How to read more books

I read more books that the average people (this is based on this graphic from Eurostat). This year, I’ve read at least two books/month, and I think in March I’ve read 3 or 4, but some of them were really short.

Reading books, is a bug that I caught while growing up in the countryside of Romania, where during that period you had only 1 TV channel to watch and after I finished up my chores, a lot of free time. So I read books. I’ve filled my mind with adventures and stories that later I used to enrich my playtime.

And this habit of reading is still with me. I still like to devour books, to discover and learn new things. But now that I have a job and responsibilities that I need to take care off like a responsible adult that I am, the time for reading has shortened quite a lot.

But reading is still important to me, so I have to find time for my books as well. Because there is no such thing as no time. There is a thing called priorities. If you don’t find time for reading, then reading is not a priority for you.

This is one of the first things that you need to establish. How important is reading for you? Take it from a scale from 1 to 5 (1 being not important, 5 being very important). And be honest with yourself. Place the importance of reading your mind. Is it one or is it five?

Because if you’ll say five, it will be easy to do find some time for reading. If it’s one, what’s the point of struggle yourself?

Because you’re reading this post I’ll assume that you place the importance of reading at about a 4 or 5 on that scale. Let’s move on.

When people think of reading books, they you have to stay on the sofa or chair for an hour or two, staying cozy and relaxing while reading that book. For me, it’s not like that. I’m not reading for relaxing myself. I’m reading to train my mind. To put it to work. Not to relax it.

This is why I read when I can. On my way to work. I have a 20-30 min drive to my office, I read on the bus. I’m feeling like I don’t know what to do for a few minutes, I pick up the book and I read. Even for five minutes.

My reading isn’t done at set times in the day. But when I’m free, when I’m in the mood, every time is a good time for reading. Take the book to the bathroom with you if you want. What? It’s a good strategy as well.

You don’t have to struggle yourself reading countless pages each day. Read one page, ten pages per day. Start slowly. Get used to reading 5 minutes every few hours.

Read before going to bed. 15 minutes before closing the lights, read some pages in your book. I used this method to settle down before sleeping. I close the laptop 30 minutes before going to bed, open up the book and I read.

If you feel that you can’t find those minutes to open up the book, try listening to audio books. It’s an amazing feat. Listen to them while you walk, while to cook in the kitchen. Instead of listening to the radio, listen a book. It’s the same thing as reading, only now you can’t come up with the excuse that you don’t have the time.

For me, reading is a quest for knowledge. I read nowadays mostly non-fiction books (self-development, business, psychology, etc.) but I read fiction as well. And I read each day, little by little, page by page. Until I finish the book. And then I pick another one.

This is my advice for those that want to catch up with their reading list.

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