When I left school, I quit reading. That's a funny thing to admit for someone who now gets through a book a week.
Not slowed down. Quit. For years after I left formal education I didn't read at all.
One page
These days the thing that keeps me reading is a tiny rule.
At least one page a day. That's it.
One page is so small it's almost silly. You can't really fail at it. Even on a terrible day, tired and fed up, you can read one page. And most days, once you've read one page, you read another. Then another.
That's still how I do it. I make it my personal challenge to read part of a physical book every single day, even if it's only one page.
Keeping score
At the start of 2016 I decided to start keeping track of the books I read, or listen to. The picture with this post is the record.
By the start of 2023, I'd worked my way through 565 books. My best years were 2016 and 2017, with 116 books each. These days I aim to average at least one a week.
I mostly read business books, self-help and biographies. And yes, I listen to a lot of them. I've asked people on LinkedIn before whether that still counts as reading.
I still don't have a firm answer. What I know is that audiobooks fill the gaps in my day, and I suspect I'd be nowhere near 565 without them. I keep the one-page rule for a physical book, though. There's something about holding the thing that makes me slow down.
Time with the author
There's one more thing I realised a long time ago about reading, and it's the reason I've never stopped.
Every minute I spend reading is time I'm spending with the author.
Think about that for a second. A lot of the people whose books I read would charge thousands of pounds for a few hours of their time. If you could get it at all. Their book costs about the same as a takeaway coffee and a sandwich. And it's often the best of what they know, written down carefully, edited and polished.
Five hours with someone brilliant, for the price of lunch. It's the best deal going.
You've probably heard the saying that leaders are readers. I think there's a lot in it. Every book is someone else's mistakes, lessons and best ideas, handed to you so you don't have to learn them all the hard way. My own life and business got better when I started reading again, and it started with a single page.
I'm always on the lookout for good books. If one changed something for you, I'd love to know what it is.
