Reading books is becoming cool again. Book reading is up there with kale, meditation, stoicism and mental models. And in some circles, the number of books you read has become a representation of how intelligent you are and how likely you are to be able to solve problems effectively. Everyone boasts about how much they read and offer solutions as to how you could read more. Tim Ferris does it here, Ryan Holiday here, James Clear does it here. If you Google how to read more, there are over 7 billion results. Knock yourself out.
Reading online, however, doesn’t enjoy the same level of prestige. Blog posts, articles etc. aren’t as important as books. So if you’re reading this, the 3 minutes you spent here is unlikely to garner you any recognition from your peers – thanks for coming.
The Enlightenment and reading
Maximalism in reading is further pushed by the publishing and self-help industries. They have us believe that if we don’t read the latest book on happiness, climate change, humanity, equality, habits or whatever the topic du jour is, we are doomed to intolerant, backwater thinking.
However, there is more to reading than just volume. The motivation behind why we sit down for a few hours to finish a book needs to be understood. The Enlightenment gave us the ultimate reason for reading; we read so we can know everything. Which is a worthy and lofty goal. However, knowing everything during the 18th century and knowing everything during the 21st century are very different propositions. In 1750 around 25 books were published a year. Currently the estimated number of books published in a year is around 2.2 million.
And then it is also worth considering that a book in the 18th century cost between 3 and 20 shillings. If we adjust for inflation and the living wage being what it was, the equivalent cost of a book today is anywhere between $100 and $800. Pride and Prejudice in 1818 would set you back $700 in today’s money.
The Enlightenment’s goal of knowing everything was naturally limited by availability and price. To purchase a book in the 1700’s was a luxury and required much consideration. Anyone who read 100 books a year in the 18th century would have been incredibly wealthy. And more than likely considered a little unwell.
Maximalist reading
As grateful as we should be to the Enlightenment for giving us reading, it has also left us with the idea that reading more is knowing more. Which leads us to where we are now; maximalist reading.
We are inundated with books that need our attention. Every podcast seems to ask guests what books influenced them or what book they gift the most. Every time you finish your commute you have another 3 books to add to one of your four reading wish lists. Algorithms on book sites tell us what other books we should consider while smart people tell us to choose books from bibliographies of books we’ve already read to really understand an idea. In one fell swoop my reading wish list has potentially doubled with a whole bunch of new books I haven’t heard of yet. And the idea of re-reading a book is akin to learning how to weld or signing up for that sculpture class that sounded interesting.
Somehow, an activity we want our kids to take pleasure in is something that now causes us anxiety.
St. Jerome in his study
Hilary Mantel has this painting above her desk. It depicts St. Jerome in his study. On the right, in the shadows is a lion, and on the side of his desk you’ll see what I believe to be one of the first post-it notes known to man.
St. Jerome is the patron saint of Librarians. He was an historian, theologian, he translated the bible from Hebrew and Greek and was considered a formidable intellect in his day. There is a lot we can take from the painting. For one, this is what a study should look like, in my opinion. However, the point worth noting is that this man of letters was a minimalist reader. From what I can see, the patron saint of Librarians has 21 books in his library. If nothing else, this should tell us that knowledge is about what you read and how you read it, not necessarily how much you’ve read.
The very fact that we have so many books to explore, so much knowledge at our disposal and ever more demands on our time should force us to be more discerning in what we read. For this to happen we have to ask ourselves, what do I want to get from my reading?
We should approach our reading with stubborn discernment. We should know what we want to get from our reading and then seek out the works that best fit our needs. While everyone seeks to know everything, we should seek out that which we need most to lead the lives we want, to learn that which we believe to be most valuable to us.
The dark side of maximalist reading
I haven’t ever read 100 books in a year. But I have, by my calculations, come close on a couple of occasions. There was a period when I would get through 5 or 6 books a month. I read to learn, to know more, to be able to speak to what I learnt, and to show off, to be able to say; ‘yeah, read it.’
However, what I found when reading as a maximalist, is that I understood less. And the faster I read the less I remembered. Reading also stop being fun. It become something I did so that I could get to the end of books. I read works that were important, but not important to me. I recall spending a lot of time working out how many pages I still had to read before I could start the next book. I was reading in order to know everything and the price was that I wasn’t learning much that was important to me. And even that which I thought I was learning is a hazy memory now. Stephen Hawking’s, A Brief History of Time, was interesting, but I’m pretty sure 70% of it went over my head because I didn’t take the time to really understand what was being said.
What I want to get from my reading now is an understanding about what it means to human, why we’re alive, and what it means to lead a good life. The thing I enjoy most about reading to educate myself in this field is that it’s broad, and I get to read fiction and non-fiction. I also find that because this is so important to me, I read books that I deem important very slowly. I digest. It might take me an hour to read four pages. And in that hour I will spend most of the time unearthing the meaning behind the words, and then considering how what is said fits into my life, if at all.
I allow myself the time to read beyond my abilities, to read books and articles I don’t understand. And I take the time to educate myself about what I am reading so that I can expand my reading horizons. By doing this, I have grown more through my reading in the past five years than I did for most of my adult life. And this shows up in the books themselves. The books I read in my youth are pristine, the books I read now are littered with marginalia and highlights.
Minimalist reading takes discipline
To read only that which is important to us, we have to be vigilant. We should be careful of falling into undisciplined reading. When we read we have to understand that there are millions of other books, articles and blog posts that we are not reading at that moment. We have to constantly be asking, does what I am reading now serve me and my needs? If it doesn’t, stop, put it aside. It might be more meaningful to you some time in the future.
And similarly, when you are online, when you are aimlessly surfing the internet, reading whatever is on-screen, keep asking yourself; does this serve your reason for reading? Avoid lazy reading; reading that you do because it’s there. Rather, take the time back and return to the book that rewards you every time you open it.
And finally, buy books. Buy them because you want them, but read them when you’re ready. There might come a time when they could answer a future question you don’t know the answer to. But, by that same token, accept you might never read them, and be okay with that.
I will leave you with a quote by an author who played a big part in my life when I was younger and whom I have outgrown. There are several of his books still on my bookshelf that remain unread. I don’t know, some day I might need the answers they hold.
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” Haruki Murakami.