Reading More Books
Scott H. Young offers some great advice on how to read more books.
What I read: “How to Read One Book Per Week (Even if You Read Slowly)” by Scott H. Young. Posted December 2025.
Yes, this is another post about reading books. Regular readers know I’ve written about my love of books and why I consider reading them so important.
But Scott H. Young’s latest post focuses on an important aspect of reading books, how to best read more of them.
Reading more books is one of the best investments you can make in your life. Every book you read increases your knowledge and motivation and, contrary to popular opinion, makes it more likely you’ll take action (not less).
Last year, I read 105 books. I have some advantages that helped me hit this number: reading is part of my job, I’ve already read a lot and, while I don’t speed read, I do read at a decent pace.
But even if you don’t have those advantages, I do believe that anyone can read one book per week if they make it a goal and put in the effort. To that end, I’d like to offer nine strategies that have worked for me
Young expounds on his nine strategies, many of which I utilize as well.
Always having a book handy is a big plus. I read on buses, trains, and planes. I read when I’m waiting in a long line. I read when I randomly stop and sit on a park bench. I can do this because I always have a book with me.
I carry an e-reader with me often, but my phone is also an e-reader, and I always have a book or two loaded on it so I can read anywhere.
In the interest of not giving that big online default bookstore more business than they deserve considering their overarching dominance in book sales, I have begun to use two apps on my phone that allow me to read anywhere.
Bookshop.org recently added e-books and an e-reader app to their offerings. The great thing about Bookshop is that their mission is to help independent bookstores thrive. They put this mission and the public good above financial interests by giving over 80% of their profit margin to help support 2500+ independent bookstores. To date, they’ve raised more than $43M for bookstores. If you would like to check out some books I recommend, visit my Bookshop online book shop.
Another strategy I use is to take e-books out of the library using the Libby app. You can read books or listen to audiobooks from thousands of public libraries using the app. You’ll need a library card. Once you have a card, you can use it to access books through the Libby app. This is a fantastic way to read or listen to books for free.
Young also suggests we always have at least one of the three types of books (paper book, e-book, audiobook) at hand. (If you would like to listen to an amazing audiobook, check out Viola Davis’s memoir, one of my favorite memoirs I’ve read.)
The recommendation to not finish every book is a wise one. So often we dedicate time to reading a book and then even when it’s not holding our attention, we feel compelled to finish it simply because we started it. Don’t. Just drop it. If you’re not eager to read a book, you won’t get much out of it anyway. Just move on to the next one.
One of Young’s other suggestions is to read before bed. I do this just about every night. I turn off the lights, settle into bed, and open my e-reader which I can easily read in the dark. Sometimes I only get a few pages in before I drift off. Sometimes I’ll read for an hour. I go with the flow of whatever feels right. I know that once my eyes begin to close, forcing myself to read is a waste of my time because I’m not absorbing much of what I’m reading at that point.
Young offers some other great tips on how to read more books. I do all of them except I have kept my social media apps on my phone. I fully understand that some people function better without such phone apps, but I am not ready to give them up. Your mileage may vary.
Whatever you do, see if you can read more books. Even if you read one really good book slowly over many weeks, it will add to your life. I promise.
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