One of the things I am asked most often is how I manage to read so much. Given that reading for me ranks somewhere alongside “drinking water” and “eating dinner”, I find that hard to answer sometimes – reading’s just what I do, like brushing my teeth. But since you asked (you didn’t), I’ve pulled together below some ways that I make sure I get my reading time in.

Now, a couple of things to say before I get into this. Firstly, “more” is a necessarily vague descriptor. The volume of books that would mean reading “a lot” for one person is very different than to someone else. I don’t think that actual number matters, to be honest: if reading four books in a year is an increase from your usual two, that’s just as valuable a goal as going from 70 up to 100.

Secondly, if you are happy with the amount you read just now, that’s great! You can stop reading this blog post right now, you’ve probably internetted enough for today.

I See You

The first tactic I use is to make sure the books I want to read are visible. I love having books all around the house, and while most of my already-read ones are on the bookshelves in the den, my physical to-read pile is on the mantelpiece in the living room. It sounds silly, but after a day at work and then doing all the life-admin that adulting demands, once I am sitting on that sofa there is very little chance of me getting up again. Call me lazy, but if the choice is between “book upstairs in a pile” and “phone which is at my right elbow” the phone will win every time. And although I do occasionally read using the kindle app on my phone, it hurts my eyes (alright grandma) so I’ll just watch Instagram stories instead. If my book is to hand, I am more likely to pick it up.

Scrolling, scrolling

The second thing is related to the first, really – minimise social media. I used to be a demon on twitter and would just scroll, pull-refresh, scroll, and occasionally get lost in a rabbit hole of discussion threads and unwinnable arguments. It wasn’t good for my blood pressure and it certainly didn’t do much for getting through my TBR pile. I still spend time on Facebook and Instagram, and dip my toe occasionally into Twitter, but using my phone’s time management features has really helped in this.

Step Inside

While I love my Kindle, and the ease of carrying a library’s-worth of books around with me, there is still nothing to quite compare to the heft and beauty of a physical book. Any time I’ve found myself in a reading slump, it’s almost always been a book with Actual Pages that has brought me back on form. When in doubt, a browse around a bookshop will land me a couple (*cough*) of books that please my eyes and gladden my heart. That’s enough to get me cosied up on the sofa with a cuppa and a blanket, and before I know it the clock’s struck 11pm and the reading slump is history. I will always recommend Waterstones for this purpose as each bookstore is well laid out and I’ve always found the staff are delighted to have a chance to find the right book for you. Plus you get to sniff the books. Just me? Okay then. Moving on.

Find your nearest Waterstones below.

Are You Sitting Comfortably?

The last recommendation I have to help read more is audiobooks. I’m quite late to the audiobook revolution, as I listened to lots of podcasts and always had enough to keep me going. I have a commute that’s 45 mins to an hour each way, though, and so I took a free trial of Audible a year or so back to see how I got on. I do find that I can only listen to audiobooks when I’m either driving, walking, or pottering around the house sorting things – anything where I’m not doing any form of other reading or aural comprehension, otherwise I end up having to rewind and relisten so many times that it’s just not worth it! I also have a very bad habit of putting a book on when I go to bed and setting a sleep timer of 30 mins. I rarely hear more than 4 minutes of it before I go to sleep! But listening to audiobooks makes use of those times that otherwise are ‘lost’, like my commute. It’s got to be better than local commercial radio, at least!

The narrator is what makes or breaks an audiobook. I’ve returned one or two where the voice ruined the whole book, while other narrators are just so perfect that you could believe the book was written with them in mind. I mentioned Kobna Holdbrook-Smith in the last blog post; his reading of the Rivers of London series is wonderful. If you’re finding it takes a long time to get through an audiobook, remember your app will probably let you set the playback speed to 1.25x or faster. Be warned: this does have the effect of some characters sounding like demented budgies. Friends occasionally say they know when I’ve been listening to something at 1.5x as I talk even faster than normal. Oops.

Audiobooks can be quite expensive – there’s probably a future blog post in getting the best from an audiobook subscription, but for now remember that your local library likely offers a decent selection through a free app like Borrowbox or Overdrive.

Get a trial of Audible, including one FREE book:

I hope some of these suggestions might help if you would love to fit more reading into your busy life. Let me know if any of these work for you, or your own hints and tips, in the comments below - or on social media via the links on the home page.

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