10 Ways to Read More Books: How to read effectively and efficiently.

Studies have shown that reading regularly increases emotional intelligence. Reading is beneficial for both physical as well as mental health. It improves our memory, focus, and concentration. It helps in vocabulary expansion, builds strong analytical skills and cognitive thinking skills.

Science has proved that reading has many health benefits such as better sleep, increasing your ability to empathize, reduces stress, helps with depression, decreases the risk of Alzheimer's disease, reduced illness, etc. People who read books are able to express their views and ideas better than others.

10 Ways to read more books.

1. MAKE READING PART OF YOUR ROUTINE

Make reading a regular habit so that it will help you improve your reading skills. Always ask yourself before reading a book that why you’re reading it? Are you reading it for enjoyment, fun, or gathering information?

If you’re reading books for information then please don’t rush to finish it instead give your time and learn from it and improve your skills.

If you’re reading for fun or enjoyment then you can rush to finish it and skim some paragraphs as those books only contain a story and not any information or principles.

2. SET A GOAL

Set a daily goal of reading about 10 pages or 2 chapters a day and increase that as you go along. Also set a specific time of day to read, maybe reading early in the morning or one hour before bed.

3. GET GOOD BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

Researching new books takes away a lot of your reading time. There are many ways in which you can get good book recommendations. Some of them are:

· You can do a Google search to find books.

· You can also find great recommendations on Instagram. I usually get to know about different books from Instagram. There are millions of pages on Instagram based on books that tell you about books of different genres and gives an honest review on them. Those accounts are usually called bookstagram.

The best way is to use Goodreads. Goodreads is a website for helping readers to read more and giving them book recommendations based on the genres they read. They help people to read more. If you’re a true reader and want to read more, you should definitely use it.

4. ALWAYS HAVE A BOOK

You should always carry a book with you wherever you go and you’ll notice that there is a lot of free time in a day which you can utilize in reading. You never know when you might get a chance to read like on your way to work or school.

If you don’t want to have a physical book with you everywhere then do prefer reading e-books. You can read while travelling, this is the best opportunity to use your time wisely and read more pages.

5. REPLACE BAD HABITS WITH BOOK TIME

Do you have a habit of wasting time on social media or watching television for more than 2 hours? Or binge-watching your Netflix series? Then you should definitely stop spending much time on it and start investing that time in reading. Next time you get the urge to use social media just think about how many pages of a book you can complete.

6. IT IS OKAY TO NOT FINISH A BOOK

You should consider reading as fun and not as a chore. Stop reading those books which don’t interest you. Forcing yourself to complete reading will only take your time and you’ll be only fooling yourself.

Suppose if it’s a non-fiction book and you aren’t enjoying it, then finishing it doesn’t make sense cause you will not be able to understand and apply the principles of that book and won’t get any value from it.

7. READ WITH A FRIEND

It is always beneficial if you read the same book with a friend. Having a discussion on the book gives you a lot of confidence and motivates you to finish that book faster. The same friend later may also give you good book suggestions that you would enjoy. You must try this out if you have friends who read.

8. JOIN A BOOK CLUB OR GROUPS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Book clubs are the best way to judge yourself on your reading speed and your reading goal. Joining book clubs help you finish a certain book before a specific date and they also conduct sessions in which readers discuss their thoughts with everyone.

Groups on social media also do the same thing. Admins of the group suggest a book to read and the whole community follows it and tries to finish it before a certain date which is given by them.

9. TRY OUT AUDIOBOOKS.

There has always been a debate that listening to audiobooks doesn’t count as reading. But it’s not actually true. See if it’s a fiction/fantasy or any different genre other than non-fiction then you can definitely listen to audiobooks. It saves your time as well as you get to know about the whole story in lesser time.

10. SWITCH OFF YOUR PHONE OR KEEP IT IN ANOTHER ROOM

Keep your phone far away from you so that your sight doesn’t fall on your phone and you won’t get the urge to check it. You will be shocked to know how many hours of a day you waste on your phone which could instead be used to read books or doing something productive. Read books with your full attention and don’t check your phone.