The Stephen King Guide to Reading a Book In a Week
In On Writing, novelist Stephen King confesses that he reads between seventy and eighty books a year. That's the same as 1.4 books every week. "Woah, that's crazy," I thought. I struggle to get through a book a month.
I read on to find out the secret of his mammoth word consumption.
Step One: Choose Short Books
"I'm a slow reader," writes King, "but I usually get through seventy or eighty books a year, mostly fiction."
Modern fiction tends to be shorter than non-fiction and classic literature. If a book a week is your aim, then War and Peace or The Entire Bible are probably not for you.
Step Two: Read Because You Enjoy It
"I don't read to study the craft; I read because I like to read. Similarly, I don't read fiction to study the art of fiction, but simply because I like stories."
If getting through books is a struggle, reading might not be your thing. Then again, learning to enjoy reading is all part of learning to read - especially in our attention deficient generation.
Step Three: Have a Space That's Just for Reading
"It's what I do at night, kicked back in my blue chair."
Red chairs are okay too.
Step Four: Read to Learn, as Well as for Enjoyment
"Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones."
Step Five: Make Books your Favourite Companion
"I take a book with me everywhere I go, and find there are all sorts of opportunities to dip in. The trick is to teach yourself to read in small sips as well as in long swallows. Waiting rooms were made for books. So are theater lobbies before the show, long and boring checkout lines, and everyone's favourite, the john."
Sitting on the bus is one of my favourite places to read. And waiting for the oven to pre-heat when I'm baking.
Step Six: Give up the TV
"Reading takes time, and the glass teat takes too much of it. Once weaned from the ephemeral craving for TV, most people will find they enjoy the time the spend reading."
Step Seven: Dedication
"The sort of strenuous reading program I advocate - four to six hours a day, every day - will not seem strenuous if you really enjoy doing it."
It sounds a lot, but it really works. I finished Solzhenitsyn's 700-page The First Circle in a week at four hours a day, and I even missed a couple of days.
