This isn’t the usual “aw shucks, summer’s over and I only read 5, 10, or 15 books” post I usually write around this time. This year, I didn’t even join the 20 Books of Summer event. I read seven books over June, July and August, but reviewed none.

Truth is, I haven’t been reading or reviewing much lately. In the style of the ubiquitous “how to read more” genre of post, I am trying to figure out how this happened.

First, let’s have a look at the data. You can look at my Goodreads if you want to know how many books I read per year (don’t mind the circa 2009 profile pic), but I’m using pages, a much more precise metric:

Correlation does not equal causation, and yet, I have identified a few contributing factors to the downward trend that started around 2018 (the 2016 dip is artificial, see my “35 books” challenge here.)

If you want to become a certified reading slacker too, try these hot tips:

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