Finding the Way to Your Well-Read Life

By Jim Barnes - Jul 27 , 2007

A Conversation with Steve Leveen

So many books, so little time…

Most everyone agrees that the commodity they’d most like to have more of is TIME. For book lovers, any extra time gained would likely be spent reading. But imagine you did receive a gift of extra reading time. How would you compile your “dream list” of books to read? How would you avoid wasting your precious time on “unworthy” books?

Author Steve Leveen says the secret is to know how to fall -— and stay —- in “book love.”

“That’s easy to do, once you give yourself permission to read your way,” says the self-avowed book lover and CEO and co-founder of Levenger, the mail order source of “Tools for Serious Readers.” In The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life (Levenger Press, 2005), Leveen explains that a well-read life is much more than how many or even which books you read. Rather, it has everything to do with a life well-lived.

“Do not set out to live a well-read life but rather to live your well-read life,” says Leveen. “No one can be well-read using someone else’s reading list. Unless a book is good for you, you won’t connect with it and gain from it. Just as no one can tell you how to lead your life, no one can tell you what to read for your life.”

Books like superstar librarian Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust (for adults) and Book Crush (for kids), each with some 1,000 recommendations may be helpful starting points, especially for those with eclectic tastes to satisfy. Pearl includes book lists on 150 topics as diverse as Animal Love and Parenting.

But, says Leveen, it’s all about knowing how to find the books that speak to your interests, passions, and desires. It’s about giving up on a book and moving on with no guilt. For many, it’s about discovering the full power of audiobooks. But mainly it’s about learning how to become an active reader: becoming the reading athlete rather than the reading spectator.

”Being well-read is all about being in book love today, tomorrow, next week, and always,” he says. “It’s that state you find yourself in when you can’t wait to get back to the book you’re reading—those books that keep you up at night and nudge you awake in the morning.”

When confronted with complaints about the familiar barrier of time, and finding time to read, Leveen says you need to get motivated and find ways to make time.

“Think about what it’s like to be in romantic love and what happens to your schedule when you are. Book love is similar: It makes it easy to find the time, because that time finds you. In your heart, you know it’s the most important thing you’re doing.”

But what if they’re not really in love — or even lust -— with books? How do readers find books they can fall in love with?

“The secret is to actively choose your books,” says Leveen. “Most people are rather passive in their book selection: They may have a handful of books to read, but it’s generally a haphazard collection. I advocate a fundamentally different approach, where you look into yourself and identify your interests and passions. Then you search out the best books to fuel those interests and passions.”

For example, Leveen recommends that readers keep a List of Candidates rather than a reading list. Why? Because a reading list carries a sense of obligation, like lists assigned to students, whereas a List of Candidates carries this important difference: You have the freedom of never having to read the book.

“We should have scores—better yet, hundreds—of candidates on our lists, connected to our interests and passions,” he says. “Otherwise, we risk being caught in a devolving reading experience, where the books aren’t that great and our reading languishes. I was caught in this stage for many years. When you make a List of Candidates that you’re excited about, your reading life and your whole life zoom up to a higher level.”

At Levenger reading workshops, participants receive a list of permissions (see end of article), one of which is to give yourself permission to give up on books that don’t speak to you. Leveen finds it ironic that we often give up on people faster than we’ll give up on a book!

“Think of being at a cocktail party,” he says. “If the first person you talk to strikes you as a bore, do you keep talking to them for the whole party because you started with them? Why should it be any different with books?”

Conversely, Leveen is adamant about sharing book experiences with others, making and taking book recommendations with friends, and generally sharing and connecting with other people. He suggests joining book discussion groups, believing in the capacity a group has to stretch the individual, and in how a great dialogue can elevate a book to a new level for the reader.

He started his own group, consisting of a dozen guys who call themselves The World of Mules Book Group, after that Ogden Nash couplet: “In the world of mules, there are no rules.” The men meet once every other month at a restaurant, and so far have discussed non-fiction books only.
Leveen worries that some people deny themselves the pleasures of reading in order to accomplish other goals. In fact, he had done this himself, while building his company. Ironically, he’d been a “purveyor of tools for serious readers” for 18 years but didn’t really consider himself a serious reader until a couple of years ago. What caused the breakthrough?

“I can answer that in one word: Audiobooks. I suddenly found myself having the means to read serious books during otherwise uni-task time -— when I was driving or washing the dishes. I started with novels by Frederick Forsyth and then found David McCullough. I was hooked—addicted—in head-over-heels book love.”

Some may ask: Can listening to audiobooks really be considered reading? An emphatic YES, says Leveen.

“We tend to view reading as a silent, visual activity, so listening feels as if we’re cheating,” he says. “And audiobooks seem like modern interlopers into the classic world of books. Yet storytelling predates printed books. The first stories were spoken, not written, and the first books were designed to be read aloud. Once you listen to a book, you realize you can grasp inflections and nuances that escape you in print and can sometimes absorb much more of what the author had in mind.”

Leveen is also an advocate of reading more than one book at a time, explaining that people have more than one mood or interest in a given time period. Some books may take you more than a year to read, but so what? In his book he includes tips for previewing books, not only to determine their worthiness, but to increase comprehension by creating places to put the facts and ideas to come. Retention is also increased by spending time with the book after you’ve read it, thinking about it and letting its effects percolate through your mind. “Savoring them in a deliberate way is the secret for getting far more out of your books and retaining the information for long periods. It’s bringing out the colors and fixing them as in an oil painting, rather than letting them wash away like colored chalk on a sidewalk.”

“All across America there are millions of smart, capable people living in the shadow of books. I was one. My life changed from black and white to color when I seized my well-read life. And you can accomplish this with some simple techniques. It’s like driving a car -— it’s a mystery until you do it a few times. I’m hoping that this book will help by offering practical techniques for people to reach a higher level in their lives, more quickly and with more confidence.”

“I have great respect for people’s ability to seize the life they know in their bones is available to them. They just need an invitation to the dance, a hug, and a bit of friendly advice. I want to share what I’ve learned so that others can become the readers they want to be, and live their larger lives.”