How to Read More - 100+ books a year!

last year I read over a hundred books including all of these behind me just here and whenever I would tell someone that was trying to read a 100 books in one year they would always look at me and say how are you going to find the time or I wish I could read more I just don't have the time I'm just a slow reader or I get distracted and give up and then I saw this statistic that said over half of adults wish they could find more time to read so I thought it would be a good idea to make this video to share some of the tips and ideas that have helped me read more this year cuz I think reading is a worthwhile hobby to get into it's a great way to learn new skills hear New Perspectives it can improve your focus and concentration and even reading fiction books has been shown to improve levels of empathy and emotional intelligence so with that being said these are my tips on how you can read more this year my favorite place to read is in bed before going to sleep and it helps me get tired and fall asleep or sometimes in the morning I'd get up and read a few pages helps calm me down before the day so my number one tip is to make sure that this thing your Fone is out of the bedroom no matter how exciting the book you're reading is no matter how action-packed that book is this thing is always going to be better at stealing your attention those nerds in Silicon Valley have made this thing incredible at stealing your focus with the bright lights the noises the notifications and it's great at grabbing your attention so by just putting this out the bedroom you're far more likely to read in bed before going to sleep and in the morning so get that phone out of there my second tip seems a bit obvious but it's just read what you want so ignore these lists like 100 books to read before you die or these 10 books will make you smarter or any reading list that's been shown to you by a celebrity or your favorite YouTuber ignore those and read what you want it's just going to make the whole process more enjoyable and more pleasurable and easier to do so don't feel like you have to read the classics or what everyone else is reading just read what you want to read and it's going to help get into the habit of reading much easier my third tip is to to get the physical book I read this book last year called the shallows by Nicholas Carr and in this he talks about how it's actually easier to remember the information that you read on a physical book it's less distracting than reading things online on a computer or on a Kindle there's less buttons and hyperlinks to press you're actually going to remember the information more I love to also underline things and fold the pages down to help me remember things so when I come back to it I can go straight to the bits that I enjoyed so my tip is to go and get the actual physical book so take a look in charity shops or get down your independent bookstore and if there's a book that you know you want to read buy it my fourth tip is to have multiple books on the Go at once so don't feel like you have to just read one book from cover to cover have lots going on at the same time so I would always be reading a non-fiction and a fiction book because sometimes you're not in the mood to learn you just want to be transported to another world and relax and so fiction books are great for that and sometimes I would have up to six or seven books on the Go at once depending on what mood I was in it's just going to help make it easier to continue reading if I'm not in the mood for this thing I can carry on reading this other book that I've been enjoying as well so don't be afraid to read multiple books tip number five is to make it easy so in his best-selling book Atomic habits I'll try and get it out hopefully the pile won't collapse oh no wonder how many times that's going to happen during this video I do like having the power there though so I am going to keep stacking them up so tip number five is to make it easy in his bestselling book Atomic Habits by James Clear he talks about how if you want to start a new habit or a hobby you have to make it as easy and as frictionless as possible so if you're trying to read more have books around have them visible if you want to read before bed have a stack of books next to your bed it's just going to make it even easier to just pick one up and read before bed another the great book I read last year was on writing by Stephen King and in this he talks about how he would always have a book with him so he could read wherever he was whether he's waiting for a bus or at the dentist or on a train or just whenever you find a few minutes spare in the day you've always got that book with you that you can just pick up and read a few pages so I thought that was a great tip make it as easy as possible and always have a book with you tip number six another one from James Clear is to make it rewarding so one way I did this was to stack up the books I've read just like this and every time finished the book I'd put it on this pile and to see that pile grow over the year was really rewarding and I'd almost get excited about putting that book on that pile at the end it doesn't have to be that you can just keep track of your books on a website like Goodreads or give yourself a little treat every time you finish a book whatever you can think of just see if you can make it rewarding and you're much more likely to stick with it my next tip is to get a good pair of headphones and that's because audio books are fantastic I used audible last year but you can now get audio books included with your Spotify subscription and some local libraries you can even get audio books for free so get a good pair of headphones and it's a great way to hear more stories while you're doing other things like washing up or doing the chores or driving somewhere I have found that I remember less information if I'm listening to the audio book rather than reading it so it's probably not best for like a really dense heavy non-fiction book that you really want to learn the information but for fiction books and Memoirs audio books are fantastic especially when they're read by the author themselves I just love that audio books are just brilliant my next tip is to not be afraid to quit a book this is something I really struggled with last year because I was trying to reach that 100 book Target so sometimes I'd really suffer through a book that I was not enjoying at all just so I could finish it and add it to my pile don't do that there were so many books in the world some are great some are all right some are going to totally suck it's much better to quit a book that you're not enjoying and start another one than to just keep pushing through it often when I would finish a book that I really didn't enjoy the last thing I wanted to do at the end of it was pick up another book and start again so it's much better to just pause a book or stop reading a book you're not enjoying and try something else it's just going to keep your reading momentum going and just keep your love for reading going rather than just kill it flat so if you're not enjoying a book quit and that will bring me on to my final tip which is don't try and read 100 books despite what the title of this video might be don't try and set yourself a big Target or a number to reach it's much better just to try and to develop the practice the hobby of reading just see if you can fall in love with reading rather than set yourself a Target it's going to make the whole process more enjoyable and you're going to end up reading more if you're just trying to enjoy it rather than reach some Target as someone who read 100 books last year I won't be trying to do that again in the future I'm just going to try and enjoy the books I'm reading and see how many we get through so those my tips on how you can read more hopefully you found that helpful let me know in the comments because this is something a bit different for me haven't done a video like this before so let me know if you've enjoyed it let me know what you're reading as well cuz I'm always looking out for some more books and more book recommendations so let me know what you're enjoying reading at the moment and if you want to support the channel hit that like button hit that subscribe thank you very much guys thanks for watching and I'll see you another time turn on then bye

Channel: George Cook

Views: 15,599

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Id: ILafLEJcU9E

Length: 7min 17sec (437 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 04 2024