Neil Pasricha’s 8 More Ways to Read (A Lot) More Books

If you love reading have you read anything by Neil Pasricha? I have not yet read any of his books but I do follow his blog, podcast, and weekly newsletter emails.

I like what I’m hearing and reading so far, especially as it relates to happiness, so I’ll definitely be checking his books out at my local library.

But what I wanted to share with you today is his article on 8 More Ways To Read (A Lot) More Books. It’s a sequel to his original article 8 Ways to Read (a Lot) More Books This Year.

Good stuff in here people!

Especially this:

Do you want to read more books? Most people I talk to say yes, yes, definitely yes. Then two seconds later they say “But I just don’t got that kind of time.” Well, you know what? I’m calling shenanigans on that BS excuse. Because the truth is we’re reading more words per day now than ever before. It’s just garbage reading. Texts and alerts and notifications and emails and headline skims and fly-by tickers and blog feeds and Twitter spews and Instagram comments.  Who has time for books anymore? I know this pain because I’ve felt this pain.

Garbage reading is truth!

I want to read a lot! It is literally my favorite thing to do. I’m about to get another tattoo that somehow references books and reading but I haven’t figured out what exactly it is going to look like yet.

I too have been guilty of what Neil states in his first article that Stephen King does. I’m not gonna tell you what that is so you have to read the article.

The problem for me (well, I guess it isn’t a problem per se since I’m still reading) is that I also read on my iPad a lot.

The iPad comes out every day for lunch usually when I’m at work. If I have WiFi access I’m usually reading the Washington Post app or the NY Times app to catch up on the news. Then I’ll move onto my Feedly app where I have all my blogs I’m interested in reading feed to. Then I’ll move onto the Pocket app. I use it for saving all the articles I want to read later from websites, online journals, and such.

If I don’t have WiFi access at lunch then I’m usually catching up on magazines I like to read via the Texture app or reading a book in the Kindle app. The reading a book on the Kindle app is the last resort because I’ve got so much saved up to read on Texture, Feedly, and Pocket.

This process is the same when traveling. I do it all this way because I’m a minimalist and it’s easier to carry my iPad around with me with tons of things to read on it than the book I’m reading or multiple books.

This does mean I miss physical books. So, when I get home each night and on the weekends that is when I try to read a physical book. Sometimes that means I’m reading 2 books at the same time (1 physical book and 1 Kindle book) because I put the iPad down when I’m at home. I’ll get distracted by being on social media or emails. I say I try to read a physical book because between dinner, chores, yoga, errands, working my Beautycounter business, and spending time with my husband and kitty that usually means I don’t pick up the book until I’m in bed and it doesn’t take much reading to put me to sleep when I’m laying in bed. Not too sure about the red light headlamp Neil mentions in his article. Weekends are when I have more time to sit and read at length.

#8 (on the sequel article) is “Live inside a world of books.” Another truth for me. I think the only rooms in my house that don’t have books are the laundry and the bathroom…………..but Neil even says there should be books in the bathroom.

Why can’t someone just pay me to read books for a living?

I made it a personal goal to get more books at the library in 2018 instead of spending money on books. I’m sure that made the husband happy too because the number of books in our home is astounding. I try to tell him there could be worse things but I’m not sure he’s convinced.

For 2019 the goal is 75 books! I hope I can do it!

I read 34 in 2018 but my goal was 50. Not a failure because I was reading and that’s never a bad thing.

If you are on Goodreads let’s be Book Buddies. You can see there the books I’ve been reading, currently reading, and book reviews. . . . which you can also see by clicking the Books / Book Review category on the right. My Goodreads list goes further back than this blog though.

Lastly, Neil states this:

If you need your left brain scratched, then check out the 2011 The Annual Review of Psychology which says that reading triggers our mirror neurons and opens up the parts of our brain responsible for developing empathy, compassion, and understanding. Makes you a better leader, teacher, parent, and sibling. Another study published in Science Magazine in 2013 found that reading literary fiction helps us improve our empathy and social functioning. And, lastly, an incredible 2013 study at Emory University, MRIs taken the morning after test subjects were asked to read sections of a novel showed an increase in connectivity in the left temporal cortex. What’s that? The area of the brain associated with receptivity for language. Priming the brain. And the MRIs were done the next day. Just imagine the long-term benefits of cracking open a book every day.

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