I Read a Book a Week and Almost Quit Reading for Good
4 important things to know before you take on the ‘A Book a Week’ challenge
Reading a book a week is fashioned in a way to appear as though it drastically changes your life. However, I learned through the hard way that it’s not as simple as this.
With a productivity-obsessed society, the importance of reading books has returned to the forefront to encourage people to improve their lives. Popular social media accounts such as Jim Kwik, a renowned brain coach whose content emphasises the importance of reading, helped popularise this movement.
While I appreciate the intention behind this challenge, after 28 weeks into it, I learned that there are important things to consider to avoid burnout, which I experienced.
As many studies have continuously proved, reading has many benefits on the human brain, from helping you learn better to treating one’s mental health.
It is a vital skill to have and continue to refine. However, like many skills, it should not be rushed or pursued to achieve unrealistic results.
While it is impressive to have a tally of double-digits of books read in a year, the most important thing to remember is why you are doing it and to use a system that reflects your own ability to ensure you reap the benefits of reading.
Setting a goal can help keep progress, but this goal means more if you’re gaining much more than the satisfaction of crossing books off your list.
Why I wanted to take part in the challenge
Like most kids and teenagers, I always found reading too boring. However, it wasn’t until my later teen years that I realised the impact of reading more often on my studies and my overall well-being.
Since then, the importance of reading has always lingered in my mind, but there was always a lack of action. Over the years, I would pick up a book here and there, but it wasn’t until writing became an important form of creative expression that I decided to be more consistent with it.
In 2017 I started to keep track of how many books I read in the year. If I remember correctly, that year ended with my reading nine books, and the following year I managed to raise it to 21.
It wasn’t until I came across Kwik’s posts on the possibility of reading a book a week that made me decide to give this goal a shot. At the start of 2019, I set myself the New Year’s resolution to read a book a week, which is 52 books in one year.
I had been going 28 weeks strong until I decided to stop due to unforeseen circumstances, and I then went back to studying, which demanded almost every hour of my day.
In the beginning, I had started strong. I surprised myself by finishing two books at a time. However, by week six, I almost wanted to quit.
Overall in the year, I read a total of 35 books, and here are the four most important things I learned that made me a more informed reader.
1. You’re not going to suddenly become cleverer
There is a focus on why and how to read more books, but not on ensuring they add value to our lives.
The discourse around the importance of reading closely relates to the fact that it helps you become smarter. This was one of the attractions that led me to the challenge. However, by the end, I realised that while I read new ideas, remembering them and applying them to my life was a completely different ball game.
I read quite a few non-fiction books such as Moonwalking with Einstein, Sapiens, and The Righteous Mind.
All of these books had important takeaways that first drew me to read them. While I understood the concepts as I was reading the book, I realised I forgot about what I learned by the time a week or two had passed.
There were some weeks I had to do a double-take and change the book I was reading entirely. This added to the stress of rushing to finish a book while I had already spent two days reading the book before.
I remember reading How Not to Be Wrong, The Hidden Maths of Everyday Life, and I just couldn’t do it. The information required more of my time and effort to ensure I understood it properly.
I believe books enrich our lives. However, this challenge showed me that we must become active readers rather than passive ones. This leads me on to the second most important thing I learned.
2. Some books require more time
I realised that the title of the challenge, ‘A Book a Week’, emphasises one’s reading speed rather than reading comprehension. It takes the focus away from learning to chasing numbers.
But the point of reading to improve one’s life is to ensure that we understand and utilise what we read.
Since the information within a book is important to retain, this calls for better comprehension rather than reading speed.
However, I will admit, within a few weeks, I did recall my reading speed had improved.
Overall, it made me realise that I need to go back to the basics and learn how to learn.
3. Not every book is worth your time
It has come to my attention that the time I spend reading is more important than the money I spend on it.
I used to tell myself to finish a book to get my money’s worth. While this is applicable in certain cases, this challenge showed me that my time was more important than the money I was spending on books.
There were many weeks where I became very frustrated with the books I was reading. Books that had been on my reading list for quite a while turned out to be books I should have avoided. But knowing I had only a few days to finish it, I couldn’t bring myself to stop it, and thus, it made reading a horrible chore to endure.
While this became one of the main reasons for my burnout, it also taught me to be more intentional when choosing to buy books. In addition, it allowed me to find a way to prioritise what I was reading with the budget I had on spending.
What I do now before I buy a book is to use Amazon to send a sample of it to my Kindle app, which is free to download and use on phones and computers.
Once I grasp the author's writing style and the main element of the story, this helps me determine whether I should continue.
4. You can definitely do it
I used to find this reading challenge intimidating. I couldn’t comprehend how people were successfully reading a book a week while it took me a month or two to finish one.
What helped me get started was the foundation I had unknowingly built the year before by making reading more of a habit.
What I did was split the number of pages into 50-page-slots to complete within the day. This way, I knew I could finish an average 300-page book in six days.
Also, you need to be more aware of your schedule and responsibilities. I was doing fine when I was juggling work experience and two part-time jobs in the beginning. However, it got harder for me when unforeseen circumstances relating to health occurred, and then I couldn’t continue when I went back to studying, which was an intensive course.
Setting the intention to read for an hour or two in the day instead of watching Netflix, for example, is what also helped me achieve this daily and then weekly goal.
The key take-away
Overall, I don’t regret taking part in the challenge because it helped me improve my approach to reading.
It helped me realise why I was reading, how to create a better system for it, and how to choose books that will benefit me.
Taking on new challenges is an important way to find out more about yourself, and it did precisely this.
While it didn’t feel like a proud moment to have to quit the challenge, I reassured myself with the knowledge that I can still try again, but this time, with my own system.
Even though I won’t be actively taking part in this challenge again, I still would like to get to a stage where I can read a book a week with the comfort and ease of retaining the information without boxing myself within seven days. If I happen to finish a book in a week, that’s even better.
To quit reading may sometimes be a temptation, but I know it will never be an option for me.
