Reading

Stephen King

Thursday, December 14, 2023 • 1 min read

Finished reading: Christine and Blaze by Stephen King 📚

Continuing my quest to read the Stephen King books I missed along the way. With these two, I’ve now read thirteen King books this year. The 700-page Christine book flew by on my Kindle. Lots of supernatural fun mixed in with nostalgia for my late 1970s youth. I’m tempted now to watch the movie, which I somehow also missed.

I listened to the audiobook version of Blaze on long walks through the Arizona desert. I enjoyed the story with just a hint of the otherworldly, feeling sorry for the misunderstood and troubled Blaze.

Right now, I have just fifteen more books to go, until this prolific author publishes his next one. It feels a little like walking up the down escalator. But what a great problem to have.

The Age of Faith by Will Durant

Monday, December 11, 2023 • 2 min read

Finished reading: The Age of Faith by Will Durant 📚

I finished this fourth installment of Will Durant’s Story of Civilization after three months of slow, careful reading. The Age of Faith begins with the fall of Rome and carries through the end of the Middle Ages. The writing is clear, colorful, engaging, often horrifying, and occasionally laugh-out-loud hilarious. Along the way, I encountered kings and popes, treachery and atrocities, saints and philosophers, economic systems, the building of cathedrals and castles, and primers on the great works of literature and philosophy across a thousand years of recorded time.

I’ve come to cherish these nighttime hours I spend with Professor Durant. I am pacing myself to read just twenty or thirty pages per night. I keep an iPad nearby for searches on historical figures or glimpses of the landmarks and architecture he paints with his words. A favorite moment during the book was playing an album of Ambrosian Chants (Apple Music Link) that, according to Durant, mesmerized the faithful within the already awe-inspiring gothic cathedrals of the 13th century. Between Durant’s descriptions and the music, I felt utterly transported.

There have been more than a few times when my jaw dropped open in sheer disbelief at what I’ve read; shocked not only by the crazy shit that took place during these dark times of our history, but that it took so many years for me to learn all of this. To quote Durant: “Education is the progressive discovery of our ignorance.” I am getting quite the education.

I’m moving on to the next volume on the Italian Renaissance as part of a slow but steady read through all eleven volumes of this incredible body of work. What a journey this has become.

Reading Deeply

Tuesday, October 5, 2021 • 7 min read

I spend a lot of time with my nose in a book. Last year, I read 61 books, and I'm on track to read that many again in 2021. Yet, as fast as I read, I can't seem to make a dent in my To-Be-Read pile. So many books, so little time. Sometimes it feels like I'm running on a treadmill with an ever-increasing speed.

Lately, I've been questioning whether this strategy of gulping down so many books is wise after all. When I scan down the list of the books I've read so far this year, a few stand out, but many are already a blur. I hover over a few on the list — wait, did I actually read that?

I'm pretty good at taking notes and highlighting favorite passages for most of the books I read. I subscribe to ReadWise, which provides a terrific way to resurface the best parts of past books I've enjoyed. That review process, along with the ability to automatically import those highlights into Obsidian, prompted me to switch my reading notes over from Craft. And while I do see benefits of these daily reviews and the curation of my reading notes and quotes into a personal knowledge management system, I still feel like I'm somehow not getting the most out of all these hours of reading.

Maybe reading more books isn't the right answer.

Ralph Waldo Emerson taught us to shoot for big goals with his advice to "aim above the mark to hit the mark," though I'm sure he didn't mean that for a reading quota. In Experience, he finds himself drawn to just "the commonest books, — the Bible, Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and Milton." Gustave Flaubert seemed to agree: "What a scholar one might be if one knew well only some half a dozen books."

Could deeply reading (and rereading) a few classic books be better than my shotgun approach of inhaling a book or two every week?

In his Lectures on Literature, Vladimir Nabokov said: "Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader." In a series of university lectures, Nabokov shared his take on a half-dozen classics from Marcel Proust, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and others. I've read most of these, but after reviewing Nabokov's deep analysis of these books, I realized I had merely skated over the icy surface of these great works. I did not probe deep enough into the book's structure and writing techniques, did not discover, in Nabokov's words, that "shiver of artistic satisfaction" when a reader truly communes with the author.

Is this kind of deep, analytical reading necessary? I mean, can’t we just enjoy the books in the way the author intended them? Life is short; why read the same books again and again? I imagine Vladimir looking at me over his reading glasses as he delivers his judgment:

If a person thinks he cannot evolve the capacity of pleasure in reading the great artists, then he should not read them at all. After all, there are other thrills in other domains: the thrill of pure science is just as pleasurable as the pleasure of pure art. The main thing is to experience that tingle in any department of thought or emotion. We are liable to miss the best of life if we do not know how to tingle, if we do not learn to hoist ourselves just a little higher than we generally are in order to sample the rarest and ripest fruit of art which human thought has to offer.

— Vladimir Nabokov

I slink a little lower in my chair under Nabokov's withering gaze. I know he's right. If I'm going to spend all this time reading, why not aim a little higher?

Last year, I joined a group of like-minded readers on #BookTwitter to read In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. I had a few false starts over the years with this six-volume masterpiece, known for its pages-long sentences and intricate narrative style. Reading just ten pages a day with a cohort of distinguished readers helped me stay on track and enjoy it more. During the hard going parts, I felt better after seeing tweets from others who shared my exasperation. Misery loves company. We finished the final volume together in June — a voyage of more than 4,000 pages — and I was glad to be done with it. Few tingles, and even fewer shivers, I'm afraid. But, I wonder now if that first reading of Proust wasn't simply the preamble to a second, more profound reading? Could I start again, now knowing the storyline and themes, and burrow deeper under the skin of this recognized classic?

I'll be honest: I'm not ready to dive back into Proust. But, I do believe I need to change my approach in reading these classics.

I've joined another #BookTwitter group this month to read George Eliot's Middlemarch, considered one of the greatest novels of all time. I read this a long time ago but remember little about it. With Nabokov's advice fresh in my mind, I've decided to use this book as an experiment in deep, focused reading. For Middlemarch, I'm making some pronounced changes in my reading style:

1. I'm reading the physical book. I read many books on Kindle, and I love its light form factor and ability to easily highlight passages and look up words. But writing notes in the margins is iffy, and it's harder to flip around in the book. I bought the Penguin Classics Deluxe edition of Middlemarch even though I own George Eliot's complete works in a nice leather-bound set. I want the freedom to mark this book up without remorse, to make it my own.
2. I'm keeping a book journal. I'm dedicating a Field Notes notebook for this reading with sections for themes, character sketches, chapter notes, and unique vocabulary. These little notebooks are the perfect size to fill with a single meaty book and are slim enough to tuck inside the cover when I'm finished. I will ultimately transcribe the notes I take into Obsidian, but for this reading, I want to keep a physical, handwritten ledger for better synthesis and retention. If I reread Middlemarch (which Nabokov suggests I should), I can review and append to the journal.
3. I'm reading with focus and attention. I always read a book in bed before sleep, but not this one. I'm setting aside time in my reading room with the book propped up on a lap desk, a pen in hand, and an iPad nearby for tracking down literary and historical references.
4. I'm going down the rabbit holes. To finish this 900-page book in a month, we're reading 30 pages a day, which translates to about 30 minutes at my usual pace. I'm doubling or tripling that time with this book. Instead of guessing at uncertain historical figures or literary allusions, I'm looking each one up and noting it in the margins. I'm recording new words and their definitions in the back pages of my journal. I'm keeping a running log for each character and a list of themes that recur throughout the novel. I'm writing a summary of each chapter, which forces me to stand back and review what happened, how it moved the story forward, what new questions arose, etc., to gain a better sense of the novel's structure and story arc.

After finishing Middlemarch, I'll have a better sense of whether this deep reading approach provides the kind of return I expect. If it does, I'm very tempted to change my approach to reading in 2022. Forget the pressure of a sixty-book GoodReads challenge or an unending "To Be Read" pile to tackle. Instead, I'll spend the year reading just a few great books, deeply, with fun reads thrown in at bedtime.

We can't slow the race of time, but we can choose to be more discerning and diligent in making use of the time we have. Augustus had the right of it: Festina lente. Make haste, slowly.

Read More Books: Read More Than One Book at a Time

Friday, January 17, 2020 • 5 min read

The latest in a series of tips to help you read at least 50 books a year without feeling like you’re reading that much at all.

Tip #7: Read more than one book at a time. This tip may be an unpopular one. Many readers are devoted to a single book at a time, and would consider it is almost cheating to allow a second (or third) book into the relationship. I understand this view because I held it myself for many years. Yet, once I began the practice of reading several books at once, my completion rate started to climb.

I’m not alone in this reading productivity gain. For science, I analyzed the reading habits of my book pals on Goodreads, a fair sample of a book-loving population. The typical reader in this group read 58 books last year, with 80% of them reading more than one book at a time. These multi-book friends, who read an average of four books at a time, outpaced single-book friends by over 50% in total books read in 2019.

Goodreads multi-book friends read over 50% more books in 2019 than one-book-at-a-time friends.

Why would reading more than one book at a time allow you to finish more books? To me, there are three main factors at work here: (1) matching books to our varying levels of attention and energy; (2) making good use of available free time; and (3) pacing books that are meant to be savored, not devoured.

1. Keep Reading at All Attention and Energy Levels

Our energy level fluctuates throughout the day. Why shouldn’t our reading habits match that? I use early mornings when I’m the most alert as my study time, usually reading one or two chapters of a professional development or history book I want to retain. I read novels at night before bed when I’m mentally relaxed and ready to be entertained by a story. Let’s face it: there are times when we are not simply up for a difficult reading session. Having a “light” book at your side may mean the difference between reading and Netflix.

Sometimes I need a change of pace from the book I’m reading. Either I’m not in the mood, or I’m a little bored. By switching to a different book and coming back later, I’ll be more inclined to finish the book and keep reading in the meantime. Before I allowed myself this option, I abandoned a lot more books.

2. Make Use of Non-reading Time with Audiobooks

I have a separate audiobook underway at all times. For me, listening to a book and reading one are different enough experiences that I find it easy to keep them apart. And I’m able to use the time I would otherwise be listening to radio or podcasts to read books. Listening to audiobooks is a great way to read more books during the year.

3. Finish Challenging Books, Poetry and Anthologies

Some books demand mental stamina to digest properly, and pushing through without a book on the side would be a significant drag on my reading progress. My journey through the first two volumes of Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time” definitely needed a side book (or three). Keeping the book near, and making nightly progress ultimately helped me finish these books.

Likewise, volumes of poetry deserve reflection time, poem by poem. You can’t rush through Robert Frost or e.e. cummings. Right now, I’m taking in “Sailing Alone Around the Room” by Billy Collins. It may take a few months to finish this way, but I’ll be the better for it with this slow, savoring pace.

And don’t forget the wonderful world of short story and essay collections. For years, I avoided the short stories of Stephen King and Neil Gaiman, two of my favorite storytellers, because I didn’t like the discontinuity that a collection like this brings. This changed when I began reading a story every night alongside the other book I happened to be reading. Right now I am mesmerized by the freshness and vibrant characters of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s near-century old short stories. I read all his novels decades ago but overlooked these short gems. Robert Macfarlane’s “Old Ways” is arguably a travel narrative, but really ought to be read one segment at a time, like poetry, to absorb it fully. And Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrims at Tinker Creek.” You shouldn’t steam through books like these.

“But, I Would Get Too Confused …”

The arguments against this style of reading I hear most often are either getting the plot-lines confused between books or a lessening the overall pleasure of falling head over heels into a single enthralling read. For these reasons, I make sure that the books I read at the same time don’t overlap in style or content. I rarely read more than one novel at a time (unless one is an audiobook). And I stick to just one study book at a time. The practice of keeping simultaneous books in separate and distinct lanes helps me keep them straight, and importantly, keeps me reading a lot more books across the course of a year otherwise.

One easy way to begin the multi-book lifestyle is by adding an audiobook to your reading stream. And maybe tack on that short story collection you’ve had on your bookshelf but haven’t read. Just read one short story a night. With a little time, this reading diversity will begin to feel very natural.

So, consider reading more than one book at a time to help you read more books in 2020. Are you doing this now? Why, or why not? Let me know in the comments below.

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Read More Books: Listen to Audiobooks

Thursday, January 9, 2020 • 6 min read

Reading books is one of life’s great rewards, but in today’s increasingly distractible environment, it can be challenging to find time for books. In this read-more-books series, I’ll share tips and tricks to read at least 50 books a year without feeling like you’re reading that much at all.

Read more books tip #6: listen to audiobooks on your commute, while you exercise, or while doing chores.

Gone are the days when listening to a book involved the purchase of bulky cassettes or suffering through poorly recorded narration. With the introduction of online streaming, companies like Audible.com have revolutionized the consumption of audiobooks, which is one of the fastest-growing segments of book publishing. Deloitte estimates that sales of audiobooks will grow by 25% in 2020, far outpacing the rest of the publishing industry. For the first time, over half of adults say they’ve listened to a book, usually in the car during their commute.

Is This Really Reading?

I’ve been an off-and-on Audible.com subscriber for the past fifteen years, and more recently, a Libby app user. I had “read” some incredible books during my hour-long commute: Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, Patrick O’Brian’s excellent Aubrey/Maturin series, and over a hundred other audiobooks. I can’t imagine a better way to while away a long drive than on the quarterdeck of HMS Surprise on the vast expanse of the Mediterranean Sea.

There’s an ongoing debate in my household on whether listening to a book qualifies as reading. My spouse is resolute in her belief that listening to a book is not really reading, but some other less serious activity. She frequently scoffs when I mention an audiobook I am currently reading. She uses air-quotes a lot. Her dim view stems from an experience of distractedness when she has tried to listen to an audiobook. Her mind wandered, and she could not stick with the story. The book became more like a radio in the background than an intense reading experience.

I know exactly what she means. The way to fully experience and retain an audiobook requires the right mental environment. The autopilot side of your brain, what Daniel Kahneman calls your System One brain in Thinking Fast and Slow, must be occupied by something mundane like walking, exercising, or driving. This allows the thinking side of your brain, your System Two brain, to entirely focus on the audiobook. Without my autopilot brain engaged on something else, I am as distracted as my spouse during an audiobook. I discovered this after trying and failing to listen to an audiobook during a long, cross-country flight. No matter how I tried, I could not stay focused on the book. Yet, put in the car on a familiar stretch of road, and I am riveted.

This is great news for people who want to read more, but don’t have the time. In addition to your daily commute, you might plug into an audiobook when you’re exercising, washing the dishes or other chores, or taking a long walk. Any time when you’re doing something repetitive or routine is perfect for listening to an audiobook.

While Audiobooks take longer to read (a typical audiobook pace is 150 words per minute vs. the 250-word speed of the average adult reader), you can still read a lot of books in a year by taking advantage of the time you’d otherwise spend listening to the radio or podcasts. Listening to audiobooks for 45 minutes a day, five days a week represents about 20 books a year. That’s a lot of books!

Where to Go for Audiobooks

Audiobooks can be expensive, usually more than the hardback price at Amazon.com, but there are several options you can use to save money:

1. Add Audio to Kindle. If you’re a Kindle user, you’ll often see the option to bundle the audiobook with your ebook purchase for a reasonable cost. This gives you the flexibility of both reading and listening to the book. Kindle’s Whispersync keeps your place between the new mediums so you can pick up where you left off. I read/listened to Lonesome Dove this way last year.
2. Audible.com Membership. A membership with Audible.com gives you one audiobook per month for a monthly fee of $15. If you’re patient, you can find discounted membership programs on Black Friday and other times throughout the year that can help reduce the cost. If you pause or cancel your membership, you retain access to books you’ve previously purchased.
3. Libby App. I’ve written a whole separate post on Libby here, but these days most of the audiobooks I consume come from the Libby App connected to my local library. For no cost whatsoever, you can listen to the very same audiobooks you might otherwise purchase from Amazon or Audible. With some strategically placed holds on popular titles, you’ll soon be enjoying a nearly endless supply of first-rate audiobooks for free. If you’re not using Libby yet, stop reading and do it now. It’s awesome.

Tips to Keep Listening

Narrators Matter. Even the most wonderful books can be spoiled by a poor narration or shoddy audio recording. Audible.com provides in-depth reviews from users on all their audiobooks, including the performance of the narrator. Check these reviews before you buy or check out a book. You may discover that you become fond of certain narrators over time, regardless of the book. I made it through Corrections by Jonathan Franzen with the help of George Guidall’s distinctive narration. And the late, great Patrick Tull will forever be the voice in my head as I reread the Aubrey/Maturin novels of Patrick O’Brian. You might be surprised that some books are best narrated by their authors. I can’t imagine anyone but Neil Gaiman narrating his novel Stardust. Or, Annie Grace relating her direct experiences with alcoholism and recovery in This Naked Mind.

Be Strategic about Holds on Libby. Some audiobooks must be reserved well in advance from your library. Placing holds of a selection of audiobooks, and managing those holds with suspensions (see my Libby post for more on this) will guarantee you always have a book to enjoy. As you near the end of your current audiobook, remember to release the suspension for your next listen.

Always Be Listening. One of my strategies to read more is to always have an audiobook in progress that is separate from the book I’m reading on Kindle or in real book form. Some find it confusing to read more than one book at a time, but keeping an audio story separate from a printed one isn’t that difficult. When you pile in the car for your daily commute or a long trip, you’ll be more likely to press play on a book.

Listen While Doing Something Else. You’ll be able to follow the story better if your autopilot brain is engaged in something mundane, like driving, exercising, or walking.

So, explore the wonderful world of audiobooks. This is a great way to read more books in 2020.

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Read More Books: Set a Goal and Have a System of Follow Through

Wednesday, January 1, 2020 • 3 min read

Reading books is one of life’s great rewards, but in today’s increasingly distractible environment, it can be challenging to find time for books. In this read-more-books series, I’ll share the tips and tricks I use to read at least 50 books a year without feeling like I’m reading that much at all.

Tip #5: If you want to read more books in 2020, set a goal for yourself. Write it down. Better yet, create a Reading Challenge for yourself in Goodreads so you’ll always know where you stand during the year.

But goals by themselves are worthless unless you have a system of follow through. A goal sets direction and represents an event, a point in time, whereas a system is the means to achieve that goal. A goal is what; the system is how. As James Clear writes in Atomic Habits: “Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.”

For example, a goal might be winning a championship as a professional basketball player. The system would be the daily practices, workouts and diet needed to achieve that goal. Since most people share the same kind of goals, but only a few achieve them, I believe it’s the systems people employ that create success, not just having the goal.

So, let’s say you set a goal to read 50 books in 2020.

A 300-page book takes about 6 hours of reading time for the average adult reader. 50 books equals 300 hours of reading. 300 hours per year is 49 minutes each day. Rounding up to 60 minutes of reading a day would help give you a cushion for those inevitable days when life gets I the way.

If the goal is reading 50 books in a year, can you devise a system that enables you squeeze in an hour of reading every day? Your daily reading practice?

While you could decide to save your reading for long stretches on the weekend, or sit down every day and read for 60 minutes straight, you might choose instead to break it up into shorter “micro” sessions: listen to an audiobook during your daily commute, read for a few minutes during the inevitable dead spaces of your day, and read for a half-hour before you go to sleep. Your reading goal won’t feel out of reach once you break it down into bite-sized daily activities.

How many books do you want to read in 2020? What reading activities could you design as your system to make sure you meet your goal?

Happy reading!

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Read More: Make Use of Short Breaks during the Day

Monday, December 30, 2019 • 5 min read

Reading books is one of life’s great rewards, but in today’s increasingly distractible environment, it can be challenging to find time for books. In this read-more-books series, I’ll share the tips and tricks I use to read at least 50 books a year without feeling like I’m reading that much at all.

One of the most obvious ways to read more books is to … well, read more. But with busy lives and constant demands on our time, how do you rationalize curling up with a book for long stretches?

Tip #4: read on the go during the unavoidable lulls in your day

There’s a story floating around about someone seeing the novelist Stephen King waiting in line to see a movie. Mr. King, who has written over eighty books and is known for his voracious reading, inched forward in line with his nose between the pages of a paperback book. Once he found his seat, he continued reading in the dim light until the lights went out, and the trailers started.

King shared that he reads about 80 books a year. “What I wonder is why everybody doesn’t carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life,” King once shared.

I don’t see too many people walking around with their nose in a book these days. I do see a lot of people with their heads down looking at their phones at every possible moment, including walking down the street. The average U.S. adult spends almost two and a half hours looking at their phone every day. If you’re an iPhone owner, you have access to statistics about your phone usage by app. Look up your Screen Time in Settings. You might be surprised at how much time you spend.

What if you redirected a portion of that time to read books? You could be like Mr. King and carry around a paperback, or your Kindle, for the ultimate distraction-free reading experience, but you likely already take your phone everywhere. Like the adage about cameras, the best book to read is the one you have on you. And If you’re like most adults these days, you’re already trained to look at your phone even during the shortest wait (look at the people standing in grocery lines: how many of them have their phones out?). But, instead of scrolling through Facebook or Twitter, why not pull up the book you’re reading on the Kindle app?

Consider this math: the average adult reads 250 words per minute. A typical 300-page book represents 90,000 words or 6 hours of reading time. If you devoted 15 minutes of reading time a day, you would read an entire book every month, or 12 books a year. If you read for 30 minutes during short breaks during the day, and another 30 minutes at night before bed, you’ll be well on your way to 50 books per year. Remember, the average adult spends two and a half hours staring at their phone every day. Could you spare 30 minutes to read?

If you read for 30 minutes during short breaks during the day, and another 30 minutes at night before bed, you’ll be well on your way to 50 books per year.

One of the common reservations I hear about reading my book during short breaks is the mental shifting required to get into the story. Unlike the caffeine-like hits of social media, a book demands focus to gather together the plot lines of the story. It’s easier to drift along mindlessly in the stream of social media. But if you can push past that resistance, you’ll find it’s quite easy to shift into reading mode, wherever you are, and make headway in your book. If you’re like me, that 30 minutes of waiting at the DMV will fly by a lot quicker once immersed in a book.

Often I hear people say they do not have the time to read. That’s absolute nonsense. In one year during which I kept that kind of record, I read twenty-five books while waiting for people. In offices, applying for jobs, waiting to see a dentist, waiting in a restaurant for friends, many such places. I read on buses, trains and planes. If one really wants to learn, one has to decide what is important.  

— Louis L’Amour

Tips for Success:

There are a few things you can change on your phone to improve the odds you will read:

• Make sure you have a Kindle book is downloaded to your phone with Whispersync set up to keep your place between devices;
• Consider deleting the worst-offending apps that distract you the most. Or, at the very least, put these apps inside a folder that’s not on your default home screen;
• turn off notifications for these apps, including those pesky badge icons;
• Bonus tip: create a distraction-free phone home screen with just your Kindle app and a few critical communication apps on display. No temptations! Here’s mine:

We’re all given the same number of hours and minutes in every day. One of the most effective ways to read more books in a year is making good use of the bits of time that you’d otherwise squander on mindless (and endless) distractions. Squeezing some reading time during your day becomes meaningful over weeks and months. Start small and see if you can establish a daily on-the-go reading habit. You’ll be amazed at how much you can read during short breaks during your day.

Happy reading!

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How to Read More: Meet Libby, Your Digital Librarian

Tuesday, December 24, 2019 • 5 min read

Reading books is one of life’s great rewards, but in today’s increasingly distractible environment, it can be challenging to find time for books. In this read-more-books series, I’ll share the tips and tricks I use to read at least 50 books a year without feeling like I’m reading that much at all.

Tip #3: Use Libby with your local library. Libby is an app available for iOS and Android that allows you to download ebooks and audiobooks for free with your local library card. The app comes from Overdrive, the leading electronic book distributor used by libraries worldwide. Libby’s collection totals nearly five million books at my local library here near Seattle, though your mileage may vary depending on your own library’s investment in digital books. Once you download the app and add your library, you’re free to search and download available books on the spot.

The free app is highly rated on the Apple App Store

While you can read books in the Libby app on your phone or tablet, most books are available on Kindle, which I find a much more comfortable reading experience. Once you’ve checked out a book, look for the button to open on Kindle. You’ll be taken to an Amazon page to pick your Kindle device, and voila!, the book is now on your Kindle. Any highlights or notes from your borrowed book persist even after the loan period ends. You don’t have to worry about saving or exporting before returning the book.

Libby also provides access to full-length, unabridged, professionally-narrated audiobooks which you can play right from the app. These are the same books you find on a paid service like Audible.com.

If you’re like me, you’ll be amazed at this incredible reading resource available to everyone for free. I am reading more books because Libby has taken away the cost constraint that otherwise might have prevented me from pulling the trigger. With Libby, I don’t have to worry about buying a book I won’t end up reading.

And then there are the cost savings. Before Libby, my book spending per month totaled $100 per month between physical books, Kindle books, and an Audible.com subscription. Since Libby, my book budget has dropped by 75%. For big readers, using Libby and your local library represents a meaningful improvement in your finances: in my case, nearly $1,000 per year.

There are a few downsides to consider: like any other library loan, you only have a certain number of days to read your borrowed book and wait times can be lengthy for popular or rare books. In some cases, the book you want to read won’t be available for Kindle, and the titles available vary widely across public libraries. Also, Libby doesn’t talk to Goodreads, so you’ll end up managing your to-be-read books in both places.

Here are Four tips for making the most of Libby:

1. Plan Ahead with Holds. Unlike Amazon’s Kindle store, not every book you’ll want is immediately available. The most popular books have waiting periods before you can borrow them. But with a little planning, you will soon be awash in great books to read. Just crack open your Goodreads to-be-read list, and start searching for these titles in Libby. With a couple of taps, the book will soon be yours to read for free.
2. Connect with Multiple Libraries. The chances are good that you have access to more than one library system. In my case, I have library cards for King County and the Seattle Public Library. You can add all your library accounts to Libby to widen your search for books and borrowings.
3. Manage your Holds with Suspensions. Remember all the holds you placed on books you want to read? Well, one of the disadvantages of borrowing a book from a library is the limited lending period. If more than one book comes available at the same time, you might not be able to read them all in the time allowed. That’s where hold suspensions come in. A hold suspension enables you to keep your place in line but allows the next reader in line to borrow it in your place. As soon as you’re ready to borrow the book, cancel your suspension, and you’re automatically next in line. These suspensions can be extended as often as you want. This is an important Libby management tool to make sure you have the right book at the right time.
   

   Suspensions hold your place in line

4. Extend Loans with Airplane Mode. Book borrowing periods vary by library. Mine offers a 21 day loan. If you approach the end of your borrowing period and you haven’t finished the book, you can request a borrowing extension. However, this only works if no other reader has placed a hold on the book. If a hold has been placed, you either need to finish the book in the allotted borrowing time, or wait for the title to be available again through a second hold. On Kindle, the book will automatically be deleted at the close of the borrowing period. However, should your Kindle be operating in Airplane Mode (i.e. no connection to cellular or WIFI), the borrowed book will stay on device while you finish those last 15 pages. I haven’t had to take advantage of this hack yet, but there have been a few close calls when I was comforted to know the option existed. 

The Libby app has helped me read more and save money along the way. If you’re already a user, what has been your experience? Let me know in the comments section.

Happy reading!

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Read More Books with GoodReads.com

Tuesday, December 17, 2019 • 4 min read

Reading books is one of life’s great rewards, but in today’s increasingly distractible environment, it can be challenging to find time for books. In this read-more-books series, I’ll share the tips and tricks I use to read at least 50 books a year without feeling like I’m reading that much at all.

My second tip: use Goodreads.com. Goodreads is a site dedicated to book lovers. At its most basic, Goodreads helps you find the perfect next book to read using predictive analytics from books you’ve already read and liked.

Once you set up your free account, you’re prompted to rate some books that you’ve read using the familiar Amazon-style star system. From there, recommendations of what to read next start appearing, both from the Goodreads recommendation engine and from book lists that include your top-rated books. Most books have a Goodreads reader ratings and book reviews to peruse, along with favorite quotes.

Goodreads has some useful features that make it a worthwhile companion to the bookworm:

1. To Be Read (TBR) List. Adding a book to read in the future is as simple as clicking the green “Want to Read” button included with every title in their 395 million book database. Having a nice selection of books you want to read next minimizes the hunt between books and keeps you reading.
2. Book Lists. There’s a good chance that a book that you liked will be included on one or more user-generated book lists that can point you to other similar books. For example, Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals is included on the Best Non-fiction American History Books list, the Best Books to Become an Informed Voter list, a dozens more. A review of these lists can be a great resource for filling up your To-Be-Read list and keep you reading for years.
3. Annual Reading Challenge. Each year, more than four million readers set a pledge in Goodreads to read a certain number of books in the year. Your homepage provides feedback on whether you’re on track or not to meet your reading goal based on how many books you’ve marked as “read” in the system. I’ve always liked goals and goal accountability, so this is a motivating feature for me.
4. Kindle Integration. You can connect your Amazon Kindle with Goodreads to automatically when you start a new book, finish it, and your overall rating. Since the majority of books I read are on Kindle, this saves me time from having to update Goodreads with my reading activity.
5. Friends and Groups. If your book-loving friends have Goodreads accounts, you can share recommendations and join genre/niche groups to discuss books. You can even measure your book compatibility by comparing books you’ve read and rated with that of your friend (or anyone on Goodreads). I wish Goodreads could suggest new friends that match your tastes in books, kind of like e-harmony for book lovers.
6. Convenient Shopping. Goodreads makes it easy to buy books with convenient links to Amazon’s Kindle and regular bookstores. You can customize these links to take you to a variety of other bookstores and even public libraries.

There are a few downsides to Goodreads. First off, Amazon acquired Goodreads in 2013, so you can expect to see a lot of plugs for Amazon books within its pages. This also raises privacy concerns among readers. Do you really want Amazon to know everything you read, down to the sections you highlighted? Second, the book challenge can push readers to tackle shorter, easier books instead of more challenging books just to meet their reading goal. I’ve encountered that temptation myself. It also can be dispiriting to be continually reminded that you are tracking below your reading goal. Third, the book recommendation engine churns out a lot of the same widely-read books represented by its huge user base (Harry Potter, anyone?). You’ll have to scroll past many of the top choices to find lesser-known works. Finally, the performance of the web site itself is often slow and non-responsive, which is unusual for an Amazon entity.

For me, Goodreads is a useful system to keep me reading great books, especially with its tight Kindle integration. If you haven’t signed up yet, check it out. Find some great books to read next and set your reading goal for 2020.

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In Defense of Reading

Wednesday, December 4, 2019 • 6 min read

I have read 50 books so far this year, though it doesn’t feel like I’m really reading that much. I simply cut out the hours I might have scrolled through social media feeds or listened to half-baked podcasts, which freed up more time for reading books. I believe we are experiencing a golden age for reading with technologies like ebooks and digital audio, offering the ability to consume books wherever we are, whenever we want. More published works are available to us, most within seconds, than at any point in history.

Despite these riches, one in four adults in the U.S. won’t pick up a book this year. The typical adult reads just four books a year. Teenagers spend only 4.2 minutes per day reading during weekends and holidays (excluding homework-related reading). According to research by Common Sense Media, these same teenagers spend nine hours a day with digital technology, entertaining themselves with streaming video, listening to music, and playing games. With all that interactive entertainment, it seems the lowly book doesn’t stand a chance.

I’ve been thinking about books and the benefit of reading after attending a recent talk here on Vashon Island with Nancy Pearl, a former Seattle librarian, the author of Book Lust, and a lifelong proponent of reading. Nancy reads a lot, and the two hundred people who came out on a Sunday night for the event clearly share her passion for books. Looking around, I pegged the average age of the audience at around 60. During the talk, I noted a shared sense of handwringing about the demise of the book with young people. An audience member asked about whether young adults would eventually turn to books after growing up on a diet of digital entertainment.

“I hope so,” Nancy said after a pause. “But I’m not sure.” This younger generation has grown up on the immediate gratification of video games and the endless quick bites of scrolling social media. Books require a sustained mental focus, and that may be lacking without constant exercise. Will they ever come around to books?

A recent conversation with my seventeen year old son confirmed something I had long suspected. He holds a low regard for reading despite being raised by two constant readers and surrounded by books throughout our sprawling farmhouse. “You old people don’t get it,” he replied after I pressed him to explain. He lumps books and broadcast television in the same useless basket of low transfer technologies. This hurts as I write this from my little book-lined study, though I can see his point about television.

I’m hopeful he will come around to the lure of reading in his twenties or thirties. I’m chalking it up to a natural rebelliousness inherent in being a teenager. Perhaps if he were raised in a home without readers or books, he’d be carrying around a battered copy of Infinite Jest to the dismay and consternation of his non-reading parents.

This vague worry about the demise of the book has put me on the defensive though. I have a deep-rooted belief about the importance and necessity of books, but I never tried to articulate precisely why I believe this. Might my assumptions be misplaced?

After a little reflection, most all the benefit I receive from reading falls in one of these four categories:

Entertainment. Whether it’s walking alongside Gandalf in the Shire or crouched down next to Jack Reacher behind a boulder with gun-toting bad guys nearby, reading provides an unmatched entertainment. MRI scans of the brain show when people read about an experience, they display stimulation within the same neurological regions as when they go through that experience themselves. Talk about the ultimate virtual reality! When the page disappears, and your imagination takes over, even the largest screen can’t match the power of the experience.

Health. A less well-known benefit of reading is its positive impact on your health. Reading certainly provides access to knowledge on how to live a more healthy life. Did you know that reading can help with depression, stress, and is considered an essential brain training exercise that reduces the chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease later in life? Further, a Yale study of adults over the age of 50 showed that readers outlived non-readers by almost two years.

Learning. A near-universal trait of highly successful people is a constant quest for self-improvement and learning. Like most U.S. Presidents, Harry S. Truman was a voracious reader in his youth, reading some 4,000 books spanning every subject from his town library: “Believe it or not I read ’em all… Maybe I was a damn fool, but it served me well when my terrible trial came.” For me, the main benefit from reading hasn’t come from textbooks, but from specialized knowledge about subjects I taught myself through books. For example, Books taught me how to cure chronic back pain, sail a sloop, build elaborate financial models, lead a team, write a software program, build a garden, and cook delicious meals for my family. I will admit that the internet has become a fantastic resource for learning, and in some cases, it is better than staid old books. For example, fixing my lawnmower via free YouTube videos or learning the craft of storytelling with a Neil Gaiman MasterClass. But for in-depth, immersive learning of a new subject, I still prefer reading.

Wisdom. Perhaps the greatest gift of reading is wisdom and developing a deeper understanding of the meaning of life itself. Anne Lamott sums it up so well: “What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.” How else can we step inside the head of another person, even someone long dead, and see and feel the world as they saw it? Ceridwen Dovey believes that reading “is one of the few remaining paths to transcendence, that elusive state in which the distance between the self and the universe shrinks.” People have felt this way about reading for millennia. King Ramses II of Egypt had a special chamber for his books; above the door were the words “House of Healing for the Soul.”

Considering these benefits, it seems crazy not to dedicate time every day to read. At average adult reading speeds and typical book lengths, you could finish 25 books in a year with just 30 minutes of reading a day. Between your commute, bedtime, and all those little periods of dead time during the day when you reach for your phone, pick up a book instead. Before long, you’ll develop a daily reading habit that will make this feel natural, and over time you will reap the amazing benefits of reading.

As we look forward to the new year, set a goal to read more books, and then set aside time every day to read. Your future self will thank you!

Happy Birthday, Patrick O'Brian!

Wednesday, December 12, 2018 • 8 min read

Patrick O’Brian, the author of the Aubrey-Maturin seafaring novels, would have been 104 years old today. Mr. O’Brian passed away in 2000 but left behind a treasure of twenty meticulously researched historical sea novels set in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The books center on the friendship and adventures of its two main characters: Jack Aubrey, a British naval officer, and Stephen Maturin, the ship’s surgeon, naturalist, and part-time intelligence agent.

As a sailor, I appreciate the technical portions of driving a tall ship on the open sea. I'll admit, even with many years of sailing experience, I don't fully understand all the jargon that describes the maneuvering of these massive ships from 300 years ago, but I do get the gist of it. I delight in sailing along with Captain Aubrey from my comfortable armchair, plowing through hurricanes and typhoons, avoiding icebergs, clawing off a lee shore in a tempest, even fleeing an erupting volcano in the middle of the ocean.

It's not always foul weather and danger: I revel in the many lovely passages depicting beautiful weather, trade winds pulling the ship along at 12 knots over an easy rolling sea that brings smiles to the officers and crew alike. And of course, there are the gruesome depictions of sea battles, frigates gliding along through thick smoke, cannons blasting huge iron balls through the hulls and rigging of their enemy, spars shattering, men dying instantly in bloody rivers on the deck, or later on the archaic operating table in the ship’s cockpit.

I discovered this series shortly after O’Brian’s death and began to devour them one after another, immersing myself into a life at sea aboard a frigate in the 18th century.

O’Brian engages all five senses in these novels: the sounds of the ship creaking at sea and the shriek of wind through the rigging, the taste of intricately described meals with wonderfully strange names (Solomongundy or Spotted Dog anyone?), the smell of gunpowder and the stench of men crammed in close quarters below deck, the feel of the backstay burning your hand as you slide down from the crows nest, and of course the incredible sights of a beautiful blue ocean, tropical islands and the incredible view from the lookout of tall ships under a full press of sail.

I don’t often reread books, especially a whole series of books, but I’m about to finish my third reading of this set, more than 5,000 pages all told, and will almost certainly reread them. You might say that I am continually reading these books since there seems always to be a volume resting on my nightstand. The books have become such comfort over the years that I read them alongside other books, in between books, and in the middle of the night should insomnia strike. Before long, I’ll be a world away, sailing along on a topgallant breeze, with whatever troubles that had awoken me soon put astern at a 10-knot clip.

I love these books so much that I own them in four different formats: on my Kindle, two different hardbound sets, and the audiobooks, narrated by the wonderful late Patrick Tull, whose incredible voice has now become indistinguishable from the voice in my head as I read these myself, and whose performances can make even the longest commute exhilarating. I also keep a set on our trawler, MV Indiscretion. There’s no better place to read O’Brian than on the hook in some secluded bay, the rocking of the boat in perfect cadence with the rolling of a frigate becalmed in the aqua blue of the Mediterranean.

Why such fondness, you ask? Beyond the seafaring and nostalgia for a simpler time, it’s the two polar opposite characters of Aubrey and Maturin, and their enduring friendship that draws me to these books again and again.

Jack Aubrey is larger in life in many ways; his knowledge and experience in commanding a tall ship with all that goes with sailing such a complex vessel in usually hostile territory, with hundreds of souls to lead; his innate sense of battle strategy, somehow always sniffing out the wiles of his enemy and often winning engagements, and lucrative prize money, even when he is outmatched and outgunned; his ability to work out the position of his ship based on the position of stars and a startlingly difficult set of trigonometry equations. And yet it's Jack's glaring weaknesses that, to me, make him a more believable character. As talented as he is at sea, he is equally disastrous on land, easily swindled of his money by crooks, often to calamitous ends. His fondness for women and multi-year voyages away from his wife back home in England conspire to get him in hot water across several hemispheres of the globe. Barring the running of a ship and the fighting of the enemy at sea, Jack is often hopelessly inept, and finds himself being saved time and again by his dear friend Stephen Maturin. It's these shortcomings on land, coupled with his general good nature and cheer, make “Lucky” Jack Aubrey a memorable and lovable character.

Stephen Maturin is Jack Aubrey’s friend, onboard physician, intelligence agent for the British Government, and in most ways the complete opposite to the commander. O’Brian uses Stephen to help the reader understand the intricate workings of a ship, for Stephen never entirely adapts to life at sea, and his confusion during various operations provides an opportunity for the author to teach us as well, usually in a humorous way. This passage from The Hundred Days cuts right to Stephen’s challenges at sea in two beautiful sentences:

A little before the evening gun Preserved Killick, Captain Aubrey’s steward, an ill-faced, ill-tempered, meagre, atrabilious, shrewish man who kept his officer’s uniform, equipment and silver in a state of exact, old-maidish order come wind or high water, and who did the same for Aubrey’s close friend and companion, Dr. Stephen Maturin, or even more so, since in the Doctor’s case Killick added a fretful nursemaid quality to his service, as though Maturin were ‘not quite exactly’ a fully intelligent being, approached Stephen’s cabin. It is true that in the community of mariners the ‘not quite exactly’ opinion was widely held; for although Stephen could now tell the difference between starboard and larboard, it still called for some reflexion: and it marked the limit of his powers.

Maturin has his share of faults beyond his obliviousness to maritime rules and customs: he’s an off and on opium and cocaine addict, quick to temper and generally shrewish when interrupted from his studies, ill-dressed and wearing clothes often stained by blood, human and otherwise, and by most accounts, a small, not very handsome man.

Stephen’s genius shines brightly through these novels. As an intelligence agent with an extreme sense of morality and outrage against the French, he finds himself frequently involved in treacherous spy missions that put him in perilous danger with only his sharp wits to extricate himself. He is also an amateur naturalist and brings to the pages a wonder at seeing such a variety of wildlife around and about the ship and the remote anchorages they visit. O’Brian’s lengthy descriptions of the birds, insects (especially beetles), whales, and all sorts of flora and fauna thrust the reader into the midst of Maturin’s obsessive personality. These passages comfort me like a warm blanket, and I often look about when I’m on a walk with a new sense of interest in the wildlife around me. Stephen is also the ship’s surgeon, and the descriptions of operations in the bowels of the ship, lights swinging this way and that, can’t help but transport me back 300 years to the dark ages of medicine, making me thankful for the modern age.

Beyond the beautiful settings and adventures afloat, the books showcase a unique friendship these two men share, and the equal footing they hold throughout the stories. I can’t think of another book or series of books where a pair of characters, particularly ones as different from each other as Aubrey and Maturin, provide such a balance in the storytelling. On long voyages, they play music together in the ship’s great cabin, Jack on the violin, Stephen on the cello, often playing off the other improvisationally. I suspect this serves as a theme for their relationship throughout the series; each of them switching off in the lead role in some caper, only to reverse roles and allow the other to shine as the story unfolds.

They quarrel like brothers, and over the course of twenty volumes, have their share of falling out, but always find a way to strengthen their friendship and be stronger together, and with most all of their adventures, success is only achieved when they pull together. It may very well be this enduring friendship that I love so much about these books. Every one must yearn for such a perfect friend in their life if only to find it in the pages of a novel.

So, today I celebrate Patrick O’Brian’s birthday and thank him for the gifts he has bestowed on all of us. As I conclude my third time through these books, I will start yet again from the beginning. I cannot not read them. The idea of saying goodbye to these two dear friends is too much to bear at this stage of my life. And with the vast body of work here across twenty volumes, and my memory not being what it once was, starting over remains a new experience, accompanied by a comfortable “deja vu” feeling with every delightful page.

If you haven’t had a chance to meet Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, there’s not a moment to lose. Trust me. You are in for an extended treat.

A Golden Age for Reading Books

Wednesday, December 20, 2017 • 5 min read

While reading books might be waning in today’s mobile phone obsessed, Facebook generation, the tools and technology for reading and remembering books have never been better. I’d call it a Golden Age for those lucky souls willing to invest the time to read.

This is difficult for me to admit, coming from a long history of reading real books. I have a personal library of more than 2,000 books that line the shelves of a small reading place that I consider a sanctuary.

But for the past ten years I’ve read more and more books electronically on my Kindle than I have in paper format. Other than cookbooks or art books, all my reading is now digital. And that isn’t quite true either, since I use the marvelous Paprika app to house all my recipes, with an iPad in the kitchen as I cook. If I find a recipe I like in one of my books, I can’t use it properly until I successfully track it down online to import into my cooking system.

My younger self would be aghast to hear me say this, but my Kindle is a far better book than any on my shelves. Here’s why:

• Instant access to an immense library of available titles. Almost all books published in the past five years are available on Kindle, including thousands (millions?) more available through self-publishing created in this new world of digital publishing (no publisher needed).
• The reading experience is better. My aging eyes appreciate the larger fonts and backlit screen of the Kindle Paperwhite. I find it hard to read normal books now.
• I can fit a thousand books in my bag. I can read from a Kindle or my iPhone or my IPad, really whatever device I have in hand, and it knows my place in the book.
• I can read in microbursts from my iPhone with the mobile Kindle App. The ability to crack open the app on my phone at the exact place I last left off is very convenient to fill those times in waiting rooms I’d otherwise be checking Twitter or Facebook.
• I can even listen to an audio version of the book on my commute and it still knows my place when I get home and open my Kindle.

There is one lesser known benefit of Kindle e-books. With a finger, you can highlight sections of the book that are memorable to you, that you’d like to be able to find again quickly. You can even see the passages of the book you’re reading that others also highlighted (I think there’s a way to see what other famous people highlighted in the book you’re reading too, but I think that’s creepy). In “real” books, these highlights can be found if you’re brave enough to mark up a book to begin with, by flipping haphazardly through the pages until flashes of yellow or pen scribbles catches your eye. I once searched in vain for a scribble in a massive poetry anthology that I knew I marked, but could not find. With a Kindle, these highlights are more readily available as a nested menu option from within the book itself.

But there’s hidden power in this simple digital highlight feature. Did you know that you can access a special Amazon web page housing all the highlights and notes from your Kindle library? And that with a couple of clicks, you can email yourself the sections of every book you’ve highlighted, complete with MLA style reference header and locations within the book?

Think about that: the text from every highlight you’ve applied from every book you’ve read, all available digitally.

Over my life of reading, I have haphazardly captured quotes that were meaningful to me. Some in books with yellow highlighting, more important ones I would transcribe into a notebook or journal and sometimes commit it to memory. I can still rattle off passages from Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Melville which is amazing to me because it was 30 years ago that these words were planted in my mind. In later years, I would capture these in Day One, my daily journal app. More times than not, when I read something beautiful, I would simply appreciate it in the moment, savoring it like a sip of fine wine, recognizing that any attempt to save it for later was impractical.

With a Kindle, highlighting is so easy, but only really important passages got the finger swipe from me because - why bother? It’s all just digital ether and I’ll never take the time to review these like I would in a hardbound book on my shelves. How wrong I was.

I took the time recently to email myself the highlights I’ve captured in books over the past ten years. I use Ulysses for most of my writing and thought it would be nice to have these quotes in my writing tool as reference. It was dead simple to import all my highlights, usually a “sheet” for each book. With a few clicks I applied tags to each quote; things like Strategy, Love, Meaning of Life, Family, etc. I then scoured my digital journals and files for any stored quotes and brought them in too. The whole process took a few hours because I had long lost highlights from a decade of reading.

And now I have a way to see the most precious highlights of everything I’ve read over the past ten years that I can quickly filter down to just those dealing with leadership. Or mortality. Or forecasting. Oh my. As a writer this is an incredible gift, allowing connections and new breakthroughs in thinking and writing that just wouldn’t be possible with this external brain I’ve created. And now I have a logical place to capture quotes I read from books I haven’t read that still move me - straight into Ulysses with a quick tag for later reference when I’m writing and need some inspiration on the topic I’m tackling.

If my younger self understood the power of these current digital reading tools housed in a humble Kindle Paperwhite, I’d like to think I would have changed my tune before now.