How to Read More Books: A Gentle Way to Build a Reading Habit
If you have been wondering how to read more books, you have probably already tried the usual advice: set a yearly goal, track everything, treat reading like a workout plan. And you have probably noticed that the more reading resembles homework, the less you want to do it. I’d like for you to consider a different approach. You see, reading more is not about being more disciplined. Reading is a pleasure to reclaim. Here is how to rebuild a reading habit that actually makes sense for you, backed by research on what reading does for you and how habits genuinely form.
Why You Stopped Reading (It Isn't Laziness)
Most women who miss reading did not lose the love of it. They lost the conditions for it. Reading requires time and sustained attention, and sustained attention is precisely what modern life fragments. Your phone offers a faster reward for the same idle minute, so it wins by default, not by preference. The fix is not more willpower. It is arranging your evenings so the book is the easy choice and the phone is the effortful one.
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What Reading Actually Does for You
A Yale School of Public Health study by Avni Bavishi, Martin Slade, and Becca Levy followed 3,635 adults for twelve years and found that book readers had a 23-month survival advantage over non-readers, with a 20 percent lower risk of mortality even after accounting for age, wealth, education, and health. The effect held at as little as thirty minutes of reading a day, roughly a chapter. One study showing a correlation is not proof that books extend life, but the pattern survived every adjustment the researchers threw at it, and books outperformed newspapers and magazines, likely because a book asks your mind to hold characters, plots, and connections over time.
Reading also calms you quickly. Research at Seton Hall University by Pamela Rizzolo and colleagues found that thirty minutes of reading lowered acute stress about as effectively as thirty minutes of yoga. Which means your evening chapter is not wasted time. It is peace.
Interested in more posts about reading? Check out What Is a Cozy Mystery: The Reading Genre that Feels Like a Warm Hug or Best Romance Novels for Women: Why We Can't Stop Reading Love Stories.
How to Read More Books Without Making It a Chore
Read by mood, not by list. Keep three books going: something intense, something gentle, something educational. You reach for whichever fits the evening.
Give yourself the DNF. DNF means did not finish, and it is a right, not a failure. Every hour spent dutifully finishing a book you dislike is an hour not spent enjoying one. Give the story a few chapters and if it doesn’t grip you, DNF it.
Put the book where the phone was. On the nightstand, in your bag, beside your chair. The idea is putting friction between you and the phone so it’s easy to choose the book.
Lower the unit. One chapter counts. A habit measured in pages survives busy weeks; a habit measured in books collapses under them.
Reread without guilt. A book you loved is a proven pleasure. Rereading keeps the habit when new titles feel like effort.
Consider listening to books. Audio books are a great way to enjoy books without having to devote uninterrupted time. I personally love listening to audio books on my commute to work, on my morning walks or while I’m cleaning the house.
Building a Reading Habit That Lasts
Habit research from University College London, led by Phillippa Lally, found that new habits take an average of 66 days to become automatic, and, encouragingly, that missing a day here and there made no measurable difference to the outcome. So skip the streak anxiety. Attach your reading to something you already do every evening, a technique behavioral scientists call habit stacking: after the kettle goes on, the book comes out. After you get into bed, a couple of chapters before the lights go out. Two months of that, and reading starts becoming an integral part of your evening.
The Point Was Never the Number
Fifty-two books a year is a fine outcome and a terrible goal. The women with the richest reading lives are rarely the ones counting; they are the ones for whom the book has simply become where the evening goes. Build the conditions, protect the pleasure, and the number takes care of itself.
