How to Read 250 Books

So how did I read 250 books in a Year?

My goal wasn't so lofty when I began, but for the past few years I've tallied the numbers, and as a long time gamer and with game design chops, I have always gone for the high score. Somewhere around mid-summer, when I plowed through a 16 volume history of WWII, I realized bigger and better things were possible.

Here are some suggestions for those crazy enough to try:

1) Read randomly

I love estate sales, thrift stores and library sales. At most estate sales and thrift shops, the books are undervalued (they take up space and who reads anymore!) It's always best to be aware?

of the pricing. I've seen some regional quasi-thrift operations up their prices to the point where buying 10 books for $20 is no longer an option.?

But the joy of picking up a stack of offbeat titles, sought-after authors or fascinating subjects is best. As for me, I have certain key areas -- Renaissance Italy, history (especially warfare), Art, a dozen or so authors, games.

The bigger joy is finding a run of a theme at a thrift store and digging a bit deeper knowing you are picking from someone's collection.

The fascinating thing is to uncover a solid library at an estate sale (yeah, it's cliche that most sales give 1/2 off after noon on the last day) and get a good deal.

Depending on the crowd, pouring through well-cared-for books while your spouse is doing their own thing makes for an enjoyable pastime.

Picking up shorter books is fair game if they meet your interests ...?

Some religious stores offer books for free to get them to someone who cares. I've read around 50 books that way.

BTW, picking up books at book stores is always political, expensive and frustrating.?

2) Read with a purpose

I've wavered between 'challenge yourself' and 'read what you like' but purpose hits a better range. All reading should be a challenge and if you are reading to score points (read x books) then that is the challenge.

Reading what you like is better explained in a following point, but obviously you want to read what you like and not what you don't like. There's no reason to buy something if it will be off-putting, but in terms of challenge and the ubiquitous "broadening your horizons",

it is important to read things you may not enjoy but may discover or challenge yourself -- but let's get back to the purpose and shift this concept a little later.

Reading to learn is reading for a purpose.

Picking up on the themes of the previous point, and I'll admit 'history' is a huge catch-all that needs to be focused, there should be certain subjects of interest, but be mindful of making unexpected connections with odd tangents. I've found interesting sidebars without really trying, whether it's a Pittsburgh story in Einstein's Rabbi, or realizing that there are seven books named in Bloom's Genius on the stacks to read,

or when that odd poetry book that called out to me proved that Hart Crane and Wallace Stevens are, indeed, poets of distinction...?

Most likely the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon is in play, perhaps serendipity, but there's nothing so wonderful as realizing "that's an interesting coincidence" or perhaps a wink from a higher power when Blink, Originals and Guy Kawasaki's Rules for Revolutionaries got read in quick succession.

3) Skip introductions, end-notes, other notes

As both a technical writer and a long time gamer, I tend to shape rules and organize things but with a sense of 'fuzzy math'.?

A few of my guidelines, some which were shaped as the year progressed:

-- 100 page minimum for a book

-- If the book is deemed "bad" it can be skimmed or credited.?

-- Reading fast is something of a gift. Speed-reading (more on this later) is acceptable if you are keeping up, and only YOU know whether this is true.

-- Introductions are optional. I suggest taking a glance -- a few pages is ok, but anything over 20 tends to present too much history or previews too intensely. I'm not opposed to text written by a 'name' and admit that I may not recognize an expert, but I'm reading a book by SOMEONE from whom I'm expecting to learn, be entertained or to figure it out.

Essays by a publisher, editor or tangential figure that end up being verbose waste time.

-- Similar with notes. I read a book about Bishop Fulton Sheen edited by someone who made presumptions and odd questioning of the man's credibility. I really have no time or interest hearing out some editor's inability to find a biblical source for a statement. Nor do I need historical context. Then again, the notes are there if I'm confused or need that context -- I've just found that constantly going up and down the page gets to be annoying.

-- A unit is a book, which can be multiples if there's a collection. Three CS Lewis books wrapped by one cover is ... three books. Five books compiled in an Edgar Rice Burroughs tome is ... five books. I could be called to task for counting a 1000 page Wallace Stevens collection seven (or eight) books, but the original publications are referenced in his bibliography.

4) Avoid what you love .. and what you hate?

It is much too easy to start skimming things you already know. It is even more easy to either get bogged down in the constant double-takes and mental gymnastics of justifying the time spent on the book.

There's a nuance to challenging yourself and challenging your conceptions, but anyone who has read enough books knows their ideology and ideologies. If you don't know, keep reading. If you only know one side of things, stop pretending to know everything.

But in the end, if you want to read well and read a lot, neither take the obviously easy path (it does not build your mental muscles) nor the overtly challenging one (which wastes precious time).

Read what you don't know (I read the Battle of Waterloo with an indifference to Napoleon) and of people with whom you are not familiar (Anthony Burgess: A Chorus of One was probably the most challenging book I read-- it was engaging, well (wellx3) written, and covered a lot of things literally and figuratively) and books that just seem to be interesting (Harold Bloom's Omens of Millennium seemed a tad Y2K but the subject of Gnosis, Kaballah and quasi-religious subjects was mostly interesting and vastly rewarding for future reading), and especially target those in books that are not bright and shiny and glossy (Matisse at the time of Giverny was a brilliant portrait of the artist as an older man).?

Perhaps you will find yourself loving or hating concepts after 100 pages, but if you are not making that decision simply by the cover, you do yourself an immense favor.

5) Read to learn

By osmosis and repetition, the nature of a lot of book writing becomes obvious:?

"this doesn't make sense" comes to mind at the 1/3 mark.?

"the author lacks stamina" smacks you silly at the 2/3 mark.

"that's not what the cover said" by the end of the book.

Bad writing is just bad: Verbosity, unfounded logic, telling to the point of abstraction.?

But the gems shine brighter after running afoul of several "how did they even get published" tomes. That obscure find is brilliant. The one book in the stack makes the forgettable even more forgettable, but the effort even more worthwhile.

Reading books is a passion, and brings about a lot of thought, reinforces underlying talents and makes a ton of connections for future searches.

To return to a reference, the Anthony Burgess book gave an interesting insight -- don't pass up dictionaries! I have a few on my stack that I debated, and I've read a few compilations of quotes, political theories and have some oddball ones to take up in 2024 (gems, dreams and decorations).

Information is the key, not just the big picture, and tracking is important and important to make efficient: note taking is embedded in my reading. I've bought the sticky notes (cheap or expensive) and mark every book reference of passing interest, every quote for future reference, and every stray, startling thought that can tangent into a plot, scene or approach.

Note-taking takes time, so the best suggestion is to mark, stack and catch-up at a later time. I used to jot the notes and mark the pages, but those create bad habits and slow down the pace.

Reading that much is a gift from God, and one cultivated with practice and the encouragement of my mom. I've been reading for years and was yelled at repeatedly by my wife for having my nose in another book, but its what I do, love to do, is another high score, and prepares me for a lot of writing this year -- especially about my two Italian heroes (Bruno Sammartino and Niccolo Machiavelli).