#52booksayear !

It was mid January and I just finished my fourth book in less than three weeks. Of course I took a picture, posted it on Instagram and ended it with a hashtag: “#52booksaYear?”

I´m a huge fan of reading. I have always read a lot but just like anyone who loves reading – I don´t read half as much as I would like to. So I said to myself – why not? And I started aiming for 52 books in 2013.

The quantity versus quality still stays on the quality side. I am way more careful with the choice of the book. Sometimes I would have stopped reading a book after its first 50 pages because I knew exactly what the author wants to tell me. But that was before. In the times when reading was “just a hobby”. Now, every page I read means an investment and I cannot even afford to start investing into something that doesn´t bring enough value. Therefore I spend much more time choosing the right book to read.

I always read at least two books at the same time. This way I can decide which one I feel like reading that evening. And I am more likely to be in the mood to read one of them. I also usually go for two topics which are way different from each other. And I believe that inspiration always comes when you read or do things that are far away from your everyday “microcosmos”. So I try to read books that have nothing common with what I do every day.

When reading, even more important is to apply things you read and relate them to your daily life. As I recently quoted the Trust Agents at one of the conferences where I was speaking: “Apply stuff you read! Don´t just collect recipes. Rather open a restaurant.” But you might say it is impossible when reading such a big amount of books. So how do I do it?

I usually read on my Kindle. Of course I highlight the most interesting stuff and I write into Evernote everything I want to get back to, research more or plan to realize. I spend quite some time after each book going through these highlights and notes. And now I´ll be also writing a blog post if I can relate some of the books´ punchlines to my everyday “microcosmos”.

By the way. It´s a week no. 10 and I´m on the books no. 11 and 12 at the moment. Have a good book suggestion for me? Make sure to let me know at any of my social channels below.