5 Tips For Slow Readers Not Speed Reading

the average reader reads about 250 words per minute the average book is about 90,000 words and so the average reader can read the average book in about 6 hours not me I'm actually below average about 200 words per minute but even though have that limitation I'm still able to read about 60 to 70 books per year now some people can read 300 books per year and you know good for them actually no no not good for them hate them but the exciting thing is that even though I'm slow reader can still read just over book week and if can do it then that means you can do it too so I'm about to give you five tips that allow you to do that some of them are going to seem weird some of these tips are going to seem maybe little bit counterintuitive and at the end there's this kind of strange calculation that allows you to enjoy reading more but anyway we'll get to that let's get into it so tip number one is to only read books that spark genuine excitement now know obviously lot of people are going to be thinking what tip number one is read books you enjoy that that seems little bit obvious no but actually it isn't as obvious as you would think for some reason people view reading differently than they do when enjoying other types of media they feel like reading is something that they should do rather than something that they get to do know lot of people that say you know don't have any time to read I'm I'm I'm always busy but those same people will spend weekend binge watching 10 episodes of television and by the way there's nothing wrong with that I'm not the enjoyment police but it shows us that time isn't really the the the essence of their argument it's more that they're prioritizing the things that they enjoy more and that is by the way the most natural thing in the world they can watch 10 hours of Television because they enjoy it and when you enjoy something it's just effortless most people don't think of reading the same way that they do watching movies watching TV shows playing video games they're placing reading on pedestal and sometimes it can lead you into trap where you're not actually reading those Ju see books that you really want to dive into you're reading books that are kind of deemed to be important and so you create reading list for yourself maybe of Classics which you might not be naturally inclined to if you aren't excited about the books that you're picking up then it's it's going to eventually become chore and we we already have enough chores we don't need more chores to add to the list we just want to relax and enjoy ourselves so especially at the very beginning when you're developing reading habit you should just read whatever you want to read and you might think to yourself well shouldn't read books that are challenging yeah of course mean it's it's good right to expand yourself and to read challenging texts but think that naturally what's going to happen over time when you start reading just for the joy of it eventually you're going to start to gravitate your your tastes will evolve and you'll start to gravitate naturally over time towards those more challenging books but start off with stuff that you just enjoy tip number two is to set aside very small amount of dedicated reading time listen love nothing more than on Sunday sometimes I've got like few hours like block of few hours where can pick up book and can dive right into the story and really immerse myself in the world and it's fantastic it's one of my favorite things but that isn't always possible think lot of people when they think about reading that's what they're imagining they're imagining sitting down and spending large chunks of time reading lot of us don't have that kind of time available but most of us if not all of us definitely most of us have 20 minutes in day that we can spare if you can spare say 20 minutes in the morning when you first wake up or 20 minutes before you go to bed even with an under average reading speed that is going to put huge dent in your in the list of books that you're looking forward to reading with an under average reading speed you can still read between 15 to 20 books year which compared to most people that's lot of books that's lot of books now if you take that 20 minutes you start out with with 20 minutes and eventually you can bump it up to an hour then even with an under average reading speed you're still going to you're going to be reading roughly around book Week over the course of decade that's over 500 books 500 books pretty good okay tip number three is to harness the power of technology in this digital Age Technology is often seen as distraction that can pull us away from the joys of reading but actually if we can flip it around on its head and actually harness the power of technology that can easily double the number of books that you're reading every year one of the greatest weapons that we as slow readers have at our disposal are audio books and by the way by the way don't listen to anyone that tells you that audio books aren't real reading because those people are snobs they're trying to Gat keep reading they're trying to keep you away from the joys of reading that in their mind by the way they they probably don't even read that much you know they just like the idea of reading of being reader that's my special thing you can't have that because once read Pride and Prejudice like shut up these people they need leatherbound books love books love physical books they smell love they're nice they look lovely on the Shelf love to pick one up and read it yeah absolutely there's lot of Joys that come from physical books no doubt about it but not everything has to be bound in leather my leather volumes of books and sit in my leather chair and the walls are made of leather you weirdo next time someone tells you that audio books aren't real reading you can tell them that listening to stories is the oldest form of Storytelling and by the way if you get really good narrator it can enhance the experience so yeah just forget forget all that anti- audio book propaganda you know when I'm washing the dishes I'm not washing the dishes I'm in an epic battle for the fate of Middle Earth when I'm on the treadmill I'm not doing cardio I'm falling in love for the first time actually tell you this and this is little bit embarrassing right but I'm going to admit it because we're friends have been on the treadmill with tears streaming down my face yeah maybe I'll cut this bit out no won't I'm going to be brave I'm I'm going to be vulnerable have cried multiple times while on the treadmill because of something that I've been listening to listen man re reading is like that sometimes and if you're telling me that you don't you don't cry when you read get life man just just cry on the treadmill e-readers also offer many advantages to slow readers things like adjustable text size built-in dictionaries and most importantly portability so for example if you have smartphone in your pocket you're you're carrying Adventures around with you okay tip number four is to find reading partner or reading club and that is honestly the entire reason that set up this YouTube channel love reading but in my personal life both at work and friends family don't know that many people that enjoy reading as much as do and just wanted to talk about the books I'd been reading and so set up this little Community where we can all talk about the books we love and by the way if you'd like to subscribe to this channel you're more than welcome to we recently hit th000 subscribers in the channel and feel as though it's really we're starting to build real positive community of Book Lovers here so yeah if you want to subscribe you can do that and we can talk about some of the books that we enjoy but just putting that to oneide for second think it's really good idea to find people in your life that love to read especially people who enjoy to read the same kinds of books as you do and there's actually few reasons for this number one when you share passion with someone it kind of motivates you to do it more right second and really one of the best things about having other people around you that enjoy reading is that you get to receive recommendations some of the best books I'd say most of the best books that I've read this year were from recommendations from people know or very often people on this channel in the comments section and even better than receiving recommendations and and finding new books that you love even better than that is when you get to give recommendations and those people that you give recommendation to love the book that's great feeling and then what eventually happens is that it starts to feel as you start to build this book reading Community or have this friend that read that reads books along with you you start to feel like treasure hunter that's going out there and finding Little Treasures and bringing them back to the group and saying look what found look at this one this one's fantastic and then you all get to share it it's just really positive thing and just lastly you know reading is this is going to sound little bit cheesy little bit like cliche but reading is like taking journey and Journeys are enhanced by sharing them right man that really does sound like gift card didn't didn't mean it to sound that cheesy I'm sorry how do reord that when you share journey listen you get my point there's no way can say that without sounding cheesy so you get what I'm saying I'm not going to try again you get what I'm saying it's nice when you're reading the same book isin it that's what I'm trying to say nice when you're reading the same book is it good to have mate along with you for the journey but all of these things combined they they make reading more pleasurable and when something is more pleasurable then you want to do it more okay we're going to get into the last tip here tip number five at the end of this tip there's going to be this calculation but tip number five is little bit counterintuitive give yourself permission to quit book think we've probably all been in this situation where book has captured the Zeitgeist and everyone's talking about it and how great it is and you're looking at the reviews online and you're thinking this really sounds fantastic and then you pick it up and you don't get it you don't get what the hype is all about and you push on you get little bit further into the book and it's not getting any better you're not really enjoying it and then eventually it gets to the stage where you're dreading it you're just going can't it feels as though the book weighs 20 you know but here is the secret that consistent readers all know and that is that knowing when to quit book is just as important as picking one up and again it it might seem counterintuitive you know how does quitting book make me read more books that doesn't make any sense but eventually what's going to happen is that if you continue to push forward with books that you don't enjoy then it's going to make you read slower and it's going to be slower and slower until you come to complete standstill and that is what we call reading slump the sooner you quit book that you don't like the sooner you can start the next book that that becomes your favorite book book that you love the tricky thing is that sometimes really really good books take while to get going and so it becomes difficult to know when you should quit book obviously you can quit at any point that you want to but think sometimes we might need little bit of help to decide when we should quit book there's few different calculations that are out there but the one that like to follow is to read 100 Pages minus your age right so if you're 30 years old read at least 70 pages if you're 50 years old read at least 50 pages why does this calculation exist why does this calculation make sense well the reason is is that it allows us when we're younger to experiment bit more take our time bit more with books and and give them chance but when we're older it just stops them stop stops us from wasting time when we get older it's you know we haven't got that much time to to to reach all of these books that are coming out so we need to be little more little more fussy little more picky with what we're reading something needs to grab our attention more obviously this is minimum right so I'm not saying that if you're 50 years old only read 50 pages I'm saying that the minimum should be 50 pages before you quit mentioned earlier about how harnessing technology can double the number of books that you read per year and so I'm in the middle of making video at at the moment on how to turn your mobile phone or your cell phone into book reading machine hopefully by the time you've read this it will be up here and it'll be available if it's not appearing up here then it means that I'm still making it and so you know feel free to subscribe to the channel and maybe it will come out soon hopefully always remember that you know it's not about how many books that you read but how deeply you read and how much joy you get from it so hope that this video helps you to do that thanks so much for watching really appreciate it Happy reading