In November, 2008, I first read Read for Your Life: 11 Ways to Transform Your Life with Books. Nearly 12 years have passed and I decided to pick the book up again and read it with fresh eyes. My impression is the same — it is a simply written, challenging defense of the importance of reading for the sake of the individual, society, and future generations.
Pat Williams’ resounding challenge throughout Read for Your Life cannot be mistaken. Devote an hour of every day to the activity of reading. He takes things a step farther, eliminating magazines, newspapers, and romance novels from the list of qualifying materials. A minimum of one hour devoted daily to real texts — the latest novel, classic literature, or non-fiction of all kinds. Williams’ statement throughout is clear. He doesn’t care what you read (well…that’s sort of true….), he just wants to see you read.
Once the challenge is made in the early pages of the book, the remaining pages examine the impact of reading and how to make reading a part of your life. The reasons are what you would expect. Reading exercises your brain and helps you age better mentally. Reading allows the reader to further their own education. Reading models important behavior for the young. It informs us of the past while examining the present and preparing for the future. Reading is a way of conversing with many of the greatest minds our world has ever known. Reading changes us.
The tips are simple and rather obvious, but they are presented in such a way that you want to buy into the principle. Get up earlier in the morning. Use reading as a way to wind down at the end of the day. Rotate through several different tomes to avoid getting bored. Read books that interest or challenge you. Break your reading sessions up throughout the day. Never go anywhere without having a book nearby. Always have a new book on hand — the anticipation of the new book helps to encourage you to finish the one that you are currently in. Williams goes so far as to suggest reading in the car while sitting at a stop light. I’m not so sure about that recommendation, but I get the idea.
Before reading Read for Your Life again, I had decided to change my yearly reading goal. Instead of challenging myself to read a certain number of books (although I do have a goal of 40 since that seemed achievable), I decided to focus on reading daily. My goal was 30 minutes every day in 2020 and I’m sticking with that. So far — as of today, January 15 — I’m on a 15 day streak. What has been shocking to me is how easy it has been to actually permit myself to read for 30 minutes each day. Most days, I’m hitting 60 minutes without a struggle. I have several books in play at the same time (currently I’m reading 3 books), but I still find myself devoting most of my time to one book at a time. If I can maintain this pace, I’m excited to see just how many works I can complete in 12 months. The regularity of reading may be the key that I’ve been missing as I have sought to develop a well-read life.
Read for Your Life was published in 2007. Some of the statements about ebooks and the use of tablets are clearly outdated. The descriptions of bookstores and libraries are from a day gone by. Despite the aspects of the book that don’t hold up a decade after publication, the book’s message is still clear. Williams’ love for books permeates every page and is infectious. I challenge you to pick up a copy and have a read for yourself. I have a sneaky feeling that you might just find yourself accepting the challenge of daily reading yourself. Let’s see just how it changes our lives together — one book at a time.
Reading for Me 
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