How to read 1-2 full books per day. No, seriously.

[ChrisV]

I love reading. No seriously, I love reading.

I have a special technique that let's me read 5-12 books per week, so please read this thread to the end. I promise I'm not crazy.

People were amazed at this tiny clip in The Matrix where he instantly was able to download a new skill into his brain in a few seconds.

The thing is, we have this technology today! They're called books and they've been around for centuries. Okay, okay, it's not as fast and convenient as Neo's Kung-Fu download, but it's pretty close. Here's the thing though... Your average sized book will take you about 5-8 hours to read. The problem is... 5-8 hours is a huge chunk of time to take out of your day. Who has the time to sit down every day for 5 hours and read? Herein lies the secret. Text to Speech software. You download a great eBook, have it converted to Audiobook format, put it on your iPod/iPhone/smartphone, bring your headphones and you'd be surprised at how many books you can bang out per week. Have a dead end job where you don't have to deal with customers? Hit Play. Stuck in Traffic? Hit Play. Driving anywhere? Hit Play. Mowing the lawn? Hit Play. You can literally blow through 5-12 books per week like this.

If you have a Mac or iPhone it's super easy. There are a few different techniques. The first is you just convert the entire book to Audio. Macs have this feature built in. Second is, if you have an iPhone, you can just have it read to you using the Voiceover Feature. As far as Android, I'm gonna research it and update this thread after I run a few errands. I also know that Kindles have a feature to have them read books outlaid.

Speech to Text Tutorial​

iPhone users

Using Voiceover

Turn on Voiceover:

Settings > General > Accessibility > VoiceOver > On

This is a pain to do overtime you want to read a book, so there's a way to set it so that whenever you want to turn on VoiceOver, You just hit the Home Button 3x.

To do that:

Settings > General > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut [all the way at the bottom] > Voiceover

Or you can just ask SIRI to turn it on.

Mac Users

While on your Mac:

This method is only good when you're at your Mac, If you need them on the Go I suggest these two options:

Second Option: Add to iTunes as Spoken Track

I particularly like the Allison voice. But while using the above method, don't read the eBook in iBooks because iBooks limits how much you can Copy and Paste from a book, so you won't be able to translate the whole thing. Instead use Calibre, a free eBook reader and converter.

Android Users:

-this section coming soon-

Windows Users:

Since Windows doesn't have Built in Text to Voice functionality, you'll have to download a program.
Here are two lists of Text to Speech converters. Some are free, some are paid:

http://www.howtogeek.com/125305/the-best-text-to-speech-tts-software-programs-and-online-tools/

http://listoffreeware.com/list-of-best-free-text-to-speech-software/

Let us know which ones worked best for you!

Enjoy!!

 

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[EvanOkanagan]

I love reading. No seriously, I love reading.

I have a special technique that let's me read 5-12 books per week, so please read this thread to the end. I promise I'm not crazy.

People were amazed at this tiny clip in The Matrix where he instantly was able to download a new skill into his brain in a few seconds.

The thing is, we have this technology today! They're called books and they've been around for centuries. Okay, okay, it's not as fast and convenient as Neo's Kung-Fu download, but it's pretty close. Here's the thing though... Your average sized book will take you about 5-8 hours to read. The problem is... 5-8 hours is a huge chunk of time to take out of your day. Who has the time to sit down every day for 5 hours and read? Herein lies the secret. Text to Speech software. You download a great eBook, have it converted to Audiobook format, put it on your iPod/iPhone/smartphone, bring your headphones and you'd be surprised at how many books you can bang out per week. Have a dead end job where you don't have to deal with customers? Hit Play. Stuck in Traffic? Hit Play. Driving anywhere? Hit Play. Mowing the lawn? Hit Play. You can literally blow through 5-12 books per week like this.

I like the idea. I'm much more of a visual learner though rather than auditory. I find myself getting distracted by what's going on around me visually and can miss a whole chapter listening to an audio book. That's great for someone with that type of learning style though.

As far as text to speech software goes. Do you find it much harder to keep attentive vs. Audio Books that are read? The monotone voice may lose my attention quick.

 

[Yasai]

That's a good tip for everyone who doesn't know about audiobooks (and their usefulness) yet.

There is a way to finish EVEN MORE books: Speed up the playback.
1.4x times the original speed should still sound very clear (and not like gibberish) plus: you'll get used to even higher playback speeds.

I'm currently consuming audiobooks and content at around 1.8 to 2 times the original speed, so I can get twice as many books/info into my brain.

3 times the speed will sound like gibberish in most cases, unless the speaker reads REALLY slow. With normal reading speed, everything above 3x times the speed will compress the auditory information too much and make it hard for the brain to interpret the data - which will reduce comprehension.

between 1.7 and and around 2.3 is usually the sweet spot.

Hope that was helpful

 

[ChrisV]

Hey guys, I updated my original post with more specific instructions.

Audiobooks are a great way. But when I can't find an Audiobook Version, I just translate it. Audible is really coming up in the world though. They have a LOT of Audiobooks that aren't available anywhere else.

 

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[ChrisV]

As far as text to speech software goes. Do you find it much harder to keep attentive vs. Audio Books that are read? The monotone voice may lose my attention quick.

Two things. First is, these days there are a lot of natural sounding voices. I especially liked the voices from http://www.naturalreaders.com and the ones that come with the Mac.

Here's an example of Allison, one of my favorite voices: http://www74.zippyshare.com/v/Gb0cC3op/file.html

It's really not bad these days.

 

[MillionaireMe]

Chris your awesome thank you for the insight.

 

[ChrisV]

No problem sir.

 

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[Mattie]

One that reads a lot and listens to audio books, I don't think it really saves you that much more time, other then you can listen to it, while you're doing other things. It may seem like it, but if you look at the minutes on an audio book versus reading, I don't think you're speeding much up, it may just seem like it. And also the comprehension level and how much you really remember. I often find I have to back track because I read and listen to much, and overload my brain with material.

 

[MillionaireMe]

Mattie, I just like the idea of someone else reading the book to me. Chris provides a solution.

 

[ChrisV]

Agreed Mattie... depending on your reading speed it's about the same. But the difference is, I can read while I'm at work. I love it because my job is physical, so I make money, stay in shape AND get unlimited knowledge downloads daily. It's awesome.

See the thing with me is, if I'm not learning something, I feel useless. I feel like I'm wasting time. I have to drive to the store? If I can't play that Audiobook for those 10 minutes I feel like I wasted them. Even when I go into the store I put my headphones in and such up some knowledge. I don't know about you guys, but for me I think it would be difficult for me to bang out 1-2 books daily if I had to read them physically and sit in one place.


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[Mattie]

Agreed Mattie... depending on your reading speed it's about the same. But the difference is, I can read while I'm at work. I love it because my job is physical, so I make money, stay in shape AND get unlimited knowledge downloads daily. It's awesome.

See the thing with me is, if I'm not learning something, I feel useless. I feel like I'm wasting time. I have to drive to the store? If I can't play that Audiobook for those 10 minutes I feel like I wasted them. Even when I go into the store I put my headphones in and such up some knowledge. I don't know about you guys, but for me I think it would be difficult for me to bang out 1-2 books daily if I had to read them physically and sit in one place.

Yes, I get what you're saying. I'm the same way. I just don't ever see that it really speeds up things. And like the last few weeks, been giving my brain a break. lol

 

[ChrisV]

Oh sweet, I just found an even easier solution. There's an app in the App Store called Natural Reader

It's awesome. You just upload your ebooks stuff to Dropbox and load it like that.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/naturalreader-text-to-speech/id598798210?mt=8

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/naturalreader-text-to-speech/id835387034?mt=8

I laughed at the book in the screenshot. "Rich Day/Poor Day" [sic]

As far as DRM, I use DeDRM to remove the Digital Rights Management from Kindle Books and iBooks.

 

[ChrisV]

Actually this app is even better. It syncs with Dropbox, Google Drive, Pocket (to save and read articles,) Instapaper, Evernote and Bookshare.

 

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[Dwight Schrute]

I'm much more of a visual learner though rather than auditory. I find myself getting distracted by what's going on around me visually and can miss a whole chapter listening to an audio book. That's great for someone with that type of learning style though.

Same here.

Bump for the visual learners.

I like to do this
http://www.spritzinc.com/
with that website: http://www.readsy.co/web?url=http://www.spritzinc.com/where-can-i-experience-spritz/

 

[ChrisV]

Same here.

Bump for the visual learners.

I like to do this
http://www.spritzinc.com/
with that website: http://www.readsy.co/web?url=http://www.spritzinc.com/where-can-i-experience-spritz/

You can do both. You can have it read to you while you watch it visually. There's a lot of evidence that that improves your learning and memorization significantly.

And as a side note, some people do learn better with certain ways, but remember that stuff about Auditory/Visual/Kinesthetic Learning Styles is actually a myth. They debunked that stuff not too long ago.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2014/04/the_myth_of_learning_styles.html

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-...or-visual-learner-scientists-say-its-unlikely

Also, while we're at it... remember the stuff about Left Brained/Right Brained, Creative/Logical types? that's also a bunch of bunk.

http://www.livescience.com/39373-left-brain-right-brain-myth.html

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blo...rain-right-brain-myth-will-probably-never-die


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[ChrisV]

Also, I forgot to post the video demo of Voice Dream. God, I love this app.

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[Milkanic]

If you read a book a day, how many books have you mastered?

The point isn't to read as many books as possible, it's to figure out the 20% and take action.

 

[ChrisV]

If you read a book a day, how many books have you mastered?

The point isn't to read as many books as possible, it's to figure out the 20% and take action.

Really? you're supposed to read to learn something? Wow here I was thinking this whole time it was simply to have an cool sounding number for bar stories.

Thanks for the advice.


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[ChrisV]

Anyway, I'm pretty sure no one implied that just reading books for the sake of turning pages was the purpose of anything. The purpose is to convert books into Audio Format so that you can spend time you'd normally doing something boring, tedious and/or time wasting (such as driving, mowing the lawn, whatever.) soaking up some knowledge instead.


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[ChrisV]

(deleted)

 

[tripvader]

That's a good tip for everyone who doesn't know about audiobooks (and their usefulness) yet.

There is a way to finish EVEN MORE books: Speed up the playback.
1.4x times the original speed should still sound very clear (and not like gibberish) plus: you'll get used to even higher playback speeds.

I'm currently consuming audiobooks and content at around 1.8 to 2 times the original speed, so I can get twice as many books/info into my brain.

3 times the speed will sound like gibberish in most cases, unless the speaker reads REALLY slow. With normal reading speed, everything above 3x times the speed will compress the auditory information too much and make it hard for the brain to interpret the data - which will reduce comprehension.

between 1.7 and and around 2.3 is usually the sweet spot.

Hope that was helpful

Great tip. I never thought about increasing the original speed. Will definitely try it out!

 

[masterneme]

I was expecting a speed reading course but this was a surprising trick, thanks.

 

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[ChrisV]

Also guys, with the app I posted you can literally set it to read at whatever speed you want.. 50 Words per minute, which is like waiting for cold molasses to drip uphill, 200 words per minute, which is about normal, all the way up to 700 words per minute, which is like someone speaking Spanish. Just kidding. 700 wpm is basically too fast to even understand.


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[ilrein]

A friend of mine suggested this exact approach. It's pretty wise and I gave it a try once...

the result? I got really pissed off LOL.

I'm a vicious English critic, especially written language, and when these god-awful audio-books monotone talk through the most passionate, tear-inspiring quotes, I actually get angry.

It's not enough to have the book read to me. I need to read to me the way it was intended.

 

[Adam Secada]

I'm interested to see how you solve the Android / Windows problem.

I wanted to do something like this for my Android devices while I'm at the gym, listening to a book while I work out, but I couldn't find a reliable text to speech service that wasn't out to gouge me in terms of price. So I caved and bought an audible membership. For my money, its worth the 15 bucks (Seven Bucks if you use a coupon -- http://www.retailmenot.com/view/audible.com) per month to avoid the hassle of doing it all manually. But if theres a free option out there, I want to hear about it. Let me know what you find out.

For the tech savvy out there, if you enable 3rd party APK installs on your Android device, there may be a black market or pirated option out there... assuming you know where to look. No, I won't tell you.

 

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[GuestUser140]

If you read a book a day, how many books have you mastered?

The point isn't to read as many books as possible, it's to figure out the 20% and take action.

I have to agree.

Someone wise once said: "Read a lot, but not many books."

I only read the all-time best. Make notes. Apply things immediately. Read it again. Jot down more ideas and take action. The tangible results in your life, that's the real ROI of a book.

To give an example: many will read the 4HWW with a "that'd be cool" attitude. That way, it's an inspiring book but has no link to your life. How many of you do the comfort challenges? If you like the idea behind the text, when will you apply the wealth of knowledge to become time / location independent?

When you read a book about advertising, do you read/listen to it on fast-forward while driving? Or do you read it slowly, let every little nuance sink in, and already have your to do-list notepad handy so that next week, your business will be advertising better than ever?

 

[masterneme]

Why limit yourself? Do both, read new books everyday and study the great ones.

Bill Gates said in an interview that when he was at Microsoft he tried to read AT LEAST one book a day, and I think he knows a little bit about money...

 

[Adam Secada]

So, heres a tactic I use for when I want to find the 20% of content I need to consume for a given skill I want to learn. I believe I originally got this from a blog post that highlighted the central thesis of "The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything... Fast!" (Too cheap to buy the book? TED Talk -- BOOM:

)

Suppose I want to learn Copywriting. That is a skillset that people tout as the bee's knees so frequently on the forum that we can all relate to this skill.

1. Crowdsource on online bookstores. Goto Amazon, and do a search for "Copywriting Books". Obviously, you want to sort your results by Most Reviews. Another way to do this is by clicking on the Top Result, and parsing through all of the related items: as a general rule of thumb, I only pick books that have at least 200 reviews with a 4.0 average. The idea here is that cream rises to the top: people will upvote shit that they like, and they think added value to them.
2. Open all these book pages. No, you aren't going to order them.
3. Click on the "Look Inside", and examine the Table of Contents for every single book.
4. Look for the common chapters, terms, and concepts between ALL of these books.
5. It is reasonable to assume that if
5a. You look at all of the Top Rated Books for copywriting, as determined by the populous at large, and
5b. All these books have the same 20% of content in common, that
5c. This is the 20% you need to know to become an amateur on copywriting.
6. Write down all these common concepts.
7. Do a search on "How to do X" for each concept in Google, AND YouTube (YouTube is a treasure trove of information, people need to stop watching the "Evolution of Dance" on it, its a waste of time.)
8. ???
9. PROFIT

Its important to point out that you can learn anything this way, find the 20% you need to get started, and self correct as you go. And you can charge people for this. I didn't think that was possible at first because I have had massive struggles with the Imposter Syndrome and whenever I put down a book or learned a new skill, all I had was more questions on the topic, which created a feedback loop making me realize how little I knew. HOWEVER, if you have a MARKETABLE skill, and you know MORE than someone does on that skill AND they are willing to open their checkbook to PAY for your knowledge, THAT makes you an expert. PERIOD.

 

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[juggler619]

thanks for the tip, i'm frm middle east & today it's a day off, I'm done wit 2 books usin ur audio methods. This is super solid!

 

[masterneme]

I have had massive struggles with the Imposter Syndrome.

Hmmmm, I think I have some of that, can you give some tips about how to get rid of it?