How to get through that giant pile of books you keep meaning to read
Plus a special milestone for a beloved pet and a shout out to the Scholastic Book Club. Long may you both live.
Hello and welcome to Academia Made Easier. I am so glad that you are here.
A recent exchange in my life:
Me: I think my next newsletter will cover how to actually read the books we buy.
Other person: You should just tell people to stop buying so many books.
Me: HOW DARE YOU!
I love buying books. I also love borrowing books from the library. And I can get a bit greedy on both fronts.
I have been a voracious reader since I was young. But I went to a small rural Saskatchewan school where book selection was limited. The best days of the month were when we got the Scholastic Book Club order forms (so many options!) and when the Saskatoon library’s bookmobile came to the school. I would get as many books as my budget and library card would allow, and hope this would carry me to the next book binge opportunity.
My early life book feast or famine reality carried into my adult book mindset; “I must get this book immediately, or I might never get it!” But now I can get ebooks instantly with the click of a button, and physical books delivered to my door with the click of a button and a willingness to be patient for a day or two. And for work-related books, I have a professional expense account that facilitates my addiction purchases.
The result is what you might expect.
While I am happy that my stacks of to-be-read books mean that authors have received well-deserved royalties, these stacks build over time to be a physical, dust-covered to-do list. Yet another thing that I mean to get to, but somehow don’t. Left too long, I no longer remember why I bought particular books in the first place.
A few years ago, I started a practice that has helped me move through my books a bit more efficiently. And while I still take on more books than my schedule or bookshelf allow, this approach has made me feel better about my book habits. Perhaps it will for you too.
One Small Thing to Try Immediately: The “Book of the Week” Approach
The Book of the Week approach requires you to make a short-term commitment to reading a single book. It is shockingly easy, but effective:
Shop your bookshelf for one book. Having many books you mean to read is overwhelming. Having one book you mean to read is much less daunting. So pick one for this week. Don’t overcomplicate this step. Just look at your books and pick the one that most appeals to you. Tip: Don’t pick a book you feel you should read. Pick one that you actually want to read.
Make the book accessible. I have a chair in the living room where I drink my coffee in the morning and where I take breaks on days that I am working from home. My Book of the Week goes there. In addition to the physical copy, I sometimes see if there is an ebook or audiobook option available over my library’s Libby app so that I have the book on my phone and iPad. (I adore the Libby app.) If I know I will be doing a lot of driving during the week, I check podcasts for interviews with the author about the book as well.
Use habit stacking and allocate 10-15 minutes for dedicated reading time each day. I am a big fan of habit stacking, in which you take an existing habit and add on a new desired habit. Here is how I used habit stacking to create a reading habit: every morning, I get up and sit in my favourite chair and drink coffee. For years, I would use this time for social media, email, and other less-than-life-affirming crap for about 30 minutes. I changed that up a few years ago when we got an Echo for the living room. Now, I sit down with my coffee and say “Alexa, set timer for 15 minutes.” I spend 15 minutes on social media, email, etc., and when the timer goes off I stop. I then say again, “Alexa, set timer for 15 minutes” and use that second 15 minutes to read. So. Much. Better.
Use small amounts of random time over the day for additional bonus reading time. Ten minutes between zoom meetings? Finish that section you were reading. Waiting for a bus? Pull out your book instead of your phone. Sitting on the pool deck while your kid takes swimming class? Read, dammit! The pages add up quickly if you read in small increments.
Only read the parts you want to read. Once I get into a book, I often find there are sections or even full chapters that are less interesting or useful to me. Sometimes I skim these. Often I skip these entirely. The Reading Police have yet to catch up with me about this and it allows me to read more books overall.
At the end of the week, decide what to do next with the book. Sometimes I finish the book in a week. But often I get to the end of the week and the book is only partly finished. At this point, I make a choice. I can keep it as the following week’s book of the week, put it back on the shelf for some future book of the week selection, or decide I have gotten what I need from the book for now (and possibly for all time) and move on with my life.
Repeat steps 1 through 6 every week, except for weeks that you don’t want to read.
Here is some fun math for you. Let’s say you decide to read 40 weeks of the year, with 12 weeks off for vacation, busy grading periods, and just plain old “I don’t feel like it” weeks. In that time, you can cover 40 Books of the Week. Depending on how many weeks a book takes you to finish, this could be a good 15-40 books a year more than you are currently reading. That’s pretty awesome in my books.
How do you include reading time in your life? Please take a minute to comment and let me know!
Chipping Away: What I Have Been Up To
A quick update on some of my own activities since my last newsletter, since I have your attention:
I have enjoyed leading a number of workshops recently. These have included sessions on time and energy management for graduate students and on work-life balance for academics. As this newsletter demonstrates, I love discussing strategies for academics to work effectively while protecting well-being. I hope to do more workshops on these topics in the years ahead.
For a number of years, I have been co-facilitating the Centre for Higher Education Research and Development (CHERD) program, Heads and Chairs: Leading Academic Departments. This program provides department leaders with information and techniques to make their work more effective and rewarding. The dates for this spring’s online sessions have been announced, with a new exclusive bootcamp for new incoming heads and chairs! If you are (or are soon to be) a department head or chair, or an associate or assistant dean, please take a look and see if the program might be of interest to you.
I completed a multi-day unit review for an external department. I love doing program and unit reviews. They are a lot of work and are time-intensive, but I learn a tremendous amount about how other programs and universities work. I always leave with a stronger understanding of academia overall all, and I enjoy providing ideas to improve programs.
Until next time…
If you find Academia Made Easier helpful, interesting, or both, I would appreciate your help to grow its audience. Please share this newsletter with a colleague, friend, or your social media following. And I also welcome your ideas for future newsletter topics. I would love to hear from you!
Stay well, my colleagues.
P.S. Today’s newsletter made it to the end without mentioning my cats, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that our family recently celebrated Bandit’s four-year adoptaversary. Just over four years ago, Bandit snuggled into my daughter’s arms at the Saskatoon SPCA and he has been a beloved family member ever since. Here is the most recent photo of him, teaching his new flippy fish exactly who is in charge. We love our fluffy rescue kitty!
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If you are interested in having me lead faculty success and/or graduate student success workshops at your campus, please ask your university to contact me!
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Loleen Berdahl, Ph.D.: I am a twin mother, wife, runner, cat lover, and chocolate enthusiast. I spend far too much time on Twitter and binge-watching television, and my house could be a lot cleaner. During the work hours, I am the Executive Director of the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy. I am the author of the University Affairs Skills Agenda column and my most recent books are Work Your Career: Get What You Want from Your Social Sciences or Humanities PhD and Explorations: Conducting Empirical Research in Canadian Political Science.
Full disclosure: some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links, which means that if you use the link and then make a purchase, I may make a small commission that I will use to support my chocolate and book-buying habits. The cost is to the corporation and not to you, but you don’t want to use the link, no problem: just search up the item again without using the link provided. Better still: support a local business and source the item(s) that way!
Since winter break, I've been reading a chapter a day in my "professional book collection" to end my work day. Not only is it a good way to finish up books (I've already read 10 since January!), but it also gives me a routine to end my day when I work at home.
More and more my focus, although traditionally I have read a good mix of non-fiction too. As I age, the emotional value of stories becomes all the more important.
Be well
:)