My name is Diane and I’m a book addict. Out of curiosity, I used to track how many books I read each year. When I made it to 78 books in 1 calendar year, I stopped keeping track. How could I ever top that?

People ask how that’s possible. It’s more than 1 book each week. Do I have a full-time job outside the home? Do I have a life at all? Yes to both. Do I have a family? Yep.

I’ve never taken a speed reading class, but I do have a few ideas that may help if you’re trying to boost the number of books you get through.

1. Never read the Introduction. A great book needs no introduction. If I get into a book that makes no sense, I might go back and glance at the introduction, but it’s usually just some famous person telling you why you should read the book. If I’m holding the book and ready to read it, I just want to read the book.

2. Be willing to read everywhere. I work in a highrise office building. I read while I’m on the elevator. As far as I’m concerned, airline travel was invented to give people quality reading time. I read while I’m in line at the kiosk to print my boarding pass. I read while I’m in line for security. I read at the gate. I read on the plane while they give me the safety briefing (and yes, I realize that’s rude). If I’m ever bored before church starts, I read the Bible while I wait. You’ll never catch me at the doctor’s office or in line at the bank without a book in hand. Keep an emergency book in your car, purse or briefcase so that you ALWAYS have something to read.

3. Read more than 1 book at once. Some people just can’t do this and I respect that. We multi-taskers should be able to read more than 1 book at the same time. If today I’m in the mood for a mystery, I pick up the mystery novel that I started last week. If tomorrow, I want something more substantial, I’ve got 3 non-fiction books to choose from that I’m working my way through. Sometimes I get completely absorbed in a novel and read it straight through to the exclusion of all others, but that’s rare.

4. If a book sucks after 3 or 4 chapters, move on with your life. This is tough for me. Because I review books, I usually power through to the end, even if it’s terrible so that I can warn others. If a book is boring or you absolutely hate all the characters, put it down and walk away. Now if it’s just weird (like “Life of Pi“), I tend to give it a little longer just in case it will pick up or change direction.

5. You don’t have to read every detail. When I’m reading a book like “The Hunt for Red October“, where Tom Clancy goes on and on about types of guns or the detail behind the nuclear powering mechanism of the submarine…I don’t care. So I read faster. Sure I don’t get every single detail that the author is trying to tell me, but I get enough to follow along. A good story will hold up to some amount of skimming. You don’t read every word on a web page and you don’t have to read every word on every page of every book that you read.

Will someone ask you a detailed question about a book you just read and you won’t be able to discuss? Maybe. You can still talk about what you thought of the book as a whole which is probably more important than discussing what exactly Frank McCourt meant on page 214.

The Moral: If you love to read, read how you want and don’t let anyone tell you different. Everyone has their own style of reading, pronouncing character names (it was so much fun to talk about Harry Potter books with people before the movies came out – EVERYone had a different pronunciation of Hermione), and approach to the books they select. So be yourself and keep reading!