If you are looking for an easy and useful challenge, the 30-day daily reading challenge is the one for you. This challenge will be an opportunity to build a good habit and finish – at last! – that book you started weeks ago and which has been lying around on your bedside table or your living room coffee table ever since.
I set myself this challenge for two reasons: to finish a book I was stuck on, and to get back into a daily reading habit lost over the last few years. Over the last decade, the explosion of televised sport, the arrival of the smartphone and a growing addiction to social media have severely eaten into my reading time, and even my ability to read for long periods.
Like most of us, I read articles on the internet—sometimes interesting ones—that allow me to acquire knowledge or information on a given subject, but whose long-term impact remains weak compared to that generated by reading a book. From memory, I can easily recall five books that left an impression on me, yet it is impossible for me to name five articles that had a lasting effect on me.
For months I had been starting a book which I was getting nowhere with: «Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. A 466-page tome that I’d had the bright idea of buying in its original version, even though up until then I had never read a book in English in my life. I had been drawn to an article about Bill Gates that ranked it among the 10 most essential books he had read.
Although interesting, I couldn't make any progress with reading this book. I was wasting a lot of time trying to translate everything, and the intervals of several days between each reading attempt forced me to keep going back.
During the challenge, I read between 15 minutes and two hours a day. I rediscovered that you can read practically anywhere and at any time of day. You simply need to have a book with you. And if you don't want to be weighed down, you can always opt for the Kindle version on your smartphone.
Reading books on Amazon Kindle?
Personally I advise against reading on one's smartphone or tablet, because from Kindle to Facebook or Instagram it's only a short step. Or rather, just a click. Temptation is within thumb's reach. Reading a difficult book on one's smartphone is a bit like wanting to eat an apple that you've stored in a fridge full of cheese, cured meats, dairy desserts, ice cream, soft drinks and beer!
Over time, I've got into the habit of reading in the morning, during and after my breakfast. It really is an excellent time to read and it gives me the impression of starting the day having already done something enriching. I've also read in my garden, on the toilet, in queues, on the train and more conventionally on my sofa or in my bed. But ultimately the bed is one of the places where I've read the least because it sends me to sleep, and because reading in English required an effort of concentration that I struggled to muster in the evening.
From an accounting perspective, I only read one book in 30 days, but I don't regret it, because reading is not about a quest for performance. Certain books transform us, changing our worldview. This is one of them, and I can only recommend it, given how much it provides a macro-vision of the history of the world and of humanity. Having finished it means this challenge is a definite success.
I also discovered that I could read in English from the moment I started not translating everything and only doing so when I did not understand the general meaning of a sentence, or even a paragraph. From that moment on, I was able to let myself be carried away on this journey spanning several millennia offered to us by the author Yuval Noah Harari.
Reading: an easy habit to get into
Reading daily is an easy habit to form or take up again. Reading a book also means focusing on a single subject, whereas reading articles on the internet (however interesting they may be) invites distraction. Reading a book, the act of holding it and turning the pages, creates a sense of relaxation and calm, and allows the imagination and thoughts to free themselves from the agitation of information overload.
The next step in this challenge will be to keep reading every day, even if it's just for 15 minutes. I don't want to set a quantitative goal in terms of the number of books, like some bloggers do; to me, that doesn't make sense. I'm thinking of rereading certain books from my bookshelf, like «The 4-Hour Work Week», «The Miracle Morning» or «Rich Dad Poor Dad», and alternate reading books in French and reading books in English. Having a visual memory, reading in English allowed me to enrich my vocabulary without having to «force» myself to learn.
Finally, I'd like to suggest a great deal: https://livre.fnac.com/n286016/Petit-prix-et-bons-plans-ebooks/Tous-les-Ebooks-gratuits
By following this link you will find free novels, free self-help books, comic books... There is something for everyone, happy reading!
Since the end of this challenge, I have read or re-read:
The 4-Hour Work Week (French) – Tim Ferriss
You don’t hurt me – David Goggins
I promise you freedom – Laurent Gounelle
Photo credit: Background photo created by jcomp – fr.freepik.com
French 
English