Admit it, most of us spend our time scrolling on social media than actually reading books. The famous lie line “I’m gonna read the whole day so don’t bother me please.” stays a myth. It never happen in real life. We either ended up going to Twitter or doing entirely unimportant things.
I’ve been jealous to other people who read more than five books a month because I can never exceed the five-books-per-month curse that I believe some bad witch casted on me when I was still in my mother’s womb. So, I came up with some tips and tricks that actually work on me (but I have a very very very lazy ass so six books read is yet to be cross off) and hopefully it’ll help you too!
1. Audiobooks
Before you say anything, audiobooks count as reading! Period. We’ll save this discussion for another blog post so let’s not get to deep about it but it counts. Audiobooks is the best tip for me! Audiobooks made it possible to read while doing your dishes, driving, etc. For someone who’s lazy to carry books whenever going out and not used to reading publicly, it’s saving my entire life.
I kinda wish ARCs have audiobooks, too. I’m drowning with so many unread ARCs right now tbvh.
2. Set a timer
Setting a timer before reading a book totally increases my lifetime span. You can set it for 10-20 minutes or anything that works for you that doesn’t look too intimidating.
Alternatively, you can set a goal for how many pages you want to read for the day. It is definitely up to you but I highly suggests to keep it small enough—like 20 pages. It seems a tad but it adds up pretty quick.
3. Join reading challenges
There are tons of reading challenges circling in the community and I’m sure you can find one that’ll work on you. To name a few, the most famous one is the Goodreads Reading Challenge, Year of the Asian Reading Challenge (I’m participating in the challenge and you can check out my tracker here), Beat the Backlist and see a compiled list from Girlxoxo here!
You can also do the 24 hour reading challenges with some friends or totally by yourself. Challenges enables us to channel our inner productivity to get certain things done—including reading! Viewing your goals as a challenge have higher success rate more than what you think.
4. Take a short socmed detox
In simple words, remove all the distractions—social media a.k.a your phone. Just like what I’ve said a while ago, we spent most of our time browsing on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Either we unlocked our phone just to squeal on Twitter about the book were reading but found ourselves scrolling for more than half an hour already.
Imagine, how many pages have you read if only you continued reading instead of scrolling for half an hour and another? (dear self, practice what you preach. sincerely, yours truly.)
5. Don’t be afraid to put a book down
IT’S OKAY TO DNF A BOOK! Don’t let yourself feel burden to finish a book. Why bother if it isn’t your taste? Time is gold so we should spend our reading time devouring great novels. You can pass the DNF book to a friend who might actually enjoy it.
So that is all with the tips I got for you to read more books. Hopefully, you found something that will help you along the way! Also, a reminder that a person who reads 100 books and another person who reads 10 books a year are both a reader.
Tell me what you think!
✏ Do you have some tips in mind you might want to share? Comment below!
✏ What are your takes on DNF-ing a book?
Yes to all of these!! I’ve been using the Forest app to stay clear of my phone when reading too. That really helps!
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Oh! I used Forest way back to help me get productive plus it’s also lovely to *virtually* plant trees. Now I have to re-download to get my ARCs done 😅
Thank you so much for sharing a tip, btw! 💕💖
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Totally agree with all of these! It really helps to set a goal, to listen to an audiobook, to join reading challenges and all you mentioned. But I think it’s also good to join readathons because it makes you read more, just don’t over due it
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I don’t have any tips for reading books quickly because I am reading slowest reader ever. And I really think that we shouldn’t feel bad for dnfing if a book really seems like it’s never ending & you don’t want to go through the pain of reading one more word!
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So true! It’s totally okay to dnf a book if you’re not liking it at the moment.
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I usually hate to DNF a book but I definitely agree that one should DNF it if they are not just that into it since it slows down your reading and often leads into a slump.
Honestly, I need to learn how to DNF books more…
I also just started listening to audiobooks late last year and they have definitely helped me be able to read more since now I can use the time in which I commute to listen to them and it definitely adds one more book to my ‘read’ list every month!
GReat tips! xx
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I don’t think I ever hated DNFing a book. I sometimes hesitates to do it but I’ll end up doing it anyway (and it’s veryyyyy refreshing) 😂
Thank you! 💕
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I used to be afraid of DNFing a book because it would make me feel weak or something, but now I do it all the time! 😂 I’m also a very picky reader, so I’ll only read books I like from the beginning.
And I agree about audiobooks – I used to say they don’t count as reading, and now I WISH I had more time to listen to audiobooks! Reading / listening to audiobooks is a fast and sometimes fun way to get through a book, but I think that some books work better as audiobooks than others.
Thanks for sharing this list! I’m always looking for ways to find more time to read 🙂
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DNFing and audiobooks are both saving me a lot of time! We don’t have an unlimited time to read books we’re not interested in so go DNF! 😂
I’m glad to be able to help you, Xandra! 💕
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Man I wish I could be able to read all day! but alas…same. Very lazy, my personal record is five I believe XD mostly under, but never over yet.
Good tips! Ive loaded Libby to start on audiobooks but alas.. couldnt try it yet as I got a last minute arc and im back drowning in the next one 🤦🏽♀️ but also I switched phones so either I grab my phone’s earphones with me always OR I go for some bluetooth ones..
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Me too! Even though I love reading with all my heart, my laziness and urge to just scroll mindlessly on Twitter is winning the game.
Audiobooks… are life saver. That’s the best to describe it. So, ARCs, just maybe, an audiobook version? 😂
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That’d be nice!!
Now Iwonder.. does indie books even get an audiobook sometimes? 🤔 I feel like thatd be only through regular publishing for some reason
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i think you can self publish an audiobook through acx which is also part of amazon. i’m not very familiar with self publishing an audiobook but this showed up when i did a bit of research on google!
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Oh nice ! what got me thinking mostly is that.. you need someone to read your book … which would probably need paid
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Yes, great post!! I’ve never tried an audiobook but they sound so useful, especially for people like me who get insanely travel sick and can’t read visually whilst travelling 😊
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I know how reading in cars or while travelling can make us feel lightheaded so audiobooks really helped me a lot.
You can find good YA audiobooks in Spotify, too! 💕
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Omg really?! I need to check that out haha
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i tried some reading challenges this month to try and help but i ended up feeling even more stressed and read less. its weird how some thigngs work for people and others dont.
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I tried getting rid of social media apps on my phone… I failed, I’m addicted, haha! But I try to leave my phone in another room when I pick a book, so I am not tempted to check.
At first, I felt so guilty about DNFing a book, but now that my TBR is giant, I’m ruthless! Time is precious, I can’t lose it with a book I don’t enjoy!
Great post!
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I can’t delete social media apps on my phone 💀 Aside from it’s the best thing to communicate with my friends I’m basically living in the internet 😂
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Haha, I’m the same!! I need that link to my friends!!! x
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Great tips. I am always toting an audiobook with me and surprised how quickly I get through them listening while doing housework making tea etc. Also with my ARCs I use ‘text to speech ‘ which while a little computerised does the trick
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Audiobook is a life saver! I don’t usually bring a book with me whenever I went to places because it is such a hassle so it’s time for audiobooks to get the spotlight. 😂
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Mind sharing the *trick* btw 👀
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This is such a helpful post! 🙂
I’m a total audiobook addict. And we usually only get free review copies after the publishing date. But you could try text-to-speech for your ebook ARC’s. I found it takes a little bit of getting used to, but it isn’t even that bad these days. I use Moon Reader plus for Android. It’s really easy to set up the TTS with it. You get to pick from a lot of different voices and can change pitch and speed. It can’t compare to a real narrator, but it can carve out some extra reading time, too.
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Screencapping this for future reference. Thanks for the info! I will definitely try this tip. 💕
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I fail at reading challenges and hate making anything a chore. Not really an audio book fan. I’ve had a bit of a spell of fatigue and rubbish luck lately and I’ve stopped going online so much. At the moment this has included my blog. I love reading and have been reading more now that I’ve stopped trying to do everything.
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Didn’t meant to press send was trying to edit. Good tips! Sometimes we need to just look at how we are spending our time and figure out what’s most important. 🙂
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Wonderful tips! I swear I need to lock my phone in another room, so I don’t get distracted.
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These are awesome ideas!! I get bogged down so easily with having a huge tbr, so I reckon these could really help 😁💚
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This is a good idea! I always get distracted from my books even if it’s one I like.
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I love these tips, they are really helpful! I’m going to have to put these into practice especially setting a timer/setting a page goal. I need to get through so many books this year!
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Getting through many books every year is awesome but don’t let it feel like more of a chore than something you enjoy. ❤
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I feel like that’s the most important point: don’t let or feel like a chore
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Awesome tips! I do get into some audio reading when I’m to distracted too. 😊
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Love these tips. 😍
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YES To audiobooks! I love listening to them to motivate me to actually do things like laundry and clean my apartment. These are great tips, Aki!
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Multi-tasking is 💯! I saved so much time thanks to audiobooks. 💕
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Random minutes really add up! That’s why I read through my kindle app…I always have a book to read on my phone! 👍😍❤️📚
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Put a book down is a very underrated tip lol! I’m so bad with DNFing but it would help so much with my reading (of that I AM SURE) and enjoying reading more again. Fingers crossed I learn that soonish omg.
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