A recent post titled, Do Your Daily Habits Include Reading a Book? by Annie Tsai got me thinking about my reading goals for this year. My plan was to read 24 books (two per month), and I felt like that was a worthy and attainable goal.
I started out the year reading about 12-15 different blogs on a regular basis, but that number has since ballooned to well over 50. Here’s a great list of the best customer experience blogs I put together a couple months ago.
In addition to the number of blogs I’m reading, I’ve also read many short e-books this year. I thoroughly enjoy reading all of that material, but I think books can serve a higher purpose. While blogs fit our short attention span and desire for the most recent subject matter, books deliver a deeper and richer experience for me. I feel like I get much more value out of my time investment with a good book.
The books I’ve read so far this year (some more than once) are:
That’s barely more than 1 book per month so far and I’m busier than ever at work. That means in order to reach my goal, something has to be cut from my daily reading habit. I’ve decided it must be the amount of blogs (or online reading in general) that should be pared down. In addition to that, I know I must be more diligent in reading a book every day.
I’m planning on reading 15 more books this year in order to reach my goal. Some of these I’ve started already and some I’ve read before, but warrant a re-read.
That last one is completely off topic, but Justin is hilarious and laughter is good for the soul.
Do you have a reading plan? What does it look like? Can we help each other be accountable to reach our goals?
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bert thomas on 
I’m a read-a-holic as well. I have a hard time, however, sticking with one specific genre. I have to mix up my business, leadership, and customer service books with some fiction, adventure, or biographies. (I’m about to finish Eat, Pray, Love… pretty good so far.)
The best (paradigm changing) book I’ve read all year has been Egonomics. It absolutely blew my mind, and changed my perspective on how I act towards others, and how I view the world around me. Read it if you can.
Haven’t read Egonomics, looks to have good reviews though. I shall put it on the list.
Hi Tim,
I was reminded to come back to this post by a challenge I am about to take part in. You make a great point and one which is relavant to most of us bloggers and Twitterers, enthralled by the quest for, and sharing of, knowledge. I completely agree with you and always get more out of reading a good book than dipping in and out of blogs, and yet reading books gets very little of my attention with all of the constant traffic from the 900+ people I follow on Twitter and the 60+ blogs I subscribe to. This post has reminded me that I need to start setting aside time to start reading the pile of books that are amassing on my bookshelf (some of which are also on the list you have shared)!
Cue the #21days challenge…apparently doing something for 21 days in a row turns something into a habit. The next #21days challenge starts tomorrow and I am going to set aside at least 30 minutes every day for the next 21 days to reading books, and longer if I can fit it in. I am hoping that at the end of 21 days making time to read books will become second nature. In case you are interested, there is some info on the 21days challenge here: http://ht.ly/2MaNS. Why not join us and use #21days to help with your reading plan?
Cheers,
Jed
Hey Jed,
I’ve been doing pretty good with my reading plan, but the 21 days challenge sounds like a great idea to me. I’m going to join up to help me with a new eating plan I’m trying out.
Thanks for thinking of me…cheers to the next 21 days!