How to Build a Reading Habit in 4 easy steps
From TV and YouTube binger to reader of 100 books
I have consistently read 100 books a year for the last two years in a row. If I can do it, you can too!
I’ve broken down how you can learn to build a reading habit into 4 practical steps - start small, drop what isn’t working, try different mediums and refine your tastes.
Why read?
In 2015 a YouTuber said if I read 100 books it will change my life. He listed off benefits such as:
· Improves your memory
· Helps you sleep better
· Builds your vocabulary
· Increases your brain function
Those things all sounded great! So with the typical news years optimism, I, who did not read for leisure, set my goal of 100 books.
Like exercise, if you don’t read on a regular basis, it is highly unlikely you will go from 0 to 100 in a year.
2015 – 0 books read
By the end of the year I was disappointed in myself. Disheartened. Upset. Why couldn’t I achieve a goal in an activity I had not partaken since school?
Step 1 - Small Steps
Page by Page
Then I read that if you read a page a day, you can read one book in a year. A standard book is around 300 pages, less for Romance and Thrillers ;-).
Being the overachiever I am, I thought why not a chapter a day, then I can read more than one book. I ended up doing something in between – a page a day, sometimes a paragraph or even a sentence and if the book was really good a chapter or more in one sitting.
From there a reading routine was born…
2016 – 5 books
2017 – 12 books
Step 2 - Drop what isn’t working
Read what interests you first!
Similar to bad habits and relationships that don’t work out, not all books are for you. People say I’m cut throat – if I don’t like a book in the first three pages I stop reading it. I’m a strong believer in a book will come to you when you are meant to read it. It’s happened to me several times over the past year. For example: When the Body Says No by Gabor Mate, From Strength to Strength by Arthur C Brooks.
So when my thoughts stray and my eyes wander, I put a book away. To read for another year, or to potentially never read it again.
Being discerning with my reading habits lead me to read more instead of less. I was reading topics which interests me and which enhanced my life.
2018 – 17 books read
2019 – 26 books read
Step 3 - Changing medium
Print books v audio books
Stephen King’s autobiography On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft said something that changed my perspective on reading books. When the book was first published in 2000, he mentioned he listens to CD audiobooks at the gym. Mind blown. Stephen King reads, exercises, and writes successful novels. #lifegoals
Thus I began to dip my toes into audio book land.
I found I didn’t enjoy fiction much on audio (my enjoyment is highly dependent on the voice artist). But! I paid attention to non-fiction audiobooks. I suspect it’s because teachers at school talk facts all day, hence my brain was already primed to receive factual, practical advice aurally, thus audio books became my go-to for non-fiction.
2020 – 47 books read
2021 – 57 books read
Step 4 - Refining your tastes
If you’ve noted my reading achieving timeline so far, you’ll know that COVID had hit. I couldn’t go to the library or bookshops, so I was forced online.
BAM!!
I discovered amazing international and indie authors I would never have discovered in my analogue world who wrote stories that expanded my mind and imagination. I was like a kid in a candy store, picking and choosing what looked good, learning which genres I preferred, which I could only tolerate in certain moods and which you couldn’t pay me to read.
And suddenly hitting my reading goals became so much easier!
2022 – 61 books read
2023 – 80 books read
2024 – 100 books read
2025 – 105 books read
Goal achieved!
Refining my reading strategy over the last 10 years meant I achieved my 2015 new years resolution of reading 100 books, 10 years after I started my reading journey. For all you young ones, 10 years seems like an eternity, yet older folks know a decade goes by in the blink of an eye.
So if you’re hesitating on starting a reading goal, know that it can be done. Know that like every skill, you can build a reading routine and make it a habit by taking small steps, drop what isn’t working, mixing up mediums and refining your tastes to achieve your goal. If that sounds too overwhelming, just read one page, one paragraph, one line, or even one word today. Then repeat tomorrow.
All the best!
PS For the curious who are wondering if that YouTuber was right and whether reading 100 books did change my life. It did. The change was slow, like my reading habit. Small alteration to my attitudes, an increase in understanding human behaviour all lead to making significant changes to my life in 2025. But that’s a story for another day.
