How to Actually Read More Books
I Basically Read for a Living, Here Are My Best Tips for Reading More
In our day of distraction, it can be really difficult to actually read the books that you want to read. We have many of the same distractions that our ancestors had, but on top of those, we also have some brand new ones, like the social media ‘infinite scroll’, which intentionally utilizes principles from psychology to hack your neuro-biological reward system and keep you scrolling on your phone and using their apps for as long as possible.
Today, attention is a major commodity. Millions and millions of dollars are spent on capturing your attention and holding it—the very same attention that you need for achieving your own goals and projects, like reading those books you want or need to be reading.
Now, this post is just a little bit ironic because I too am asking for your attention. However, I don’t want to lure you into an infinite abyss of doom scrolling. Instead, I’m going to introduce you to some of the best tools that I use to direct my attention towards reading and to keep my attention there for as long as I decide.
I have a lot of different jobs—I host a philosophy and theology podcast, I’m an accidental notebook czar on YouTube, I write essays here on Substack to help people learn philosophy, I preach at my church occasionally, I present papers at philosophy conferences, I lead lots of Bible studies and read-alongs like our current Dune Read-Along, and I write philosophical science fiction and fantasy short stories.
All of my jobs and projects require me to have read a lot, and to continue reading even more. In this post I share my best tips for reading and understanding what you read.
You’re about to run into a paywall. These kinds of practical “life of the mind” posts help fund my other research and public philosophy posts. They also represent initial takes on chapters for my forthcoming book, Journal Like a Philosopher. So, if you like my work and want to support it, the best way to do that is to upgrade to a paid subscription.
Behind this paywall you’ll find lots of practical advise on how to read more, along with some pictures of my own tools, like my reading log. The advise and tips are sort of a ‘choose your own adventure’ style so you can pick the best methods for you to help yourself set reading goals and actually stay on track with them. I’ve cultivated the following strategies over 11 semesters of graduate school work in theology and philosophy (115 grad credit hours) and over 14+ years of frantic autodidactic study.
I basically read for a living and I couldn’t do it without the methods I share below, I hope they help you too, I really think they will.