I have a challenge for the readers of my blog. My Challenge is to read an interesting and informative book for just 15 minutes a day. This could easily be the 15 minutes before you fall asleep at night. You might not realize it, but if you read 15 minutes a day using any of the techniques and applications outlined in this blog, you will be able to read 10 books a year!

What can be accomplished by reading 10 books a year? If you read in a concentrated field such as psychology, history, political science, business, or English literature, you will have read the equivalent of a master’s degree. I call this my “20 books to a master’s degree.”

A master’s degree usually requires 30 credit hours with each course being worth three credits. This adds up to 10 courses. For each course, you read a main book and another book as supplementary research. This adds up to 20 books to complete the equivalent of a master’s degree from a college or university.

It is important to choose something that interests you. If it interests you, you will be motivated to read each day. For example, my friend who loves history read a book on the American Civil War and a biography of Abraham Lincoln. He went on to read other books on American History and biographies of important people in U.S. History. In two years, he completed the equivalent of a master’s degree in U.S. History. Again, these books interested him, and he was motivated to read them.

My 20 books were in the field of reading theory, reading instruction, and dyslexia. All my books were checked out from Bookshare.org internet library for dyslexic and print impaired readers. I will discuss Bookshare.org in my next post. In this way, I read my 10 books a year for the yearly library fee of $79. Imagine my feeling of accomplishment, the knowledge of a master’s degree for just $158 and 15 minutes a day.

So set your goal to read, for 15 minutes a day, a book that interests and motivates you.