How to read more books

I’ve read roughly a book a week for a few years, and I can tell you it’s doable. I didn’t always read this much. When I started, I read fewer than ten volumes per year, but making it a goal made me switch gears and achieve what I once thought was impossible. I want to explain to you here what I did to become a prolific reader, and what I learned in the process, so that, with a bit of effort, you can do it too. I promise, it will be worth it.

Umberto Eco had a library of more than 30,000 books.

First of all, you don’t have to make time to read. What you need to do is read every single time you are not doing something else. In today’s world, most people pick up their phones as soon as they get a moment of inactivity. Serious readers pick up their books instead. So an effective way is to replace the time you spend in front of a screen, like PCs, smartphones, and TVs, with reading a book.

This is probably the most difficult part. I had to remove all social media and streaming apps from my iPhone. I removed Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, etc. When I started, I found myself picking up the phone and immediately noticing that something was missing, since the only things left to do were check the weather, read boring emails, or see my bank account. After a few days my brain started remapping itself, and I felt less pressure to immediately reach for my phone as soon as I had nothing to do. I also wear a cheap analog watch so I can check the time on my wrist and I don’t have to reach for my phone.

Once you block your smartphone, you might find yourself a bit uncomfortable with having nothing to occupy your mind for ten minutes. This is the perfect time to boost your reading habit. You need to make sure you always have a book with you everywhere you go. I usually read a few pages as soon as I wake up, and the same before falling asleep. I read a book when I cook lunch or dinner, and I read a book when eating breakfast. I love using public transport, especially trains, because I get time to read when someone else is driving for me.1 I always have a book with me when I go out with my partner, even if I don’t usually end up reading it. If she has to run an errand and I have to wait, I don’t waste my free time with nothing to read. I have become good at walking my dog while reading — I even got complimented for that by a stranger — and I make sure I never go to the bathroom without a book.”

“I love the smell of book ink in the morning.” — Umberto Eco

Having a book wherever I go can become problematic, depending on the size of it. The best solution I have found is to use an ebook reader. They are thin devices that can fit in a pocket and are able to carry hundreds of books in memory. I think that for a reader, it might be one of the best inventions ever, considering how expensive books were throughout history and also how difficult it is to carry them. An ebook reader can solve those problems; moreover, you can have a backlight for reading in the dark — it works differently from an LED screen and doesn’t strain the eyes — and you can also highlight text and get definitions for words. However, it’s not really a replacement for a book. Reading only using an ebook reader after a while feels like reading the same book, even if the story changes. I like to alternate digital books and physical ones, and I always prefer paperbacks since they are easier to carry around and cheaper to buy.

I also tend to read multiple books at the same time. Sometimes it happens that I get so into a book that I put the rest on pause because the story is grabbing all my attention, but in general I like to have a few books that I read in parallel. Having only a single option can become boring. I generally mix fiction and non-fiction to have a broader choice.

What to read is an hard question. I’ve read somewhere a phrase that puts it quite well: “read what you like until you like to read.” My suggestion is to read broadly, changing genres and subjects, because there are nicely written books in every genre, and because it teaches you different perspectives. Before or after, you will understand which genres you relate to more.

“It is foolish to think that you have to read all the books you buy, as it is foolish to criticize those who buy more books than they will ever be able to read. It would be like saying that you should use all the cutlery or glasses or screwdrivers or drill bits you bought before buying new ones.” — Umberto Eco

Another secret is to not be scared of quitting a book. I definitely start way more than I finish. But I don’t consider an uncompleted book a failure or a bad book. I think that sometimes books have a certain time to be fully appreciated. So if I don’t finish a book today, I might try reading it again in the future. I still remember having abandoned Siddhartha by Herman Hesse at least three times at the first few pages, before reading it entirely and considering it one of the most formative books of my life. Somehow I wasn’t ready for it, and I had to wait to become capable of fully understanding it. Also, I believe there are way more bad books out there than good books. If you feel that you are not liking one, it feels boring and makes you think you are wasting your time, just close it and move on. I have closed books by authors that I loved because they weren’t good — in that moment.

If you are a serious reader, you need a library, and to make your own library you need physical books. So try to get books that interest you and put them on the shelves for later. When I buy new books, it is mostly because I need a specific one I cannot find otherwise, or because I want to support local independent bookshops. However, I get more used books than new ones. I usually find them in the book section of used stores, at markets, book fairs, and sometimes in the book boxes that I find around the city.2

An effective method to push yourself to read more is to set some goals. You can pick a reasonable number of books for the month or the year and try to reach it. Progress tracking is one of the known tricks used to form new habits. Goodreads, for example, has what’s called the Reading Challenge to help you keep track of what you read in a year, and I found it motivating to put in the effort to maintain the number I wanted to read. However, counting the volumes is not a healthy way of reading. It’s much better to read great books and take the right amount of time to understand and reflect on them rather than rushing to finish to increase the final count. You need to enjoy the process and get a good outcome from your reading.

Writing a review is also a great method to make a book stick in your memory. Taking highlights and notes while you’re reading is a good thing, but revisiting them alongside your thoughts in a written document is something different. Reviewing books is a great way to become better at understanding what the messages contained in the books are and what the key elements of the story are. In addition, if you like writing, it’s a good pretext to practice.

One of the duties of a serious reader is to find what to read next. I always have a long list of books to read, but I don’t stick to it all the time. I like to be immersed in something new and discover new authors or genres. What I usually use are two things: Goodreads and YouTube. The first one is great for reading comments and understanding if a book is what we think it is and what people we follow (make sure to follow good readers) think about a book. So Goodreads helps me form an idea of a book before I get to reading it. YouTube, on the other hand, is great for getting recommendations and listening to spoiler-free reviews to get some ideas. There are many great channels out there, and I watch quite a few of them. One of my favourites in English is Better Than Food, which has reviewed great books for more than a decade.

What inspired me to try to read more was this video, where Max Joseph explains that becoming a serial reader is just a matter of making a daily habit of reading a few pages, with surprisingly good results. Also, Ryan Holiday — a famous author — has recently published a good guide on how to read more books with his own tips and tricks.

Last recommendation: avoid hacks. Avoid speed reading. And don’t try to force yourself to increase your reading speed. It will come naturally the more you read. Avoid summaries and summary services. It might be okay to use them after you read a book to make sure you didn’t miss some parts, but reading a summary does not equal reading a book. Avoid even audiobooks. Big corporations want to grab your attention by trying to market audiobooks as books for busy people, but don’t fall for the trap. A book is just boring black text on a white page because that’s how it’s meant to be consumed, and it requires your entire attention. Listening to audio while cooking or cleaning or whatever you do is not the same thing; you are not 100% concentrated on the content. Also, reading is faster than listening, so use your time wisely.

Footnotes

1. I consider driving a huge waste of time. Sometimes it can be fun and adventurous, but I think life is too precious to drive to work every day. ↩︎

2. In Australia, some people put a wooden box with a door filled with books in their front yards, so that everyone passing by can pick one up or put their own into it for the next readers. ↩︎