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Adam Smith | May 9, 2013 | 40 Comments

How To Read More Books This Year

books-read-helpPhoto Credit: Books via Instagram

Books offer tons of information that you can consume to instruct you in specific areas of life. The great thing about a book is that you choose what you read about and there aren’t ads or other things distracting you. The information that you want to read about is right there at your fingertips.

Maybe you like to read, but just haven’t found the time to read in the past. Or, maybe you are like I used to be and just didn’t view it as an important thing to do. If you don’t view reading as a learning tool and more like a chore, then you have defeated yourself before you have even started.

Realize that you don’t have every answer and that is where reading needs to comes in. You get to choose an expert in the area that you want to know more about and use their expertise to your advantage. Books allow you to cheat time and advance quickly off of someone else’s knowledge that they have taken many years to learn about.

So, are you ready to carve out time in your week to read more books and grow yourself in the specific areas you want to learn more about? Great.

Besides scheduling in reading time on a daily basis, here are three ways to find more time for reading books starting today:

1. Know the difference between when it is time to consume and when you should create.

This just means that you need to be aware of where you are at in the process. When you are feeling depleted, know that it is time to consume. When you are feeling full on information, it is time to create. Share what you have learned with other people and watch them grow. The most rewarding thing you can do is to share information and make a lasting impact on someone else’s life.

2. Learn how to “speed read” or consume quicker than you are right now.

Do you have fifty books on your “want to read” list, but can’t seem to get through the book that you’ve been reading for months now? Try speed reading. There are even online courses on how to “speed read” or just teach yourself to skim quickly and be able to extract the important information. This allows you to read more books within the year, consume more useful information and start on that next book you have been wanting to read.

3. Join a book club or go through books with other people.

If you just aren’t quite disciplined enough to read more than you are right now, then going through books with other people and studying them gives you accountability when reading. It motivates you to not only have your chapter read, so you can go over the material, but it also helps you to learn more from the books that you have read. It really is something to think about for those that want to take reading more seriously, but don’t quite know where to start.

What books have you wanted to read lately? You can leave your comment below.

Filed Under: Leadership

Adam Smith

I teach people how to have a greater impact through their work and their time. You can read more about me on my about page.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. brianfalexander says

    May 9, 2013 at 5:08 am

    I set a goal to read 30 books this year. At the time I thought it was pretty high, but at my current reading rate, I am three books ahead. I love the Goodreads.com app that keeps up with this stuff for me. Check it out! It’s great!

    Reply
  2. brianfalexander says

    May 9, 2013 at 6:08 am

    I set a goal to read 30 books this year. At the time I thought it was pretty high, but at my current reading rate, I am three books ahead. I love the Goodreads.com app that keeps up with this stuff for me. Check it out! It’s great!

    Reply
    • Adam Smith says

      May 9, 2013 at 6:13 am

      I’ll definitely have to check that out. Thanks for the recommendation.

      Reply
      • brianfalexander says

        May 9, 2013 at 6:36 am

        Do it.

        Reply
        • Brad Andres says

          May 9, 2013 at 4:12 pm

          Yep. The Goodreads app is pretty cool and useful. It’s nice to track all the books you’ve read as well. I’m not fully engaged on Goodreads as it is another upkeep I cannot attended to at this time, but the site and it’s options as great. – Adam, you can even feed your blog through the site on your profile for those who use the site heavily.

          Reply
          • Adam Smith says

            May 9, 2013 at 9:26 pm

            Getting it now.

    • Adam Smith says

      May 9, 2013 at 6:25 am

      Hope you are doing well, Brian. It’s been a minute since we’ve talked.

      Reply
      • brianfalexander says

        May 9, 2013 at 6:37 am

        Yes, doing well. Been at CRI for a year (Tuesday) and have loved it. Glad to hear from you man.

        Reply
        • Adam Smith says

          May 9, 2013 at 7:07 am

          Glad to hear from you as well buddy. I’m so glad you are doing great.

          Reply
  3. Adam Smith says

    May 9, 2013 at 6:13 am

    I’ll definitely have to check that out. Thanks for the recommendation.

    Reply
    • brianfalexander says

      May 9, 2013 at 6:36 am

      Do it.

      Reply
      • Brad Andres says

        May 9, 2013 at 4:12 pm

        Yep. The Goodreads app is pretty cool and useful. It’s nice to track all the books you’ve read as well. I’m not fully engaged on Goodreads as it is another upkeep I cannot attended to at this time, but the site and it’s options as great. – Adam, you can even feed your blog through the site on your profile for those who use the site heavily.

        Reply
        • Adam Smith says

          May 9, 2013 at 9:26 pm

          Getting it now.

          Reply
  4. Esther Aspling says

    May 9, 2013 at 6:14 am

    I have a stack of books sitting in my carts at various online stores! I’m waiting on cash first. Here’s a few:
    The Tangible Kingdom – Hugh Halter
    Where am I wearing? – Kelsey Timmerman
    Tribes – Seth Godin
    ProBlogger – Darren Rowse

    http://forthisisthetime.blogspot.com/

    Reply
    • Adam Smith says

      May 9, 2013 at 6:24 am

      I’ve read tribes, but I haven’t read the others. Good stuff I’ve heard on the others, though. Let me know how you like them.

      Reply
  5. Esther Aspling says

    May 9, 2013 at 6:14 am

    I have a stack of books sitting in my carts at various online stores! I’m waiting on cash first. Here’s a few:
    The Tangible Kingdom – Hugh Halter
    Where am I wearing? – Kelsey Timmerman
    Tribes – Seth Godin
    ProBlogger – Darren Rowse

    http://forthisisthetime.blogspot.com/

    Reply
    • Adam Smith says

      May 9, 2013 at 6:24 am

      I’ve read tribes, but I haven’t read the others. Good stuff I’ve heard on the others, though. Let me know how you like them.

      Reply
  6. Adam Smith says

    May 9, 2013 at 6:25 am

    Hope you are doing well, Brian. It’s been a minute since we’ve talked.

    Reply
    • brianfalexander says

      May 9, 2013 at 6:37 am

      Yes, doing well. Been at CRI for a year (Tuesday) and have loved it. Glad to hear from you man.

      Reply
      • Adam Smith says

        May 9, 2013 at 7:07 am

        Glad to hear from you as well buddy. I’m so glad you are doing great.

        Reply
  7. Brad Andres says

    May 9, 2013 at 4:18 pm

    On this topic, I think everyone should read How to Read a Book by Mortimer J Adler. It trumps all other books I’ve read by the simple fact it teaches you all about improving your reading skills. It does cover skim reading along with other types of reading.

    As for me, I’m reading:
    Pharisectomy by Peter Haas
    Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus
    Deep & Wide by Andy Stanley
    APE by Guy Kawasaki

    Reply
    • Adam Smith says

      May 9, 2013 at 9:22 pm

      Those all sounds like great reads, too. I need to get on the ball.

      Reply
  8. Brad Andres says

    May 9, 2013 at 4:18 pm

    On this topic, I think everyone should read How to Read a Book by Mortimer J Adler. It trumps all other books I’ve read by the simple fact it teaches you all about improving your reading skills. It does cover skim reading along with other types of reading.

    As for me, I’m reading:
    Pharisectomy by Peter Haas
    Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus
    Deep & Wide by Andy Stanley
    APE by Guy Kawasaki

    Reply
    • Adam Smith says

      May 9, 2013 at 9:22 pm

      Those all sounds like great reads, too. I need to get on the ball.

      Reply
  9. mattgwin says

    May 10, 2013 at 10:04 pm

    Great point about when to consume and when to create! I’ve just read Into the Wild by Jon KraKauer. A million miles in a thousand years by Donald Miller. Currently reading Community and Growth by Jean Vanier (founder of the Le Arche communities of Henri Nouwen fame)

    Reply
    • Adam Smith says

      May 11, 2013 at 5:21 am

      I haven’t read Community and Growth yet. I’ll have to check out that one. Ya’ll have some good book recommendations! Thanks for reading!

      Reply
    • Adam Smith says

      May 11, 2013 at 5:22 am

      How have you been?

      Reply
  10. mattgwin says

    May 10, 2013 at 10:04 pm

    Great point about when to consume and when to create! I’ve just read Into the Wild by Jon KraKauer. A million miles in a thousand years by Donald Miller. Currently reading Community and Growth by Jean Vanier (founder of the Le Arche communities of Henri Nouwen fame)

    Reply
    • Adam Smith says

      May 11, 2013 at 5:21 am

      I haven’t read Community and Growth yet. I’ll have to check out that one. Ya’ll have some good book recommendations! Thanks for reading!

      Reply
    • Adam Smith says

      May 11, 2013 at 5:22 am

      How have you been?

      Reply
  11. nikkiana says

    May 12, 2013 at 11:07 pm

    As someone who spends the bulk of her time at the computer online, I’ve often found I forget to just go read a book because so much of my day is consumed with reading short articles, essays and antidotes online… or looking for such things to read via social media (aka how I got here… surprise, surprise.) Which is all well and good except for the fact that I tend to forget that there’s a wealth of reading material that isn’t found online… aka books.

    Recently, I decided to change up my routine a little to facilitate more book reading… which is pretty simple. When I run out of stuff to read online… Instead of sitting around hitting refresh on all my social media sites just to see what the latest thing in the past five minutes was, walk away from the computer and go read a book. Or at very least, go do something else productive.

    Reply
    • asmithblog says

      May 13, 2013 at 2:18 am

      Social media is an easy thing to get sucked into. Book reading is a good practice for sure. Let me know what books you pick up. Thanks for stopping by. 🙂

      Reply
      • nikkiana says

        May 13, 2013 at 2:40 am

        Right now I’ve got three books going on:

        – Suffering Succotash: A Picky Eater’s Quest to Understand Why We Hate the Foods We Hate by Stephanie Lucianovic
        – How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

        – Wheels of Life by Anodea Judith

        Reply
        • asmithblog says

          May 13, 2013 at 2:43 am

          Only read Carnegie’s out of that bunch, so I’ll have to check out the others. I have a lot to read now. Thanks! 🙂

          Reply
  12. nikkiana says

    May 12, 2013 at 11:07 pm

    As someone who spends the bulk of her time at the computer online, I’ve often found I forget to just go read a book because so much of my day is consumed with reading short articles, essays and antidotes online… or looking for such things to read via social media (aka how I got here… surprise, surprise.) Which is all well and good except for the fact that I tend to forget that there’s a wealth of reading material that isn’t found online… aka books.

    Recently, I decided to change up my routine a little to facilitate more book reading… which is pretty simple. When I run out of stuff to read online… Instead of sitting around hitting refresh on all my social media sites just to see what the latest thing in the past five minutes was, walk away from the computer and go read a book. Or at very least, go do something else productive.

    Reply
    • asmithblog says

      May 13, 2013 at 2:18 am

      Social media is an easy thing to get sucked into. Book reading is a good practice for sure. Let me know what books you pick up. Thanks for stopping by. 🙂

      Reply
      • nikkiana says

        May 13, 2013 at 2:40 am

        Right now I’ve got three books going on:

        – Suffering Succotash: A Picky Eater’s Quest to Understand Why We Hate the Foods We Hate by Stephanie Lucianovic
        – How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

        – Wheels of Life by Anodea Judith

        Reply
        • asmithblog says

          May 13, 2013 at 2:43 am

          Only read Carnegie’s out of that bunch, so I’ll have to check out the others. I have a lot to read now. Thanks! 🙂

          Reply

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Hi, my name is Adam Smith and welcome to asmithblog.com. I am the author of the book, The Bravest You. Because of my work as an entrepreneur, consultant, writer, and speaker, I have been named a top industry influencer by American Genius. I live with my wife, Jasmine, and three children in Shenandoah, IA.

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