‘Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body’

~ Joseph Addison

Reading is one of my favourite pastimes.  Getting immersed in a good book where everything else falls away and all you are focused on are the words on the page, is such a great feeling. Reading brings with it so many benefits, it helps improve your vocabulary, it can relax you, it provides you with new information, it can give you a glimpse into other cultures and learn about history and other times and places.

In addition to these benefits of reading a good book, it’s possible that the subject you read about can help you learn and develop as a person.

So far this year I have read 26 books. I often get asked by people how I find the time to read so much, when I have such a busy life, so I’ve shared my tips with you on how to read so much:

1. Read at every opportunity, here are some of the places I read:

• In the bath
• On the metro
• On a plane
• In a queue
• In bed
• Whilst drying my hair in the morning
• Whilst eating breakfast
• Whilst sunbathing in the park
• Whilst waiting for a friend to arrive in a restaurant

Having the kindle app on my phone helps with this, as it means I always have my latest book with me to pull out anytime I find myself with 5 minutes spare.

2. Stop watching TV

Many people share with me that they feel they don’t have enough time to read, but they will sit down each evening watching their favourite TV show or their latest box set. This is less of a matter of not having time and more of a matter of prioritizing something else over reading. If you want to read more, reduce the amount of TV you watch and replace it with reading.

3. Stop reading books you don’t like

If you are always reading books that are very interesting to you, you will find them much easier to read. If you start reading a book and you are not enjoying it, stop reading it. This can be quite difficult to do, but there is no point reading books that are not enjoyable for you.

4. Skim over any sections that are not interesting / relevant to you

If you read non fiction books, you may want to miss a section. I recently read a great book which I loved, but one of the sections was about how to manage your kids, of which I don’t have any. I decided to skip over this section as at the moment it is not relevant to me, and enjoy the rest of the book.

5. Listen to audio books

If it is difficult to read, then listen instead. Download an audio book and listen to it in the car, when you are running, in bed, or any other time you get some time to yourself.

6. Limit distractions

Don’t get tempted to do something else other than read. If you are going to read, move away from all distractions, so you focus on the reading. If you are reading on a device that is connected to the internet it can be wise to disconnect so you are not tempted by distractions.

7. Break it down into small chunks

It can sometimes seem overwhelming to complete a book especially if it quite thick. Try thinking of it in another way. If you have a book of 200 pages, if you read just 10 pages a day, you will finish the book in 20 days. Set yourself a goal of trying to read just 10 pages a day. If you can’t even manage that, trying going for just 5 pages.

Please click here for my YouTube Page which contains reviews of some of my favourite books. Let me know in the comments below if you have any additional tips of how to read more.