8 Ways to Read (A Lot) More Books in 2024: How to Stick To Your Reading Plan This Year
Welcome to Bri Books! Today I’m sharing my 8 tips for how to plan (and stick to) your reading goals in 2024. Here’s a look at 8 strategies that can help you rad more this year, how to make a daily habit of reading more books, and the 8 simple tricks I’m suing to read 50+ books this year.
How to Read More Books
Making time and space to read is easier said than done. But by studying your habits and building consistency into your reading practice, you'll find yourself looking forward to the quality time that a book can afford. I find that when I have a consistent reading cadence, I feel more creative, more interesting, and my writing is dramatically better. Here's my advice for fitting more reading into your own life, based on the behaviors that I changed.
8 Ways to Read (A Lot) More Books in 2024
1:30: Reframe your take on reading: You GET to expand your consciousness and knowledge! This is something I’ve picked up from the Rob Dial podcast and I’ve discussed previously on Bri Books: It’s the importance and power of reframing. It’s not about tricking yourself into doing tasks, but reframing the nature of the task to wake own the dread and avoidance around them. So when it comes to reading, instead of, “I have to finish these pages,” I think, “I get to expand my consciousness and knowledge. I get to work my muscle of curiosity.” Just that alone makes me more interested in starting. Start, read a few pages, and see where it goes. But the point is, you’ve reframed and you’ve begun.
2:54: Set quarterly reading themes: Pretend you’re back in school, and set quarterly reading themes. I like to do this at the top of the year, but you can think of it as reading with the seasons. Give each season a genre or a theme. For 2024, my quarterly themes are: All Black Everything, Culture + Lifestyle + Wellness, Sociology + Science, and Fiction + Novels.
4:10: Set monthly reading goals: This part is important. Is your goal 1-2 books a month? Decide when you’ll know you’ve ‘accomplished’ your goal, and stick to it.
5:00 Set a daily page count: This is the most important part of the plan to stick to your reading objectives. Set a daily page count! I recommend starting with 20 and working your way up. 20 feels like a concerted amount of time tosit and read for, and it’s fairly low-pressure. A quick hack: If your goal is to read a book a week, divide the pages by 7. Boom. That’s your daily page count.
5:45: Create a Goodreads or Pinterest for your TBR pile: It’s self-explainatory. Don’t trust your memory--if you’re visual, create a Pinterest board to keep track of your upcoming reads. If you like running lists, make a Goodreads account. This is a great way to stay accountable for your TBR pile without letting any books slip through the cracks.
6:45: Keep a book/ reading journal: If you enjoy journaling, try keeping a book journal. I like to use Goodreads and Bri Books as a book journal.
7:22: Choose books that activate your left brain, right brain, and a wildcard pick: : Your brain will crave diversity, so as part of your TBR pile, I recommend having 1 left-brain, 1 right-brain, and 1 wildcard pick. That wildcard can be an anime, book about anything you like. For me, this breakdown typically ends up looking like 1 fiction, 1 nonfiction, and 1 nature book or topic-based book that’s aligned with, you guessed it, quarterly themes.
9:00 Attend monthly literary or book club gathering: No matter where you live, you must be within 30 miles of an independent bookstore. Look up bookstores near you, follow them on IG and join the email newsletters. Find one monthly literary gathering, whether it’s a book club or an author talk or a Q&A. Anything! It’s a good way to literally get out of the house and enjoy something literary with others.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Bri Books! Let what you’re reading, and listen to recent episodes about building (and keeping) your reading practice below. What are you reading? Let me know on Instagram! ! If you’re new to the show, leave a review of Bri Books on Apple Podcasts, and listen to Bri Books on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud! Please tell me where you’re traveling to by using #bribooks on Instagram and subscribe to the Bri Books newsletter at bribookspod.com/newsletter.
