4 Lessons Learned From Reading 74 Books in 2020

I am an avid reader.

If you know me, have been connected to me through Top Cop Leadership, or have read any of the articles I have written, you already know about my passion for reading.

My passion for reading developed when I was very young. This passion grew over time and through my experiences.

As part of my leadership journey with the Marietta Police Department, Chief Bobby Moody had us read leadership books for our staff meetings and make presentations at the monthly meeting about what we learned from the books we read.

“Not every reader is a leader, but every leader is a reader.”
President harry truman

I have continued a modified version of this tradition at the Dunwoody Police Department. Our supervisory staff read a book together and discuss what we have learned at our staff meeting each month. We try and focus on how what we learned can help us improve as leaders of the Dunwoody Police Department.

2020 Reading Goal

In 2020, I set an ambitious reading goal for me. I use Goodreads, and I set a goal to read 52 books this year. One book a week. Who knew that circumstances, COVID-19 amongst others, would fall into place to not only help me reach my goal but allow me to shatter the goal by 42%.

In 2020, I read 74 books. Yes, you heard me.

74 books!

The longest book I read had 771 pages, and the shortest one had 70. I read a total of 25,633 pages. The majority of the books I read were hardback. I like to keep them because I like the feel of a book in my hands. However, I did read a few books on Kindle.

About 15 of the books I read were non-fiction, and the rest were either fiction or historical fiction. I fly through the fiction, but the non-fiction takes a lot of time to read and digest since I mark my pages and try to learn something new.

Dunwoody Police Bookworms

I received a boost this year when several members of the department started a book club. We titled it DPD Bookworms. I like to read, so I thought it was a good idea. I have never belonged to a book club before, so I didn’t know what to expect.

Unfortunately, COVID interrupted our in-person meetings. Yet, we still connected on GroupMe and have had some great conversations about the books we read.

We committed to reading one book a month for the book club. We tried to rotate the suggestion of what book to read each month between members.

As a result, I read several books that I would never have read otherwise. I even gave several of these books a 5-star rating on Goodreads!

Lessons Learned

When I look back at my reading journey in 2020, I learned several lessons that might be helpful to others who also like to read.

The value received from reading is not tied to the number of books you read. Instead, the value is driven by what you learn or how a book moves you as you read it. I learned a great deal from the books I read. Yet, I found the story in many of the fiction books I read fading from my memory shortly after reading them. In the future, I plan to read my books slower and savor their content.

It is better to focus on reading books you genuinely want to read. Unfortunately, my reading plan was kind of haphazard. I had somewhat of a plan reading fiction. There are specific fiction authors I read each year. This year, I discovered a few additional ones and tried to find used copies of some of their older books. However, I feel I missed out on some outstanding non-fiction books that would have been more helpful than some of the ones I read.

Not every book you pick up to read should be finished. For me, it is difficult to stop reading a book once I have started reading it. As a result, I wasted time reading books that I didn’t enjoy. Bad idea! I am committing to discarding any book that I lose interest in rather than continuing to read it.

The time you spend reading a book is time you will never get back. We have 24 hours in a day, and that is it. Time is a finite commodity. The time you spend reading a book is also time you could spend doing something else productive. I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t read. Instead, I’m trying to say there should be a balance, just like in all other areas of your life.

Conclusion

Although I did learn some lessons this year, I don’t regret reading all of the books I read.

You might read my lessons learned and conclude I had a negative reading experience in 2020. Nothing could be further from the truth. I thoroughly enjoyed my reading journey in 2020. Yet, I would be foolish if I didn’t review it for potential improvements in 2021.

I imagine I will read fewer books in 2021. My hope in doing so is that I will remember more of what I read and use more of what I have learned.