Lots of people tell me they want to read more books. Sometimes it’s a wistful thought, and sometimes it’s a true expression of frustration. I love talking about reading because I love reading, of course, but also because I firmly believe “reading more” is an achievable goal for anyone who wants to strive for it.
I wrote a short guide to cultivating a reading habit several years ago, and last year I revisited it for a work presentation. Based on some questions generated from that, I have a new set of recommendations for people who want to read more.
The recommendations don’t come from a place of expertise (“I’m the best reader there ever was!”) but rather from piecing together a plan to return to something I knew I loved and missed having in my life. Last week I shared that I read 106 books in 2023.1 It took me ten years to get to this point.
If you feel a pull towards wanting to read more, I hope you find some of these suggestions helpful. Take what is useful, leave what isn’t.
Remove all expectations.
When I hear people talk about reading, they often talk about how much they used to read when they were younger. This specter of nostalgia can doom a renewed reading journey early on. Erase all standards you may be tempted to hold yourself to, most importantly an idea of what reading was like for you in the past. Your life is significantly different now, and your reading habits will be too.
Plan the time.
Reading is an activity that takes time; if you want to read more, you will need to figure out where it will fit into your schedule.
Choosing to read usually means making a trade-off with another activity. I find it useful to do periodic inventories of my time to see how it’s actually being spent. It’s not an exercise in judging myself, it’s a way of gathering information.
I find it incredibly annoying when self-help books suggest you make time. I personally cannot just wake up ten minutes earlier. But sometimes, when you assess your time, you find magic pockets where you could be doing something else. If I’m driving, I can play an audiobook instead of listening to the radio. If I’m in the waiting room at a doctor’s office, I can open an ebook on my phone. If I’m mindlessly scrolling social media for hours, I can put a time limit on the app to force myself to do something else. I fill a lot of my downtime by reading just a few pages and that progress adds up.
Choose the right goal.
“Reading more” can mean a million different things. I always found the number of books I read to be a motivating goal. Some people prefer time-based goals, like daily or weekly page counts or dedicated minutes spent with a book. Other people might have a specific book list they want to work through.
A goal should be something that motivates you and is realistic. When I began reading again, I aimed for fifty-two books in a year. I read thirty. Sometimes I set a low goal, hit it, then revise it for the rest of the year. Is that cheating? I don’t care! No one is keeping track except me.
Stack the deck when you pick out books to read.
When I first got back into reading, I struggled to stick with longer plot arcs. I read a lot of poetry — short books with few words on each page. Each one I finished gave me a sense of accomplishment. From there I moved on to short story collections then longer graphic novels, gradually rebuilding my attention span.
There are no types of reading that are better than others. Audiobooks, ebooks, physical books — use what is best for you.
Life is short, don’t spend time reading books you don’t enjoy.
This ties back to the “shoulds” we tell ourselves: I should read this book, I should have finished it by now, this story should be engaging me.
If you are not enjoying a book anymore, here is your permission slip to put it down and start something else.
Occasionally, people go through moods where they end up DNF’ing2 book after book. If the books aren’t genuinely interesting, put them down. If nothing seems interesting, look closer. Do you need to readjust your goal? Are you prioritizing other things instead of reading? Is there something big going on in your life that is sucking all your focus, and maybe reading isn’t in the cards for you right now?
All said: Set yourself up for success.
Quick Hits
My colleagues Kate Sosin and Steven Blum at published their three-year investigation into disorienting experiences at The Abbey, the most famous LGBTQ+ bar in Los Angeles
I said I would write this newsletter weekly and I already broke that — I’m struggling to plan my own time
I’m being gentle with myself about it
OpenNews is giving $250 and $500 grants to journalists for professional development and the deadline to apply is tomorrow
Revolutionaries are rarely beloved: The last time Gallup polled public opinion on Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. while he was alive was in 1966, and a plurality of American adults had a highly unfavorable opinion of him
I’m circling more around thoughts on whether journalists are allowed be angry
Nicole Froio wrote about how manosphere influencers are encouraging a predatory scheme to exploit OnlyFans creators
The Committee to Protect Journalists reported 320 journalists were in jail in 2023, the second-highest number since the organization began keeping track in 1992
I finished Return of the Obra Dinn and have been recommending it to everyone I know
I’m staying in solidarity with the LA Times Guild and keeping tabs on their picket line status
Writing a newsletter each week means I have to come up with something to write about each week which is harder than I thought
Do you have any reading goals for 2024? Let me know!
💜 Jasmine
I also shared I want to read less this year.
“Did not finish”
I'm working on rebuilding my attention span for reading and set a new goal this year: *finishing* one book a month. I'm usually reading 5 or 6 books at a time, but spreading out my attention means it can take me months to finish them (and then I finish them all at once, for a huge dopamine landslide). Unfortunately, finishing a book really motivates me, so delaying that satisfaction really puts me off reading. So I'm trying to motivate myself to give one book a little extra attention each month to keep my morale up!
These are good suggestions. I have read more books this month than I think I did all of last year. I just didn't have the interest in reading anything last year. I'm back to setting time aside to read before I fall asleep. I also checked out library books (art books) which I haven't done in a while, too. It helps when your daughter buys you lots of good books. 😂