What I learned from doing the impossible – reading ZERO books in one year.
I made the most childish resolution I could last year. I resolved not to read any books. Yep, you heard me right nada, nothing, zippo, zilch. No books.
Before you judge me, let me state that I love to read. I’ll read anything I can get my hands on. As a kid, I would read every Rebecca Caudill book (20+ books a year) every year on top of my regular reading. I would get in trouble for reading during class. After five years of taking band, I still can’t play the saxophone because read during practice (by hiding a book on the music stand). That has stuck with me in college. When I moved to Austin, all I brought with me were two suitcase s, a carryon, and a backpack. Even then I ended up bringing 25 books with me. The point is, I read a lot.
Last year I set out to change something. I wanted to create more than I consume. I know it sounds like something an angsty fifth-grader would say, but I was genuinely curious to see what would happen if I stopped reading. While there’s a large camp out there of successful individuals such as Ryan Holiday who swear by reading a lot, there’s a small but vocal minority of individuals who swear that you’re better off spending your time doing things. Why read about being a pro-cyclist when you can get on your bike and become a cyclist. That’s always been the voice nagging me at the back of my head.
In the end, I succeeded: I read zero books. I will admit I did skim through ONE book that a friend of mine sent me. So what happens when you take away a bookworms books? You realize a
1. There are lots of ways to learn
One thing that didn’t change during this year was my addiction to information. Whether that is good or bad is another conversation, but in my year of not reading I found alternative ways to satiate my appetite for information.
I was surprised how much I still learned even without picking up a simple book. If you’re someone who doesn’t like to read…well first off thanks for bearing through this article, but more importantly the good news is that in this day and age there are more ways than ever before to keep learning. There are more podcasts and videos out there covering every topic under the sun.
I discovered new podcasts that I could consume. Combined with my bluetooth headset, I was pretty much always plugged in. Trust me, when the implant to put an earbud/mic in your brain becomes available, I’ll be first in line to get it.
Certain pieces of content are better suited for certain mechanisms. I’m much more of an auditory learner, so I found that it was much easier for me to learn new things through video/podcast than it was for me to read. As someone who’s as easily distracted as a puppy who’s just seen a squirrel covered in peanut butter, having a human voice to explain things was much easier to focus on than reading a book.
2. Reading is therapeutic
Upon picking up a book in the new year I realized how therapeutic it is.
3. Fiction is important
As we get older we read more and more non-fiction. I for one hadn’t picked up much fiction since I’d gotten into college, maybe reading one or two novels a year. But in the
4. Business books are Bullsh*t
Throughout the year I had numerous friends suggest one book or another. Instead of blindly agreeing to read the book they suggested, I started pushing back and asking what they took away from it. In these conversations I found that most of these books had the same takeaways. It might be blasphemous to say this, but
I have found that most business books are like porn. While your consuming them, you feel great. But the second you’re done you realize that you’ve done nothing more than waste some time fantasizing about a life that could be instead of actually making any progress.
2019.
This year I’m hoping to do the opposite. I’m planning on reading at least one book a week. That’s right, a full 52 books in one year. I am making a couple tweaks based off of the things I learned this past year.
The ways I’m optimizing my reading this year:
- Avoiding Business Books
- Listen instead of
read - Read More Fiction.
1. Avoiding Business Books
One of the main things that started to dissuade me from reading was that most everything started to feel repetitive. The books my fellow business friends recommended seem to re-iterate the same ideas. This year I’m going to avoid business books in order to keep my enthusiasm for reading high. A few biographies might slip in, but for the most
2. More Audio
If this was a YouTube video, this would be a perfect place to interrupt this post for an advertisement for a certain audiobook company. But alas I’m not *completely* a corporate shill. What I found is that I have quite a bit of time when traveling, driving, biking, or otherwise just doing housework where I couldn’t otherwise sit and read a book. I’m hoping that this allows me to consume more books and lets me focus on them better.
3. More Fiction
What I missed the most this past year was being lost in a good story.
While there are some story based podcasts, there isn’t much that can fill the void of a good novel. There’s something about using your imagination and finding yourself lost in a book that 30-minute podcast can’t replicated. So I’m largely looking at discovering more fiction (and biographies)
So, it looks like I’ll be reading a lot of books. Comment below if you have any recommendations!
