Dear Fellow Reader,

Reading Challenge

Last week I talked about reading goals and book clubs. Since that time, I read an interesting article about reading. The article led off with the following quote:

“Read 500 pages like this (referring to a stack of books) every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”

                                                              Warren Buffet

I like to read but 500 pages a day seems rather daunting. The author of the article explains the changes and adjustments he made so that he could read 400 books over the last two years. He did not reach the goal of 500 pages a day but feels that he reaped many benefits from reading much more than he did before. (You can check out his ideas.)

Reading 400 books in two years is approximately twice my current pace. Could I step it up and read twice the number of books? It would take some real effort (or much more vacation time). It is an interesting idea. I am still mulling it over in my mind but have a leaning toward trying to pick up my reading pace. By picking up the pace, I would have to branch out to other types of books that perhaps I avoid. That could be a good thing.

What do you think? Can you double your reading pace?

Books for Living

Speaking of people who read a lot and remember much more than I do about the books they read, I read Will Schwalbe’s new book, Books for Living last week. I had read Mr. Schwalbe’s previous book, The End of Your Life Book Club and enjoyed it so I was looking forward to his new book.

Mr. Schwalbe is a reader. He has read widely and takes home lessons from what he reads. In his new book, he devotes each chapter to a book that he has read and explains what he learned from the book. I found his connections interesting and he thoroughly explains the lessons learned. The books he selected run the spectrum from children’s books to classics to current fiction. For example, he talks about how he learned about searching from Stuart Little and embracing mediocrity from The Odyssey. The connections, while not clear to me at first, did make sense when he explains them.

In each of the chapters, the reader also finds out more about Mr. Schwalbe’s life and experiences. I found them interesting and they contained insights as to why he reacted as he did to certain books.

This type of book earns a special place in my heart. It is an interesting read and I come away with more books for my TBR pile. I always find it interesting to see what others are reading and how they like the book. I would probably not have ever picked up The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang, I now have it on reserve through my local library.

If you are looking for a book that you can think about and find new books to read, I recommend Books for Living.

Thanks for reading!

And here is the link you can use to purchase the book from Amazon.  This is an affiliate link so that if you click on it and buy from Amazon that I will earn a commission.  BUT it has yet to have happened.  If I ever get any funds from Amazon, I will let you know unless I am so shocked that I can’t type.  

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