How I Built a Habit of Reading 16 Books a Year

Over the last 20 years, I built a habit of reading books.

I read over 139 books in the last 10 years, and 16 new books last year alone.

My personal success is partly attributed to building my knowledge through reading books and practicing the learnings.

Successful people like Elon Musk and Warren Buffett built their knowledge through reading books.

Warren Buffett reportedly blocks 80% of his working hours for reading.

Why I Love Reading Books

Distraction-free focus

Focus on one topic without constant notifications or switching between apps.

Deep, condensed knowledge

Books contain knowledge from writers that has often been crafted over years or even decades. Sometimes even lifetimes.

Blue light-free reading

Especially when reading on an e-ink reader.

Meditative effects

Reading slows me down and helps me focus.

When I started my company from the living room with my dad in 2006, I needed to build a lot of knowledge fast.

Whenever I needed to learn about a technical or business topic, I grabbed a book and put it into practice.

My habit started to form through physical books.

After the Amazon Kindle ebook reader was introduced in 2007, I switched to it and have used it since then.

It has almost all the benefits of a real book:

• distraction-free reading

• no blue light because of the e-ink display

• light and portable

• easy to carry everywhere

How to Form Your Reading Habit

1. Get an ebook reader
   They are light and portable, so you can take one with you to appointments and on travels.

2. Download 3-5 free book samples
   Before you decide to buy a book, download a few samples. This way, you can get a sense of the author’s writing style before committing to it and maximize the joy of reading.

3. Take notes and learn vocabulary
   This is built in and synced to the cloud. Very handy for going through them later on the computer.

4. Replace small moments of scrolling
   Whenever you can, grab the reader instead of watching YouTube or Netflix. I can’t resist sometimes, but every time I succeed, I feel better after reading a book than after watching content. Small wins form the habit over time.

My All-Time Favorite Books

• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

• How Not to Die by Michael Greger

• Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life

• The Psychology of Money

• A Random Walk Down Wall Street

Happy reading!