it’s possible for you to power through that tome without forgetting everything and coming away with nothing.
The average adult reads around 200-400 words per minute.
The average novel ranges between 60,000 and 100,000 words total.
That might seem like a lot, but its totally possible.
Find the Perfect Reading Location
Distraction is your enemy.
Separate yourself from everything.
Think of how much solitude youll need, then double it.
Read at a table instead of your bed, or choose a chair over that comfy couch.
Think of it asthe pomodoro methodfor reading.
The point is to give yourself a break so you could come back and feel refreshed.
you could also try breaking your book up into segments instead of timing yourself.
Mark your reading intervals with bookmarks or by noting a certain percentage.
For example, you could stick three bookmarks in your book to separate it into four chunks of reading.
Take Notes on Everything
Staying active can help you keep focused while youre reading too.
State what the whole book is about.
Be as brief as possible.
List the major parts in order and relation.
Outline these parts as you have outlined the whole.
Define the problem or problems the author is trying to solve.
Come discussion or essay time, you might have a few pages outlining your exact thoughts already.
If you have time to dig even deeper, take some time toexpand on your notes.
you could do this after youve finished, or even during your reading interval breaks.
you could even compare your notes withSparkNotesandCliffsNotesto see what you may have missed.
Entereveryones favorite drug, caffeine.
Save it for when you really start to drag and need a pick me up.
These will pump you up, oh yes, but it will hit you all at once.
Its better to have something to sip that will gradually introduce caffeine into your system over time.
Youre not trying to blast off into space, youre just trying to keep focused and your energy up.
Dontdrink something that has a bunch of sugar in it.
Returning to my fast and furious analogy, keep the sugar out of your gas tank.
Otherwise stick to a gradual ingestion of caffeine when you start to really drag.
Food is also important for any reading marathon.
Again, there is right way to go about snacking.
Can be eaten without looking.
Can be eaten with one hand.
Takes a while to chew, so a bag can last a long time.
A pair of chopsticks, however, can make one-handed munching on messy snackseasily doable.
She also notes that a lot of books have what you might call boring parts where the action drags.
Those are some of the best parts for snacking.
So, switch your book with your phone.
And that means everywhere you go!
Thats a lot of time you forget you have that is easily reclaimed.
Maybe you have some errands that absolutely need to get done today.
Or maybe you really want to exercise, but cant afford to lose that much time.
Thats whereaudiobooks come in.
You may even find listening to the whole thing much easier overall.
Also, depending on what you have to read, there may not be an audiobook version out there.
However you manage to listen to your book, it can save you some serious time.
Like a TV show split into episodes, books are divided into segments you consume gradually over time.
Illustration by Sam Woolley.
