What’s a good number of books to read every year? One? Ten? One hundred?
There isn’t such a number.
Reading books isn’t about quantity. It’s about habit. It’s about reading for enjoyment and learning.
If you prefer listening to reading…
Always read.
Read with behavior change.
Change behavior to build and maintain the habit.
Change behavior by applying the learnings from reading.
Make time to ponder.
One activity in the Read to Lead Challenge concerns how many books we have left to read, considering our average life expectancy.
The formula is:
Books Left = (Life Expectancy – Current Age) x (Books Per Month x 12)
When I looked at my numbers in 2019, before taking the challenge and not having a steady reading habit, I knew I had to change something: 160 books left to read. That didn’t seem like much, considering I hope to be around for a while.
At the time of this writing, in early 2025, if I keep my current reading pace, I have 1458 books left to read.
That is a 980% increase compared to 2019.
In the same period, the number of books read by year increased by 811%.
That’s a massive change.
What does that tell me?
It tells me that my reading habit is part of my identity. It also makes me pay attention to always setting time to review my notes and ponder, identify new connections, and ask what kind of behavior changes the new knowledge should bring to my life.
I’ve constantly checked my balance between “to do” and “to be.” I read (to do) because I enjoy it, and I am a reader (to be) because reading is what I do consistently. I make that distinction so I don’t fall into the same trap as the person who wins a medal and still identifies as an athlete, regardless of not having played the sport for several years.
That activity helped me ensure I’m reading with behavior changes:
- I structure my daily activities so that reading always happen
- I refined my processes and system so to ensure I revisit book notes, make connections, and ponder
- I constantly ask myself whether I’m having fun reading a book and/or learning something from it
- I check what kind of behavior change a book caused or should have caused. If none, it could be because the book wasn’t for me, or it wasn’t the right moment for me to read it.
Since time is limited and non-renewable, we need to make it count. Am I reading what I want to? Or am I still reading it because I purchased the book and started reading it, so I might as well finish it?
Knowing my numbers helps me remember to ask those questions constantly.
Do I speed-read to reach high numbers? No.
I do speed-read sometimes, depending on the reason I established to read the book.
Depending on my purpose for the book, I want to ensure that what I learn from it can be turned into a tool for building multiple things instead of a brick, which, once laid down, won’t be reused. However, I am aware of times when all I need is a brick.
I’ll close with a quote by Annie Dillard:
“How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.”
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