[paulcole]

1. I’ve always been a quick reader. I can usually get through a 350-450 page paperback novel in ~3-4 hours.

2. So if I aim to read at least 30 minutes a day on weekdays and then 2-3 hours a day on weekends, they go by pretty quick.

3. I had a week’s vacation back in May and ended up reading 6 books that week. So prioritizing reading when I have extra time helps.

4. If a book sounds interesting, I buy it without thinking about it too much. It shows up on my Kindle and then when it’s time to read I know I won’t waste too much time picking out and buying a new book.

[nicbou]

How do you manage to read so fast? I read about as fast as I speak, and it's often faster than my brain can make sense of some paragraphs.

[paulcole]

I’ve just always been that way since I was a kid. It’s not something I’ve ever practiced besides reading a lot throughout my life. But while I read faster than average, I bet I have average to below average retention.

Novels like detective stories or whatever, I just want to follow the plot and enjoy it — I really don’t care if I can remember it at all when I’m done. One benefit of this is that there are some books I’ll revisit every few years and really re-enjoy. Then there’s some books where I’ll be like “this sounds good” and then 1/2-way into it I realize I read it a decade ago.

For non-fiction books (particularly those I want to learn from) I make myself go slower and rely on highlights and notes to improve retention.