New Year’s Resolution: More Time to Read More Books

Dear Reader,

In case you’re resolving to get more books into your life this coming year, I list below nine ways to do so in 2009. Many are rather new, made possible by technology. Two are old, although powerful in ways most of us fail to truly understand.

No. 1: Read at least one book electronically

Buy or borrow an Amazon Kindle, a Sony eBook or similar device (there will be some new models out this year) and read at least one book this way in 2009. Most early adopters like the devices and many have reported that they read more books because of the ease of carrying a little magic book that can be almost any book. See if it liberates you, too.

No. 2: Make your personal library of favorite books virtual by uploading your titles into one of the social networking sites for booklovers

Perhaps even more important than the virtual book is the virtual library. This has changed my reading life, as I described last year with my use of Shelfari. Don’t underestimate how transformative this can be. It’s not just the reviewing of your books as you go, or the chance to rate them, but the tagging of them. These clouds help you discover patterns arising from groups of books in a way that was nearly impossible without this software. And I haven’t even touched on the social benefits. Vacation is a good time to upload your library, title by title, which is fun and revealing. (By the way, this is free.)

No. 3: Interact with readers online

So much of reading is sharing your thoughts with others. It’s never been easier to find people you want to talk to and books you want to talk about. Shelfari, Good Reads, Library Thing, Visual Bookshelf in Facebook—all are dedicated to communing with books, and hence, with ideas. There are other ways as well. Email an author on his or her website. Google a book title and you’ll find blog posts you can respond to.

No. 4: Make at least one an audiobook

Audiobooks are only a generation old yet are one of the gifts of our age and getting better every year. See what’s happening at Audiofile magazine, lovingly edited by Robin Whitten. Sign up with iTunes-enabled Audible, founded by the farseeing Donald Katz. Check out Recorded Books,  where studio director Claudia Howard works her casting magic with some of the world’s best narrators. I’ve been proselytizing for years now and can report success even with some quite stubborn visual readers. Here are some quick tips:

1.    Try great stories, mostly fiction or narrative nonfiction, like David McCullough.
2.     Listen when washing dishes, folding laundry, washing cars, anything mindless but handful.
3.    Don’t think driving is the only time; it’s not even necessarily the best time for audiobooks.
4.    If you don’t love your first listen, try two more before giving up. Even if you think audiobooks aren’t for you, even if you know you prefer reading with your eyes rather than your ears, please give audio a chance. Homer would approve, and Shakespeare, too.

No. 5: Relish the reverse boovie

Watch the movie first, and then read the book. Why do it backwards? Because it can be better this way. Ideal reverse boovie candidates are highly rated movies adapted from big novels. The more you like the movie, the more you’re likely to love the depth and dimension waiting for you in the original book. I know watching the movie first sounds strange, but don’t reject it just because it seems wrong. Lots of things seemed wrong in the beginning, like heavier-than-air flying machines.

No. 6: Visit a library and take prisoners

Especially if you haven’t been in a while, browse around and select five books that look interesting. Your public library is a special social institution, not at all pervasive in the world, and paid for by your United States of America tax dollars. Librarians have been building it expecting you to come. Seize the day, and here’s how:

Get yourself a library card, check out those five promising books, take them home with the expectation that you’ll taste all five…but finish only one. At home, begin each book and try to make it to page 50 or so. If you can put it down, do so. If you can’t put it down, don’t. Finishing one of the five is your benchmark for success. You will have not only enjoyed a brand new book in its entirety—a book you’ll likely be raving about to others—but you’ll have practiced two important lessons for those leading their well-read lives: using a library well and giving up on books you don’t love. Therein lies a path for finding those books that will change your life utterly.

No. 7: Visit a bookstore and take note of a changing landscape

We’ve passed the peak of the golden age of a bookstore on every corner. But many of those still with us have become the village wells of their non-virtual communities. Go enjoy them. Browse, chat with the booksellers, get the physical feel for books that’s still hard to achieve online. It’s as much about the experience as it is about the books.

No. 8: Read a book with a friend

Have one of your best friends choose a book for the two of you to read. Then get together in person and have something else to talk about, and grow your friendship yet more. Do the same with a special teenager you know—only this time, you choose. I’m recommending our Levenger Press book, A Boy at the Hogarth Press, a charming coming-of-age memoir from an earlier age.

No. 9: Read a book aloud to a loved one, or have them read to you

This is as old as human language—storytelling, that is. It’s at the very heart of what it means to be human, and it’s why so many older people cherish it. It’s not because they have trouble reading, which they may, but because they realize in their bones that hearing another human tell them a tale is one of the rooms of heaven.

Any one of these suggestions could be the key that unlocks the magic door for you to take your life to a higher plane—not only in 2009, but in every year following.

No. 10: Now it’s your turn

Let me know what sparks for you. Just click on the Comments link. (If you’re reading this as an email, click here and you'll connect to Comments).

Comments

[Mary Brown]

About #4: I'm a big fan of audiobooks myself, but some people are very skeptical about them. To those people I always recommend the Harry Potter series. These books are so delightfully narrated by Jim Dale that after just a short while it's hard to understand how you could possibly have ever envisioned these characters without Dale's clever voices.

[Julio del Solar]

Great article. I will try all ten.
Thank you for sharing!

Julio

[Kim]

I can't recommend enough stopping by your local independent bookstore; the employees at these stores are knowledgeable and eager to share book ideas with you. They want to build a relationship with their customers and encourage their reading habits. I find that by wandering around an independent bookstore I find all kinds of jewels that aren't being hyped by big publishers (nothing against that, those are good books also) that I would have missed but for booksellers promoting quality literature.

[Fred Putnam]

Dear Steve,

Thanks for your suggestions. A teenage friend of ours just told me that she plans to read all of Shakespeare this year--one play a week!

I have often found it helpful to work through one or two authors, reading as many of his or her works as I can. Last year's were Evelyn Waugh and James Schall, this year will be Josef Pieper and perhaps Shakespeare, as well as the many others that come my way.

I will also be announcing a "reading circle" at the university where I teach. Reading and discussing with students is a great encouragement!

Thanks again.

Best wishes.

Fred Putnam

[Anne McGravie]

I'm not sure I could ever get used to a book that isn't in the traditional format; at the moment I have too many traditional books to read or reread and then dispose of to worry. I did appreciate your mention of the library, however. Someday too it will go digital, I'm sure, but in the meantime there are all those lovely stacks filled with lovely books ready for the borrowing.
To books!
Anne McGravie

[Anne]

I'm not sure I will ever choose a digitalized book over a traditional one. What do you hold? (A machine?) How do you turn a page? (Press a button?) What do you call a certain type of book? (A button presser?) I know, I know: Get used to it!
If I had my way, children would begin to learn to read using a cloth book with a letter of the alphabet and its accompanying picture on each page. Now that's how to get the feel for letters and eventually for whole books. Only half-joking.
I grew up in Edinburgh (Scot.) in the '20s and '30s, a city noted then for its fine second-hand bookshops. All through school and beyond, I bought my books in these shops for a penny, tuppence. Now those were the days for book lovers.
To books. the spine of a civilization!
Anne McGravie

[Michele]

Just thought I'd mention that I've been a member of Audible for 3-4 years now and I think it is great - just wish some of my favorite authors were available there. We have two main libraries at home - fiction and non-fiction (also my office, as I work from home) but even though I've tried to organize our books and have some lists available, I am in the second phase of buying repeat books. As my filing system is even worse, right now, I'm having trouble even finding out where I've even bought some of these books.
New years resolution - Organize! And lose weight.

[Lianne]

How about volunteering with a literacy organization? Once a week, on my lunch hour, I go to a school near my office (with the company's blessings) and work with grade six kids who are having problems with reading. We read a piece, and then discuss it. They may not have the reading skills I did at that point in my life (I was reading at an upper-high school level by then), but they ask great questions, and they seem to appreciate having an adult paying focused attention to them, answering their questions seriously.

(And I love my Sony Reader. Plus, my library has digital downloads of books, both PDF and audio, so I have free books for my Reader and my MP3 player.)

[LYNN BUCHANAN]

Gee, maybe I should cancel my order for bookcases and put everything on electronics---

Any comment on this attitude?

Lynn

[Pam]

Your comments ring true for me in every aspect. But my favorite is using the Kindle, which I have done for the last year. I can read several books at one time, carrying only the Kindle. Also, my mom suffers from macular degeneration, which makes reading physically difficult, a great loss to her. With the font enlargement feature on the Kindle, she can now read again, considering it one of her greatest Christmas gifts.

[Gordon from North Carolina]

Thanks for your blog.

Every morning my father read the Bible daily out loud in English and in Portuguese (learned for his professional life as a missionary pastor in Brazil). (He also read Louis L'Amour books constantly!) It was always a pleasure to "listen in" on him and his prayers from the other room.

[Donna]

A friend told me about an author named Noah St. John who invented AFFORMATIONS. Afformations are empowering questions (not statements) and they've really worked great for me and my friends.

http://www.iAfform.com - he's giving a free Afformation Stress Buster Session. I listen to these throughout the day and they've changed my life.

Enjoy them!
- Donna

[Colby]

I have been listening to books from Audible for many years and love to do so in my car. I recently discovered eReader for my iPhone and LOVE being able to take eBooks with me wherever I take my iPhone. I don't think I'll ever give up "real" books completely, but it is wonderful to have options. I'm waiting for a backlit Kindle before I buy one. I read too much in bed and booklights bother my husband. I love your blog and Levenger.

Happy New Year!
Colby

[Steve Leveen]

Dear Well-Read Lifers,

Bless you for your interesting and helpful comments, all. As for Lynn Buchanan's question as to whether we should just go all digital... I believe all things digital relating to books, libraries and learning will become ever more compelling. We will love our book devices they way people now love their iPhones. Yet old-fashioned paper books will decline only gradually and gracefully. After all, we still enjoy candles today, more than a century after Edison found a better way.

And isn't life richer (if a bit more tiring) with both electric light and candle light?

Happy New Year to you all and I look forward to an engaging dialog in 02009.

Steve

[Ted Kinzer]

Steve,

Enjoyed your post. You provide some great ideas to increase reading time.

On using the library, I would add that many libraries make use of a system e.g. Link+ where you can request books from many other libraries. This service allows someone to find books that you normally would have to borrow or buy without 'trying' them out first.

Ted

[David Hollis]

Resolution is to read two books per month. One fiction; one non. Have them assembled on the shelf above my desk.

[routers]

Book reading is necessary for the today condition. By reading books you can improve your knowledge and vocab. You can download many books from the internet electronically and share with your friends.