Is there a such thing as reading too much ?

[drakedee]

Okay... check it out ...
three years ago you would have Never seen me reading a novel... but one day i started a novel for the hell of it and have been a bookworm ever since...

there was a point where i got to reading at least 3 novels a week... Im talkin hours on end of reading...
Ive slowed down to about 1 maybe 2 books a week if lucky.. I no longer read Fiction material... im all about Non fiction, Financial, etc...

my 'Q is... how many books do you guys read in a week ?
am I 'over indulging' in learning ?

[dor]

Originally Posted by drakedee

Okay... check it out ...
three years ago you would have Never seen me reading a novel... but one day i started a novel for the hell of it and have been a bookworm ever since...

there was a point where i got to reading at least 3 novels a week... Im talkin hours on end of reading...
Ive slowed down to about 1 maybe 2 books a week if lucky.. I no longer read Fiction material... im all about Non fiction, Financial, etc...

my 'Q is... how many books do you guys read in a week ?
am I 'over indulging' in learning ?

gawd if only more americans had this 'problem'

[chopsaw]

I always have a book with me. If I'm not reading to my kids, I'm reading for myself. I have been clocking 100 books a year for well over fifteen years now (I don't count the books I read to the children).

I don't watch any television, except a baseball game now and again. I get my news from the newspapers and the web.

[Trustme]

I read around 50 books a year, including unabridged audio books from audbile.com. I listen to them while cooking, walking to work or doing sports. It's a great way and much better than listening to music IMHO.

[Detached Observer]

When I was a child, my parents would punish me by taking my books away and confiscating my library card. To answer the question, I can sometimes read too much...especially when I do not get anything else done BUT that. I read about 1-3 books a week depending on length and interest in the subject.

-db

[Zulu]

Yearly average: 50-100 books. Can fluctuate from a book every 2 weeks to 1 book per day, even 2 books per day.

I love to read. I read mostly non-fiction. About half of that is medically oriented reading and half of that is personal growth stuff/psychology research.

Reading too much is hard to do. If you read 8h per day, and you eat 1h per day, you still have 7h to socialize, exercise, etc.

You're reading too much when it's interfering negatively with the rest of your life. I guess that could be any amount of reading, although, realistically, people read far too little for their own well-being.

Also, for those who read self-help type stuff, reading too much can prevent them from going out their and actually acting, although I've never had that problem.

[asrai]

I had a bad day one day so I stopped by the library and picked up some more books. I already had several to read, but I had a bad day. I came home and confessed to my husband that I had an addiction to the library.

I'm also a part time college student. Which is a lot of reading in itself. I always have a book with me.

So, no, I don't think you can read too much.

Asrai

[Wanderer]

Nope

Not possible

Aristotle broke things down into higher and lower pleasures, TV/watching sport/doing nothing/eating rubbish are lower pleasures, books and chess are most certainly higher pleasures which feed the soul.

Saying that I do think it is possible to read too much fiction.

[jojo]

nope...you can never read too much. i always have about 10 -15 books on the go at any one time. i do a lot of speed reading especially with PD books and some technicial books. but i LOVE reading. plus i don't watch much TV, so i guess i read instead.

[Robert Avila]

Hello everyone...

Congratulations on all of that reading !!!!

Any suggestions on how to get all of that reading accomplished ...50-100 books per year...that is amazing.

Do you schedule a specific time each day to read?

Any speed reading programs you would recommend?

In the past, I was able to read one book and go on to the next....now I am all over the place.....I have a few books going at once....and a stack of new books I have yet to get to.

Thanks in advance!

Robert

[alexander.kharlamov]

I'd say the only case when it can become bad for you if you do reading and not much socializing with people out there. If books become your escape mechanism, and you'd rather sit in the corner and read instead of going out there and meeting people, then it's bad.

[The David]

It's ironic that you mention that. Just recently, I've gone on a random reading spree. I have serious ADHD and so this is very foreign to me.

I don't think it's a problem. As long as you're not so full of other people's thoughts and feelings that you can't hear your own, then it's perfectly healthy to read and learn.

[JeffS]

Originally Posted by Robert Avila

Any suggestions on how to get all of that reading accomplished ...50-100 books per year...that is amazing.

Do you schedule a specific time each day to read?

We're getting a bit off topic here, but this seems worth addressing. I've consistently read ~100 books a year for the last several years. I don't speed read (though I do read fairly quickly, thanks to all that practice).

Probably the #1 thing that helps me make time for reading is that I don't own a TV. I don't necessarily replace all that TV time with books, but some of it must work out that way.

By now, all of these habits are completely automatic, but try the following:

- always have a book going. if you get into one, read all you want...when you finish it, start the next one. the longer you go between books, the harder it is to start up again.
- read before bed. this doesn't work for some people, but it's a nice habit to help you relax before sleep. I probably don't do this for more than 15-20m per night anymore, but that time adds up.
- always have a book with you. This is the biggest one if you want to do serious reading. I live in NYC, so I'm on the subway probably 5-10 hours per week, and I always have a book open. If I'm in line at the post office, I read. If I'm waiting for a client to meet me somewhere, I read. If I go to a concert by myself and get there early, I read until the concert starts...then I read during intermission.

All of this may mean that I'm reading 10-20 hours per week, which is a ton...until you realize that much of it would be wasted time otherwise. I'm very busy these days, so I almost never just sit down with a book for a couple of hours, yet I ~never~ take more than 7-10 days to finish even a long book, thanks to all of those snippets of time I find throughout the week.

[alexyeo]

Reading too much?
I think most people are reading too little.
Many of my friends don't even read any books at all.
I only started to read more these few years when I was exposed to personal development. I prefer to read non-fiction self help book. Reading "storybook" or novel is a no-no for me though.

But nowadays, if I don't have the time to read, I would listen to audios.
Can listen to those audios while travelling. Good use of time. I can't read on trains, make my head dizzy. Ooops.

[Kenny Lindsay]

My problem is that I read too many books at once. I have so much material that I want to read!

I think that it is important to read but that you must then put what you learn into action for it to be worthwhile.

[alexyeo]

Originally Posted by Kenny Lindsay

My problem is that I read too many books at once. I have so much material that I want to read!

I think that it is important to read but that you must then put what you learn into action for it to be worthwhile.

I totally agree with what Kenny says. We must put into action in what we read and learn. Sometimes, I am guilty of that too.

Wisdom is the application of knowledge. You need to apply knowledge and put it into good use.

[rene_stpierre]

In my opinion, the only case where there can be too much reading is if it starts affecting your Job, health, family relationships and social life.

We all need a balance in our life and focusing too much on one element of our life to the detriment of other aspects is not good.

Personally, I had read 1 or 2 books in my life (I had to because it was related to school homework) until 1 1/2 years ago. Then last year, I hit an all-time record of 12 books.

I will continue increasing that number (I purchased a Photo Reading course to increase my reading speed) every year.

I read Personal Development books and biographies.

René

[mlle_thenardier]

This reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode where this woman's husband read so much that she banned him from reading at all--- bad idea, for he would often get in trouble at work and at home for sneaking in books.

But in reality, I don't think it's very probable that one can read too much.

[Sunnybayes]

I think you can read too much in certain cases. Like if you are trying to learn a skill, like investing in real estate... you could read forever but then you must apply it.

Same for the forums. You read some good advice but then you have to internalize the information and then stop reading for a while and just sit down and think about the information and how you could apply the concepts that you have learned.

Or else you just end up replacing one item that you have read with another item, maybe like you have a short term memory of a day or so and so that if it becomes full then there is no point in reading more because then you will just forget about the other stuff that you read, so that you need time to think about it so that it has a chance to move to long term memory, and so that you can subconsciously act out the things that you have read and that it becomes apart of you.

[Bruce Achterberg]

Learning [or in this case, reading, which
is a method of learning] can be a clever way to avoid applying
what you already know.
~ Harlequin

Food for thought.

Also, since you like reading so much, check out Steve's article: Are You Ready To Take Action Now?

A quote from the article:

After a stock market rally, many investors will sell some of their stock to “lock in their gains.” They cash out and take the rewards they’ve accumulated. Partly this is to ensure that the rewards of their efforts are actually received because in a short period of time the market could very well erase them. The money from the stock sales can be used to pay taxes, to upgrade the person’s standard of living, or to reinvest elsewhere.

This strategy of locking in your gains applies to personal development as well. But instead of converting securities to cash, what we want to do is to convert knowledge into habits. It’s one thing to have valuable how-to knowledge stored in your cranium, but that knowledge does nothing for you by itself, just as stock doesn’t actually do anything for you until you trade it. Sure it’s possible your knowledge or your stocks will go up in value over time, but you can’t access that value until you “cash out” and lock in your gains.

[taylor2]

well-i love to read and have so many books. i love books.but i find if i sit too long...i get ansy.like i need to be moving more.the same with sitting in front of the computer too much.i think there is a book called "women who read too much".i guess moderation in all things.

[Dimitry]

Originally Posted by JeffS

We're getting a bit off topic here, but this seems worth addressing. I've consistently read ~100 books a year for the last several years. I don't speed read (though I do read fairly quickly, thanks to all that practice).

Probably the #1 thing that helps me make time for reading is that I don't own a TV. I don't necessarily replace all that TV time with books, but some of it must work out that way.

By now, all of these habits are completely automatic, but try the following:

- always have a book going. if you get into one, read all you want...when you finish it, start the next one. the longer you go between books, the harder it is to start up again.
- read before bed. this doesn't work for some people, but it's a nice habit to help you relax before sleep. I probably don't do this for more than 15-20m per night anymore, but that time adds up.
- always have a book with you. This is the biggest one if you want to do serious reading. I live in NYC, so I'm on the subway probably 5-10 hours per week, and I always have a book open. If I'm in line at the post office, I read. If I'm waiting for a client to meet me somewhere, I read. If I go to a concert by myself and get there early, I read until the concert starts...then I read during intermission.

All of this may mean that I'm reading 10-20 hours per week, which is a ton...until you realize that much of it would be wasted time otherwise. I'm very busy these days, so I almost never just sit down with a book for a couple of hours, yet I ~never~ take more than 7-10 days to finish even a long book, thanks to all of those snippets of time I find throughout the week.

Are you able to remember the information well if you read tidbits here and there? At the moment I find that I need to at least read enough pages for me to recall what was read before and add what was read then. Otherwise I find myself forgetting parts and just overall not having that concrete feeling of reading and understand the book.

Similar thing happens if I have several books on the go.

[John Hill]

I think most people could do with more reading and less TV but if you are spending so much time reading and not enough time doing, all that learning of new material might be of waste if you aren't going ahead. I wrote a post on my site recently addressing this issue called "Law of Action" the link is below.

John

[Glass Joe]

I read a lot of books too, and also listen to a lot of audio programs in my car. It's just a habit now.

I mostly read/listen to non-fiction. And like others, I don't own a TV anymore, but instead just watch movies and TV shows on DVD on my laptop (usually only one or two DVDs a week).

And I agree that theory should be balanced with practice. Knowledge should go hand-in-hand with application. Otherwise, you can get stuck in reading so much about a topic, only to realize later on that you don't even like doing the stuff you read so much about. For instance, I remember reading all these books about investing and fundamental and technical analysis, but learned later on that I didn't want to do that as a full-time job.

Regarding advice on reading and retention:

- Learn how to preview a book. Before reading any (non-fiction) book, read the front and back, the table of contents, and flip through the chapters to get an idea of the overall structure of the book and a feel for the author's writing style. Also try to read Amazon.com and other reviews too if available. I've found that previewing books helps with retention a lot, and also gives you a better idea of what to expect. It also saves time, because you find out if the book isn't what you are looking for sooner rather than later.

- Follow your intuition. Don't read anything because you think you should read it. Don't read anything because the author wrote one good book, so you think you should force yourself to read everything else that person wrote. If the topic doesn't interest you at the moment, you shouldn't force yourself to read it. Wait to see if you become interested again down the road. I also used to keep a "reading queue" on my computer for a while (similar to a Netflix queue), but now I just read based on feel. Sure, keeping a queue is probably a more disciplined approach and you might get through books faster by sticking to a plan. However, and this might totally be a placebo effect, I think I retain a lot more when I read "by feel" rather than by sticking to a game plan. And I enjoy this approach a lot more. I think most people would naturally retain a lot more when they read what they actually want to read, rather than what they think they should read.

- Learn to outline and summarize. If you really need to retain what you are reading. Outline the book and write chapter summaries as you are reading through the book. Try to pretend you are explaining the book to someone else. You aren't writing a book report, you are just writing notes to yourself, so don't worry about spelling or even if it is comprehensible. Just start out as briefly as possible, and then expand when think it's necessary. Not vice versa. Don't try to be as detailed as possible at first. Because if you do that, you will likely just end up re-writing the book with similar words rather than summarizing it, and that's a waste of time.

- Trust your memory. I used to worry about not retaining all the stuff that I read too. But then I realized that my forgetfulness and my supposed lack of retention, was really a feature and not a bug of my conscious mind. It's weird, but I find that when I need to remember something about a topic I read about a long time ago, I'll remember it then and there, or I'll at least remember where to look it up. It will just show up in my mind when I need it. But if I try right now to remember all the chapters of a particular book I read, just to see if I can do it, I usually can't remember all that much. It only surfaces when I seem to really need it. Not when I try to pretend that I need it. Of course no memory is perfect, so there is probably a lot of stuff that I'm losing that I don't even realize I'm losing. But then again, I'm not even sure if that's a feature too. I mean, I don't know if what I'm losing is even anything I need to remember.

- Trim down your library periodically. Sell, give away, or throw away any books that you don't like or are of no use to you any more. This may sound obvious, but it's easy to forget to purge from time to time. If you don't do this, your library will become unmanageable and you won't know where to find stuff. Sure, you can organize *all* your books, grouping together the books you like with the ones you don't like. But why waste your time organizing books that you don't even like or don't even think are useful anymore?