100 Books in a Year (Reflection)

I’ve received a lot of questions about my 2018 New Year’s Resolution goal of reading 100 books, so thought I would pull some of the frequent questions together in a single place with answers.

Frequently Asked Questions

How did you create the time to read all of these books? First, it came with a commitment towards the goal, followed by a break down of measurable outcomes.

Doing the math, I knew I needed to read (avg) 2 books per week and at my pace of reading. That drove a rough estimate of how many pages per day/hour.

Ultimately, it meant I needed to get up a little earlier and use some free/evening/weekend time to succeed. There’s no easy button when it comes to things like this.

This really kick started my 5am wake up routine.

Why did you do this? In March of that year, a colleague shared that he was working a similar goal. It sounded interesting.

I knew, two of the best ways to accomplish any goal is to make it known publicly and have others hold you accountable.

For the record, about a month into the goal, I discovered that my friend and I had different definitions of a “book”. He was reading magazines and books about knot tying!

Did you have a favorite book? I really enjoyed most of these books, for different reasons. It’s hard to narrow down to a single book given the different categories.

• Favorite Biography: Alexander Hamilton
• Favorite Science: Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
• Favorite Business: Principles

How did you choose which books to read? Lots of books came as recommendations from friends/colleagues and from recommendations on Good Reads as I logged them.

Where did you buy books? 100 books would be like $2-3K - right? I purchased about half of the books new and the other half a mix of used with a few audio books in there too. Towards the end I was much more price conscious as well.

What is your book goal for 2019? No book goal for 2019, at least not by volume. I would love to not see a book for awhile.

What was the most difficult book to read? Hands down - The Origin of Species. I know this was written A LONG time ago, by a scientist, but I found it very repetitive and…BORING - it repeated the same things over and over again - likely because it was written by a scientist, a long time ago, who used a lot of repetitive words.

Personal note: I have to thank my wife and kids for supporting me on this goal. It seems silly and cliché to say this, but they understood how important it was and were incredibly supportive as I carried books around the house with me, read through movies and dragged them through used books stores every other weekend. You guys rock!

Fun Facts / Stats

• Average book was about 200 pages (estimate)
• Longest book was Hamilton’s biography: 738 pages (and the font was tiny)
• Total page count was easily over 20,000
• I started in March, so actual achievement took apprx 300 days
• Average reading 67 pages / day
• Only a small handful of fiction books (Happy Potter, Julius Caesar, etc)
• Estimate I spent around $1000 (well worth it)