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075 Listener Challenge: Could You Read 100 Books in a Year?

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Previous Episode:074 How to Get Massive Attention with a 'High-Concept Pitch' More Episodes Next Episode:076 Why Writers Need to Develop a Sense of Humor

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081 When Do You Abandon the Editing Process?

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080 Four Ways to Get Attention by Rocking the Boat

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079 A Brief Introduction to the Art of Catching Hell

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078 Six Storytelling Lessons from a Famous Urban Legend

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077 Vexed by Your Bankrupt Vocabulary? Listen to This

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076 Why Writers Need to Develop a Sense of Humor

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075 Listener Challenge: Could You Read 100 Books in a Year?

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074 How to Get Massive Attention with a ‘High-Concept Pitch’

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073 A Lesson in Swagger from a Wooden-Legged Civil War Soldier

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072 Six Ways to Becoming a Completely Original Writer

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071 The Oldest Writing Trick in The Book

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070 Eight Things Every Writer Should Know about Landing Pages

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069 The Fascinating Truth about Boring Topics

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068 How to Craft an About Page That People Actually Read and Share

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066 All Great Writing Boils Down to These Four Emotional Appeals

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065 A Mildly Spooky Illustration of “Reason Why” Copy

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063 How Every Creative Must Think about Marketing and Advertising

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062 Do Millennials (Really) Hate Long Copy?

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061 These 4 Sales Principles Can Improve Anyone’s Writing

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059 Why The Most Hated Headline Structures Work So Well

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049 My Second Most Favorite Copywriting Formula in the World!

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042 10 Odd Books That Will Improve Your Writing

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041 How to Read a Book in 2 Hours

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040 The Shocking Way to Master Any Book

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039 Nine Copywriting Books for Web Writers

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038 The 8 Rules of Ruthless Editing from David Mamet

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037 Revealed: The Perfect Blog Post Length

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036 The Aggressive Work Ethic of Highly Creative People

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035 The 10 Rules of Rough Drafts

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034 5 Ways to Create the Perfect Ending that Your Content Deserves

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030 The Great Paragraph Hoax

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027 How the Perfect Article Is Framed by White Space

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025 The Anatomy of a Hyperlink That Woos Readers

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024 The Beginner’s Guide to Writing Bullet Points That Work

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023 How to Create Exquisite Subheadlines

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022 Four Safe Ways to Find Your Writing Voice (and One Dangerous One)

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021 The Two Kinds of Knowledge Every Writer Needs

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020 The Crazy Thing Writers Do to Become Exceptional

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019 How to Answer the Most Important Question About Becoming an Exceptional Writer

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017 A Small Gift for Your Dark Days as an Obscure Writer

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016 Steal This Episode

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015 David Sedaris’ Guide to Writing Brilliant First Sentences

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014 Six Proven Ways to Open an Article With a Bang

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013 How I’ll Make You Read Every Single Line of This Article

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012 The Ugly Truth About How People Read Online

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011 The 3 Pillars of Great Web Writing

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010 How to Use RSS to Write Better Headlines

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009 How to Write Headlines that Get Results

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008 Where Headlines Have Gone Horribly Wrong

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007 A 12-Minute Crash Course on Link Building (Ugh)

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006 An Idiot-Proof Guide to Writing Blog Posts That Google Loves

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005 Keywords: Your Love Affair With the Language Your Audience Uses

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004 How Search Engines Work, Part Two

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003 How Search Engines Work, Part One

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002 The Unbreakable Law of the Web

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001 Two Challenges All Digital Content Must Conquer

July 20, 2015

075 Listener Challenge: Could You Read 100 Books in a Year?

That’s a lot of books out there. What’s the benefit of reading as many of them as you can lay your eyes on?

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One of the fastest tracks to mastering the art of compelling copy and seductive story-telling is to observe how others do it … both the masters and the flops.

In fact, you could probably learn more from bad writers than you could from great writers. That is, you could learn what to do and what not to do.

In this 6-minute episode you’ll discover:

  • Exactly how many books you should be reading every week
  • The most effective way to stay motivated
  • The proper way to respond to failure

Listen to Rough Draft below ...

075 Listener Challenge: Could You Read 100 Books in a Year?Demian Farnworth
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The Show Notes

  • How to Read a Book in 2 Hours
  • 10 Odd Books That Will Improve Your Writing
  • The Shocking Way to Master Any Book

The Transcript

Listener Challenge: Could You Read 100 Books in a Year?

Voiceover: This is Rainmaker.FM, the digital marketing podcast network. It’s built on the Rainmaker Platform, which empowers you to build your own digital marketing and sales platform. Start your free 14-day trial at RainmakerPlatform.com.

Demian Farnworth: Howdy, and welcome back to another episode of Rough Draft, your daily dose of essential web writing advice. I am Demian Farnworth, your host, your muse, your digital recluse, and the Chief Content Writer for Copyblogger Media.

And thank you for sharing the next few minutes of your life with me.

Think about this challenge I have for you: read 100 books in one year. Since it is the middle of the summer, half a year is gone by, do you think you could read 50 books by the end of December?

50 books in 26 weeks is a lot of books to read. Why would anyone want to do that? To be a better writer, that’s why.

See, one of the fastest tracks to mastering the art of compelling copy and seductive storytelling is to observe how others do it. Observe both the masters and the flops.

In fact, you could probably learn more from bad writers than you could from great writers. That is, you could learn what to do and what not to do.

Exactly How Many Books You Should Be Reading Every Week

So let’s talk about The Mechanics of Your Reading Blitzkrieg. Let’s do the math.

One hundred divided by fifty-two [fifty-two is the number of weeks in the year for those who are curious and not too bright] equals 1.92307692 books a week.

Let’s round that up to 2.

That means you have to read 2 books a week if you want to read 100 in a year. Or 50 by the end of the year. Or about one book every 3.5 days.

Up to the challenge?

Well, if you’re like me, which is an incorrigible sucker for ridiculous challenges AND a shameless book addict — then this is right up your alley.

But here’s the deal: You’re likely to fail.

Like me.

Two months from now you and I will be hopelessly behind and wondering what in the world we we we’re thinking.

We’re likely to shove our little challenge under the bed and pretend it never happened.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want that to happen. I WANT you to read 100 books in a year–and I WANT you to succeed.

So let’s add a little twist to this challenge. Let’s make this challenge a competition. You know, an old-fashioned, cut-throat rivalry.

Here’s what I mean.

The Most Effective Way to Stay Motivated

Choose someone you know who likes to read and invite them to join your challenge. Once you’ve got them nodding their head say, “By the way, let’s keep score.”

I’m telling you, when it comes to motivation–THIS WORKS.

For example, my wife and I are rabid readers. I tend to keep lists of books I want to read. She keeps lists of books she has read. And when I saw the list of books she had already read, I am always floored.

I thought, “She’s smoking me.”

Since then I’ve streamlined my life as best as I could to make reading books my single and solitary focus. My goal is not to DEFEAT her necessarily. It’s simply to read 100 books in a year [especially if she does, too!].

Granted, two months later I’m still hopelessly behind my wife, who systematically rifles through hefty books at a blistering pace…but I’ve vowed to not give up.

I’ve vowed to read…and read…and read until I see the last word on the last page of the last book for the year.

And hopefully when I do that it will be December 31, 2015 and it’ll be book number 100 that I’m closing. Yet, even if it is not, then I will be quite happy with the number of books I’ve read. As so should you.

As long as we keep reading.

So, you in? Let me know in the comments. And give a list of books you’re reading and recommend.

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Comments

  1. Becky says

    August 12, 2015 at 8:01 PM

    Demian – I so enjoy and appreciate your posts and your podcast! Thank you!
    And, I’m in on the 50 books by December 31st challenge. I know I’m starting late, and it is crazy impossible with my schedule, but I’m in, seriously. By December it should see like a piece of cake to do 100 next year!
    I’m working on my lists: those to read and those to recommend.

    Reply
    • Demian Farnworth says

      August 17, 2015 at 6:05 PM

      Becky, good for you! Keep me up to date on how you are doing. And what you are reading. And thanks for the kind words.

      Reply

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