On Reading
Part 2
Picking up from last time (see here: https://www.theren.org/on-reading-part-1/), in this piece, I’d like to share a bit about my recent experience/experiment with reading per my own advice.
30 Minutes a Day
In my previous blog (“On Reading, Part 1), I made mention of this video: “How to Read More Books in the Golden Age of Content” (https://youtu.be/lIW5jBrrsS0). Based on this video’s content, I have made the following calculation: If you read 250 words per minute (about an average adult reading speed) for 30 minutes per day, you’d read 7,500 words a day. Multiply that number by five days in a week, and you’d get 37,500 words—which is equivalent to a 150-page book. So in theory, an average reader could read a 150-page book every week by just reading 30 minutes a day for five days a week! That’s some 50 medium-sized (or 25 lengthier) books a year!
The past several weeks for me has been—in all honesty and accuracy—probably the busiest I have ever experienced. Nevertheless (or maybe precisely because of which), I have read for about 30 minutes a day. How? Just as I learned from Dr. Keener: by doing so fifteen minutes at a time. Sometimes it’s during my lunch. Other times it’s just before lights-out. As a result, I have found myself (I think) becoming calmer, feeling less hurried, and overall more reflective about the things that matter most in life.
Give it Time
I think of reading like playing sports or enjoying meaningful conversations with a friend over a cup of coffee. We read primarily because it’s good for our souls. We play or converse primarily because playing or conversing is good for our flourishing. Yet, in the playing and conversing, something magical happens: our physical health improves; friendships deepen. In the doing well of life, our souls become greater: they become what they were meant to be.
And all this takes time. Friendships deepen, not from one cup of coffee, but many. Physical fitness is gained over months, not days. So with reading, we must take time. Perhaps it won’t be after the first book, or even the first ten; but somewhere around book 15 or so (some three months in), we might find ourselves different, deeper persons. And what society doesn’t need deeper, greater souls? I’ll drink to that.