The New Year is always a great time to reassess and figure out what you’d like to achieve over the next year. Maybe you want to eat more fruits and vegetables, maybe you’d like to learn a language, or maybe you’d just like to end the year having read more, which we can definitely get behind! Whilst we can’t help you make brussels sprouts more delicious, hopefully this list will give you some ideas to get a bigger word count under your belt in 2023.
Read What You Enjoy
Stop reading what you aren’t enjoying! This might sound obvious, but so many people pick up a book and once they begin, find they put it down and don’t pick it back up again, or any other book for that matter. Life’s too short to read books that you don’t enjoy. Instead of agonising over finishing it or believing you ‘should’ be enjoying it because everyone else says that it’s great, try another one until you find one that draws you in. If you find yourself in a reading slump, go to an old favourite you know you love. You’ll find you’ll breeze through it and get back in the habit at the same time.
Turn Your Commute Into A Reading Session
Now we’re heading back into the office again, it’s likely the dreaded commute has come back into your life. Pop a book (or your e-reader!) in your bag on your way out the door and use the time spent otherwise doom scrolling on your various devices to do some reading. Even put your phone on do not disturb for the trip for some quality ‘me time’. You’ll be finishing books before you know it, and maybe even find the commute isn’t so bad. Just try and keep an eye out for your stop!
Try Audiobooks
Audiobooks may not be for everyone, but they are a great medium to devour books while completing menial tasks and more streaming services are beginning to include these as part of their offerings. Trying to exercise or cook more as part of a different yearly goal? Pop on some headphones and listen to an audio book while you cook or go for a walk. Back to commuting but don’t take public transport? There’s no reason you can’t use your drive as valuable reading time. No guarantees you won’t find yourself sitting in the carpark waiting for the chapter to end before you go inside though.
Download A Reading App
Yes, physical books are beautiful and having them adorn our bookshelves is one of the best feelings, but they can be cumbersome to lug around (looking at you, War and Peace). Sometimes you might not even think to bring a book with you. Downloading a reading app will allow you to steal short moments like waiting in line to read in a quick, compact way. If you favour e-reading, some will even sync with your e-reader so you don’t need to worry about finding where you left off!
Join A Book Club
If you thrive off deadlines, this is the option for you. Most are free, you just bring your own copy of the book, and have different schedules and genre preferences so you’ll be able to find one that ticks all your requirements. Joining a book club will also help if you’re a bit undecisive about what to read next and provide an outlet to talk about it. A quick google search will likely help you find a whole heap of book clubs in your area that you can join. Alternatively, there are plenty of online book clubs that will still give you that structure, but not the pressure to actually leave your house!
Set A Goal
Most people tend to be motivated by some sort of target or goal to feel that sense of accomplishment when they hit it. You might also find that as you see yourself getting closer to the goal and feel good about your progress, you’ll be inspired to do more. There are plenty of book tracking apps, such as goodreads which allow you to indicate how many books you want to read in the year, and track your progress. At the end of the year, some of them even provide a recap of your past year reading-wise! Of course, try and be realistic. If you read a grand total of 2 books last year, then it probably wont be likely you’ll get to 100 this year. Any goal is a good goal.
Reading Challenges
If you don’t have a TBR (to be read) pile impatiently waiting for you to pick them up, and don’t know what to read next, try looking at reading challenges to spark some inspiration. Even if you’re not struggling with reading more, it might push you outside your normal comfort zone and you might find a new, unexpected favourite! Check out the Nerd Daily’s 2023 reading challenge as a start!
However you choose to kick your reading goals this year, remember to have fun. Reading to learn or enrich yourself is great, but there’s nothing wrong with reading for the fun of it.
