How to Finish a Book in a Day

Casey Nugent
July 10 2018
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I set a pretty hefty personal reading goal this year—one hundred books. That’s 30 more than I managed to get through last year, and I won’t lie, it’s a daunting task. In order to tackle this, I’m going to have to utilize a few tricks for zooming through a book…including how to read a whole book in one day!

Now, this might sound impossible unless you have a long day with zero responsibilities in front of you, or a book that’s about twenty pages long—but it’s actually easier than you might think! With these tips, you’ll be able to tackle a book in a breezy 12-to-24-hour period, even if you have other things to get done.

1.  Learn to walk and read at the same time.

I don’t mean walk with your face in a book down a sidewalk or street—that’s dangerous and silly. But sitting for too long will be sure to make you feel stiff and creaky. Pacing your living room with a book in hand has the benefit of making you look like a brilliant, tortured intellectual while also preventing your knees from locking!

This post was originally published on GetLiterary.com.

City of Ashes
by Cassandra Clare

2.   Try a plot-driven book.

It is an irrefutable fact that you will read faster when you’re really immersed in a book.Try young adult or science fiction books if you’re looking for great plots! The last book I read in a day was the young adult urban fantasy City of Ashes—it had the perfect, unputdownable mix of action, adventure, and romance.

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City of Ashes
Cassandra Clare

Is love worth betraying everything? Plunge into the second adventure in the internationally bestselling Mortal Instruments series and “prepare to be hooked” (Entertainment Weekly)—now with a gorgeous new cover, a map, a new foreword, and exclusive bonus content! City of Ashes is a Shadowhunters novel.Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what’s normal when you’re a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who’s becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn’t ready to let her go—especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary’s only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil—and also her father. To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings—and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace. How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father? In this breathtaking sequel to City of Bones, Cassandra Clare lures readers back into the dark grip of New York City’s Downworld, where love is never safe and power becomes the deadliest temptation.

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How to Finish a Book in a Day

By Casey Nugent | July 10, 2018

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Space Opera
by Catherynne M. Valente

3.   Shake up your formats!

I recommend ebooks or paperbacks if you’re trying to read a book in a day, because they’re easier to carry around and not as heavy. But if you’re a hardcover diehard, I recommend picking up a less hefty book, like Catherynne M. Valente’s rip-roaring science fiction glam-rock adventure Space Opera. Try something new and play around!

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Space Opera
Catherynne M. Valente

3.   Shake up your formats! I recommend ebooks or paperbacks if you’re trying to read a book in a day, because they’re easier to carry around and not as heavy. But if you’re a hardcover diehard, I recommend picking up a less hefty book, like Catherynne M. Valente’s rip-roaring science fiction glam-rock adventure Space Opera. Try something new and play around!

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How to Finish a Book in a Day

By Casey Nugent | July 10, 2018

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Through the Woods
by Emily Carroll

5.   Give graphic novels a shot.

The visual format of a graphic novel has always appealed to me, and I tend to speed through them. Emily Carroll’s masterful horror comic collection Through the Woods took me an hour and a half to get through—the art is so beautiful it’s tough to tear your eyes away.

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Through the Woods
Emily Carroll

Discover a terrifying world in the woods in this collection of five hauntingly beautiful graphic stories that includes the online webcomic sensation “His Face All Red,” in print for the first time.Journey through the woods in this sinister, compellingly spooky collection that features four brand-new stories and one phenomenally popular tale in print for the first time. These are fairy tales gone seriously wrong, where you can travel to “Our Neighbor’s House”—though coming back might be a problem. Or find yourself a young bride in a house that holds a terrible secret in “A Lady’s Hands Are Cold.” You might try to figure out what is haunting “My Friend Janna,” or discover that your brother’s fiancée may not be what she seems in “The Nesting Place.” And of course you must revisit the horror of “His Face All Red,” the breakout webcomic hit that has been gorgeously translated to the printed page. Already revered for her work online, award-winning comic creator Emily Carroll’s stunning visual style and impeccable pacing is on grand display in this entrancing anthology, her print debut.

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MENTIONED IN:

How to Finish a Book in a Day

By Casey Nugent | July 10, 2018

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I'm Thinking of Ending Things
by Iain Reid

6.   Read on your commute.

I have a 45-minute commute to and from work that is fantastic for getting a huge chunk of reading done. I nearly finished Iain Reid’s strange and terrifying I’m Thinking of Ending Things just riding the M Train! You’ll be shocked how much time you spend traveling—and how easy it is to spend that time reading, too.

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I'm Thinking of Ending Things
Iain Reid

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Dating You / Hating You
by Christina Lauren

7.   Read in line.

I have finished more than one book waiting for my ticket to come up at the DMV. Just saying. Try something like Dating You/Hating You by Christina Lauren—a book so fun that it will make you forget you’ve been waiting for two hours!

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Dating You / Hating You
Christina Lauren

Everyone knows that all’s fair in love and war. But these two will learn that sabotage is a dish best served naked.

A sexy, compulsively readable romantic comedy that dives headlong into the thrill and doubt of modern love, Dating You/Hating You by New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren is the story of what two high-powered agents will—and won’t—do to get everything they ever wanted.

Despite the odds against them from an embarrassing meet-awkward at a mutual friend’s Halloween party, Carter and Evie immediately hit it off. Even the realization that they’re both high-powered agents at competing firms in Hollywood isn’t enough to squash the fire.

But when their two agencies merge—causing the pair to vie for the same position—all bets are off. What could have been a beautiful, blossoming romance turns into an all-out war of sabotage. Carter and Evie are both thirtysomething professionals—so why can’t they act like it?

Can Carter stop trying to please everyone and see how their mutual boss is really playing the game? Can Evie put aside her competitive nature long enough to figure out what she really wants in life? Can their actor clients just be something close to human? Whether these two Hollywood love/hatebirds get the storybook Hollywood ending, or just a dramedy of epic proportions, you get to enjoy Christina Lauren’s heartfelt, hilarious story of romance in the modern world.

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The Comfort Food Diaries
by Emily Nunn

8.   Read when you eat.

You don’t need to take a break for a meal! In fact, a good book is part of a balanced diet. Food can also enhance the experience of what you’re reading—I definitely recommend Emily Nunn’s The Comfort Food Diaries with a side helping of pie.

9.  Take breaks.

This is so, so important—put the book down sometimes. It sounds counter-intuitive, but you’re more likely to retain what you’re reading if you give your brain a break. But make sure whatever you grab is good enough that you’ll be dying to pick it back up again.

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The Comfort Food Diaries
Emily Nunn

NPR's Best Books of 2017 Best Books on Food of 2017, The Guardian Best Food-Focused Memoirs, Eater Top 10 Narrative Food & Drink Books, Booklist 20 Best Cookbooks, The Telegraph In the tradition of Elizabeth Gilbert and Ruth Reichl, former New Yorker editor Emily Nunn chronicles her journey to heal old wounds and find comfort in the face of loss through travel, home-cooked food, and the company of friends and family.One life-changing night, reeling from her beloved brother’s sudden death, a devastating breakup with her handsome engineer fiancé and eviction from the apartment they shared, Emily Nunn had lost all sense of family, home, and financial security. After a few glasses of wine, heartbroken and unmoored, Emily—an avid cook and professional food writer—poured her heart out on Facebook. The next morning she woke up with an awful hangover and a feeling she’d made a terrible mistake—only to discover she had more friends than she knew, many of whom invited her to come visit and cook with them while she put her life back together. Thus began the Comfort Food Tour. Searching for a way forward, Emily travels the country, cooking and staying with relatives and friends. She also travels back to revisit scenes from her dysfunctional Southern upbringing, dominated by her dramatic, unpredictable mother and her silent, disengaged father. Her wonderfully idiosyncratic aunts and uncles and cousins come to life in these pages, all part of the rich Southern story in which past and present are indistinguishable, food is a source of connection and identity, and a good story is often preferred to a not-so-pleasant truth. But truth, pleasant or not, is what Emily Nunn craves, and with it comes an acceptance of the losses she has endured, and a sense of hope for the future. In the salty snap of a single Virginia ham biscuit, in the sour tang of Grandmother’s Lemon Cake, Nunn experiences the healing power of comfort food—and offers up dozens of recipes for the wonderful meals that saved her life. With the biting humor of David Sedaris and the emotional honesty of Cheryl Strayed, Nunn delivers a moving account of her descent into darkness and her gradual, hard-won return to the living.

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MENTIONED IN:

How to Finish a Book in a Day

By Casey Nugent | July 10, 2018

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