How to read more often and create a reading habit

I’ve sudddenly come upon the realisation that a lot of people don’t read very often. After asking many people what their favourite book is, I’ve been recieving a worrying amount of responses that they “don’t really read”. This is incredibly unfortunate, considering the fact that reading has many, many benefits, like improving vocabulary, increasing focus, and reducing stress. If reading more is one of your new year’s resolutions or it’s just an old hobby you’d like to rediscover, then some of these tips might help 🙂

Figure out what you like

One of the biggest hurdles people encounter when it comes to reading is that they’re not reading the right thing. By that I mean that people tend to force themselves into difficult books that they don’t have any hopes of finishing. Unfortunately, I’ve done this before, and now my shelves are filled with stuffy old texts on economics that I likely won’t read for a while. However, I’ve recently discovered that I enjoy modern fiction, so I’ve been buying (and finishing!) more of those books.

If you want to figure out what your favourite type of book is, think back to some the books you’ve enjoyed. Were they slow, medium, or fast-paced? How long were they? What genre was it? Did the author have a specific literary style? Feel free to write it down, since this might make you notice patterns you might not have seen before – perhaps you think you enjoy classics the most, but your favourites list is filled with sci-fi books. Then, once you’ve got your book information, search for books like that!

Read widely

If you don’t already know what you like, then it’ll help to read a wide variety of books. That way, you’ll be exploring many genres and literary styles. Even if you’re already a regular reader and you’ve got some favourite genres, it helps to read outside your comfort zone. That way, you might find out that you really love a genre you’ve never thought about before!

Create a habit

To create a reading habit, you’ll first want to block out some time to focus on reading. Try 30-45 minutes a day to start off. Then, attach your new habit to an old one. Maybe you workout then eat breakfast in the morning, and you can spare 30 minutes to read after that. Attaching new habits to pre-existing ones makes them much more likely to stick. This way, you’ll always have time for reading!

If you think you don’t have any time, then read whenever you can – carry your book with you. I read when I brush my teeth, when I eat, and even when I get dressed. That means that even if I don’t manage to stick to my habit that day, I’ve at least read a few pages.

Track your books

I’ve just started to use The Storygraph to track the books I read. It lets me track my progess in the books I’m reading, set reading goals, and see statistics for the books I’ve read – this can also help you figure out what types of books you enjoy the most! I feel like it brings a nice element of gamification to my reading and I like seeing my statistics 🙂 I promise this isn’t sponsored, I just really like this website!

Try reading more than one book

If you have a tendency to get bored during a book, then try reading multiple books from different genres at once. That way, once you start to get bored of one book, you can switch to the other. Once you get bored of that, you can switch back! Don’t read more than two or three at the same time (unless you’ve got a super-human memory!) since you might get confused.

Don’t buy more than one book

My final tip is to only buy one book at a time. I’ve noticed that I get a rush of excitement whenever I buy a new book. This gives me a lot of motivation to finish the book quickly. Having said that, this rush of motivation is never long enough to get me through multiple books, and I have an unfortunate habit of buying four books at once. Recently, I’ve started to buy one book at a time. This means that my excitement can get me through that book. If you’ve got a similar problem, try buying only one book at a time. However, if you order books online, this might increase your shipping costs so don’t do this.

If you’re trying to get back into reading, I hope some of these tips have helped. I know it might seem hard at first, but it only takes a couple of days to create a habit. Remember that reading is very important, especially for students! I promise that even if you read for only 15 minutes a day, your vocabulary will improve exponentially 🙂