My Reading Recap for September 2026

What Happened in September 2026

September turned out to be my lowest tracked reading month since January 2026: 7h 41m in total, or about 15 minutes a day. The recap email with the breakdown arrived in my inbox on October 1 (like every month).

A lot happened in September, mostly new things. I started a company (so lots of admin work), met new people through sports and dinners, celebrated my partner's birthday, and got a bit sick toward the end of the month. I also finished a book I should have quit and followed it up with a long, dense one (not my brightest move).

By the numbers, September was a pretty thin month, but my streak still held every single day. Coming up are my numbers, the books, and what happened to my routine. If you want the format explained, check out August's recap.

The Overview

Straight from my October 1 recap email and my personal dashboard:

• Books finished: 2
• Time read: 7h 41m
• Pages turned: 312
• Sessions logged: 49
• Streak at month-end: 274 days (still every day of 2026)
• Average daily reading: ~15 minutes
• Current reading speed: 0.68 PPM (≈170 WPM)
• Year-to-date: 31 of 18 books (13 ahead of goal)

Compared with August, I read about four hours less, and my daily average dropped from 23 to 15 minutes. The sessions got shorter, too: 49 at about 9 minutes each, down from 62 at about 11. July also ended with two finished books, but with 12h 48m of reading behind them, which is why I track time, not just books. The year-to-date total still climbed to 31 books, 13 past the goal the yearly math gave me as a reasonable target. My reading speed dipped from 0.7 to 0.68 PPM, still close to my Reading Speed Test result.

The Books

In the order I finished them, and what I'm still reading.

The Science of Storytelling

by Will Storr

Storr uses psychology and neuroscience to explain why stories grip us, and why the best ones put a character's flawed view of the world to the test.

Est. read: 5h 19 min

Get your reading estimate

Last month, I already called this one my miss. I finished it on September 5, only because I was so close to the end. I should have quit it way earlier (and if I started it again, I would). It took 29 sessions over 16 days and ended up as my least favorite book of the year (and one of my slowest). I also hit a small reading slump right after, and picking a long, dense book next didn't help at all.

I've Made $3M With My 36 Startups

by Marc Lou

Solo founder Marc Lou on building 36 startups. The ups and downs he wrote about in his newsletter merged in a (short) book.

Est. read: 41 min

Get your reading estimate

My book of the month, more on it in the next section.

I'm still reading Influence by Robert B. Cialdini, which I named as next up last month. I'm on page 226 of 520, so a little over 40% in. It's useful, but it has so many studies and examples that it reads slowly. My timing with starting this one right after a book I didn't enjoy was pretty bad. One principle has stuck so far: social proof, the idea that we look at what other people do to decide what to do ourselves. I notice it everywhere now.

The One That Stuck

Marc Lou writes openly about his wins and his struggles, the same way Alex West did in the 13 short "Not Business Advice" books I read earlier this year. I follow his work and relate to it. I read all 39 pages in one 22-minute morning session, my fastest pace of the month.

The idea I took from it (but already knew about before reading the book): most of his startups made little money, and a few paid off nicely. It gave me more motivation than new ideas.

What the Numbers Don't Show

My two reading windows (one after waking up, one before sleep) flipped this month. For the first time this year, more than half of my reading time (53%) came from morning sessions, up from 41% in August and 24% in July. My night sessions shrank to 9 minutes on average (18 in July), and after September 25, I didn't log a single one for a bit.

Most nights, I was too tired after a day of work or sports, and dinners took some of my evenings. I may also have over-corrected after reading every morning in August. The tiredness shows in my data, too: in Influence, my morning pages went 28% faster than my night pages.

Two days came close to breaking the streak. Both started early and left me very tired at night, so I read for only 3 and 5 minutes (two and three pages). Short sessions like those still count to me personally, and they kept my streak alive.

Right now, I'm reading two books and pick which one to read by mood before each session: Influence and Sum by David Eagleman. Martin Rue suggested Sum as a follow-up to Derek Sivers' Useful Not True, since it's the book that inspired Sivers' How to Live. I trust his recommendations, so I picked it up. It's 40 short stories, all with different answers to expectations of what might happen after you die (afterlife things), so it fits my short sessions right now while still making me think deeper and reflect a lot. Each of the two will be part of next month's recap.

See You in November

September in one line: a new company, a book I should have quit, and a streak that held anyway.

See you in November.