How to read 52 books in 52 days

Chapter 1 of the Sufferer’s Cookbook

We call it the shit factory. In Sheepshead Bay there’s a sewage treatment plant. It’s an unavoidable landmark because, even if you don’t see it, you can smell it.

Just South of the factory is a movie theater. We’re now in the early days of cell phone cameras.

A group of friends and I just left the theater. A dozen emergency vehicles were down the block, their strobe lights burning the night sky. People were running towards the cop cars. They were excited, taking pictures with their phones. 

We followed the crowd, but I don’t remember smiling. Inside of the perimeter of cops and flashing photos, was an overturned car. Next to the car was one body cut into two pieces. 

I’ll never un-see that moment. That poor woman whose death was on display for the entertained masses. 

Some thoughts you can’t un-think.

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Different time, same shit factory. We’re now three blocks North of it, past the 7/11, at the home of a wise mage. 

He and I were standing outside of his house. It was a cool fall day, the sun setting over a gray street. Downwind from the factory, each breeze carried a taste of sewage.

We’re were the middle of a conversation that we started over ten years ago, maybe more. An ancient matter, on the prophetic genius of Hideo Kojima.

He took a deep drag of his cigarette and got lost in thought. I could tell that his mind trailed elsewhere.

“You know that bookcase I have in my bedroom?” he asked. Picking up another thread, he continued:

“Well, I don’t think I read most of those books. Almost every book on that case is an unearned trophy.”

He slowly exhaled, with a sad sigh, as the smoke danced with the smell of shit in the breeze.

A bookcase of unearned trophies. Another decade passed and those words were still buried deep into my mind. Sometimes, people’s outside words become your inside words.

Like the scene of an accident, a thought you can’t un-think. 

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Today. Each year I wanted to do a 52 book challenge, one book a week for a year. For ten years I convinced myself I’d chip away at my collection of unearned trophies, one week at a time.

For a decade I lied to myself. Every year I’d say that I’ll read a book a week, and each year I’d get bored of my resolution sometime in February.

If I was to succeed, this needed to be a trial by fire. If I wanted to get through this, it needed sacrifice.

I was once on Canada, and there was a church on a hill, a long stone staircase leading to the top. The most devout worshippers climbed those stone steps on their knees. Suffering for salvation, they’d meet God on the way up.

On a bet, I once did a plank for five minutes without any previous training, just will power. Somewhere after the fourth painful, shaking minute, I saw God. 

To finish this book challenge, I’d need to climb the 52 steps on my knees. I would need to dance with the heavens to cross that finish line. Sacrifice comfort to earn my book trophies.  

I’d only get through 52 books if I did it in 52 days. A book a day keeps the demons away. It wasn’t a resolution, it was a spiritual journey.

Some days were effortless: you caught a beautiful page turner , like a fish on the hook of your first cast. The Alchemist by Pablo Cuelho (I rated it 9/10). Born Standing Up by Steve Martin (9/10). But some days were a long fishy battle. The Art of Strategy (4/10).

Shorter books helped. Funny books helped. Biographies of people I admired. A sprinkling of self help. A dance with a topic I’d only flirted with before. 

I hit the wall at book 43 (Think Like a Billionaire, 3/10). What a stupid challenge, not even worth it! But eventually book 46 (Never Split the Difference, 9/10) pulled me out of the funk and fueled me across the finish line.

After 49 days of being an insufferable husband and aloof friend, I got to the final stone step.

On February 19th, 2022, I earned my 52nd trophy.

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Ten Tricks for reading 52 books in 52 days

1. Start first thing in the morning. Save physical books for weekends. 
2. Lots of audio books and learn to listen at 2x + playback speed. You acclimate quickly to the faster text. And with that:
   1. Plan lots of chores and mindless work. The best accompaniment to listening.
3. Prepare to say no to most calls, meetings and social functions. 
4. Have an infant whom you spend 3-4 hours a day rocking to sleep. Prime listening time. Read your books to her as her story time. She’s five months old, she doesn’t care.
5. Stick to physical books under 150 pages. 
6. If you finish a book early, start the next one that day. Better to be ahead with a buffer than behind playing catch-up.
7. Write a mini book report after finishing each book. A short paragraph and a rating. Gives a moment of closure in between the breakneck pace.
8. Load up on books ahead of time. You’ll quickly start to run out and will waste precious hours looking for new ones. 
9. Get Scribd membership, where all books are included for less than 10 bucks a month.
10. Take lots of notes in the margins, it will help with retention. Also, marking a book with your thoughts creates a unique inheritance hidden in your bookcase. Finally a note on retention: Don’t expect to retain every word. If you retain even 2% of 52 books, that’s better than a standard retention of 4% of 10 books read annually (my average). 2 x 52 = 104; 4 x 10 = 40. Therefore, 104 > 40. 

Shender’s List: The ten best books I read of the 52

1. The Alchemist, rated 9/10, audiobook – was my first time experiencing this book and it’s every bit as enjoyable as the hype. A beautiful story, wonderfully written. 
2. Never Split the Difference, 9/10, audiobook. My third reading of this book. A book of hostage negotiation that everyone should read. All conversations become more effective, especially negotiations, when approached strategically. This book will level you up.
3. Your Music and People, 9/10, physical book. My third reading and the margins of Derek Sivers’ best work are starting to have more text than the book itself. An inspiring set of anecdotes that act as explosive creative prompts.
4. Consider This, 9/10, physical book. My fifth or sixth reading of Chuck Palahniuk’s masterpiece on writing. Every time I read it, I gain experience points in creative expression.
5. The Comfort Crisis, 8/10, audiobook. Wow did this book have a surprising impact on me. Right place, right time. We’re living in a crisis of spirit due to the comforts of modernity. Do hard and painful things to find satisfaction in life. Find your mysogi, a Japanese word for personal trial.
6. Do The Work, 8/10, audiobook. The more practical and applicable sequel to War of Art (also 8/10). It contains great advice on getting your work done and freeing yourself from unending projects. 
7. Atomic Habits, 8/10, audiobook. If you’re looking to build better habits or break bad ones, this is probably the best book on the subject. 
8. On Writing, 8/10, audiobook. So well written. Somewhere in Stephen King’s biography is a hidden book on writing. Makes it so much better than a clinical course on the subject. 
9. Studies in Pessimism, 8/10, audiobook. Arthur Schopenhauer surprised me with how modern this classic of philosophy is. Especially his chapter on noise, which “reduced great intellects to mediocrity.”
10. Twilight of the Idols, 8/10, audiobook. Speaking of people that don’t like Schopenhauer, Nietzsche’s masterpiece is one of the most quoted and unattributed works you’ll find (“what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” etc.) A knockout punch of transgressionary thought.
11. Bonus book – The Long Ships, book one. 8/10, audiobook. I did not expect to love this comedic Viking adventure as much as I did. As I spend hours rocking my daughter to sleep, my mind was off in faraway lands battling for Viking glory and treasure.