I recently posted a video about how to read more books this year for folks who have struggled to meet their reading goals or want to get back into reading in general, and many people expressed appreciation for my suggestions. I was only able to skim the surface of the topic in a short video for social media, though, so I decided to make a more expansive written version of that resource.
What follows are non-shaming suggestions to help you meet your reading goals with less guilt and stress. Reading is one of those activities that people tend to have a lot of outspoken opinions about, and I am writing this list, in part, to encourage you to ignore the haters and follow your own arrow as a reader.
I also think it’s worth saying that if you’re not much of a reader and you have no desire to be, that’s totally fine. We all have limited free time, and I’m certainly not judging anyone who doesn’t have reading at the top of their list for how to spend theirs. Media consumption doesn’t have a moral hierarchy, and whether or not you read books is your decision. That said, I still suggest reading today’s newsletter because the spirit of many of the strategies I’m sharing could be used to help you prioritize other things, like exercising, writing, an art practice, etc.
Let’s get into it!
Make reading easier by setting yourself up for success
Many tried and true tactics that help with habit formation work by adjusting one’s environment to remove barriers and encourage the new habit. Here are a handful you could play around with to help you read more:
Schedule reading in your calendar/planner. Just like you schedule work meetings and important events so you don’t forget them, you can schedule other priorities in your life like blocks of time to read. This tactic works well for people who live by their calendar and less well for people who have no qualms about ignoring what their planner says.
“Stack” reading with other established habits. Habit stacking is a great way to piggyback on familiar routines. What could you “attach” reading to that you’re already doing consistently? For example, I read physical books at the end of my bedtime routine as a way of winding down before bed. My partner and I have a specific “quitting time” for anything else we’re doing in the evening to make sure we go upstairs early enough to do our bedtime routine before we need to go to sleep. You could try stacking reading with your wake-up routine, lunch, walking on a treadmill, or whatever else makes sense for you.
Pick specific, achievable milestones to help you progress toward your larger goal. The desire to finish a book or a certain number of books is great, but it’s probably too general of a goal if you’re not in the habit of reading regularly. Smaller goals like committing to read one chapter a week, 10 pages a day, etc. will ensure that you’re more consistent over time. Start with something you feel confident you can manage—you can always increase the difficulty later.
Keep your books (or e-reader) in places that make sense. If every time you want to read you have to hunt down your book, that’s one more obstacle to the reading part. So think about when you hope to read and plan accordingly. If you anticipate that a lot of your reading will be done outside the house when you’re waiting places, you’ll want to keep a book in your bag or car. Since I read physical books at night before bed, any of my in-progress physical books live on my nightstand so I don’t have to hunt them down once I’ve already gotten comfy.
Start small and build from there. If you’ve been out of the reading game for a while, diving back in with a 150,000-word fantasy the size of a brick might be a little intimidating. Instead, you could ease your way back into the reading waters with shorter pieces like poetry, short stories, essay collections, or graphic novels to get your feet wet and build confidence.
Figure out how to make reading fun for you
The best way to read more is to find ways to make reading something you can look forward to, and my advice for doing that breaks down into two categories: (1) making reading itself more enjoyable, and (2) choosing enjoyable things to read.
Some of my best suggestions for making the experience of reading more enjoyable are:
Read in community. Talking about books with other people can be entertaining and motivating. You could join an in-person or virtual book club, pick a friend or two to do buddy reads with, or read books with your partner or kids (Jessie and I usually have a shared audiobook going for car rides in addition to our individual books/audiobooks).
Share your reading. Many folks take pleasure in sharing what they’re reading online by making videos or posts about books they’ve read and how they feel about them.
Have multiple books going at a time. I’m a big proponent of reading multiple books at once so that you don’t get burned out on any one book and you always have something to fit your mood. I also use this strategy to ensure I’m reading nonfiction books of interest even though they tend to be less riveting than fiction. When I sit down to read before bed, I try to read a little bit in my nonfiction book first before switching to my fiction pick.
Reward yourself for reading. As a neurodivergent person, I am all about using rewards to get things done. If you need to make yourself a sticker chart and give yourself a gold star every time you finish a book to stay motivated, please do! You can set up any kind of reward system you like to connect reading with little treats and excite your brain.
Then there’s the matter of choosing enjoyable things to read.
I’m just gonna say it: Sometimes readers (and by extension, writers) can be total snobs. Certain people in the world are quick to dismiss books and even entire genres as “less than” for a host of silly reasons that honestly don’t matter.
This is not to say there aren’t legitimate book critiques out there or that books should never be critically panned. Discourse around media (especially harmful and/or problematic media) is important. But when it comes to your individual reading, you are welcome to ignore other people’s opinions in the vast majority of circumstances.
Reading, like so many things in life, is a matter of individual taste and preference, and it gets a whole lot easier when you’re reading things that feel exciting and engaging to you, regardless of how others might view what you’re reading. Whether it’s the smuttiest of smutty romances, books about high schoolers, or epic zombie apocalypse tales, only you can decide what will get you turning the pages.
I encourage you to shed other people’s judgments and expectations about your reading choices. As long as you’re enjoying yourself, does it really matter if Becky on TikTok hated the slutty dragon book you loved or Walter on Goodreads 1-starred the steamy sapphic romance you inhaled in a single weekend? Nah.
You’re not reading for school or work or to look smart in other people’s eyes. You’re reading for you. So fuck ‘em.
Side note: If you have no idea what you like to read, that means it’s time to do some experimenting! Ask around in your friend group or on social media, go to the library and talk to a librarian, search #Bookstagram on IG or #BookTok on TikTok to see what books people are talking about and recommending, or check out sources like celebrity book clubs (Reese Witherspoon’s is probably the most famous currently, but other celebrities, like Roxane Gay, Megan Rapinoe, Oprah, and Shonda Rhimes, for example, have them too) or sites like BookRiot to see what’s popular.
Just because you start a book doesn’t mean you have to finish it
I DNFed (DNF means started but “did not finish”) more books last year than in any year prior, and I suspect it’s because the older I get, the more discerning I am about how I spend my time.
I’m all for giving a book a fair chance because it can take a minute to get into a book initially, but if you still don’t like a book and you’re past the one-third mark (this is an arbitrary measure—some people know they want to DNF a lot sooner), you don’t have to force yourself to finish it. Give yourself permission to abandon books that aren’t doing it for you.
You have one life and there are millions of books out there. Why would you want to spend time and energy on a book you don’t really care for (or at least don’t care for right now—you can always come back to a book later) when you could go find one you love?
Brush up on the Sunk Cost Fallacy and treat books that aren’t your jam like shitty exes: Block their number and walk awaaaaaaaaay, bb!
Audiobooks are books, and listening to them is reading
Do not let anyone tell you that listening to audiobooks isn’t as good as reading on a page. Not only is it your choice how you want to take in information, but also, neuroscience has shown that the brain processes audiobooks the same way it processes physical books.
The proliferation of audiobooks was a huge catalyst for me getting back into reading post-law school. For the first six months I worked as a lawyer in Austin, I had a long commute to and from downtown every day. I turned to audiobooks to pass the time, and that helped me fall back in love with reading.
Even now that I work from home, over 50% of my reading each year is done through audiobooks. I typically listen to them when I’m doing my hair and makeup or chores around the house as well as when I’m driving longer than 10 minutes to get somewhere.
For many people, audiobooks are simply more accessible. They also don’t take up any space in a home like physical books do, and they can be very immersive when the voice acting is top-notch.
Bottom line: Audiobooks are not “cheating” and should rightfully count toward your book total, so don’t be afraid to give them a try.
Take advantage of free ways to read
If the cost of books is one of the factors that has deterred you from reading more, I get that. Books can add up fast. Thankfully, there are plenty of free and discounted resources out there for reading to your heart’s content without the high price tag.
Here are a few examples:
Get a library card. I absolutely loved the library as a kid, and the library is still pretty awesome as an adult. If you want to get physical books for free, a library card and a trip to your local library is a simple way to make that happen. A lot of libraries offer other perks like free or discounted passes to local museums, zoos, parks, etc. or puzzle/game checkout options.
Use your library card to sign up for Libby. Libby is an app you can use to check out audiobooks and eBooks for free by adding your library card information to your account. There’s no limit to how many library cards you can link to your account, so if you belong to multiple library systems, you’ll have more inventory to choose from (a lot of libraries have “partner” libraries they work with). Sometimes you have to wait a little bit for the most popular selections, but Libby has some cool features like tagging books you’re interested in and delivering holds later if you’re in the middle of a different book.
Check out resources like Project Gutenberg, BookBub, and Chirp. Project Gutenberg is an online library with over 70,000 free eBooks. They focus on classic books that are now in the public domain because their copyrights have expired. BookBub (for e-books) and Chirp (for audiobooks) are owned by the same people. They run limited-time deals on more modern books that can drastically reduce the price (up to 95% off).
Explore Little Free Library locations in your area. Hunting in Little Free Libraries is kind of like thrifting—you never know what you’re going to find, but you might come up with some gems. You can check out the Little Free Library World Map to find locations near you (or even start your own!).
Take a trip to Half Price Books or keep an eye out for books in your local Buy Nothing group. Half Price Books remains a good option for finding used books at a lower price if you have a store near you, and I also see books being given away a lot in my Buy Nothing group.
Lastly, decide whether or not you want to track your reading and what kind of tracking you’d like to do
Let me say up front that you do not have to track your reading or set reading goals if doing so makes you feel anxious or like you’re not measuring up. Some people find reading goals fun and motivating, whereas other people find them restrictive.
What I will offer is that even though tracking the number of books or pages read in a year is the most common goal you’ll see, that’s not the only kind of reading goal you can work toward.
A friend of mine reached out last year for advice when she was feeling frustrated with setting a goal to read a certain number of books each year. She felt like doing so limited her (for example, she’d noticed she was less likely to pick up a longer book because it would take too long to read) and stressed her out. We talked through what was most important to her for her reading and set different goals she was excited to pursue.
Reading goals you could go after include, but are not limited to:
Genre-based goals. If you want to expand your reading and try out new genres, you could set a goal to read a certain number of new genres or a specific number of books within a genre (e.g., two memoirs, two contemporary romances, and two fantasy books).
Reading books by diverse authors. If your reading has been looking a little white bread lately, you could set a goal around improving diversity in your reading (e.g., reading one book by a Black author, reading one book by a transgender author, reading one book by an author over 50, etc.) or reading books written by authors from outside the country you live in.
Reading banned books. As the number of book bans continues to rise across the country, it’s an ideal time to support authors who have found their books repeatedly on ban lists (here’s an index from PEN America of the most banned books in the 2022-23 school year).
Build in ranges. Instead of saying, “I want to read 20 books this year,” you could give yourself a range to offer more flexibility—“I want to read between 15 and 20 books this year.”
Rereading your favorites. An inexpensive goal would be to revisit books you already own and love or even try them out in a different format (maybe if you first listened to the audiobook, you could try a physical or eBook this round).
Getting creative with your goals can be a means to bring more pleasure to your reading, so feel free to experiment. Just remember that reading goals are aspirations, not binding contracts. There’s no need to be hard on yourself if you don’t meet them.
I wish lots of joyful reading for you, friends! And if you’re looking for my opinion on what to read, you can check out my Queer Book Reviews (full reviews are only available for paying subscribers, but the book titles and summaries anyone can see) or go to my book list in my Amazon Storefront to see what I’ve been recommending.
Queerly yours,
Shohreh
To get in touch, shoot me an email at hello@shohrehdavoodi.com. For more from me, follow me on Instagram, TikTok, and Threads.
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