Aug 14, 2025

How To Read

Salt Lake City, Utah (2020)

I used to read all the time as a kid. My family didn’t go to church on Sundays, but we would go to the library. I had more than a habit — a ritual. I would pick out a stack and carry it to the check out desk, the plastic covers biting at my arms until I shifted into the worn soft spots.

I would try my hardest to finish them all in a week. Under the covers. On the train. Sitting on the swings. Eventually, I even worked at a library. I was hooked, age seven, with my copy of Percy Jackson.

In the past few years, I fell out of reading completely. Most of my friends nod in recognition. We all got too ‘busy’. Reading was out of guilt now. But it was less about reading; more about the ways childhood had so much meaning, but, somehow, we let slip away.

I tried again and again. I maintained a list of to-read books I got recommended. At the rate I was reading, it would take me 230 years. I looked up how to read faster and watched the world’s fastest reader explain his process. I think a lot about what I would do if I could freeze time. Probably read more.

But that was all pretty pointless. I realize reading is about “the slow arts”. It is you, silently, having a conversation with the voices in your head. You can find summaries of any book easily. It’s another thing to sit with those thoughts and tussle with it, until you find your own conclusion.

I finally rediscovered reading when I suddenly got time with covid shutting down school.

These are some of my unfiltered notes on reading for leisure:

you should not finish every book. if you are bored of a book, don’t finish it. there are too many to finish. read what interests you or you won’t read at all. sometimes I’ll pick it up from my shelf and continue years later

reading habits should adjust. consider what you do during your dead time now. listen to an audiobook instead of a podcast on the train. scroll your ebook app (you can set it to vertical scroll) on your phone. use an e-reader when you’re in bed. create time to read

books are like weights. some books are honestly just dense and hard to read. start small and easy. reading is a muscle. I took a literature class in school and having a group + professor enhanced my experience tenfold.

recency bias is real. remember the best stuff isn’t promoted because the authors are old or dead. “I don’t want to waste valuable time reading any book that has not had the baptism of time” (Norwegian Wood)

read many at a time. especially when I’m learning something, I find reading a few on a subject helps me learn the most. i skip around. reading a constellation of works on a subject adds detail and can be particularly rewarding. “one book is only a single unaccompanied note, and to get the full sound, one needs ten others at the same time” (Woolf)

Maybe obvious but people get wrapped up in book fomo. You don’t have to read. If you don’t enjoy it, don’t read. You are not dumb if you do not read. Just start reading.

In the end, rebuilding a lost connection is not really about doing it again for the sake of it. but about rediscovering why you enjoyed it in the first place. it’ll definitely be different now. if you don’t find it fun then you shouldn’t feel like you need to do it. sometimes the wine spoils, but sometimes the ways wine matures.

Archive notes

create space to read. for me, that’s placing my stack of library books where I read. a designated place I read.
create time to read. go to the park and read. audiobooks are great for walks
some books are honestly just dense and hard to read. start easy. reading is a muscle. I took a Russian literature class in school and having a group + a professor enhanced my experience tenfold.
unreal life hack is to literally just use Libby app you can checkout ebooks and audiobooks from your local library
if you don’t have space for books, e-reader. airplane mode. I think I charge it twice a year.
nonfiction books can be read out of order. my opinion is most are fluffy/boring/bad, choose chapters that interest you.
To learn and understand a hard topic, I read a ‘constellation’ of content around a certain subject.
most nonfiction self help/business books can be summarized and read without further curiosity. so reading more is just an exercise in internalization, which you should be doing through taking action instead.
if you want to learn about yourself, read fiction
generally i believe reading is mostly fun for me. so if you don’t find it fun then you shouldn’t feel like you need to do it.

Research

“the slow arts”. “A book is still atemporal. It is you, in silence, hearing voices in your head, unfolding at a time that has nothing to do with the timescale of reading. And for the hours that we retreat into this moratorium, with the last
form of private and silent human activity that isn’t considered pathological,
we are outside of time.” - powers
I am reading six books at once, the only way of reading; since, as you will agree, one book is only a single unaccompanied note, and to get the full sound, one needs ten others at the same time.
| Virginia Woolf, The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume Three, 1923-1928
Writing is a tool, and tools change us. Literate societies are enduring. Writing is a simulation, there is no interchange or intersubjectivity. Ursula le guin
Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created or recreated by the author. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience. (p. 1)

I think a lot about what I would do if I could freeze time. Probably read more.

I used to pretty much spend all my time with books as a kid. Now, it’s scheduled into my bedtime. There’s something funny about how I’m closest to my childhood reading rates during a pandemic.

These are some of my unfiltered notes on reading for leisure:

I don’t finish every book. if you are bored of a book, don’t finish it. read what interests you or you won’t read at all. sometimes I’ll pick it up from my shelf and continue read years later.

maybe obvious but people get wrapped up in book fomo
create space to read. for me, that’s placing my stack of library books where I read. a designated place I read.
create time to read. go to the park and read. audiobooks are great for walks
consider what you do during your deadtime waiting in line or on the train. I realized my attention was being hijacked by my phone, so the unlock was really just adding my reading app to my phone.
some books are honestly just dense and hard to read. start easy. reading is a muscle. I took a Russian literature class in school and having a group + a professor enhanced my experience tenfold.
unreal life hack is to literally just use Libby app you can checkout ebooks and audiobooks from your local library
if you don’t have space for books, e-reader. airplane mode. I think I charge it twice a year.
nonfiction books can be read out of order. my opinion is most are fluffy/boring/bad, choose chapters that interest you.
To learn and understand a hard topic, I read a ‘constellation’ of content around a certain subject.
most nonfiction self help/business books can be summarized and read without further curiosity. so reading more is just an exercise in internalization, which you should be doing through taking action instead.
if you want to learn about yourself, read fiction
recency bias. old books are underrated! I never look at bestseller’s lists anymore. I have a running list of books I’ve been recommended. so when I go to the library, I go off that list.
generally i believe reading is mostly fun for me. so if you don’t find it fun then you shouldn’t feel like you need to do it.