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How You Can Read More Books Than Ever Before

Picture of Admin Admin : Dec 17, 2015 10:00:51 PM

Most us would love to read more books if we could. Our problem, of course, is that precious commodity: TIME. To my surprise, however, I have found ways around that limitation.

How You Can Read More Books Than Ever Before

(Photo: Reading on my day off)

For the past three years, I’ve done my best to read 50 books by the end of each year. Though I never meant to surpass that goal this year, to my surprise, I did.

Your life is busy—just like mine. So I’d like to share with you the 5 ways I use to read more books—and how you can too. I’ll even suggest 5 ways you can find some free books.

(If you’re curious, I’ll also share the books I read this year—all 65 of them—and tell you my favorites.)

Finding Time to Read More Books

Read with your ears. An easy way to read more books is to listen to them on your smartphone. This allows you to read while in the car, while exercising, or while doing yard work. Get started by downloading a FREE audiobook at Audible. They even allow you to exchange a book you don’t like, no questions asked.
Keep a book on hand everywhere you go. I always have a book handy for idle moments—those cracks of time in the day when you could read instead of veg. Keep a book in the car for the checkout lines, doctor offices, solo lunches, and traffic jams. Or, if you don’t want a stack of books in your car, take your tablet with you. I always have an e-book I’m reading on my iPad mini so that if I’m never staring at the ceiling or stuck reading some magazine. I read more books this way.
Learn how to read faster. This is a skill that will benefit you all your life. A few years ago I read a great book called How to Read Better and Faster. It really helped me read more—better and faster. It takes practice, but hey, what skill doesn’t?
Make Gleaning Your Goal, Rather than Finishing a Book—Consider for this next year a goal for reading that goes beyond simply finishing a book. Choose instead to glean from the book what God would have you get. Sometimes that means you don’t finish a book. Why waste your time? You may choose instead to capture some great quotes from the book; great quotes can serve as great summaries—and great takeaways. You’ll never remember all of what you read—an impossible goal. But just the process of reading stimulates your mind to think in ways it otherwise wouldn’t.
Turn off the TV one night a week. Okay, obvious—but in a culture where the average home has the television on 8 hours a day, the obvious needs mentioning.

5 Places to Find (Free) Books to Read

Here are a few FREE ways to read more books, from sources both obvious and not-so-0bvious.

Ask for Books as Gifts—Ever struggle to answer what you’d like for Christmas or your birthday? Me too. Now, you have a ready-made answer: “Give me a book you would recommend.” Books make great gifts to give as well.
Your Nightstand or Bookshelf—Take a look at that stack of books on your nightstand. They’re totally free. I have a stack there to. Also, look at your bookshelf. We all have books we’ve stacked away that we meant to read but never got around to it. You could even re-read a great book you’ve read before.
Your Local Library—In addition to physical books, most libraries now also lend e-books and audiobooks. Again, totally free.
Free Kindle E-books—Bookmark this link and check out Amazon’s Top 100 Free Christian Inspirational E-books. You’ll need a Kindle or a free Kindle reader for your iPad or computer. If there’s another genre you’re interested in, just follow these instructions.
Free Christian E-books —Here are a few good free Christian e-books I have found.

Bonus for bloggers: If you blog, you might consider joining one of the blogger review programs. I regularly get free books from Baker Publishing and the Booklook programs in exchange for an honest review. If you’re willing to write a brief book review, this is a great way to get new, free books.

(Photo: Reading Louis L’Amour on vacation last month)

The 65 Books I Read This Year (and My Favorites)

Listed in no particular order, here are the 65 books I read this year (other than the Bible). If I wrote a review of the book, I included a link to it. You can see all my book reviews here. I also post quotes I like from many of these books.

My favorites have an asterisk after the title.*