal.
5. Don’t let money stop you from reading.
I was incredibly privileged growing up. My parents always had money and time for books. If we couldn’t afford it, my mom would take us to the library, so we could check some out. We’d go almost every week! I still have my library card from the Milton Public Library.
As a broke college student, I remembered that I chose to go to Berkeley BECAUSE they mentioned on one of the tours that the UC system had one of the largest library systems in the world. Literally, you could request a book, and they’d find it for you. I did that for so many books, textbooks, audiobooks, papers, etc.
If you’re already graduated, see if you can pay an alumni fee to still get access to your library. It’s really worth it if you can still get access to ebooks remotely!
Which brings me to my favorite free book hacks:
These are apps and repositories that you can borrow or download PDFs, ebooks, and audiobooks FOR FREE.
Now I’m all for supporting the authors, but this helps me filter out the quality books that I really love from the ones that are just ‘meh.’ I end up purchasing a hard copy either from Half Price Books, Target, or Amazon when they go on sale!
6. Read what you like until it becomes a habit
I got this from the amazing Naval Ravikant. Shoutout to one of my dear friends and mentors, HYQ for introducing me to his podcast. The man is amazing. He attributes much of his success to being a voracious reader when he was young. His mom didn’t have the money to pay for babysitting, so she’d leave him at the library (times were much safe back in the day), but he would read everything he could get a hold of.
I remember feeling the same way when I was doing a reading challenge in elementary school. Basically, I would get points for every book I read, and the kid with the most points would earn a trip to Disney. I read like crazy that year, looking for short, interesting quick-reads that I really loved, and eventually that led to me reading the entire Magic Tree House Series, everything by Judy Blume at the time, Judy Moody, the Cam Jensen series, Amelia Bedelia, and so many more great children sets that I just can’t remember.
Essentially, I read all the mainstream series except for Harry Potter because the books were too expensive, and they were always checked out at the libraries. Mom would save all her CVS and Barnes and Noble coupons to get me each book in the series over the years. But in 2019, my dear friend (and white dad, haha), David and his family, got me the entire Harry Potter set for Christmas. It’s so beautiful that I’m afraid to open it.
7. Make a list.
I started off 2020 with Adam Grant’s list The 20 New Leadership Books for 2020 after getting hooked on his podcast, Worklife, and seeing his TED talk on procrastination.
His books, Originals and Give and Take, easily make the list for top books that changed my life in 2020.
I then started going to Barnes & Nobles and Half Price Books to film shorts with Gen and Susie and found myself looking at books in the business, mindset, and entrepreneurship sections. I started to preview the table of contents and summaries and have this crazy list in my Apple Notes that I’ve slowly been requesting and working through on Libby.
If you have a list, you know where to go.
If you know where to go, you can get started.
8. Track what you read.
Like all great habits, if you track it, you’ll feel that much more motivated to continue doing it.
The human brain is odd. It looks for value in moments and milestones (thanks Chip Heath for finding this answer in The Power of Moments).
But for some reason, if you can get to 3 books, you feel obligated to get to 5.
Once you get to 5, you feel inclined to hit 10.
When you see you’re halfway through your goal of 52 books in a year, you’ll magically start reading 5 books a week!
Keep track of what you read and what you learned.
9. E-books and Audiobooks count as reading.
I was opposed to e-readers and audiobooks for a long time. I really loved holding on to a beautiful paper copy and my mind could never focus listening to recordings.
But like all things we try for the first time, you’ve just gotta keep trying until you figure out what works. After not reading for so long, I’ve been an even SLOWER reader than I was before. So, I’d start by using an audiobook to help me read along, and eventually was able to pay attention and ramp up speeds to 1.5x, 2x, or even 2.5x!
Plus it helps to have a 3-4 hour commute every day going to and from work. Oftentimes, I’d be able to finish listening to a whole book in 1 day! Of course, I wouldn’t remember half of it, but that’s why I aimed for a book a week! I would re-listen to that same book multiple times until I naturally remembered what happened next in the story!
And having ebooks downloaded to my phone and iPad just made it so much easier on my back. Plus I didn’t feel bad when I highlighted the copy. I was literally marking up the file like no tomorrow. (If you didn’t know, I’m super meticulous about keeping my books in pristine shape, and that includes no writing and highlighting in my paper copies).
Hopefully one day, I will make enough to buy 2 copies of every book I love. 1 to markup, 1 to put on display.
Which brings us to my final piece of advice to get started reading:
10. Book clubs work.
Okay, I’m not saying to go out there and join a formal book club or to make one of your own that meets every week to chat about a chapter (although you totally can and should if that’s your jam).
What I’m saying is, you need to find an accountability partner. People to talk to about the book and share your insights on what you just read.
I would do that with Susie and my mom each time I read something interesting. People in the FIRE communities on Twitter and Facebook regular have threads that talk about the best books they’ve read and comment with discussions on them.
Do the same! It’s no stress, nobody’s going to judge you, and if they do, who cares! They’re complete strangers that don’t dictate your life!
If you’ve read this far, comment below on your favorite hack to start reading again or the first book you plan on reading in 2021.
