15 Tips On How To Read More Books (That Actually Work)
“Leaders are readers,” everyone keeps saying. You want to read more books, but for some reason, you can’t make the habit stick. If you’re anything like me, you’ve struggled to form a consistent reading habit for the longest time.
In this article, you will learn the tips that helped me go from reading 10 to 50 books per year.
Articles like this might give the wrong impressions to readers. Reading books shouldn’t be a competition to see who can read the most books in a year. Reading is a fantastic way to learn more about the world, experience different perspectives and cultures, and to be entertained.
Quantity for the sake of quantity is no good, in my opinion. We should take as long reading a book as is necessary. I also believe it’s essential to take notes and review books we’ve read to keep the knowledge we’re gaining from reading.
If you want the cliff notes, the tips are
- Start really, really small
- Work on creating a reading habit
- Don’t set reading goals
- Set reading goals
- Listen to audiobooks
- Have books lying around everywhere
- Use an E-reader
- Quit while you’re ahead
- Read faster (not too fast)
- Join a book club or find a book-buddy
- Read when you have nothing else to do
- Join Goodreads for reading inspiration
- Read multiple books at once
- Don’t share your reading goals
- Enjoy the process
#1 Start really, really small
We’re motivated. We want to read more books. We want to read at least one book a week. Week one and two, we’re on track, but then something happens.
We stop reading. We don’t know why we’ve stopped, but we have.
Most often, the reason we fail to reach our reading goals is not due to a lack of motivation. Instead, it’s the opposite. We get too motivated.
We need to lower our expectations in the beginning. When we failed to meet our goal of reading one book per week, many of us become demotivated and stop reading altogether.
Make it a goal to read one page every day for the first week.
Building momentum is more important than having an explosive start that won’t last.
Becoming a reader is a long-term game. By being too motivated and excited initially, our reading flame will fizzle out before we even get started.
#2 Work on creating a reading habit
As with anything we do regularly, we become successful with reading when it becomes a habit.
The definition of a habit is an action that doesn’t take a lot of mental effort to complete.
In the beginning, reading will feel like a drag. That’s just how it is. But after a few weeks go by, if we can manage to keep going, something magical will happen.
Reading routinely becomes easy. Now we’re building momentum.
A powerful tip for creating a strong habit is to do it at the same, in the same place every day. I recommend reading first thing in the morning, if possible.
By reading early, we won’t have to battle with the guilt of not reading later in the day if we’re tired or don’t have the time. It’s already taken care of.
Another great tip related to building a reading habit is related to chunking. Chunking is when we link several actions into one routine. For example, waking up, showering, and getting dressed can feel like one thing.
The human brain likes chunking actions. We can take advantage of this by reading after making our morning coffee or linking it to any other thing we do regularly.
Essentially, we’re tricking our brain into reading without realizing it.
If you want to learn more about habit-building, I strongly recommend James Clear’s book Atomic Habits [Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, I receive compensation if you purchase through this link, at no extra cost to you.] It’s the only book you’ll ever need to read on habit-building.
#3 Don’t set reading goals
A lot of reading advice revolves around setting a goal of how many books we want to read. It can be 52 books in 52 weeks, one book per month, etc.
I have found that this does more harm than good. I’ll explain why.
When we set a goal of reading one book per week, the second we fail to meet that goal, we often quit reading altogether. It’s not logical, but it’s a situation many can relate to it. Let’s avoid it.
I think we shouldn’t set a goal of how many books we want to read. The number of books we read will depend on how much time we have and how many pages the books we’re reading are.
Is a 200-page book a fair comparison to a 900-page book?
There are better ways of setting goals when starting a reading habit. But most importantly, we need to enjoy the process. The numbers will come.
#4 Set smart reading goals
I just mentioned that we shouldn’t set goals, and now I’m saying that we should? Yes, but no.
I have found that setting goals of how many books to read is a terrible idea for many, and I have found a better alternative.
After we’ve built a solid reading habit (#1 & #2), we should slowly increase the amount of time we read every day.
When I started reading routine, I had a target of reading a minimum of 20 minutes per day. As time went by, I found myself wanting to read more and more.
Twenty minutes per day quickly becomes 60–90 minutes per day.
As you can imagine, tripling time spent reading will increase how much reading we can get done. A great way to improve reading time comes in tip #13.
#5 Listen to audiobooks
Listening to audiobooks has revolutionized reading for many people. We can double, triple, or even quadruple our reading output by listening to audiobooks in addition to reading physical books.
Audiobooks are a great way of getting some reading done where we otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity.
Audiobooks can get up our reading game on our commute to work, while cleaning the house, etc.
Audible is the best place to get audiobooks. Audible is a subset of Amazon, which means it has countless books to choose from. Sign up for a free 30-day trial using this link.
It’s important to note that not everyone will learn and enjoy audiobooks as much as traditional books. I fall into this category.
To me, technical and lengthy books are best read with a traditional paper book, though I enjoy fiction, autobiographies, and Malcolm Gladwell’s audiobooks very much!
Although you can take notes while listening to audiobooks, to me, it doesn’t compare to being able to take notes and write in physical books.
Don’t take my experiences as gospel. Try it out for yourself. Maybe you enjoy audiobooks more than physical books.
#6 Have books lying around everywhere
We should strategically place books around our apartments or houses so that we have no other choice than to read or be reminded to read later.
Having books all around us also removes the amount of mental energy required to start reading, which can be the difference between bothering and not bothering to read some days.
Plus, it looks cool.
#7 Use an E-reader
Reading electronic books serve the same purpose as listening to audiobooks and having books everywhere.
It increases our exposure to books and thus increases how much we will read.
A great tip is to have a Kindle or another e-reader lying in our backpack or purse at all times. It takes up less space and gives us no excuse not to read when commuting or waiting for the dentist.
I use the most basic Kindle e-reader [Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, I receive compensation if you purchase through this link, at no extra cost to you.], as I don’t see the need for a more advanced version. It’s also possible to purchase electronic versions of books on Amazon using the Kindle app on iOS/Android!
We always keep our phones with us, so having books on them is a game-changer when it comes to reading more.
#8 Quit while you’re ahead
Not enjoying a book you’re reading? Stop reading it.
Most of us feel defeated if we can’t finish a book we’ve started. It’s crucial to stop thinking this way. There are over one hundred million books. Life is too short to be spent reading books we don’t enjoy.
Though, textbooks might be the exception to the rule.
We should sample as many books as we can but only read a select few of those books. We can get free samples of books on the Kindle or phone, or we can read through the table of contents and reviews to find out if a book is a good fit for us.
If it’s not, that’s okay, even if we’ve bought it and have gotten halfway through it. The cost of becoming demotivated and stopping to read is higher than the cost of a single book.
Pick your battles.
#9 Read faster (not too fast)
Speed-reading is mostly a myth. We can’t read five times faster and retain the same amount of information.
But reading is a skill. We become better at the skill of reading by doing deliberate practice.
If we want to improve our reading speed, we have to practice reading faster than our normal reading speed.
In the beginning, our comprehension will not be as good as it is typically. Comprehension will improve as we practice this skill over time.
The single most effective trick for increasing reading speed is not to read the words out loud in our heads.
It’s is a habit that most of us have. We can understand text much, much faster than we can read it out loud.
A useful tip to get started is to say a constant hum either out loud or in our heads to stop ourselves from reading the words out loud.
#10 Join a book club or find a book-buddy
Although I advised against setting specific reading goals, joining a book club is different.
By joining a book club, our reading habit strength gets juiced up by adding accountability.
Most of us don’t particularly enjoy disappointing others. This is a good thing when we are trying to read more.
The fear of disappointing the other members in the book club forces us to power through, even when we don’t feel like it.
In addition to the feeling of accountability, joining a book club or finding a book-buddy makes reading more fun and increases retention of learning.
When we discuss what we’re reading, we’re practicing something called active retrieval and elaboration, which are two powerful techniques for increasing learning — win-win.
#11 Read when you having else to do
Throughout the day, there are many five-or-ten-minute chunks where we’re doing nothing.
If we can manage just to use one or two of those chunks to read, we can drastically increase how much we read.
Small efforts and behaviors are what creates significant changes in the long-run. Try it out for yourself.
#12 Join Goodreads for reading inspiration
Don’t know what to read next? Goodreads is the best online resource to discover new books.
Goodreads is like a social media platform for books. That doesn’t mean we have to write posts and follow people, but the possibility is certainly there if that sounds interesting.
Goodreads is a great place to compile books we want to read, books we have read, and to see what everyone else is reading.
The more books we add to our want-to-read list, the better Goodread gets at finding books that tickles our fancy. Great!
Alternatively, we can google people we look up to to see what they enjoy reading. For example, Bill Gates favorite books.
#13 Read multiple books at once
Reading several books at once is the tactic that multiplied how many books I read per year.
Do you ever find yourself bored after finishing 60–90% of a book? If that’s the case, this is the #1 tactic for you.
Reading multiple books at once, instead of reading one a time can be a game-changer. Reading only one book usually gets tedious for me. I instead read two-to-four books simultaneously.
It keeps things fresh.
For some reason, reading four books doesn’t get tiring. I usually find my focus fizzling out after around 20–30 minutes of reading one thing. By doing this, we can keep reading without it feeling like a chore.
#14 Don’t tell people about your goals
Have you ever told a friend that you’re planning on reading a bunch of books this year? That might not be such a good idea.
When we tell someone our plans and goals, we feel a sense of pride and accomplishment for setting such high goals.
Telling someone our goals is not the same as actually achieving them.
We get excited, and that’s great! But sometimes we are better off not telling someone about our goals until we’re on our way.
Check out this video from Thomas Frank where he explains this concept
#15 Enjoy the process
In the end, reading should be fun. Try and implement the tips in the article, but don’t get discouraged if some of them don’t work out.
We all lead different lives, with different schedules and resources — the best we can do it to try and get a little better each day.
If you liked this article, check out my blog http://www.effectivemillennial.com/
Best regards, Ragnsan
