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Comment by mongol | Hacker News Reader

How much time do you read per day? How long time to finish a book? I really should pick up reading more but there is so much that distracts me. This website for example.

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I wrote about that last year: https://j11g.com/2020/07/01/how-i-read-52-books-in-a-year/

Long story short: read every day.

I notice my average is pretty steady, around 30 pages/day. So if I manage that, I’m good. But the thing is — with a good book — reading 30 pages is a breeze. And I often end up reading more. I also notice if I can’t read at least 30 pages in one sitting I probably don’t like the book very much.

When I was in jail with (almost) zero distractions I read 100 books a year and 100s of magazines each year.

Since release 5 months ago I have read a total of zero, but I am getting back into it. The real world is distracting.

I often have a fantasy of long periods of uninterrupted time to be able to just read. But jail time is not part of that fantasy! You seemed to have made the best possible use of your time though. I read some of your previous comments, I would be very interested to read your story when you are ready to put it on paper.

While I was in jail I read in 1Q84 that the only place a man has time to read the whole of Proust's "In Search of Lost Time" is in jail. So I had it sent in.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of_Lost_Time (4,215 pages apparently)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1Q84

I never used to be a "reader" but have built the habit through reading at least a section of a book everyday. I have had days where I rattled off 120 pages and days that I read 3 pages. With any habit it is about starting and building it.

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