How do you read so much so quickly?

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few factors, but: scattered musings on my most asked question. Some replicable, some specific to me.

In the past days, I’ve started to crosspost my extensive archive of book reviews, thoughts, analyses on Substack from the book blog I started at age 13. See: Words Like Silver, established 2011.

This blog is the love of my life, and I am so deeply proud of it and the age at which I knew this was my calling. I can get sappy about why I love reading and writing so much (and frequently do), and there’s little I adore more than matching a person with the right book at the right time.¹

I am an extremely fast reader. I’m often reading about 16 books at the same time thanks to library holds coming in on different days. This year so far, I’ve read 155 books, and my annual average usually shakes out to somewhere between 100-200.

I don’t have a goal number. And there will be months I devour every book in sight and some months I do not touch a book, which balance each other out.

This question is usually from the POV of someone wanting to know how to read more, which is actually a post I’ve written on WLS before that I’ll transfer over. But for me specifically, I wanted to share some of the factors I’ve considered that (I think) contribute to my speed, both overall and this year specifically.

Factors That Impact How I Read So Quickly

I’m naturally a fast reader, and that goes a long way.

For me, the length of (most books) is about the length of a really, really long movie—maybe 3-4 hours. Obviously, certain books—for example East of Eden by John Steinbeck and Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, or something deeply scientific like The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene—will take me longer. But 2-3 (?) pages a minute is still faster than most.

Some very important context here: I do not speed-read. I have never consciously tried to “speed up” my reading, employ any strategies, or overall impose some sort of structure onto how I consume words. I’m speaking about my natural rate, which just happens to be fast, plus behavioral factors that impact how I prioritize reading as an activity within my day-to-day.

Studies have largely debunked speed-reading. You will not comprehend the content (and you miss out on a lot) if you specifically undercut your consumption of a particular book in a conscious way.

It’s a family thing, largely. A text from my sister when at the lake this summer:

I know my taste so well that I always have books in the pipeline I want to read.

Across my book blog, I divide my book reviews into a few loose categories including essays, memoirs, and short stories; sense of place; brain food; dark ‘n stormy; beach read; and others. There is overlap across classifications, but I’ve realized many books of mine usually fall under one of those umbrellas.

As a book reviewer and a passionate, curious person², I recently tallied up my to-read list (informally scattered across phone notes, journals, and the like) and books I’d jotted down just this year totaled over 700 books. We simply do not have enough time in our lifetimes³, and the choice is overwhelming.⁴ Knowing how many good books there are goes a long way.

I absolutely have periods in which I don’t want to touch a book so I never force myself to read, but I nearly always want to chip away at that list. If I’m loving a book, I’m so itchy to return to it.

I’m a big believer that everyone’s a reader and just needs to be paired with the right book, which is how I view my job and calling.⁵ Of course, if you need a book rec, let me know.

I do read when other people are on their phones. (Read at the pregame.)

One of my little jokes as a 27-year-old woman is that I read at the pregame when people are scrolling or texting or whatever it is that makes the social gathering dead. You know the feeling when you’re around a group of people and everyone is being, as my grandfather would call it, a “vidiot.”

When I pull out my phone to kill 10 minutes in line or in a ride-share or during the commercial break for a football game in which friends are being antisocial, I’ll pull out a library book instead of scrolling. Once, I read an entire YA contemporary book during an actual night out when everyone was being kind of a buzzkill. Sorry to say it.

I do and can read eBooks I’ve checked out, so I’m a big believer in always having a phone book. If you find your focus gets too jagged for that to work, try a collection of short stories or vignettes or other reads on your list that you can “chip away at.”

I grew up in a family of six, with extended family all around. Nowadays, several siblings are married and have small children. So I’m great at tuning out noise enough to be able to focus on what I’m reading without feeling like my experience is disrupted.

Re: screen time, if you’ve ever been frustrated by your number climbing, try to at least build the habit to open your reading app (which, hey, might be Substack) versus another time-suck, because those small moments do add up to hours within your day.

Personally, I also go through insomnia spells.

There are a few books I’ve read in the middle of the night when I’ve woken up at, say, 2 A.M. and haven’t been able to go back to sleep. You don’t want to start scrolling on a feed, because that’ll keep the dopamine pumping, but staring at the ceiling isn’t helping. Might as well feel productive or fulfilled. This was at its worst this year during [redacted book process] when I knew any life-changing emails would come in at around 5 A.M. because of my time zone (as I’m six hours behind the East Coast at the moment.)

Reading often has hopefully made me smarter.

I don’t want to assume too much about my mental capacity, but it’s likely faster for me to get through a dense read than a casual reader because I’m familiar with the source material, connections, etc. and can more easily break down a page that has me stuck. Reading well is a muscle you can build too? So I might be an especially good reader because I do it so much, which then makes me able to do it more, etc.

If I have to go back and reread something, or internalize a message, or analyze subtext—well, as a journalist, author, and reader, I have plenty of lenses and strategies I’ve probably unconsciously built to break through those blocks.⁶ This mind map makes me look even more intense, but it’s also how my brain works while I read. So:

Update: I broke down exactly how threads intersect in my brain through a new series I’m writing, Pickup Artist, in which I trace how I get from one book to another (and never run out of things to read.) The first edition takes you all the way from HBO drama The Pitt to cowboy romance Lost & Lassoed. For the “how do you decide what to read next?” question.

Certain formats and genres are quicker, undoubtedly.

I read eBooks faster than print.⁷ Certain genres, like romance and thriller, are more dialogue-heavy versus, say, high fantasy, so I’ll read that more quickly. Pop-sci can be punchy, formatted to be conversational for a casual reader.⁸ Pattern recognition boosts processing speed.

That carries over into reading, of course. I always read a ton in July when I’m at the lake, for example, and while I’m there I tend to crave sunny, addictive beach reads that might veer more formulaic (but also might not! I’m a staunch defender of genre fiction! Literary fiction can be just as much so, and I’ll definitely rip through a book that ends up being all internal monologue.) Being at the cottage also is my one true vacation I can rely on every year in that I’m still working, but people don’t assume they will hear from me, so I try to be offline as much as possible during that time.

Some Factors Specific to 2025

I’m not doing book edits right now.

I’ve spent approximately the last five years in the thick of book revisions, for various reasons. You can check out my timeline here.

It turns out that when you finish such a massive, life-affirming project, you have a bit of a void where the time and energy used to go. I still feel massively pressed for time as I have a thousand admin tasks and responsibilities I absolutely fucked up while my blinders were on. Things are still slipping through the cracks.

But in terms of off time when I’m not working or focused on need, my brain is pinballing and it needs somewhere to go. Everyone on Substack is talking about how to make yourself think more and I need my brain to shut the hell up. It is constantly churning (as evidenced by my high volume of writing.)

People say write your next while querying or on sub, and will often give the advice that you should always be in the thick of your next book. I despise this advice for many reasons, and—while I am vaguely chipping away at a zero draft of what’s next—the lack of BOOKBOOKBOOKBOOKBOOK overpowering my mind at any given time gives me a lot more mental space to spend reading. When I say my book process has taken 95% of what I’ve had these last couple years…I mean it.

Relatedly, my job situation is funky at the moment.

I’m a freelance journalist with some consulting, marketing, etc. contracts thrown in the mix. I’m not nearly pitching enough right now, because I took a small break from the editorial grind while [redacted book process.] All that’s to say, the job landscape is weirder and I’m looking for more traditional, editorial-related roles i.e. 9-5s now that I no longer need as much scheduling flexibility for my book process.

Right now, I do still have plenty of scheduling flexibility so being able to trust my own rhythms when putting together shifts, deadlines, etc. means that I can lean into what’s working at a given time. I can read for work on occasion too, which is fabulous.

There is absolutely nothing I would love more than to be able to devote more time and energy to Words Like Silver, which has remained a one-person effort since age 13. If my work makes a difference to you, I’d love if you’d consider becoming a paid subscriber below. You can also make a one-time donation on my website. Anything makes such a massive difference, and I appreciate the support more than you can imagine.

Prime example: I know I am smartest first thing in the morning and get gradually dumber throughout the day, so when I feel myself being an idiot in the afternoon, I can take an hour-long reading break and return to my desk once I feel refreshed. Lately, I’ve been doing more “midday reading break and evening work to finish up” rather than working all day and reading before bed.

I tried to steal a family member’s copy of James that they’d finished, but I got caught.

I’ve been reading on long flights!

I’m a travel writer (which I love) who lives on an island that’s about five hours out in the air from the mainland. So all my flights are long-hauls. Sometimes I’ll go through a phase in which I’m only working on a plane, or writing (I swear I do my best plotting in the air), or watching show episodes I’ve been saving. This year, I’ve been mostly reading on my flights and I’ll ride that kick ‘til it’s gone.

I’ve read a lot of shorter books.

This year, I’ve also read plenty of shorter books too. In the last few months: The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck, Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky, How to Think About Exercise by Damon Young, Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison; Maggie, Or: A Man and a Woman Walk into a Bar by Katie Yee; Red Doc> by Anne Carson. Those are not big books.

There are a lot of books I didn’t read during [redacted book process] because I worried I’d psych myself out.

Some authors read all in their genre while going through various crucibles, while some avoid entirely. For me, I found myself reading a ton of classics and philosophy and whatnot this year because I wanted to avoid the modern market. Anything written in the last ten years or so—or in my preferred subgenres—would probably make me panic that it was not going to go my way because I’d overanalyze comp titles, advances, sales data.

So now, on the other side, a whole bunch of books I’ve been dying to read just opened up to me. So I have books in the queue that I’ve been looking forward to for months.

I’ve had a weirdly lonely/solitary year, actually.

I’m a very independent person, to the extent that it’s always been peoples’ first word when describing me: independent. The amount of times I’ve heard that specific adjective in my lifetime as “mine” is unreal. Every personality test I’ve ever taken. The solo, lone wolf. The individualist. Etc. etc. etc. I’m an identical twin who spent my childhood being lumped together with my sister—who’s my best friend, by the way, so that’s just the unfortunate reality of twindom—so overcorrected as a person in being hyperindependent.

I live in a transient place (O’ahu) which has never been a problem before. I have a great community of friends and loved ones on the mainland—and talk to my sisters daily—but have had to rebuild a friend group here about three separate times. If you’re a resident, that’s par for the course. It’s never gotten to me all that much before, but I’ve gotten so tired of the shuffling these last few months. I’m an introvert, and it’s taken a lot of energy to start over repeatedly.

Similarly, I was closed off to romance for about four of my five years post-college; in the last year, now that I’ve actually wanted to meet someone, I’ve realized the dating scene here is just as bad as everyone says. I’ve met one person I clicked with, and that didn’t work out. Very, very few people wired my way compatibility-wise.

I have about four friends left here I’d consider “my” people and have tried to make new ones too, but I think I’m just too over the turnover to do so effectively. When I make friends again, I want them to stick around the way they would in a grippier location, so to speak. I love my routine, am so happy by myself, and have been so lucky to be able to strike out on my own so much, but I’ve hit my limit here specifically. Solitude has to be chosen or else it starts to turn into loneliness instead; I’m not there yet, but I’m closer.

So I’ll move soon and build somewhere with more permanent people, but that’s a big factor influencing the sheer amount of alone time I’ve had in 2025: I don’t have as much company!

For now: I work, I write, I exercise, I barback (a great dose of social interaction haha), I see those friends, and I read and write for fun because I love it. I just happen to probably have more Friday nights in for this season of life—which is almost over. It would be silly of me to pretend like that’s not a big factor.

Fundamentally: because I love reading & am a glutton for it.

And I have a great library I’ve built up over the years. So I know how to dance between books!

Because it’s my priority. Because I’m obsessed. Etc. etc. etc. If you don’t find yourself reading as much as you want, you have to be honest with yourself in auditing your time and habits. (You also just might be reading books you don’t like.)

You might genuinely “not have the time,” and I absolutely have months when I can’t make it through what I want to. Still, I trust I’ll finish the book eventually. I have months in which I read zero books. Also, when it’s been a while since I’ve read, I do forget how wonderful reading is until I pick a book up again and go “wait, this is absolutely the best feeling.”

In regards to discretionary time, I’m big on saying that I “don’t prioritize” something, not that I “don’t have the time.”

I’m sure there are plenty of people who will assume I somehow don’t work as hard or that I’m not ambitious enough (hahaha I wish) or don’t have as many responsibilities as they do, or whatever it may be because I’m able to read more books than they can. Believe what you want! I understand. I’m frequently bothered that I can never read as many books as I want to in my lifetime.

Similarly: some people will assume I’m not reading these books well because of the number or that I’m not reading the “right” books. For plenty of people, speed can indicate shallowness. (Cue: the “literacy is dead” refrain.) If I thought my speed impacted my processing ability, I’d try to slow, but I’ve never consciously tried to speed up either. If you want to believe for your own sake that I don’t read closely enough or whatever, go for it. That doesn’t impact me, my craft, or why I do this. Hopefully I’m just smart enough to keep up moderately well, but who knows? Read my reviews and pick them apart if you want to.

People are always pointing out layers or details in books to others that they picked up on versus someone else, which is why I always talk about salience as being crucial to understanding how we process books as readers.

Relatedly: I get asked by a lot of parents how to instill the love of reading in their children. My parents did a phenomenal job on this, as there are four of us and we’re all massive, avid readers.⁹ I have a lot of thoughts and strategies for getting kids to read specifically—especially in the current climate—that I’ll share too. In the end, I think it boils down to curiosity.

1. At some point, I will put together a post about all the books and facts I’ve collected about the neuroscience and benefits of reading—which, by the way, is also relevant to Banned Books Week this week considering dropping literacy rates, massively increased book bans across schools and libraries in this administration, and retailers like Amazon running independent bookstores out of business. Access is a tricky issue.

2. Me, Myself, and Us by Brian R. Little.

3. Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman.

4. Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz.

5. Relatedly, there’s been a huge backlash online in the last year or two about how authors “shouldn’t review books” because “those people are your colleagues.” To which—one, I was raised educationally in studio art critique, so that argument doesn’t hold weight for me, although I can understand networking can be delicate. (I just don’t think it’s a good reason to lie about your book opinions or never share them, but everyone can do what they want.) Two, I think my negative or not-all-positive reviews overall are fair or at least kind/generous when negative. I never flat-out say “don’t buy this, it’s bad” but rather might suggest library-ing a book to know what you think. Or, “this book might be great for Y type of reader instead of me, but I didn’t connect because of Z preference.” Finally, and most importantly, I think bad reviews exist to calibrate reading taste. Everyone responds differently to a book, and if readers know you prefer X qualities and they do also, it’s ultimately a good thing to be able to steer people towards the right book for them. This should be its own post, but c’est la vie. I view my particular role in the literary ecosystem as being one of calibration.

6. I say often that the best writing advice is to read because doing so builds an unconscious register for rhythms, tendencies, etc. that you can’t necessarily put into words. Reading as a skill is likely similar.

7. I’d be curious about how that impacts processing, as there are books and studies on the subject i.e. how writing notes on your laptop is less effective than writing them longhand because of how the motor control encodes the information into your brain more effectively.

8. I have a lot of takes about how we incorrectly assume something hard to read must be more intelligent, but you can generalize pace as a whole. Across age groups even, different books obviously have different pacing requirements; I say YA can be trickier for people to write than they expect because teenagers have lower attention spans and thus, the pacing requirements are much stricter because you have to hit certain thresholds—like inciting incident—quickly enough to rivet them. It can be hard to write a book that feels easy because the process is that of distillation.

9. For the record, yes: my twin sister reads just as quickly as I do. I actually think she might be naturally faster. And my older siblings read incessantly too. My parents are nearly always talking about their books at the dinner table, although might be slightly slower in pace.