Does your reading list keep growing? Did you buy books that you’ve never read?

It
might be time to cross more books from your list this year than ever.
If you’re reading less than you want, you’re not the only one. One year ago I
looked at my Goodreads page and noticed that I had read only five books in 2014.
That realization frustrated me.
I love books, but since I graduated college in 2011, I’d been reading fewer books
every single year. My work and life got in the way of reading as much as I wanted.
Why read 100 books in a year? You read because you want to learn from other
people’s experience. Otto von Bismarck put it best:
“Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others.”
If you want to get anywhere in this world, you need to educate yourself, and to
educate yourself you need to read—a lot. Here’s how to do it.
1. Buy In Bulk
It costs money to buy books, and it costs you time to read them — I’m assuming you
have both if you’re reading this. Everyone can make time. And if you don’t have
money, find a way to make or save money.
As Dutch Renaissance man Erasmus once said:
“When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and
clothes.”
Be assured, the money and time you spend on books are worth it. I can’t think of a
better investment. Books are only a waste of money if you don’t read them.
If you want to read more, you have to buy more books. Some people don’t get it.
They spend $200 on new shoes, but they find it ridiculous to buy 20 books from
Amazon.
The idea is simple: If you have more books in your house, you’ll have more choices,
and this will help you read more.
Here’s why: Most of the books you read are not planned in advance. You don’t sit
down in January and say: “The first week of June I’ll read this book.”
You finish a book, look you at your inventory, and decide what to read next. Don’t
overthink which book you should read next—you’ll end up reading reviews for hours,
which is a waste of time.
For example, most people who want to start with Stoicism ask me: “Which one should
I read first—Seneca, Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus?”
Buy them all. Read them all.
Having an inventory of books keeps up the momentum. You also never have an excuse
not to read.
2. A(always) B(e) R(eading)
You might have heard of the term ‘ABC’ from the play/movie Glengarry Glen Ross:
Always Be Closing. Many salespeople and entrepreneurs live by that motto.
I live by a different motto: Always Be Reading.
I read a minimum of 1 hour per day on weekdays and even more during the weekend and
holidays.
Find a way to read around your schedule and your life situation. Don’t make excuses
like you’re tired or too busy.
Always Be Reading means that you:
Read on the train
Read while you’re breastfeeding your baby
Read while you’re eating
Read at the doctor’s office
Read at work
And most importantly — read while everyone else is wasting their time watching the
news or checking Facebook for the 113th time that day.
If you do that, you’ll read more than 100 books in a year. Here’s how. Most people
read 50 pages an hour. If you read 10 hours a week, you’ll read 26,000 pages a
year. Let’s say the average book you read is 250 pages: In this scenario, you’ll
read 104 books in a year.
With that pace—even if you take a two-week break—you’ll read at least 100 books in
a year.
That’s a good return of your time investment. What’s the ROI of reading the news? I
don’t know exactly, but it must be negative.