Book Chugging

Nearly everyday, I see a tweet along the lines of:

“I read 10 books yesterday. Here are 10 things I learned from them. A thread🧵”

I’ve also seen maxims like “readers are leaders,” or some quote about how reading is the path to success, and that you are simply not reading enough.

Combine this with our hyper-productivity culture today where speed and output are the key metrics by which we need to do everything. All of sudden my internal dialogue started looking like this: 

“Read more! Read more! Read more! Chug! Chug! Chug!”

I imagine myself in a hazy basement of an old, 1920s-era house, held upside down by two guys with biceps the size of my head, with a copy of Sapiens in my hands, while a crowd of inebriated teens demands that I read non-stop, fast and furious, until I’m done. 

It seems that reading has gone from a relaxing hobby, a respite, to a chore that must be performed at 3x speed (as David Perell writes on his excellent essay about this). I even recall paying hundreds of dollars for a speed reading workshop a few years back that did little to improve my reading speed or comprehension. 

So, we are stuck with a culture of book chugging. 
I’ve been focused on vanity metrics like the number of books read in a year. As if book chugging 50 books would make me instantaneously a better person than if I read 10 books. I believe this mindset is part of a broader trend in our society whereby the optics of things matter more than the substance. 

Instead of book chugging, we should focus on book tasting.

Book tasting implies slower, intentional, and present enjoyment of what you are reading. It dismisses the need for speed, and prioritizes enjoyment and active engagement. 

Book tasting is the best way for you to actually draw inspiration and knowledge from whatever you are reading. It surfaces the hidden notes, tastes, and aftertastes of the material you read. 

This sounds reasonable, but how do we unlearn the impulse to book chug? 

There are three practices I’ve been applying the last few months that made a substantial difference in my reading experience. 

The pen is your metronome

I started reading with a pen in hand. It helps me set the pace of my reading with the expectation that I will make frequent stops to underline, write notes, or re-read passages again. Interestingly enough, in many speed reading courses, they recommend using the pen to pace you to read faster (so that you avoid subvocalizing). A pen is meant to write! And to use as a drumstick.

Treat your book tasting as a journey in which every page is a sip, and you are documenting what you perceive from each page and what was interesting. Not only do I underline interesting passages, but I also rewrite an idea in my own words (improves retention), and make notes on the author’s syntax and word choice (especially when I read a sentence that makes me say “ah, that’s beautiful!”). 

Use the pen to taste. 

It’s not about the number

Simple to say, hard to do. I mentioned earlier how I come across many tweets of people talking about all the books they read. This fed an unreasonable expectation that to be worthy of respect, I needed to read as many books as them. After all, look at all the likes and retweets they got!

But as we have learned in this era of social media, it is a bad trade to prioritize social currency over actual learning. That’s not a knock on the folks who share they’ve read 50-100 books. If they are not book chugging, good for them! They may have more time, skill, and natural gifts to absorb information faster. But this isn’t about them. It’s about you. And any time you set expectations based on external stimuli and not your own intentions and purpose, you are going to have a bad time. 

So forget about hitting a number. Focus on reading at a pace where you enjoy reading, your mind races with thoughts inspired by what you read, and where you’d be equally content whether you read one book or 100.

Write about what you read

How often after you read something interesting, do you keep thinking about it? If you are like me, somewhat often.

Now, how many times do you write down what you are thinking about? Most of us do so rarely. 

These are the true gifts that come from reading. When your mind takes the idea off the page and continues tasting it after you put your book down. This is where ideas come from! This is where epiphanies come from! So next time you tell yourself you are not creative, read something on a topic that interests you, put the book down, notice the thoughts and ideas that remain in your head, and write those down. I’m willing to bet that once you write those down, other ideas and thoughts will emerge (write those down as well). Soon enough you’ll have your own perspective that builds on the gift that book gave you. 

* * * * *

Today, I would say I read at about half the speed at which I used to read. A couple of years ago, this would have been devastating for my confidence. But today, I wear that with a badge of pride. Interestingly enough, reading slower has led me to making more time to read. 

Absent from the peer pressure and expectation of book chugging, I now look forward to book tasting, to getting “stuck” on a page and writing a bunch of ideas on the margin, or being delighted by a beautiful sentence and studying it for a couple of minutes. 

Life and books are too short to chug. Let’s taste them instead.