Walt Disney once said that “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” I couldn’t agree more! Reading is such a worthwhile activity that its benefits truly are immeasurable. That’s why I’m excited to write about how to read a book a day.
However, if you have a busy lifestyle, it can often be hard to find the time to sit down and get lost in a good book.
If you like to set yourself an ambitious GoodReads goal, it’s only natural that you will want to learn how to read a book a day to help you meet it by the end of the year.
But if you struggle to get through a book a week, reading a book a day may seem like an ambitious plan. Don’t worry – we’ve got a few handy tips to help you!
Table of Contents
Choose the Right Books
It might seem like an obvious point, but you will need to select your books carefully. Trying to read a book a day is an already ambitious enough goal as it is.
Choosing chunky books like War and Peace or the unabridged Les Miserables will only be making your job much, much harder.
Aim to read books of no more than 350 pages in length. Anything longer will just be making your job way harder than it needs to be unless you master the trick of speed reading.
Get stories that we only send to our lovely newsletter community.
Subscribe below!
Alternate Between Fiction and Non-fiction
If you’re reading the same types of books one after the other, you’ll start to get bored. Instead, shake things up a bit.
Alternate between reading fiction and non-fiction to cover a wider range of books. You can also switch up the genres you read, flipping between your favorites.
By alternating the types of books you read, you should find it easier to engage with reading a book a day.
Give Audiobooks a Try
Audiobooks are a great way to plow through your to-be-read pile. Audible is my favorite audiobook service.
A lot of audiobooks will be more immersive than a physical book or even an e-book, too. You can listen to audiobooks while you’re busy doing other things, and you can listen to audiobooks at faster speeds.
They’re a great way to optimize your reading time as well as completing household chores at the same time.
You can take a look at reading other types of books, too, such as graphic novels.
Learn to Speed Read
Speed reading is an effective way to power through as many books as you can. Learning to speed read will definitely help you get into the habit of reading a book a day!
Speed reading is basically the trick of absorbing sentences or phrases on a page without focusing on identifying individual words.
On average, people read about 250 words per minute (wpm). However, speed reading can help you to increase your words read per minute rate and help you read more books this year as a result.
While speed reading is a handy skill to have, it’s worth bearing in mind that anything over 500 to 600 wpm will hamper your comprehension of the text you’ve just read.
Optimize Your Time
As with many people who have a busy lifestyle, it can be tricky to find the time to dedicate to reading.
Not all of us can dedicate a whole day simply to reading! So one way to work around this is to optimize the time that you have.
Think about your daily commute. How long are you having to sit on the train to get to work? This is all time you can use to dedicate to reading while you wait to reach your destination.
You can also use tasks such as laundry to help you steal a few minutes with your book while you’re waiting for your clothes to wash or dry.
Create the Ideal Reading Environment
If you can dedicate at least part of your day to your reading goals, then you’ll want to make the most of it. You’ll need to create the optimal reading environment so that you can properly get stuck in with your book.
Find somewhere in your home that you can transform into a cozy reading nook. You should ensure that you’re able to sit up properly, as if you’re able to recline backward you could be in danger of falling asleep before you finish your book — especially if you’re comfortable.
Try listening to white noise while you read your books. This will help to cut out any distractions that may pop up while you’re reading and will allow you to properly become immersed in your book.
It might be worth investing in a pair of noise-canceling headphones if you don’t fancy listening to white noise.
Keep all distractions away from you! For instance, you should put your phone in another room if possible. That way you’re less likely to pick it up and start scrolling through Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram instead! Keep yourself stocked up on coffee or tea, too.
Choose Your Books in Advance
One of the best ways to make the most of your available reading time is to choose your books in advance. Each week you should aim to sit down for 5 or 10 minutes and plan out the books you’re going to read that week.
This will mean that once you’ve finished reading one book, you can easily pick up what you’re going to read next. It will be way more productive than umming and ahhing over what to read next!
Always Carry a Book with You
Dedicated readers know the importance of carrying a book with them at all times. This tip will help you optimize your reading time.
Often you’ll be able to find the odd 10 or 15 minutes throughout the day when you’re sitting around with nothing to do. Think of waiting around for doctor’s appointments, or waiting to meet up with a friend after work.
Having a book on you at all times will help you take advantage of these “stolen” minutes, and will help you work towards your daily reading goal. This is much better than just sitting around waiting or reading those germy waiting room magazines that everyone touches with their dirty hands!
Read in Chunks
If you find it hard to read books all in one go, try and read them in chunks instead. While it’s true that you should aim to read them in as big chunks as possible, you can still make this more manageable for you.
Try to read them in 50 to 75-page chunks before taking a 5-minute break.
You can also resort to bribery and reward yourself with some chocolate or some other treat each time you reach a certain point in your book. Halfway through? That deserves some chocolate. Two-thirds of the way through? Chocolate time. Finished your book? Good, have some chocolate as a reward! Ha!
Get stories that we only send to our lovely newsletter community.
Subscribe below!
Final Word
While trying to learn how to read a book a day might seem like an ambitious task, you should be able to smash through your reading goals with the above tips.
Even if you don’t manage to read every day, but just manage to read 3 or 4 books a week, you’re still reading much more than you were before! And that is definitely something to be celebrated.
Remember, reading is something that should be enjoyed!
