The world is in a dark place at the moment, and the future is shrouded by the spectres of war, the climate emergency, and the AI crisis. During these turbulent times, we need solace, reassurance, and hope to get us through. Books offer all this and more.
I’ve spent the last five years reading just under 550 books. During that time, I’ve picked up a few handy tips that have helped me reach my annual reading goals. In this post, I’ll share some of them and hope they’ll inspire you to achieve your own reading targets.
10 tips for accomplishing your reading goals
1. Break down you annual reading goal into monthly, weekly, or daily targets, to stay on track.
If, for example, you want to read 12 books in a year, that works out at one book per month. If the book you’ve chosen for January is 310 pages long, that equates to reading 10 pages every day of the month. Breaking your reading goal down into smaller chunks makes it feel achievable.
2. Think about using a reading app like Goodreads, or joining a reading group for motivation.
Reading apps like Goodreads not only allow you to track what you’ve read, but they also show your reading stats for a bit of extra motivation. You can also use the app to set an annual reading goal. This will calculate the reading pace you need to maintain for the duration of the year.
If you’d prefer face-to-face motivation, you could join a local reading group. Just be aware that if you do, you’ll likely have to read what the rest of the group reads – a great option if you’re open to exploring new books and genres.
3. Don’t be afraid to have multiple books on the go.
Some days are particularly difficult, with seemingly endless sources of stress. On those days, we may prefer less heavy reading.
I’ve found that having multiple books on the go gives me the flexibility to read different types of books depending on how I’m feeling. On days when dense reading simply isn’t possible, I might dip into a lighter novel by a favourite author – the kind of page-turner that simply can’t be put down.
This balance is massively helpful. Before I used to wait until I was in the right mood for the book I was reading. Now I know that regardless of how I feel, I’ll be able to pick-up one of several books, or start a new one.
You might be wondering if this leads to books getting started and seemingly never finished… I’ve found that by having multiple books on the go, I’m consciously aware of unfinished books that linger, and eventually a strong urge arrives to finish those books and clear the slate. This is powerful motivation in itself to get more reading done.
However, this shouldn’t be confused with trying to finish a book that you really aren’t enjoying, which brings me to the next point…
4. If you aren’t enjoying a book, drop it.
Research by Google showed there were over 129 million books in 2010. While a more recent estimate from Stuart Russell in Human Compatible, put the figure at around 150 million titles.
If a person sets out to read 100 books a year over 50 years, they’ll read around 5,000 books in their lifetime. This is likely an overestimate as the Economist used a YouGov survey to calculate the number of books a person might read in their lifetime, and arrived at a figure of 770 books.
Either of these figures is a miniscule fraction of the total number of books published. It barely even touches the sides of the number of books published annually, which UNESCO puts at 2.2 million.
The point is, there are more books published in a single year than a person could read in hundreds of lifetimes – not to mention the existing catalogue of 150 million books. So, if you aren’t enjoying a book, drop it. There are simply too many books out there, and not enough time. Don’t sacrifice the opportunity to read a great book, simply to finish a bad one.
5. If you have to read certain books (e.g. for work or study), incentivise yourself to get through them.
One way of doing this is by working out how many pages you need to read each day to finish the required reading by the deadline. Once you’ve worked this out, you could read the minimum number of pages each day and then ‘reward’ yourself by using the remainder of that day’s reading time to dip into a book that you really love.
Similarly, if you’re at the end of your required reading (or if you have a chunk of time until the next lot begins), you can reward yourself with a book that you’ve been extremely excited to read. These small incentives can help get you through mandatory books.
6. If you’re able to read primarily for pleasure, think about the books you want to read, as opposed to those you feel you should be reading.
There are too many books to read in too little time. So don’t feel forced to read books that society expects you to read. Reading is ultimately something that should be enjoyed.
Read the books you want to read. Those that inspire you, that help take your mind off the stresses of everyday life, that excite you, that help you cope through challenging times, that take you to new worlds, that introduce you to new ideas and other ways of thinking about things. Read what feels right for you.
I’ve found that children’s literature is home to some of the best stories I’ve read. Katherine Rundell wrote a great book on this subject, entitled Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise. I share this simply to show that it’s OK to read what you want to read – regardless of the genre, or the intended audience.
If you enjoy what you read, you’ll naturally want to read more and it will become easier to turn reading into a habit (and smash those reading goals). Read what you want to read – it’s your life and time is desperately short.
*My only caveat here would be to avoid any books written (or co-written) or produced by AI, because that junk not only threatens human careers, but is completely unnecessary with the 150 million human written books already out there.
7. Work out how you’ll access the books you want to read.
Perhaps you already have a shelf full of books waiting to be read. If so, great! If not, it’s worth thinking about where you might obtain your books from. If finances aren’t an issue, you could look at buying from independent booksellers, or bookshop.org. Audiobooks are also increasingly popular these days, meaning you can listen on the go.
Alternatively, if finances are limited, you could join a library, find a local charity shop that sells second hand books, or look at using an e-reader (for example, the Kindle store has books on special offer for 99p).
8. Explore the idea of spending less time on social media and replacing it with books.
There is no denying how addictive social media is. But given that social media gave rise to Oxford University Press’s 2024 word of the year, which was ‘brain rot’, one might begin to question whether we’re truly benefiting from our time on these platforms.
On the other hand, no time spent reading is wasted. Research has shown that reading has a wide range of benefits, so you may end up feeling better for balancing out your time.
9. Keep a book on you for when you have a few spare moments.
Waiting for public transport, an appointment at the GP surgery/dentist/optician… These are all golden opportunities to get a few pages under our belts.
If you don’t fancy carrying a physical book around, you can also download a free e-reader app on your phone, enabling you to read a few pages on the go (although I don’t recommend using your phone for long reading stints, or for trying to read whole books).
Using these spare moments will help shift your mindset towards reading more.
10. Visit bookshops and libraries.
It’s genuinely a pleasure spending time in these cathedrals of books. And doing so, also fires up our passion to read more. Many bookshops feel quite homely and welcoming – and they’re also where you’ll find your next favourite read. So, go browse and enjoy!
I hope you’ll be able to achieve your reading goals going forward. Most importantly, I hope you’ll take pleasure in reading – for there are few greater (and consistent) joys that can accompany us through life.
My cli-fi children’s picture book, Nanook and the Melting Arctic is available from Amazon’s global stores including Amazon UK and Amazon US. My eco-fiction children’s picture book, Hedgey-A and the Honey Bees about how pesticides affect bees, is available on Amazon’s global stores including Amazon UK and Amazon US.