How I've Been Reading More

At the end of 2022, someone asked me if I'd ever do another yearly book wrap-up, like I did in 2020. My answer at the time was, "Probably not this year, I've got too much going on." In reality, my reading had been in a slump for a couple years. I think I could count the number of books I read in 2022 on one hand. Being that reading more is not an uncommon New Year's resolution, it was with a grudging heart that I consigned myself to another year of mediocre literary performance.

But then a close friend sent me a video early on in the year which has changed my view on reading dramatically. The video, a 40 minute vlog-umentary about a man (Max Joseph) in search of a new spark for his reading life and the coolest bookstore in the world, shook me deeply. Being a well-edited, well-shot video aside, it so accurately diagnosed the whole problem with reading in my eyes that it gave me legitimate pause.

The "golden age of content" means that more and more stuff becomes available to watch for us every day. I've been through this in the "My Not-So-Strange Addiction" essay, but to put it briefly and banally: we're being over-saturated with easy dopamine hits from streaming services, Youtube, Instagram, Tik Tok, and a host of other platforms. As such, many mornings, evenings, and even whole weekends can be easily spent by someone like me scrolling and clicking endlessly on a rambling search for the next wave of short-term happiness.

In such an age, it becomes increasingly difficult to put aside time to read. One of the major issues with scrolling or watching without pausing manifests itself as a numbness which permeates our consciousness. I can only speak for myself, but I am rarely in a reflective state when watching the same Youtube video for the tenth time, or flipping through the 50th Instagram reel. Reading is unique in that it takes time for our brains to process the words on the page. It does not often come easy. It can, and there certainly exist books which do their hardest to mimic that quick, plastic rush of "good-feeling" to numb our most vulnerable meditative state, but a great book - hell, even an average book, will force us into reflection, often when we least seek it. As Joseph explains in the video, a large part of reading-avoidance is a subconscious unwillingness to confront ourselves through the light of the written word.

So, the problem was diagnosed. The world has too much content, it's too addicting, and to make matters worse, algorithms are constantly trying to put the most interesting, most applicable content right in front of us. But how do we move past the diagnosis? Well, Joseph's next step, after touring some cool bookstores of course, happens to be a solution.

To understand it myself, I had to take another step back at the root of the problem. Not only was there too much addicting content, but reading itself seemed like a daunting task. In 2020, when I had been at the peak of my reading, there was ample time during the day to just sit down and read. I was at home, as were we all, during the start of the pandemic, and so I began to pick up reading after the monotonous series of online college lectures had concluded. With no gym life, no social life, and no other forms of life to be found intertwined with my own, I naturally gravitated towards books.

But the world slowly opened back up, and life returned to normal. Once I was at school full time, with a full time social circle, a full time gym regimen, and a full time, in person study regimen, reading took a backseat. Actually, reading didn't just take a backseat; it was thrown bodily from the vehicle. With so much to do (and so much content to watch), I figured I just didn't have the time to read, because reading, as I thought of it, was sitting down for hours with a cup of coffee and immersing yourself totally in a book.

In Joseph's video, the solution is presented first by Tim Urban, who holds the record for the most viewed Ted Talk on the internet. Urban says that if you just spend 30 minutes a day reading at an average pace, you could get through almost 20 books a year, and could easily hit 1,000 books in a lifetime, or more if you're younger. Contrarily, if you spend about 2 minutes a day reading - a generous estimate of my 2022 desolation, you'd read… 55 books in your lifetime, assuming you were in your mid-thirties.

This did not just give me pause. This floored me. In the context of a young life, one year can be, uncomfortably, passed as menial in the grand scheme of things. So what if I didn't read this year? I'll pick up the pace next year. Urban put an end to that mindset. If every year is 20 books, then every year wasted is 20 books less by your old age. I did not want to be that old luddite of whom no one asks a literary opinion because he hasn't read a book in 60 years.

If that wasn't enough to motivate me, Joseph also pays a visit to Dr. Ruth J. Simmons, who has had a storied career as the president of several noble universities. Her insight alludes to what I mentioned earlier; reading puts us in touch with an aspect of our being often left dormant; it sheds light upon that which we do not often see. As such, reading is critical to personal growth. If being the village idiot at old age troubles me, being the guy that doesn't change or grow from his early 20's makes me shiver.

There's a few other parts of the video which did not entice me as much. Eric Barker, writer of one of the internet's most popular blogs, shows how to absorb reading at both great depths and breadth. His segment was less impactful because part of his method was giving himself two social media/email checks a day. From working a 9-5 job and going to the gym every day, I cannot balance such extreme social media sterility in my life, though I grudgingly admit that it would be helpful. Another short section of the video goes into how to read really, really fast, from world's fastest reader Howard Berg. I don't need to read that fast, nor too much faster than how quickly I currently read. I especially do not want to sacrifice the quality of my reading for the quantity of books I can complete. To his credit, he does not recommend reading at a frantic pace if you seek to enjoy what you read.

So after watching that video, and forming a brotherly pact committed to great reading, I have been much better about reading this year than any year since 2020. Already on my 12th book, I've been finding more joy, and more fulfillment, out of these last few months, than I could have hoped, and a large part of that is due to the novels and philosophical works I have made my way through since New Year's day. I don't want to make any bold statements because habits are threaded through the finest needle and balanced on the sharpest knife; they can stray either way, or break off without much warning, but this year, so far, has been great. Read more, love what you read, and if you're having trouble, just watch that video by Max Joseph.