How to read more books: 12 habits that actually work

Reading more is rarely about reading faster. It is about reading more often. A person who reads twenty minutes every day finishes far more books than a person who reads for three hours one Sunday a month, and enjoys it more. Each of the habits below makes reading a little easier to start, which is what “more” is made of.

1. Set a daily goal you could meet on a bad day

Ten pages, or fifteen minutes. Small enough that you never have to talk yourself into it. Most days you'll go past it once you've started, and on the days you don't, the habit stays alive. If you want to know what a goal adds up to over a year, the reading goal calculator turns it into books.

2. Always have a book with you

A paperback in the bag, an ebook on the phone, an audiobook downloaded for the commute. Reading time appears in queues, waiting rooms and train delays, but only if the book is already there.

3. Read in the gaps

Five minutes here and ten there add up to a book a month without changing your schedule. The trick is to reach for the book in the moments you'd normally reach for your phone.

4. Swap the last scroll for a chapter

The time before sleep is the easiest reading time most people already have. Put the book on the pillow in the morning, and leave the phone charging somewhere else.

5. Count audiobooks

Listening is reading. An audiobook turns a walk, a drive, the washing up or a workout into reading time. If you track your reading, count listening minutes next to pages, so a week of commuting with a great audiobook isn't “a week I didn't read”. There's more in the guide to tracking audiobooks.

6. Read what you want to read

Nothing slows reading down like a book you think you should be reading. Mix in the comfortable, the fun and the gripping. A thriller you can't put down will do more for your habit than a classic you dread opening.

7. Give yourself permission to quit

Give a book a fair chance, say fifty pages, then let it go if it isn't working. A stalled book can stop you reading for weeks. Starting a new one you're excited about is not failure, it's maintenance.

8. Keep two books going

One heavy, one light. Or one on paper at home and one audiobook for the car. When you're not in the mood for one, the other is waiting, so you read something instead of nothing.

9. Know what's next

The gap between books is where reading habits die. Keep a short to-read list, and pick your next book before you finish the current one.

10. Track it lightly

A calendar of reading days is quietly motivating: you'll want to add one more. Keep tracking to a few seconds, though. Log the page and move on. In BookWorm, saving your page is the log, and each day you reach your goal grows your streak.

11. Make it social

Tell a friend what you're reading, join a book club, or share a book you finished. Talking about a book gives you a reason to get to the end of it.

12. Look back once a month

On the first of each month, look at what you read in the last one. Not to judge it, just to notice it. It's surprisingly encouraging to see four finished books where you felt you'd “barely read”.

Where to start

Don't try all twelve. Pick two: a daily goal and one moment in the day for reading. Do just those for two weeks. When they feel automatic, add a third. If you'd like the long version of building the habit itself, read how to build a reading habit that lasts.