How to read a book in one day

Once a week, I read a book in one day.

I'd prefer two days, but my schedule and job don't allow it. So one day it is. Tuesday, usually. And when the book is done and I finally climb out of the story - shaking off an intense, 12-hour read - I feel like the world has been spinning without me.

I first flexed my long-distance reading muscles in graduate school for a Shakespeare seminar. The three-hour, once-a-week class began at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesdays. More times than I'd care to admit, I rose at 5 a.m. to drink buckets of coffee and read the play assigned for that day's discussion. I'd arrive in class hopped up on caffeine, sweating from the 6-mile bike ride to school, but good and ready to yammer about "Henry IV, Part One."

Plays, of course, are short. One needs more than a morning to consume the average novel. (Odd, though, that Tuesdays are still my marathon reading days, all these decades later.)

My tips for reading a book in one day are lighthearted but also deadly serious. This is my life most Tuesdays. For real.

1. Begin with a book no longer than 350 pages. Anything longer is crazy unless you're a speed-reader. Anything longer and you won't remember jack about the plot or characters the next day.

2. Silence your phone and put it in another room. Go ahead and put your computer next to your phone. These are major distractions. Do not give in!

3. Sit while reading. Do not recline. Reclining leads to sleeping.

4. Books should be read in as few sittings as possible, so read at least 50, preferably 75 pages in your first sitting. Do not get up or get a drink or go to the restroom during this time. You may pet your cat or dog, but don't talk to people. Stay committed.

5. Remain at home, unshowered, in your pajamas. That way, you're not tempted to go out and meet someone to avoid reading.

6. When you're halfway through the book, reward yourself with food and a 45-minute break. Splash some cold water on your face. Maybe do a few jumping jacks.

7. Read an actual, bound book because your progress is more visceral. When you shut the book and have only one quarter of an inch to go, you feel you've gotten somewhere. And if the power goes out, you've still got a book in your hands.

8. Dog-ear pages and write notes in the text. Mark it up! It helps you remember what you've read. I sum up basic plot shifts at the tops of pages where the events occur. At the front of the book, I write down all the characters' names with brief (3-4 words) bios. (I can't tell you how necessary this is in plotty novels by Tolstoy, Dickens, Justin Cronin and the like. Though you won't be reading their books in a day). Pages where a particular phrase or passage speaks to me stylistically - something I might want to quote in a review - get a star in the margin.

9. Once you're three-quarters of the way through the book, reward yourself again. You may now speak to someone in your house. You may NOT check your phone or make a call from someone else's phone. Those people can wait.

10. Caffeine is essential. I do coffee in the early morning (I get up before sunrise when I have to read an entire book). Another coffee late morning. And a bracing pot of Twinnings English Breakfast tea around 4.

11. When you finish the book - it might be 7 or 8 p.m. - reward yourself. Go out and meet someone for a drink. Watch a movie or TV show. Do some online shopping. But don't disrupt the magic by reading something else. You've done enough reading for one day.