Why I Read Only 12 Books in 2021
I love reading. I mean, I love-love reading. I can read for hours. If I did not have social obligations, I would read all the time. With all my passion for reading, one would presume that I would go through books like a beaver goes through bark.
I read only 12 books last year. I read portions of many other books, which I did not finish reading in 2021. On December 31, 2021, some of these books were half-read, others were three-quarters read. I count a book as read when I have read it from cover to cover.
Twelve books in a year comes to one book per month on average. If we assume that an average book has 300 pages, I read 10 pages a day, every day of the year. This is inaccurate, because some of the books that I finished reading in 2021 were left over from 2020.
Two of the books I read in 2021 were very short: The Underachiever’s Manifesto by Ray Bennett and Gratitude by Oliver Sacks. Two of the books I read were very long: The Idea Factory by Jon Gertner and 150 Glimpses of the Beatles by Craig Brown.
My reading taste encompasses several subjects and none of the 12 books fell outside of them. All books were nonfiction books. I used to read primarily fiction until 2006, but then my interests expanded, and I started reading nonfiction books exclusively.
The subjects I gravitate towards include business management, leadership, creativity, music, personal development, psychology, writing, philosophy, food, and personal finance.
Here is a list of the books and the month in which I finished reading them:
January: The Underachiever’s Manifesto by Ray Bennett; The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday
February: The Path by Peter Mallouk; Made to Stick by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
March: In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan; The Idea Factory by Jon Gertner; Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers
May: 150 Glimpses of the Beatles by Craig Brown
June: Gratitude by Oliver Sacks; It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences by June Casagrande
July: The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis
October: The Creative Curve by Allen Gannett
Why did I read only 12 books in 2021? Why didn’t I finish reading more books? What stopped me from reading more?
Two big things happened in 2021 that prevented me from reading more. One was that my dad got COVID-19. He was in the hospital for two weeks and recovered. I had to take care of him afterwards. I was able to read while caring for him, but my time was limited.
The second thing was that I got a new job. Learning a new job takes time and energy. A new job also comes with a dose of stress, because we want to make a good impression and show that we are competent at the job. Stress, plus lack of free time, plus low energy creates a situation at the end of a day that is not conducive to reading. I continued to read, but not every day and not a lot.
When we are busy, we can’t establish consistent boundaries of time for reading. Consequently, we can’t create a reading routine, because we don’t know if we will have time for reading in a day.
This leaves us searching for a few free minutes here and there for reading. When we find some free time, reading often competes with other daily priorities, such as picking up children from school, grocery shopping, or scheduling a doctor’s appointment.
There are two times in a day when it is easier to establish boundaries of time for reading — early in the morning or late at night. When I was in graduate school, I used to wake up at 5:00 a.m. to write and read until 7:00 a.m. before going to school. Nights don’t work for me, as I’m too tired to think straight.
I couldn’t wake up at 5:00 a.m. every morning in 2021 to read. I woke up at 6:30 a.m. I start work at 8:00 a.m. and there are too many things to do before the workday starts. I wash the dirty dishes from last night’s dinner. I walk the dog. I make some food. I get dressed and groomed for the day.
Two times that I used for reading in 2021 during a workweek were the time between the end of a workday and dinner and the periods of waiting for somebody or something. If I had to wait in a car or an office for 20 minutes, I tried to read. If I didn’t have to cook dinner or help with cooking it, I tried to read.
I read the most on weekends. In 2021, for one reason or another, I failed to increase my reading on weekends. Reading is “me time,” which I gave to other people and things. I don’t regret that, but the consequence is that I missed a lot of opportunities for deep learning.
Experiential learning through living one’s life is wonderful, but it is very slow. We have limited time to be alive and learn. I want to maximize my learning during the time I have. Short of downloading knowledge directly into my brain, a book is the best vehicle for storing and transmitting concentrated information and knowledge.
I believe that if I’m not reading enough books across diverse subjects, I am not learning and growing as a person at the most optimal pace. Reading is self-care. The more I learn, the better equipped I am to create something new and make a difference in the world. Self-care through reading leads to world-care.
When we read more, we devote less time to other people and things. It is a choice. Being a voracious reader does not mean that a person is antisocial or asocial. It means that knowledge acquisition is a priority in one’s life. It doesn’t mean that interactions with human beings is not a priority. Both priorities can exist at the same time.
It is now February 2022. I have read four books so far this year. I think I can read at least 15 books this year. We’ll see on January 1, 2023.
