The Idle Life

Reading has always been one of my greatest pleasures in life. I typically finish several books a month, and am always reading at least two books at a time, though often 3 or 4. I own more books than I could ever possibly read, because buying books is one of my favorite things to spend money on, and I can safely say that if I was able to quit working and do whatever I wanted with my time, I would read for several hours every day.

Imagine my horror, then, when I see depressing statistics about how little people read these days. For example, a 2007 study that found that 1 in 4 Americans hadn’t read a single book in the past year, and that the average person reads only 4 books a year. A 2008 National Endowment for the Arts study found that only a slight majority of adult Americans read books, as opposed to not reading books at all (I suppose over the course of a year). On the other hand, the average American now watches 151 hours of TV per month, an all-time high.

How accurate these statistics are, I don’t really know. However, almost everyone I know wishes they had more time to read, and even those who hardly ever read say they would if they had the time. Since I manage to find lots of time to read, I thought I’d share some of my techniques for finding plenty of time to read, and how I read for maximum enjoyment.

How I Make Time to Read

The things I like to read cover a broad range of categories, but if I had to sum up how I read quickly, it would be: I read fiction for pure pleasure and escapism, and non-fiction to expand my horizons. Most of the fiction I read is pretty low-brow, so it’s easy to get caught up in and burn through quickly. On the other hand, the non-fiction I read tends to be on topics you can’t get much exposure to in the workplace, like history, philosophy, science, and psychology/sociology.

I’m a bit of a dilettante, so I often find myself getting really excited about a non-fiction topic, reading half of a book on the subject, and then feeling like I’ve learned enough for now and putting it down and moving on to something else. Some people might object to this, but I find that I end up reading more, and learning more about a lot of different subjects, than trying to slog through a book I’ve lost interest in and finding every excuse to do something else besides read it.

Here are some other tips I use to read as much as possible:

• Read for 15 to 30 minutes right before bed: Unless you’re reading thrillers, it’s a great way to wind down and keep from getting anxious about events of the day or what you have going on in your life. It may seem like 15 minutes a day isn’t much, but reading 15 minutes a day adds up to over 90 hours over the course of a year- regardless of how quickly you read, you should be able to finish at least several books in that amount of time.
• Read under a tree on your lunch break: I’ve started doing this lately, and I really enjoy it. I take a blanket and go to a park near my office and just read, uninterrupted, for almost an hour. Sometimes I end up taking a nap during the course of the break, which makes it even better. You’ll feel like you’ve returned to a simpler time, and get some great reading in at the same time.
• Travel: Although traveling is a worthy pursuit in its own right, I also find that I read a lot while traveling, since there’s plenty of time to read on the plane, on a car trip, or in the hotel room at night. Getting to relax and enjoy a book makes traveling even better.
• Read as soon as you get up on the weekend: This one’s tough for parents, obviously, but if at all possible, getting up and reading for half an hour or an hour first thing on a weekend morning is a great pleasure. Particularly if you can read outside during the summer while it’s cool and quiet.
• Pick up a book instead of using the Internet: I have a hard time with this one myself. Throughout the day, I get bored and hop on the Internet for a few minutes, reading mostly unimportant stories or checking my email for the 10th time that day, when I could be reading something worthwhile for a few minutes instead. Knocking out one chapter of a book can be quick but immensely enjoyable.
• Only read what you want to read, not what you “should” read: Don’t bother worrying about what your peers are reading, or what you think other people are reading, unless you’re genuinely curious. Chances are, no one will call you out for not having read a particular book, and if you’re worried about it, just pick up one of those books that has the synopsis of other books and flip through that, skipping books that you really want to read at some point. Try using a free service like Goodreads to find or invite friends whose opinion on books you trust, and see what they’re reading if you want to find new ideas. Or friend me on there and we can compare the books we love.
• For God’s sake, turn off the TV: I know it can be tough when you get home from a hard day at work and just want to veg out for a while, but I guarantee that you’ll feel better about yourself if you spend your time reading a great book than wasting time watching junk TV instead. And I guarantee that despite a few great shows on TV, there’s not 151 hours of worthwhile TV in a given month. Even if you switch 20 hours of TV a month for 20 hours of reading, you’ll come out way ahead.

I hope this post has gone a little way towards helping you read more, if that’s something you’ve been wanting to do, or has at least convinced you that it really is possible if you make it a priority. If you have any techniques you use to make reading a priority, please feel free to share them in a comment. Happy reading!