What I talk about when I talk about Reading

When I set myself a goal of reading 20 books in 20 weeks, I didn't expect to have too much time to read on hand. So I thought it would be relatively tough to get through. However I am quite surprised that I got it done so quickly. I thought people who perpetually put off reading books and who read my blog may want to know how I got thru my list.

1. Make a list. I always have a list of books I want to read/buy, handy (usually in a Post-it note although these days I use Gmail Tasks). Ask for suggestions
2. Carry a book in your bag when you get around. Unlike a lot of people I know, I find it unpleasant to read in the loo and hence don't. But I managed to read quite a few books while commuting. And ever since I began training here, I spend atleast 6 hours every week in a bus/train
3. Try and use electronic forms. I used a Kindle to read a few books on my list. When you are tired, you can activate the text to speech option although I prefer reading myself
4. Keep adding to the list. For ex., just because I am done, I am not stopping here. I am not even halfway through my sabbatical. I intend to read at about the same pace everyday
5. Set a time to read everyday. I read every night after dinner before I went to sleep regardless of whether it was 8 pm or 1 am for 30 mins at a stretch. Usually I was asleep by then.
6. Keep yourself motivated by 'cheating' once in a while by picking short books/unputdownable books (See point 1 above) such as "Once a Runner" which is both short in length and unputdownable. It was also recommended by a friend!
7. It is easier to start if you pick topics which fascinate you. Given my current preoccupation with running, 8 of the 20 were related to running. But I also read books in other genres - graphic novels, literary fiction, economics/business and neurology among others
8. In Dhoni speak, "Well, Of course" if you really love something, take time off even it is a week to attend to it. Part of the reason I maintain an active list and buy books manically is that I expect I will have a vacation sometime and I don't want to look around for books to read. I just pick them off my shelf/out of my bag, etc...

I shall now attend to Tibor Fischer's Under the Frog and Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco, which shall be read at a slightly leisurely pace, now that my rather silly quest to read 20 books in 20 weeks is now over in less than 9 weeks. And those other books, Martin Meredith's The Fate of Africa, SJ Gould's Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville as well as The Perfect Mile by Neal Bascomb are all being read a few pages at a time. Meredith's tome in particular is both daunting (due to its size) and depressing (due to its subject matter).

Frank Shorter's Running for Peak Performance didn't turn out to be much of a book since Shorter's personal presence is felt only at the beginning of sections. Else it feels largely like a training manual for running which could have written by anyone else. So it lacks the warmth that Shorter otherwise conveys in just about every interview of his that I have read. (Bonus trivia: Did you know that he was the last person to see Steve Prefontaine alive?) As a training manual for even someone starting out to run, it seems quite good. So that is book 21 if you please, but like Lata Mangeshkar at the Filmfare awards, I am now out of the numbers game ;)