Prologue

At some point in the beginning of this year I decided to set a very ambitious goal for myself, to read 24 books this year, and it’s going as any new year’s goal is canonically supposed to go i.e. not great.

y tho?

• I like reading and there’s so much I want to read, but I’ve never been able to build a successful habit out of it.
• At the end of the day I read (fiction) for entertainment purposes but I’ve noticed that brings me much more satisfaction than watching a YouTube video (the platform which I spend most time on currently, It’s not an addiction, I can quit any time).
• Sleep is important to me, unfortunately I am bad at it, and so far reading before heading to bed has been the best sleep aid for me.

Story so far

I’ve finished reading 7 books, and partially read 3 books (2 fiction (Stoner and Children of Dune) and a non-fiction (Sapiens)).

What do I need to do to achieve my goal?

Conveniently, as of writing this, there are 17 weeks left in this year and I need to read 17 books. That’s 1 book a week.

So if

• p = number of pages in the book currently reading and
• n = number of days I can read in that week, Then I should be reading p/n pages per day. If I am reading multiple (k) books, it should be (p1/n1)/k pages for book1, (p2/n2)/k pages from book 2 and so on…

“That’s simple… right?” I said to myself while shedding a tear.

This assumes that I am a perfect being, which I am far from; some days I might read more and some days I might read less (more likely). I don’t want to put such constraints on myself. And the main purpose of this thing is that I want to build a new habit that will last a long time, and I want to read books that are already on my shelf and reading list. I don’t want to read 24 100-page short stories.

On top of that, some books might not need 7 days to read and some books might take me a whole month. Cough cough…

I have to keep in mind that the number of pages from the above calculation is not my true end goal; they are just to provide direction.

The Plan

Weekly

• Plan ahead: pick a book (If not reading anything), see how many days you can read (I won’t be reading when I am on vacation).

• At the end of the final day of the week, update this blog.
  • Write the daily logs for the week in the log section.
  • Reflect on the successes and failures, how it went, see if you can learn something from the experience, and update the protocol if needed.
• Write a brief review of the book you read (privately, and mainly for fiction).

Daily

• Before going to sleep, read for at least 15 mins.
• Write a daily reading log: Read q pages from b book.
• In case of non-fiction books, take notes alongside reading.
• (Optional) For long books (fiction), it would be wise to write a brief summary every day.

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Logs

To be updated…