How To Read A Lot Of Books - One Technique. Also the books I have started.

Here's one way in which I read lots and lots of books every year - I scatter them.  I strew them about.  I tuck them everywhere in my life.  There is a book beside me in the car.  There is a book beside every chair.  There are books in my kitchen and my bedroom and there are books stacked in the bathroom.  There are books I would like to read in my children's rooms and there are books in closets.  My entire life is filled, filled, with books.  I mean filled.  I read constantly.

Well, I suppose that isn't totally true.  I read constantly in spurts and in between spurts I read lazily.  I meander through books off and on, pausing to get deeply involved in a different project like learning how to make a certain food or finish a certain craft or hike somewhere or watch a documentary I've wanted to watch.  And then something will pull at me and I will disappear into books without noticing time passing.  I will forget to eat.  Sometimes I will stay up very very late.  Too late.

This isn't so much a technique for how to read more, so much as an explanation of how I personally read as much as I do.  I keep books everywhere so I am almost never without a book, and when I feel like reading them I dive in and get lost in them and forget the passage of time.  Not a helpful technique for many, perhaps.

I'd like to finish up some of the books scattered in my life right now, so I thought I'd wander around the house and see what I can find that is unfinished.

Let's start:

Beside my favourite reading chair we have a substantial pile.

There are also several books here that I have intended to read and haven't.  I'm not going to start those right now, since I have so many books on the go at the moment.  I will come back to them later.

In the bookshelf of doom, where books that are purchased sit and get forgotten, there are several titles that have been started...

And also a LOT that have not been started.  It's taking significant willpower not to start another book right now from that pile.

Right. And of course beside the bed:

I'm going to gather up all of these books into one big pile and make a list on paper and start crossing off titles as they are finished.  It will be nice to get a fresh start and then I can bring up all of the unread books and start those.  Like spring cleaning the reading lists.