If you’re a pretty dedicated reader you may be able to get to reading a book a week, so roughly 50 books a year. Over 70 years of reading at that pace you’d read around 3,500 books — counting comfort re-reads like Harry Potter for the 3rd time. I only know a few people who actually manage to read like that, so presumably, for most of us the likely book reads we will manage is much less than that.

To put that number in context, our local bookstore has around 30,000 books. So if you were to use your entire life’s reading in that store you’d still only be a bit over a 10th of the way through. That’s a lot of books you didn’t even get a chance to start.

I won’t deny that 3,500 books is a lot of books, but whatever you do there will be far more books that you just don’t have time to get to than those you do find time for. So, like for movies, I think it seems wise to be at least a little thoughtful about what books you choose to pick up, and what books you decide to go on to finish.

In the course of making this, I learned that in 2010 the Google Books team estimated there were around 130 million books to choose from.

My Dad, and sketchplanation supporter (don’t tell mum), talked to me about the book a week figure.

3,500 Lifetime reads

A beautiful Japanese word for the acquiring and piling up of books without reading them. Constructed from 2 words loosely meaning piling up and reading.

The sketch is loosely based on my parents’ bedroom while I grew up, both of whom are experienced and talented tsundoku-ers/tsundokists.

Tsundoku

These are a super useful trick to increase the chances of action, be it your own others. Essentially, a vague intention of “I plan to do that,” is much less likely to be followed-through on than if you get specific. It takes out the ambiguity of when and where you’ll do something because that’s already decided. For example, asking voters simple questions like how they’ll get to the polling station has been shown to increase turnout on the day. You can use this to your own advantage too — get specific with yourself to help you get things done, be it how and when you’ll workout, or when you’ll study or whatever.

Here’s a simple template for implementation intentions you could try:

I learned this, and many more tips, from James Clear’s book Atomic Habits, all about how to create good habits and break ones.

Implementation intentions

There’s a surprising amount of wisdom in A. A. Milne’s classic stories of Winnie-the-Pooh. If you haven’t read them for a long time, you could do much worse than try them again. As one small example, I find there’s a lot of Owl Speak around as we get older, where we could all probably benefit from a dose of Pooh’s simplicity. Owl never uses a short, simple word when a long and complicated one would do. For example, in one revealing exchange, Owl explains:

“Well, the customary procedure in such cases is as follows.”

“What does Crustimoney Proseedcake mean?” said Pooh.

…”It means, the Thing to Do.” says Owl.

We learn more and more Owl Speak the more time we spend in school, only to have to work to remove it when we are older.

Both quotes are from The House at Pooh Corner. Or, if you prefer to have the wisdom called out, you could try The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff.

How to speak plainly, by Pooh Bear

I love Flow. This simple framework comes from Good Business by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Match challenge with skills for Flow at work

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants

Stuff, choice, information and tooooo fast. Time to cut down. From Simplicity Parenting.

Sketchplanations tagged with books