So on New Year’s Day I randomly decided that I would try some resolutions. Normally, I don’t make resolutions or, if I do, I give up before the end of January (like everyone else). And this year, I made an outrageously bold one: Read 52 books. I’m sure reading one book per week isn’t that big of a resolution for many people, but I read fairly slowly. And my consumption of books is feast or famine. I managed to read a bunch of books last summer, but haven’t really read much since then. So I took a swing and so far, I’m #crushing it. In about 6 weeks, I’ve logged 11 books.

How did I double a reading pace that I thought was going to be a long shot to even maintain?

Cheating (of course)

Well, I mean, it’s not really cheating. It’s just audiobooks. My library has audiobooks that I can download onto my phone through the OverDrive app. I like it because it’s as easy listening to podcasts but after I’m done I get to feel like I’m a well-read person.

Sidenote: If your library doesn’t have audiobooks through a service like OverDrive you can always try Audible through Amazon (you’ll get two free audiobooks) and then keep it around and pay for it if you like it.

Ok, so listening to audiobooks seems like a pretty dumb lifehack (which isn’t saying much because most lifehacks are pretty dumb), but my real secret has been playing the audiobooks at 1.5, 1.75, and occasionally 2 times the speed of the recording. Why waste 10 hours listening to an audiobook when you can do the same in 5-7 hours? Audiobooks are generally read to emphasize clarity — which translates to most of the talking being slower than natural conversation, so it’s not a huge jump up to 1.25x or 1.5x normal speed. Once you’re there you become accustom to the faster speed and find yourself working your way up.

Now I find most audiobooks at regular speed sound painfully slow. I’ve noticed people talk faster in podcasts (probably because they’re talking more naturally), but after a few weeks I’m now cranking those up to 1.5x the normal speed.

So if you want to read more, don’t. Listen more. And listen faster.

And now for Brian’s Books (which is also the name of a bookstore where I grew up — no relation)

Nonfiction
The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver
Three Cups of Deceit by Jon Krakaeur
Missoula by Jon Krakaeur
Read all his other stuff if you haven’t already
The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu

Funny and Memoirish
Yes Please by Amy Poehler
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson

Books that I read last year so they don’t count but are good and straddle the line between Nonfiction and Funny and Memoirish
Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari

Self-Improvement and Self-Improvement-adjacent
Spark Joy by Marie Kondo
Feminist Fight Club by Jessica Bennett
Joy on Demand by Chade-Meng Tan
The Storyteller’s Secret by Carmine Gallo