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Almost everyone says they want to read more books. Few people actually do it. The gap isn’t usually about intelligence, time, or genuine interest — it’s about having the right system. Knowing how to read more books is less about willpower and more about removing the friction between you and the page.
This guide covers the specific habits, strategies, and mindset shifts that consistently help busy people read more — without needing to find large blocks of free time that most people don’t have.
Why Most People Read Less Than They Intend To
The stated reason is usually “I don’t have time.” The actual reasons tend to be:
Decision fatigue around what to read next — when you finish a book and don’t have the next one ready, the gap fills with easier entertainment. The decision itself becomes a barrier.
Books compete with frictionless alternatives — social media, streaming, and short-form content are specifically engineered to be immediately gratifying and require no activation energy. A book requires a slightly higher cognitive ramp-up, which loses the comparison when you’re tired.
Treating reading as a big block activity — many people think of reading as something that requires 30–60 uninterrupted minutes. Most busy schedules don’t produce those blocks reliably, so reading keeps getting pushed to “later.”
Wrong book for the current moment — if you’re not enjoying what you’re reading, you’ll avoid it. Forcing through a bad-fit book poisons the whole habit.
Step 1: Always Have Your Next Book Ready
The most common reading killer is the gap between books. Finishing one and then spending days deciding what to read next allows other habits to fill the space.
Maintain a running “to-read” list — a physical note, a note on your phone, or a platform like Goodreads. When you finish a book, your next one is already chosen and ideally already in hand (downloaded to your Kindle, from the library, or sitting on your shelf).
Some readers maintain a short stack of three to five books they’re genuinely excited about — so the next choice is instant and already feels appealing.
Step 2: Read in Small Fragments Throughout the Day
This is the single most effective structural change for busy people. Instead of waiting for a large reading block, identify the small windows that already exist in your day:
- Waiting for coffee to brew (5 minutes)
- Morning commute on transit (15–30 minutes)
- Lunch break (15–20 minutes)
- Waiting for appointments (10–20 minutes)
- Before bed — even 10–15 minutes
- After putting kids to bed
Research by the Pew Research Center on reading habits found that consistent readers don’t necessarily read for longer sessions than non-readers — they read more frequently in shorter fragments.
A person reading 20 minutes a day reads approximately 20 books a year, assuming an average reading speed and typical book length. That’s not a large daily commitment.
Step 3: Use Audiobooks for Commuting and Chores
Audiobooks don’t replace the experience of reading text, but they’re a genuine and underused tool for increasing your book consumption without adding time to your day.
Activities that pair well with audiobooks:
- Driving
- Grocery shopping
- Cleaning and household chores
- Cooking
- Walking or running
- Yard work
Audible, Libby (free library audiobooks), and Scribd are the main platforms. Most public libraries offer free audiobook access through the Libby app — an often overlooked resource that makes audiobooks cost-free.
A person who spends 30 minutes daily commuting has 182+ hours of potential listening time per year — enough for approximately 30 audiobooks.
Step 4: Keep a Book in Every Context
Physical books at home, a Kindle app on your phone, audiobooks queued for driving — having reading accessible wherever you are eliminates the friction of having to set up or retrieve your reading.
The phone is particularly useful because it’s always with you. Having a book loaded on your Kindle app means any time you’d normally scroll social media while waiting — for a friend, for a meeting to start, in a waiting room — you have a book instead.
This isn’t about eliminating all other phone use. It’s about having a better default for idle moments.
Step 5: Give Books Permission to Be Abandoned
One of the most liberating reading habits is giving yourself permission to stop reading a book you’re not enjoying — without guilt or obligation to finish.
Forcing through a bad-fit book is slow, joyless, and poisons your overall reading habit. Life is too short and there are too many good books.
The “50-page rule” from book curator Nancy Pearl: give a book 50 pages. If it hasn’t captured you by then, set it aside. For older readers who have less time, she adjusts the rule: subtract your age from 100, and that’s how many pages to give it.
Abandoned books aren’t failures — they’re just not the right book right now. Some books you’ll return to later and find completely different. Some you won’t return to. Both outcomes are fine.
Step 6: Create a Before-Bed Reading Habit
The window before sleep is one of the most consistently available reading opportunities — and it also has a secondary benefit: reading (from a physical book or an e-ink device with no blue light) in the hour before sleep improves sleep quality compared to screen use.
Research at the University of Sussex found that just six minutes of reading reduced stress levels by 68% — more than music, walking, or having a cup of tea. The cognitive engagement of reading occupies the mind in a way that interrupts rumination and promotes relaxation.
Even 10–15 minutes before bed, maintained consistently, adds up to 60–90 books over a decade. The habit is small but compounding.
Step 7: Curate Your Reading List Intentionally
Reading widely — across genres, topics, and perspectives — produces more cognitive benefit than staying in one comfortable genre. Research published in Cognitive Science found that reading literary fiction specifically improves theory of mind (the ability to understand and predict others’ mental states) — a benefit not produced by non-fiction or popular fiction in the same way.
A balanced reading diet might include:
- Fiction (literary and genre)
- Non-fiction in areas relevant to your work or interests
- Biography and memoir
- History
- At least one “challenging” book per year — something genuinely outside your comfort zone
That said: reading for pleasure beats not reading at all. If you’ll only read thrillers, read thrillers. The goal is building the habit before optimizing it.
Tracking What You Read
Tracking your reading — even just a simple list of titles and dates — produces several benefits:
- It creates a visible record of progress that reinforces the habit
- It helps you notice patterns (what genres you gravitate toward, where you slow down)
- It becomes a useful personal library for recommending books to others
- Annual totals create a satisfying sense of accomplishment
Goodreads is the most popular platform for this, with additional social features. A simple note in your phone or a physical journal works equally well if you prefer low-tech tracking.
How Many Books Should You Aim For?
There’s no right number — and comparing your reading total to others or to some aspirational standard creates unnecessary pressure.
A realistic starting target for someone who currently reads very little: 6–10 books in the first year of building the habit. That’s roughly one every four to six weeks — a pace that’s achievable without extreme effort.
From that foundation, increasing is natural as the habit strengthens. Most consistent readers find they don’t set annual targets — they read as much as brings them genuine enjoyment, and the total takes care of itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
In terms of comprehension and cognitive engagement, research suggests audiobooks and text reading produce similar understanding of content for most material. Audiobooks engage language processing areas of the brain similarly to text reading. Whether audiobooks “count” is largely a personal or philosophical question — but they absolutely contribute to literary consumption and the benefits associated with it.
Both approaches work for different people. Reading one book at a time maintains narrative coherence, particularly for fiction. Reading multiple books — one fiction, one non-fiction, one for work — prevents burnout on a single topic and means you always have something appealing to reach for. There’s no research-backed superiority of either approach — it’s a personal preference question.
Reading retention improves significantly with active engagement: pausing to think about what you’ve just read, making notes of key ideas, discussing books with others, and returning to underlined passages. For non-fiction, writing a brief summary of each chapter’s main ideas dramatically improves retention compared to passive reading.
The best genre is whatever you’ll actually read. Page-turners — thrillers, mysteries, fantasy, compelling narrative non-fiction — are often the best habit-builders because they create a “just one more chapter” pull. Once the habit is established, branching into other genres is easier.
No single best time. The best time is when you have consistent availability and relatively good focus. Morning reading, before the day’s demands fully arrive, works for some. Lunch breaks work for others. Bedtime reading works for many. What matters more than the time is the consistency — reading at the same time each day makes it automatic.
Final Thoughts
Reading more books doesn’t require finding large blocks of free time you don’t have. It requires identifying the small windows already in your day and having a book ready to fill them. It requires always knowing what you’re reading next. And it requires giving yourself permission to abandon books that aren’t working rather than grinding through them.
The readers who read the most aren’t the ones with the most free time — they’re the ones who’ve built reading into the texture of their daily life in small, consistent ways.
Start with 15 minutes before bed. Have a book ready. That’s enough to begin.
For related reading on building sustainable daily habits, how to develop good habits that last covers the behavioral science of making any practice stick, and how to build a daily routine helps you find and protect the time.
Sources:
- Pew Research Center — Reading Habits in America: https://www.pewresearch.org/
- Lewis D — “Reading Can Help Reduce Stress.” University of Sussex Research (2009)
- Mar RA et al. — “Bookworms Versus Nerds: Exposure to Fiction Versus Nonfiction and Social Ability.” Cognitive Science (2006)
- National Endowment for the Arts — Reading on the Rise Report