How To Read 52 Books In 52 Weeks And Save $ 21,000

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

And then the day has come … I turned the last page of the last book and could not believe that a whole year had passed since the moment I challenged myself. In this article, I want to share with you why I read 52 books in 52 weeks, why I say that I saved $ 21,000, and how you can achieve the same result.

Why bother with that?

Let's start with a small interesting fact: I have never been a big fan of reading before, at least until 22 years old for sure. That is, I did not read anything except what was supposed to be according to the program and did not find any pleasure in it. However, in my junior year, I came across one of the books by Michael Lewis and I even liked it. Anyway, after that, I took another book and officially assigned myself the title of bookworm.

But what's the point in all this? Why try to read one book every week for a year? This is quite difficult, besides, most of them lead a rather stressful life without it, in which there are other more important activities that need to be paid attention to. Why did I do it?

1. Ideas, ideas, ideas: it helps me to generate ideas not only for my site, but for my life.

2. Knowledge / education: if you don't use your brain, it will atrophy. This allows me to be constantly aware of the topics that interest me.

3. I have something to share: The more I read, the more information in my head that I can share with others to solve their questions.

4. This is a challenge: who doesn't like a good challenge? We must always do what pushes us forward and makes us develop. This is a good way to build up your intrinsic motivation, confidence, discipline, and willpower.

5. It is cheaper than conventional training: We'll talk about this in more detail later, but all 52 books cost me about $ 500 in total, and a higher education will cost me about $ 21,000. In addition, I can focus on the subjects that interest me the most, and learn about them in a year of reading much more than I would learn in four … or even eight, taking into account the graduate school (we are talking about the American system) years of formal education. …

6. You begin to see beyond the view from your window: reading teaches you to step outside your mental comfort zone and learn new ideas, theories and beliefs. You will be able to evaluate different positions and beliefs, see things and the world from different points of view.

7. Best teachers: you get access to the best minds and most successful teachers of all time for … well, about 10-20 bucks a head. This is probably the best deal of your life.

8. Communication: reading has allowed me to build better social relationships. I feel that it makes me a more interesting person, I can now talk about a bunch of different subjects at any moment, it doesn't cost me anything to start and maintain a conversation on a variety of topics.

9. It's just drop dead interesting and amazing: I repeat, this is really great !!!

This list can be continued further, but these are the main reasons for my act, which I wanted to share with you.

For those for whom these reasons are not enough …

Well, if the listed reasons did not seem very convincing to you, I will tell you the main reason. The point is that I am somewhat disappointed in our education system. I would not like to turn this post into an arena for the battle of opponents and defenders of the traditional training system. Modern educational institutions are doing a lot to teach us new knowledge and skills, to give new ideas and directions for development, to prepare us for professional activity.

All this is true, but I am not sure that the money and, most importantly, the time you have invested in training are optimal in terms of the result obtained. If you have to pay for your tuition, then you know how difficult it is. Many go into big debts to continue their studies, and then after graduation they cannot find a job in their specialty or even realize that they have chosen not their own business. It turns out that they just threw money down the drain?

I wanted to test if self-education with books can replace college attendance, saving more than $ 20,000, and how good would that be? That is why a year ago I set myself the goal of reading exactly 52 books in 52 weeks.

How to actually read one book every week

After a somewhat protracted introduction, let's move on to the most interesting. You probably want to know how this can be done in practice. In fact, it is much easier than you think, and you can apply the method I proposed to achieve any goal and learn anything. Playing the piano, learning a new language, dancing.

1. Set the right goals. This has been said a thousand times already, but the success of the whole business depends on it. Goals should be meaningful to you, specific, measurable, realistic. And don't forget about the pleasant rewards for achieving them.

2. Choice of books. Every Saturday night, I chose a book to read for the next week. I chose books based on recommendations from friends, teachers, or simply according to my personal interests in the subjects I studied.

3. Separation into small steps. The task of reading a thick book in one week can look a little intimidating, but I usually divided the number of pages into six days (one day is a rest for the brain). Thus, a 300-page book means reading only 50 pages a day, which does not sound so scary and difficult.

4. Special time. The main obstacle to all such undertakings is the constant lack of time. Therefore, set aside a special time in your routine that will be dedicated to reading. For me, the only free time was in the morning, so I began to wake up a little earlier and devote this time to reading. In addition, your mood, willpower and determination are at their highest in the morning, so if you have a difficult task ahead, it is better to do it in the morning.

5. Flexibility of the schedule. Not every book I read was 300 pages long. There were also much thicker books, which are simply impossible to overcome in a week. In this case, I compensated for the lag with one or more thinner editions, thus staying in line with the schedule without compromising the reading comprehension.

6. Read at any free moment. Despite the morning reading hour, I was ready for it every minute. My iPad was with me always and everywhere: in transport, at bus stops, in queues and even in the toilet. Be prepared to read a couple of pages any minute.

7. Read what interests you. If you are doing what you love and learn new information on a topic of interest to you, then the reading process is easy and imperceptible. This is the main secret.

And what is the bottom line?

In my personal deep feeling, this year I learned about life, philosophy, ways to achieve success, about myself and the world around me much more than eight years of study. It was not an easy year, but according to its results I feel completely different than before and I am not sure that such an experience could have given me a traditional education. Moreover, reading gave me a much broader outlook and courage in creativity, which is not very welcome in the modern educational system programmed for standardization.

What conclusion can be drawn from my story?

There are so many paths for self-education today, ranging from online courses to traditional books, that investing money and time in formal education is not the best solution. At least for me. What do you think about this?