How To Finish An 800-Page Novel In A Month

A quick heads-up: we've just launched the second session of our members' workshop, and this month we'll give you a complete guide to analytical reading for you to tackle any non-fiction book with confidence!

Last week, I started a reading project that scared me for the longest time.

It’s big, it’s dense, and I never dared to read it in bed because it would break my nose if I fell asleep. And yes, after years of pussyfooting around people who raved about this book, I started reading The Brothers Karamazov.

Normally, with a book of this calibre, I expected myself to go incognito, ignore 30+ missed calls and skip meals & showers all in the name of serious literature. But this time, to my surprise, reading it was effortless. The chapters sucked me into a family of alcoholic patriarchs, deadbeat sons from different mothers and minds tortured by forbidden love. As I’m writing this, I’ve reached Book V: Pro and Contra and the whole reading experience felt like binging a period TV show.

But this is not the experience of most readers who’re dipping their toes into intimidating titles. Most of the emails I get from readers are filled to the brim with frustration. They find it difficult to:

• Stay motivated to finish the entire book
• Relax into the story
• Remember what they’ve read from a few chapters ago
• Get through the last 100 pages

So, in today’s letter, I want to share a checklist that’ll give you the best chance to finish one of these doorstoppers. These are the practices that have allowed me to read difficult books with ease, and more than that, I want to give you an approach that won’t put your life on hold as you tackle a mammoth.

Keep in mind: these tips will focus on routine-building and training your stamina. If you want a deeper dive into the literary devices of a novel, stay tuned for February's members' workshop titled: The 5 Masterkeys to Unlock Literary Fiction. Without further ado, let's start with:

1: Set a reading quota and don’t read more after that  

Humans are good at many things, but we’re hopeless at imagining the future. Yes, we can imagine a lunch that’s going to happen on Tuesday or a hot date on Friday, but anything beyond that gets into the “one day I will” territory. One day I’ll quit smoking, one day I’ll eat better, and one day I’ll finish that damn book. But what we don’t realise is that long-term progress (or self-destruction) is made of daily actions that don't seem like much.