So you read my article on why reading fiction is great for you (if you haven’t, I recommend you do) and now you want to read more. Great! But maybe you found it harder than you first thought. After all, reading is fantastic for you but it still requires your attention and time.
And those are limited resources these days.
So what can you do to make sure you read more? Here are a few ideas:
Read In Different Formats
A physical book is a wonderful thing (can you tell I am a bookworm?) but there are also eBooks and audiobooks. If you have an eBook, you can carry thousands of books with you wherever you go. An eBook reader is not heavy, nor does it take up a lot of space, so you never have to worry about it fitting in your bag. It also means you have no excuse not to take it with you on a day out. You could read it on the train journey and not have to worry about lugging a physical book around all day.
Audiobooks allow for the greatest amount of flexibility in terms of where you can be whilst listening to a book. You could listen whilst walking in the countryside, cleaning the house, putting on your make-up in the morning or even whilst driving! Listening to an audiobook whilst driving is not for everyone though. Personally, I find audiobooks are fantastic for long journeys on motorways, but as soon as I hit the smaller roads with lots of turns and traffic lights, I switch off the book. Know your limits!
Some people say audiobooks don’t count as reading but I wholeheartedly disagree. I have quite a few dyslexic students. Most of them hated reading, until they discovered audiobooks. Some are happy to listen to the audiobook alone, whilst others listen and read along to a physical copy. Who are we to turn our noses up at audiobooks at say it doesn’t count as reading?
Cost
Maybe you want to read more but buying books is getting to be too expensive. The more you read, the more books you buy. Here are a few solutions:
- Buy second-hand e.g. eBay, charity shops
- Join the local library
- Buy a subscription
- Kindle Unlimited means you can read as many eBooks as you want each month
- Bookbeat offers subscriptions based on how many hours of listening a month you do, so you can listen to multiple books
- Borrow or swap books with friends and families
There are many more subscription options out there, depending on the country you are in. It is well worth doing a bit of research and seeing what works best for you.
Schedule Time To Read
It is very easy to slip into a mindset of, “I’ll read when I get the chance”, except the chance never comes. And if it does, it’s fleeting. If you want to read more, you need to carve out some time in your busy schedule for it.
Here are some scheduling ideas:
- Read in the morning
- Wake up a bit earlier so you can start the day off with a book
- Read whilst eating breakfast and drinking tea or coffee
- Read before you go to bed
- It means you’re not looking at your screen before bed
- Maybe go to bed a little bit earlier so you’re not going to sleep later (you don’t want to be tired the following day)
- Commuting to work
- Read or listen to an audiobook whilst on the bus or train
- Read during your lunchbreak
- Go for a walk and listen to an audiobook
- Read whilst eating lunch
Important Note For Scheduling Reading Time
Pick options that work for you. I would love to start the day reading a book but the reality is, I already have to get up very early to go to work. I refuse to wake up any earlier because I will feel tired in the afternoon.
Instead, I read before I go to bed. I set an alarm for when I want to stop working in the evening, get ready for bed and make sure I have plenty of time to read before falling asleep at my bedtime.
Remove any friction to reading as well. Have your books ready to go. I have a pile of books next to my bed and they stay there. It means I don’t waste time trying to find them, for example if I had forgotten it was in my handbag because I had taken it to work. This works for me because I read multiple books on the go, as both physical books and audiobooks.
Read What You Enjoy
If you want to read more, you have to enjoy the process. If you don’t, it’s going to be a struggle. Overtime this small bit of friction will slow down your reading until you could eventually stop altogether. So read what you enjoy and you will naturally find yourself wanting to read more. Whether it’s a biography of your favourite comedian, a romantasy filled with dragons or a book on the science of sleep (see a recommended list here), read what you enjoy.
On that note, there is no shame in DNF’ing (Did Not Finish) a book. Life is too short to plod your way through a boring book. Don’t enjoy it? Put it down and try a different one.
Stay Motivated
This is tricky. Motivation is almost always going to run out at some point, for a variety of reasons. It’s important to have the habits in place so that you can keep reading e.g. reading before bed every day.
But there are some things you can do to help motivate you:
- Join a book club
- There’s some form of accountability because you have to finish the book. You don’t want to turn up being the only one having not read it.
- It’s really nice to talk to others about what you are reading
- You can find local and online book clubs on websites such as meetup and Facebook
- Give yourself a reading goal
- How many books do you want to read a week/month/year?
- Write it down and track how many books you’ve read
- Track what you read
- Write down the books you have read with pen and paper – simple!Sign up to a free website such as Goodreads or StoryGraph and keep track of current reads and total books read
- Sign up to a free website such as Goodreads or StoryGraph and keep track of current reads and total books read
- If you love ticking items off your to-do list, this is for you
I personally use StoryGraph (here) and it is free to use. I set my yearly goal and add books to my ‘Currently Reading’ list. If I input what page I am up to, it even tells me percentage-wise how far into the book I am. The best feature has to be whether or not you are on track to meet your yearly goal of books read. I am currently three books ahead of where I need to be! It is very motivating to know that. It’s free so it’s worth trying and seeing if it works for you.
Too Much Choice
Some people have no problem reading a book quickly. The struggle occurs before they have started reading. Choosing what to read. This may sound a bit silly but studies have shown that having too much choice can lead to confusion and decision paralysis, whereby you are unable to make a choice. It can either make your decision process longer or stop you from choosing altogether, out of a fear you are losing out by making the wrong decision.
If you do not have this problem, great! You do not have to worry about this section slowing your reading down. This is more likely to affect those who have a large number of books.
To get around this, you could look at your book collection and select the ones that stand out to you. Make a small pile of books. When you finish your book, choose your next book from that pile. Less choice means you are more likely to start reading sooner.
If you have eBooks or audiobooks, this could take the form of having a small wish list or to-read list on your book platform.
Overview
If you want to read more than you are doing now, you will need to make changes. It is up to you what those changes are, but read back through this article and make a note of any ideas that you like. Then implement them. Without taking action, you will not make the changes needed to read more.
But remember, reading is a personal thing so make sure it all works for you.
And don’t forget, you may fall off the bandwagon. There could be an emergency, your workload is suddenly increased and then a missed day of reading turns into a missed week. Don’t feel disheartened. Accept it has happened and move on. Review the list of ideas you chose from this article and start again, adjusting for any new changes in your life.
I highly recommend tracking what you read. The level of detail in which you do so is up to you. I have suggested StoryGraph for those who prefer to track using online tools, but for those who prefer pen and paper, here are a few options:
- A poster that allows you to add books to the books spines – simple but effective
- For example: https://ebay.us/8MAQNh
- A book that allows you to track and give a quick review of what you have read
- For example: https://ebay.us/izcPO7
- A more review based book tracker with pretty designs inside
- For example: https://ebay.us/mmxR3K
There are plenty of options so look around and see what is best for you.
The most important thing is that you enjoy reading and you have built a system that not only encourages you to read more, but allows you the time to do so.
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