Over the years, people have asked me how I manage to read so much every year given 2 jobs, 5 kids and a partridge in a pear tree?
The answer is a focused strategy.
I start first by setting a goal. Not in terms of how many books to read, but what types of books. That is, what do I want to learn?
Next I come up with a structured reading list by researching topics and reading reviews. This makes it so that as I read, I already have the next one lined up and there isn’t down time between books.
I then divide and conquer. Every year I try to read a book of poetry. Usually, one to two poems a day will see that goal finished by years end.
Every year I try to read some sort of Bible commentary. I treat it as a devotional book and read 1-2 pages a day during my devo time. Usually, I can read 2 of those a year. This past year, Stott’s commentary on Romans took most of a year at that pace.
If I am reading something that requires thought, I read between 3-5 pages every day. No less than 3 pages is a must. Every now and then, I’ll have to up it. When I was reading the history of the third reich, I had to read about 20 pages a day.
That brings me to another strategy I use: I turn the TV and my phone off. I try to have my phone off for 1 hour of every day (2 hours this year). I also try to have at least 3 nights a week when I do not watch TV. I don’t just read during that time but it also increases the amount of time spent reading.
And throughout all of this, I read fiction. Sometimes the books I’m reading aren’t fun. While I enjoy learning, it isn’t always something I look forward to. And so I always have a good book of fiction nearby.
From the above, you can see that commitment turns out to be at least 5 pages of reading every day. That’s nearly 2,000 pages in a year–or a lot of books!
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