Read One Book a Week for an Entire Year

What better way to seek wisdom than to read books?

“If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

I’ve always been an avid reader but have been really inconsistent with the habit.

Sometimes I’ll plough through 3-5 books in a month. Then I’ll go months without even touching a book.

If I had to guess, I’d say I read anywhere from 15-20 books a year, but really, I have no idea because I don’t keep track.

So, in an effort to become a more consistent reader, I’m going to see if I can read a book a week for an entire year.

The goal here is not just to read 52 books in a year.

The real value comes from what I’m able to take away from each of the books I read.

What wisdom am I able to extract?

What will I take with me to my other experiments or challenges?

How will I be different after reading each book?

I’m also really looking forward to the habits I’ll be forced to develop to accomplish this task.

There’s no way I’ll accidentally read 52 books in a year, so how I systematically approach this and the habits I develop will probably end up being just as important as the wisdom I gain.

To keep me honest throughout the process, I’m going to be publishing a quick review of each book I read every week.

Each review will include:

How I found this book – I think it’s important to give credit to the people and places where books are found or recommended. Some of the best books I’ve read have come from podcast recommendations or Instagram accounts and I would love to be able to give those place new fans.

Why I decided to read it – Just because a book is available to you doesn’t mean you have to read it. If you take the time to calculate the number of books you have left in you, it’s not as many as you might think, so it’s important to have a clear reason for picking one up.

What I’m taking with me – This is to help me be more intentional about gaining knowledge and wisdom through books. Often, I’ll read just to get through the pages rather than looking for important nuggets along the way. Here, I’ll share all of the nuggets I picked up.

Favorite quotes or sections – This is the tweetable/instagrammable section

Affiliate link – I don’t like asking for money, but if you decide to purchase a book after coming across it on this site, you might as well use my affiliate link. It’s not any more expensive to you and I’ll gladly accept a few pennies here and there.

This is a lengthy experiment, so there will be other wisdom tests sprinkled in, but this will also become a steady keystone for everything else on the site.

Hopefully you get some value but if you don’t, I definitely will be!