Read read read. What do you make of it?

I have been studying Chinese in university for 2 years using a textbook. The dialogue and list of vocab is so limited, especially when I am preparing for the Chinese exam it will only test the limited words in the textbook which does not motivate me to focus on other words not necessary for the exam. I started using LingQ a few days ago and after reading and listening constantly my Chinese has gone through the roof! I am taken aback by this as picking up all the new vocab and even the new grammar structure just by reading article after article is easier than I thought, especially going through the ‘advanced’ courses. I think Steve is spot on! read and listen constantly, maybe speak and write once a week, but without words what is there to write or speak about?

“He[Ashenden] passed a good deal of time in the book-shops turning over the pages of books that would have been worth reading if life were a thousand years long.”–THE TRAITOR by W. Somerset Maugham

I will think about this later.

P.S.
I am reading W. S. Maugham’s short stories one by one. I don’t think it takes a thousand years for me to read all his short stories.