One of the most popular resolutions made by people at the beginning of the New Year is to read more than they did last year. Whether you are deciding to get back into old habits of tearing through books or picking up a book for the first time in years, reading consistently again can be tricky, but keeping a few tricks in mind over the next few months can make a daunting resolution a great deal easier.
Set your goal
Deciding how many books you would like to have read over the next few months is useful in knowing not only how committed you want to be to your resolution but also how you need to prioritise it. Whether you want to read ten or 100 books, it is important to be specific. This should give you motivation to turn those pages and grant satisfaction as you come closer to your goal.
A number of variables can determine how many books you aim to read: college work can take over, your job outside college consumes more hours but the cost of constantly acquiring new books shouldn’t. The college library is accessible to all students and as a legal deposit for copyright, it receives a copy of each text published in Ireland, meaning (with few exceptions, mainly forgein language books) you are almost guaranteed it.
Protect your time
Knowing how much you are wanting to read means you can know how much time you need to dedicate to this. It could be Monday evening, when you’re on public transport or an hour each morning when you wake, but setting that time is vital and protecting it even moreso. Making a habit of sitting down to read takes practise but staying loyal to that time at the beginning will make it easier to continue your progress over the next few months.
Audiobooks
The time you set aside for reading each day can be measured to the minute with audiobooks. Portable and accessible, they’re a much better option for reading more throughout the day, you can listen to it while cooking dinner, cleaning around or travelling from one place to another; especially since traditional reading can be more difficult for some while walking or taking the bus due to distractions.
Audiobooks are also much more accessible than they have been before. Thanks to platforms such as audible and widely available CD recordings of books, finding your next read is easy enough, and it needn’t cost you much. Many well-known texts can be found in full on Youtube for free. The likes of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott can be found in full, divided up into chapters, on the site.
Multiple books
Spicing things up is never a bad idea as staying engaged in your novel and resolution is essential, regardless of how many books you would like to get through. If reading a few books simultaneously is difficult to separate, then reading books of completely different timelines, literary genre or form, books about narrators of different backgrounds or texts written in different languages can help you differentiate one book from another without having you conflate them.
Bring a book wherever you go
Multiple reads at a time means there is always a flavour of the day. Taking advantage of those days when you are enthused by a book should be a conscious choice. Bring the book with you and dedicate any time you can to reading it; keep it in your tote; in the glove box of the car; sitting on the kitchen table in plain sight. Always being in the presence of a book is not only a reminder to turn a few pages but also an opportunity. When there’s a delay in leaving the house or a moment of down-time, there’s a chance to get a bit closer to your goal.
Go small
Falling off track is nothing to worry about, and neither is having a rocky start to your challenge. If you are lagging on your progress, a good way to catch up on books to read is to go small. Poetry collections, plays or slimmer novels are a great way to spend an evening and to catch up on your goal. It is also a way to stimulate motivation to read. These little victories increase your confidence in achieving your goal and increase your appetite to getting more done.
