In my previous post, I addressed a problem that seems common among many adults: how to start reading again when new responsibilities threaten to crowd our leisure time. We discussed three ways to rekindle our love of reading and allow it to become the haven it once was.

Now we turn to a different problem that is still in the same vein: how to read more books when life is already busy.

There is nothing wrong with reading a handful of books per year, but some of us will not be satisfied with that. Some of us want the exhilarating sensation of reading volume after volume, visiting different places in the past and future, but cannot find a way to work such a goal into an already-busy schedule.

Perhaps you’re struggling because you have a lot on your plate, and your TBR simply isn’t a priority. Perhaps you’re overwhelmed by the task of deciding what to read next. Or perhaps you’ve fallen into the trap of thinking that reading more requires some elaborate system of its own.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to.

If you want to read more books, these simple changes may help you build a reading life that feels satisfying rather than demanding.

Stop Treating Your TBR Like a Syllabus

I’ve fallen into this trap before: I’ll have a nice collection of books growing on my shelf, but my conscience tells me that I cannot read them except in the order in which they were acquired.

To an extent, this might make sense. A person with common sense might think that we should read books as soon as they are bought; if not, did we really want them to begin with?

But a TBR is not a syllabus.

You do not have to start at the top of the stack and work your way down. You are allowed to skip around. You are allowed to read the book you are suddenly in the mood for, even if you bought it six months ago and have five others waiting ahead of it.

In fact, I think this is one of the simplest ways to make reading more enjoyable: let yourself choose.

Your TBR should be a collection of possibilities, not a list of assignments. There is no prize for finishing the books in chronological order, and there is certainly no reason to feel guilty about being more excited about the book at the bottom of the stack.

Read the book that calls to you.

Your future reading self will thank you for it.

Keep More Than One Book Going

Everybody has a different reading style, so this advice will not apply to everyone. Personally, I think it is perfectly fine to read more than one book at a time. Keep bookmarks at hand and have a different adventure waiting for you in every room of the house.

You might think this advice is counterproductive. After all, how can we ever finish a single novel if there are five others waiting to be read? But in my experience, books naturally follow their own timelines. A short, 130-page novel might take you a year to finish, while you might tear through a third of an epic fantasy in a matter of hours.

The point isn’t necessarily to have a great many books going at once. It is to trust the reading process itself. Different books will call to you at different times, and the one you have been neglecting for weeks might suddenly become the only one you want to read.

When that happens, let it.

Rather than dragging yourself through a book simply because you started it, you may find that giving yourself several stories to move between actually helps you read more. One book might suit your morning coffee, another your lunch break, and another the quiet half-hour before bed. You are not abandoning one story for another; you are allowing your reading life to have different moods.

And sometimes, almost without realizing it, you’ll find yourself finishing books faster than you would have if you had insisted on reading only one at a time.

Put Your Phone Somewhere Inconvenient

I realize, as I type this, that this probably should have been the first tip in a post like this. But it doesn’t apply only to reading. Our creative pursuits are threatened by our phones just as much as they are, in some ways, aided by them.

A phone gives us access to endless sources of inspiration, helps us meet other creatives with similar worldviews, and even allows us to sell our work to people who are interested in it. But it is far too easy to spend an hour building Pinterest boards instead of reading the novel sitting beside us—or writing the story we built the board for in the first place.

If you like using your phone to take notes about the stories you read, give yourself a timer for these little rituals. Ten minutes should be plenty of time to fill a Google Doc with “margin notes” that you can later use for a review. Three minutes should be more than enough to update your Goodreads status.

Reading time ought to be hallowed time.

Use your phone for the necessities: work, keeping in touch with loved ones, finding directions when you need to get somewhere. But when it is time to curl up with your latest cozy mystery, put the phone somewhere inconvenient. Leave it across the room. Put it in another room entirely.

If you want to read more books—and actually remember them when you’re finished—you have to give your attention somewhere else to go.

Try Shorter Books When You’re Stuck

I have recently discovered the great power that can be found in shorter books. Some of my favorite reads this year have been short enough to finish in a single sitting. Novellas, essays, short story collections—all of these absolutely count when you’re trying to overcome a reading slump.

If you’re not sure where to start with shorter novels, I recommend Whale Fall by Elizabeth O’Connor and Hello Baby by Kim Eui-Kyung. Both can be read in an afternoon; both are atmospheric and immediately draw us away from the world in which we live. And I feel the need to add: both are incredibly deep.

Some people seem to fear that a shorter novel won’t give us as much to mull over. But more pages do not necessarily mean more profound lessons about morality, life, or the human condition. A story does not become more meaningful simply because it takes longer to tell.

I’ve always thought that a tale that can be told as briefly as possible and still captivate its listeners is a story being told at its purest.

Make Reading a Part of Your Life Again

Ultimately, I don’t think the goal of reading more books should be to make ourselves more productive readers. Books are not another item on the list of things we ought to accomplish before the end of the day. They are one of the few places left where we can allow ourselves to be completely absorbed in something that asks nothing of us in return.

If you want to read more, give yourself permission to make reading easier. Choose the book you actually want to read. Keep several stories within reach. Put your phone somewhere you cannot see it. Pick up something short when a long novel feels impossible.

Most importantly, don’t turn your reading life into another obligation.

There will be seasons when you read dozens of books and seasons when you barely finish one. There will be books you abandon, books you carry around for months, and books you devour in a single afternoon. All of it counts.

The wonderful thing about building a reading life is that there is always another story waiting for you. You only have to open the book.

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Cover Image: Old Woman Reading a Newspaper (1895), Paul Knight

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