← The Read Well Podcast
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Eddie Hood
If you want to read more books, there are two things you need to fix in life. And I've got a couple solutions for you as well. Let's get into it. Welcome to this week's episode of the Read well podcast. My name is Eddie Hood, and I'm your host, where I believe it's more important to read well than to be well read. So grab your favorite book, open up your notes, and let's get ready to learn something fascinating. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Read well podcast. My name is Eddie Hood, and today we're talking about how to read more books. Now, there are two major problems in life that are keeping you from spending time in the books. The first one is that you're not reading books that you love. This is a huge problem for people. I think we feel like we have to read books that other people recommend. We go to lists on the Internet, you know, those things that say, like the 100 books you need to read before you die kind of thing. And so we start chipping away at those. And no matter how good or bad they are, we push through because we feel like those are the good books that need to be read. This is a big problem. We're not listening to ourselves as readers, and so we're. We're sort of spending time in books that feel like work. And I think that's it. What you need to do with this problem is you need to find a book that you love more than Netflix do. You need to find a book that you love more than sort of checking the sports scores or more than going shopping with your friends friends or going out to a restaurant or whatever it might be? If you want to read more books, you need to find the kinds of books that are more interesting than all the other things that you're doing in life. And that's just a sort of common sense thing. But it's not easy to do because there are a lot of bad books out there. And so today we're going to talk about how to get past that problem. Now, the second issue that you have is you haven't quite embraced your bookworm sort of personality yet. For many people, reading is something that you do as a reward. You do it later at the end of the day, once you've earned it. You know, in your head, you think, I'll read once I get everything done. But the problem is, you're never going to get everything done. There's always something else to do. So if reading is just sort of an afterthought or a hope that you have, you're probably not going to get to it. You have to switch that identity around and become a bookworm, right? It has to be, like a priority in your day, an absolute must. So let's talk about some solutions. The first thing you. You can do is sit down and get to know yourself. I ask people all the time, like, what are your biggest passions? What are you trying to accomplish in life? What are you obsessed about? Those are the books you should be reading, right? And when I ask people that, they look at me like I'm. I don't know, like I'm an anteater wearing a top hat or something. Because they don't know themselves very well. They spend all of their time. And this might be you. It very well likely is you. You spend all of your time helping other people. You're always cleaning the house. You're taking care of your parents, you're taking care of your kids, you're driving them to karate. And by the end of the day, you've supported your boss and taken care of your clients. There's no time left for you, which means you don't know yourself. And when you finally get a little bit of free time, you don't know what to do with it. So let's start by first writing down and getting very clear what it is that you want to learn that you're obsessed about this. This can be anything from foreign languages to elves, right? Elves with the pointy ears, like in Lord of the Rings kind of thing. This can be learning how to cook. This can be learning something technical. Maybe you're interested in history of a specific. Whatever it is. Just take a minute right now and ask yourself, what do I really know about the things I'm obsessed with? Can I clearly write in a basic sentence or two, the things that sort of get my heart pumping a little faster? We need to get you into books that are related to those things, because if you're reading those kinds of books, you'll want to turn to them rather than Netflix when you get a free moment of time. The second thing that you really can do to read more books is learn to listen to yourself as a reader. This is a big problem. I think we feel like we have to complete a book once we start it. But the honest truth is the first couple pages of a book, if they don't grab you, that's a bit of a problem. But I never judge a book until I'm about 50 pages in. @ that point, though, I have a very hard discussion with myself. The Author of the book in my head, of course, and the pages I'm reading. And I sit and think to myself, am I willing to invest another 10 to 20 hours in this book to think about it, to study it, to really sit with it? If I'm not, that's a problem. And I'll often put books down after that 50 page mark if it just does, you know, if it's not gripping me and getting me excited about life. Now, I will tell you this. As you're reading, if you feel your interest kind of waning and you're like, oh, I don't know, this book really isn't doing it for me, maybe I should read something else. You know, that conversation you have in your head. If you're doing that, do myself and yourself a favor. Before you put the book down, commit to reading the next 10 pages slowly and well. I've noticed that we often get bored with books because we're rushing through them. We feel like it's a badge of honor to read a book quickly or to just say, Look, I read 100 books this year. When you do that, you miss all of that richness in the book. And of course most books are going to feel boring or technical or heavy or, you know, just maybe subsurface. It's because you're not diving into them. So just take a minute, commit to the next 10 pages. Give that 10 pages an hour or however long it's going to take, and really read slowly and think about it. If at the end of that you still feel like, yeah, this book is just written poorly, it's not getting my attention, then set it aside and pick up something else. We have to let go of that need to finish everything right. As book readers, I think we're very proud of the fact that we like to tackle projects and sort of follow our interests, our curiosity. And if we commit to a book, especially if we've bought that book with our hard earned money, we feel like we have to finish it. That's actually a detrimental personality trait when it comes to reading well. What we should be fostering instead is listening well to our curiosity. We should be fostering that curiosity, not our need to finish books. So if we can follow that curiosity more and more, we will find ourselves in better and better books over time. The third thing you can do to read more books is simply to read with other people. This is where book clubs come in, and I love book clubs. A couple reasons why, when you get a chance to sit down and talk with friends about a challenging book or just an interesting book for whatever reason, it just sort of grows in amazement. You know, they add their comments and you add yours and you learn new things and make new connections. So I would challenge you this year to possibly join a book club. Hint, commercial, trailer, whatever you want to call it. I run a book club online. I'll leave a link down below for you if you want to join that. It's just like nine bucks a month to cover the cost of the software. And we just finished reading Anna Karenina, for example. Now, this is a book that is just. It's fantastic, but definitely it came alive by reading it with a group of friends. Now, this is over 800 pages of Russian literature. This is not a quick read. And it was really a joy to read that well and with other people. I will say too, that being in a book club is helpful because you kind of need to keep up with the group. And so having that sort of commitment and that sort of group expectation forces you into these books rather than turning to Netflix at the end of the day. It's just. It's a really great trick. We've been using it for hundreds of years as human beings to make sure we're staying up with our reading. The fourth thing I want to share with you in terms of how to read more books books is I. I titled this in my article. I wrote an article about all of this, but simply get better coffee. And all I mean by that is be mentally present when you're sitting down with your book. Coffee for me is a great way to sort of stimulate my brain. But that's just an example, right? Really, you need to be getting a good amount of sleep, eating well. If you can get some exercise in and get a nice cup of coffee. Whatever you can do to feel healthy and turn that brain on when you open your book will help you be in the book. I've just. I've noticed in my own personal life, if I'm not taking care of myself or if I didn't sleep well the night before, I can try and read. But I'm going to get so distracted during that experience because my brain is just fatigued before I even start. So you really do have to take care of yourself and put the effort into that thing that is called you. Recently, I started changing up my morning routine. I used to just wake up and read first thing because I felt like my brain was ready to receive information. But I've been experimenting, and for the past 10 days, I've just gotten up and walked on the treadmill in our basement about 45 minutes and I, you know, I'm just watching things on YouTube or whatever, nothing complicated. I'm just trying to get my, my body moving and get some oxygen in me and then I sit down and read. That's been a positive experience for me because my brain has got a little bit of exercise, a little bit of oxygen, and now I'm fully awake and ready to go. So try that and see what you think. The fifth and last solution, which I think is somewhat helpful, is to not confuse hard books with boring books, right? When people hear me say that you should read books that keep you excited and passionate, a lot of people will say, so you're just telling me to read fun fiction then like Harry Potter or the Nightingale. It's not what I'm saying at all. Those books are great. But what I'm saying is that I love reading hard books. In fact, I prefer that as long as they align with my interests, right? So if I'm in a book that is technically challenging and it could take me a year or two to read it, right? Cube the Republic by Plato or something, those books are not quick reads. They're books that require a lot of thought as you go through them, but they're worth the effort and they are really, really fulfilling to go in, spend time with, think about, take notes and what have you. So just don't confuse hard books with boring books. It's actually a really good thing to pick up something challenging and sort of push against it, you know, flex your mental muscles and let it help you grow. I want to take a minute to thank the community here at the Readable Podcast. Each and every one of you who have sent me messages have helped to just be a part of what we're doing here, to read slowly, take notes and apply the ideas. Many of you have gone to the podcast on Apple podcasts and left a review. I really appreciate that. I just wanted to read them. Most recent one from Jedi Pastor Aaron, it says this podcast is golden. For years I have been one of those people who tries to read hundreds of books each year and it has been a stressor to me. I haven't realized this podcast has given me the freedom to slow down and know it's okay if I don't read a ton as long as I'm reading well. That's the message, right? Everybody is just to read well and give yourself permission to enjoy the book instead of sort of value your self worth in terms of the number of books that you read. It really is a stressful thing. If you you feel like you've got this massive to be read list, you get 85 books on the bookshelf waiting for you to get to right. I love the excitement of my to be read list, but it also can be stressful at times. So I'm trying to get myself to the point and hopefully help people in the community to realize that you're not going to be able to read all these books. There's just not enough time in life. So let's pick a few, let's read them really well, let's share them with each other and yeah, let's get the most from our books. So thank you for listening. And until next week, as always, remember to read slowly, take notes and apply the ideas. Thanks everybody. If you'd like to take your reading to the next level, then head on over to thereadwellpodcast.com there you'll find daily posts on how to read well. You'll also get access to all of my book notes and tools for becoming a better reader. And as always, don't forget to read slowly, take notes and apply the ideas. Thank you for listening to the Read well podcast.