The Wiggins/Hudson Method of Reading

A light-hearted look at a method of getting through loads of reading material in a relatively short time...

1. Select half a dozen or so exciting and/or interesting books to read (or re-read) and stack them up.

2. Pick up one book and read it for 20 minutes or so or until you reach a natural break - the end of a section or chapter or a pre-determined number of pages.

3. Bookmark your place and set it aside.

4. Repeat 2. with the next book.

5. Bookmark your place and set it aside.

6. Repeat these steps until you have worked your way through 4 or 5 books, depending on how much time you have.

7. You can break up the cycle by going off and accomplishing some lesser task like eating or talking with people or work.

8. Return to the cycle regularly.

In this way you will find that you work your way through a number of books in a relatively short period of time.

Note: sometimes one particular book will engage your attention slightly more for a while. What to do? Carry on reading. There are no penalties.

Similarly, a book may fail to grab your attention and drift to the bottom of the pile. What to do? Put it aside. No one's holding a gun to your head - you don't have to read every book in the stack.

Some benefits: apart from making steady progress through quite a few books, you will find that you tend to avoid 'reader exhaustion', in which your attention dissipates after reading the same book for too long; you may also find that a 'cross-pollination' of ideas occurs, where the things described in one book bounce off another, and vice-versa. This can ignite creativity like putting a variety of fuels into a fire at the same time.

Your 'reading stamina' will tend to improve in the same way as a variety of exercises at the gymnasium will improve your all-round muscular health.

Plus you will have plenty to talk about on social media.

The Wiggins/Hudson Method is recommended for a) readers who suffer from low morale, b) writers hindered by writers' block and c) students who have a great deal of material to get through in a short time.