by Jaylynn Korrell

Get inspired (& inspire!) with these brilliant quotes about books & reading.

People have loved books for centuries. And I don’t blame them! These things are portals, mind-reading devices, time-traveling phone booths, and information troves. You can fall in and out of love with books throughout your life, but, as long as you don’t live with Montag and Clarisse McClellan, they’ll always be there waiting to blow your mind.

And just as long as books have been around, people have been expressing their love for them. Authors, experts, world leaders, and beyond, people have been using their own love of the written word to inspire others to dive into the deep, wonderful world of them. The more book lovers, the better.

So whether you’re just looking to get inspired, to find new content for your Bookstagram, to include them in your essays for your English class, or to use them for your classroom as an English teacher, you’ve got options with these quotes about reading.

Here are some of our favorite reading quotes!

Quotes About Reading

1. “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.” – James Baldwin

2. “What I love most about reading: It gives you the ability to reach higher ground. And keep climbing.” ― Oprah

3. Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know. — Alberto Manguel

4. “The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest (people) of the past centuries.” – Descartes

5. “You will learn most things by looking, but reading gives understanding. Reading will make you free.” ― Paul Rand

6. “Read a lot. Expect something big, something exalting or deepening from a book. No book is worth reading that isn’t worth re-reading.” – Susan Sontag

7. “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” ― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

8. “Let’s be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week that is devoted exclusively to reading.” – Lena Dunham

9. “Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.” ― Henry David Thoreau

10. “For my whole life, my favorite activity was reading. It’s not the most social pastime.” ― Audrey Hepburn

11. “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.” — George R.R. Martin 

12. “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” ― Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird

13. “Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.” – Malorie Blackman

14. “I guess a big part of serious fiction’s purpose is to give the reader, who like all of us is sort of marooned in her own skull, to give her imaginative access to other selves.” – David Foster Wallace

15. “Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.” – Jean Rhys

16. “Reading is essential for those who seek to rise about the ordinary.” — Jim Rohn

17. “Once you’ve read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you.” — Louis L’Amour

18. “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” ― C.S. Lewis

19. “You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend” — Paul Sweeney

20. “Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”― Voltaire

21. “You get a little moody sometimes but I think that’s because you like to read. People that like to read are always a little fucked up.”― Pat Conroy

22. “The world was hers for the reading.” ― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

23. “My alma mater was books, a good library…. I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.”— Malcolm X

Guess what? We’ve got a killer list of gifts for English teachers too!

24. “It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.”― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

25. “Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.”― Fernando Pessoa

26. “Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.”― John Locke

27. “If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads.”― Francois Mauriac

28. “To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.”― W. Somerset Maugham

29. “The whole world opened to me when I learned to read.” =―Mary McLeod Bethune

30. “I love the solitude of reading. I love the deep dive into someone else’s story, the delicious ache of a last page.”―Naomi Shihab Nye

31. “Reading is an active, imaginative act; it takes work.”― Khaled Hosseini

32. “A well-read woman is a dangerous creature.”―Lisa Kleypas, A Wallflower Christmas

33. “Woke up this morning with a terrific urge to lie in bed all day and read.”— Raymond Carver

34. “The ability to read awoke inside of me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.” ―Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X

35. “Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.”— Harold Bloom

36. “Just because you’re a slow reader doesn’t mean you’re a bad one.” — Joe Walters, founder of Independent Book Review

37. “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”―Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

38. “No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.” — Mary Wortley Montagu

39. “Reading is a conversation. All books talk. But a good book listens as well.”— Mark Haddon

40. “It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish.” – S.I. Hayakawa

Quotes About Books

41. “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”― Ray Bradbury

42. That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” — Jhumpa Lahiri

43.“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” — Lemony Snicket, Horseradish 

44. “Wear the old coat and buy the new book.” — Austin Phelp

45. “There is no friend as loyal as a book.”― Ernest Hemingway

46. “In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” ― Mortimer J. Adler

47. “Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labeled ‘This could change your life.’”― Helen Exley

48. “If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.” — J.K. Rowling

49. “That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald

50. “One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.” — Carl Sagan

51. “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” ― Cicero

52. “All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened, and after you are finished reading one, you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was.” ― Ernest Hemingway 

Don’t forget gifts for librarians this year!

53. “She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live.” — Annie Dillard

54. “So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install a lovely bookshelf on the wall.” — Roald Dahl

55. “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” – Stephen King

56. “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” — Joan Didion

57. “The best books… are those that tell you what you know already.” — George Orwell, 1984

58. “Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.” — Sir Francis Bacon

59. “Books may well be the only true magic.” — Alice Hoffman, Magic Lessons

60. “Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.” ― John Green

61. “The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones.”― Joseph Joubert

62. “Some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again.” – Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

63. “The problem with books is that they end.”― Caroline Kepnes, You

64. “I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.”― Ralph Waldo Emerson

65. “Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”― Diane Duane

66. “Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! And if one reads profitably, one would realize how much stupid stuff the vulgar herd is content to swallow every day.” ― Voltaire

67. “Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all.” ― Abraham Lincoln

68. “We are of opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron grating, far from the vulgar gaze, it is better to let them wear out by being read.” ― Jules Verne

69. “Classic’ – a book which people praise and don’t read.” ― Mark Twain

70. “Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book.”― Stéphane Mallarmé

71. “Books are a form of political action. Books are knowledge. Books are reflection. Books change your mind.” ― Toni Morrison

72. “Books have a unique way of stopping time in a particular moment and saying: Let’s not forget this.” ― Dave Eggers

73. “I feel the need of reading. It is a loss to a man not to have grown up among books.” ― Abraham Lincoln

74. “Reality doesn’t always give us the life that we desire, but we can always find what we desire between the pages of books.” ― Adelise M. Cullens

75. “Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.” ―Carlos Ruiz Zafón

76. “I love the sound of the pages flicking against my fingers. Print against fingerprints. Books make people quiet, yet they are so loud.” ― Nnedi Okorafor

77. “A thing about books is that they take the same amount of time to read whether you don’t like them at all or if they change your life forever.” — Joe Walters, founder of Independent Book Review

78.  “There are many little ways to enlarge your world. Love of books is the best of all.” — Jacqueline Kennedy

79. “What kind of life can you have in a house without books?” — Sherman Alexie

80. “I guess there are never enough books.” — John Steinbeck

81. “Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” — Charles W. Eliot

82. “Sleep is good, he said, and books are better.” — George R.R. Martin

Geared Toward Kids

83. “Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them.“ ― Judy Blume

84. “Reading aloud to your children is a gift that will last a lifetime.” ― Maya Angelou

85. “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” ― Dr. Seuss

86. “Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.” ― Napoléon Bonaparte

87. There is no substitute for books in the life of a child. — May Ellen Chase

88.“A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.” ― C.S. Lewis

89. “I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.” ​​― Maya Angelou

90. “Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.” — Kate DiCamillo

91. “Children know perfectly well that unicorns aren’t real, but they also know that books about unicorns, if they are good books, are true books.” — Ursula K. LeGuin

92. “To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.”— Victor Hugo

93. “It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.” — Arthur Conan Doyle

94. “There is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children who have not found the right book.” – Frank Serafini

95. “Reading is the gateway for children that makes all other learning possible.” ― Barack Obama

96. “Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”― Maya Angelou

97. “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” ― Walt Disney

98. “Luckily, I always travel with a book, just in case I have to wait in line for Santa, or some such inconvenience.” ― David Levithan

99. “Books break the shackles of time―proof that humans can work magic.” – Carl Sagan

100. “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” ― Albert Einstein

Have you heard these quotes about reading before? Some are old favorites, and some are new. What are your favorites?

About the Author

Jaylynn Korrell is a nomadic writer currently based out of Pennsylvania. In addition to her writing and reading for Independent Book Review, she curates lists at GoodGiftLists.com.

Thank you for reading Jaylynn Korrell’s “100 Unforgettable Quotes About Reading” If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

The post 100 Unforgettable Quotes About Reading appeared first on Independent Book Review.

by Jaylynn Korrell

What tips & tricks can you use to read more books?

With each book you read, your mind expands, your vocabulary grows, and your imagination gets a good exercise. But many people find themselves reading less books per year than they’d like, or they don’t read one at all. Actually, over 50% of American adults haven’t read a book in the past year. But many of them want to read more.

So…give yourself a break.

You’re not alone. And hey, there’s room to grow! And what better way to grow than through books?

There are so many benefits of reading, and I’d love to help you reap them.

Reading more can change your life, but it’s not easy. 

Luckily, there are ways to double, triple, and quadruple your reading goals for the year. As someone who is averaging 9 books per month right now, I can tell you that reading a lot might be more possible than you thought.

Here are a few tips to help you read more books this year.

#1. Read Multiple Books at a Time

I used to have a strict rule about reading only one book at a time. I had to completely finish one before I even considered picking up another. Reading two or more books would be too distracting–could hinder my reading experience of that particular book. 

I was wrong.

There is a way to read multiple books at a time in a way that isn’t confusing or unsatisfying. 

My first tip: choose to read books that have absolutely nothing to do with the other.

For instance, I’m currently reading Mars, which is a short fiction collection, The Hidden Life of Trees which is a nonfiction book about (you guessed it) trees, and Montessori Baby which is a nonfiction parenting book. It’s almost like taking different classes during the same semester. I don’t think about one while I’m reading the other. I also don’t have to keep track of different main characters. Making each book I’m reading completely different from the others has done wonders for increasing my books-finished count each year.

#2. Give Yourself Plenty of Options

Not every novice reader has a library full of books at home, and that’s okay! But giving yourself a wide variety of books to choose from could help you find a book that’s perfect for you at every moment you choose to read.

This doesn’t mean you have to run to your favorite indie bookstore and purchase everything that catches your eye. On the contrary, there are plenty of ways to gain access to a wide variety of books without breaking the bank.

The library is your friend! Used bookstores & thrift stores are too. So is Hoopla, Libby, and Kindle Unlimited. If you like reading on an e-reader, you’ll likely benefit from the million+ titles found in their database. You can even try a 30 day Kindle Unlimited membership for free just to see if you like their selection.

#3. Read Before You Go to Sleep

If you have a smartphone, there’s a pretty good chance that you use it before bed. And if you use it before bed, you know how easy it is to accidentally scroll for an hour. Two.

Let’s repurpose those hours. Let’s make reading a habit.

I’m a big fan of eBooks before bed instead of reading a physical book, just because it’s easier and it helps me to fall asleep. I particularly like nonfiction at this time too, because it’s usually easier to stop in the middle of a chapter.

If you’re not the only one sleeping in your bed, you may need to find ways to keep it quiet or dark in your room. That’s not exactly possible if you’re flipping through a print book and using a night lamp to see it. To keep down the noise and the brightness, try using a Kindle! Ereaders let you press the screen to turn your page and have a night-mode light setting that can be adjusted to your liking. It’s also better on your eyes than a smartphone.

#4. Keep a Book on You

One of the best ways to make sure you’re reading as much as possible is to have a book on you at most (or all!) times. Eschew excuses for why you’re not reading more by just being prepared.

And believe me, there are usually times where you’ll have the opportunity to read. Maybe it’s while you wait in line to get a coffee or while you wait for your Uber or the bus. Basically any time you would pull your phone out and scroll, you’ll also have the opportunity to pull your book out and read it.

And if you don’t like the bulkiness of a book you can always pull out that Kindle, which is slimmer and can hold thousands of books on it. Some of these devices can even fit in your pocket, and strangers don’t peer at you as much as they do with a book with a catchy cover.

#5. Set a Daily Goal

Making a daily goal is a great way to create a reading habit. How much you should read a day is up to you in the end, but I like a sweet-spot of 20 minutes per day.

Sure, you may be able to read more during the day. And if you can, you should definitely go for it, but giving yourself a small daily goal will help you keep your new habit during busier days.

#6. Don’t Be Afraid to Quit

It’s happened to the best of us. We pick up a book with the intent of finishing it in no time, but the story is just not for us. The main character may be unlikable, or the pace could be too slow. Whatever the reason, we just don’t want to keep reading it. And that’s okay. 

When you just aren’t into a book, you should 100% quit reading it. 

Often times a bad book can hold us back from achieving our ultimate reading goals. And while the point isn’t exactly to speed through books to achieve a higher read count, it helps to move through them at a reasonable pace.

A bad book (or one that you’re just not vibing with) can make you stop wanting to pick it up when it’s time to read. If you only like to read one book at a time, a bad book can also prevent you from reading the next book.

You shouldn’t quit every book that doesn’t grab your attention right away, but knowing when to move on is a great way to help you read more books. 

#7. Listen to Your Books

If you have a hard time following sentences on a page, you’re not alone. Plenty of people don’t like reading physical books, but they still like the experience of exploring new subjects and styles of storytelling.

Thankfully, audiobooks exist.

You can listen to an audiobook like you listen to a podcast. Do it while you’re running, while you’re traveling to work, while you’re doing the dishes, cleaning–the list goes on.

Apps like Audible allow you to keep a library of audiobooks in one place. Their membership options also give you access to a ton of free audiobooks in your Audible Membership. Audible is another one that gives you the option to try a 30 day free trial!

Or, or, or, or, don’t forget about Hoopla or Libby! Most public libraries come with a digital platform where you can listen to audiobooks for free.

#8. Read as Soon as You Wake Up

Everybody reads differently! I know that I already advised you to read before bed, but not everyone is a night person. If you find that you are most in the mood in the mornings, start your day with reading instead of ending it that way.

Mornings are often a time for clear thinking and coffee. What a romantic mood to set for the right book.

Even just a few pages could help you get closer to your goals to read more. You can break up your goal of 20 minutes a day into 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night to ensure that you’re not ever racing the clock to finish your pages.

#9. Track Your Reading 

Give yourself a goal of how many books you want to read for the year, then track your results is a visible way. Every time you finish a book write down the title on a numbered piece of paper.

Keep this paper in a visible place, one that you walk by each day. Being constantly reminded of the number of books you’ve read and have to read can help to motivate you to keep reading more. It’s also nice to see your progress and what you’ve accomplished so far. 

#10. Find a Reading Community

It can help to have other people holding you accountable for reading more often, which is why finding a reading community can be so helpful. Things like book clubs are a great way to encourage you to keep up with your reading commitments while also allowing you a space to dive deeper into what you’re reading about. Someone else will likely catch something in the book that you missed completely.

Finding a reading community is easier than you think. Aside from the countless reading groups on the internet, many local bookstores and libraries host book clubs of their own. It’s a great way to get involved in your community while also finding people who enjoy the same hobbies as you.

And that’s all I got for you for now! I’m glad you’re reading this and all, but…it’s time to go read more books.

About the Author

Jaylynn Korrell has been writing reviews and blog posts for IBR since the very beginning. She takes the photographs and manages the IBR Instagram page. In her spare time, she likes to play board games and take road trips around America. She is the founder of Good Gift Lists.

Thank you for reading “10 Easy Ways to Read More Books” by Jaylynn Korrell! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

The post 10 Easy Ways to Read More Books appeared first on Independent Book Review.

by Joe Walters

Reading changes my life all the time.

It’s a way for me to see the world differently and to communicate differently and to kick my feet up and breathe and breathe and breathe all at the same time. Reading takes time. We’ve got to fill ours somehow. This relaxing, enriching, and productive hobby might just change your life too, if you let it.

It doesn’t matter if you haven’t done it much lately or you never really have. All that matters is that you start and you keep going. If you develop a reading habit, you’ll see that the benefits of reading are plentiful.

Or, you could read this list.

Here are 11 benefits of reading that you’ll reap immediately and in the future.

1. Reading makes you smarter

“Smarter” might seem like a vague umbrella term–and it kind of is–but only when you overcomplicate it.

At a basic level, becoming smarter than your previous self means that you learn something you didn’t previously know. By reading and then continuing to read, you do this over and over. Some things will stick. Some will not. Over time, you’ll rake in new practical information (may I recommend some mushroom books?!) and use it to communicate better and analyze better in real life. Even if you stick strictly to fantasy books, you’re going to get smarter. But of course, if smarter is your goal, nonfiction books are about as practical as they come.

Don’t get frustrated if you can’t hop into reading and make your brain grow Jimmy Neutron-style right away. Reading and learning takes patience and resilience, but if you build the habit, it will come.

2. Reading is a form of guided meditation

You may experience this benefit immediately.

Something is happening in your body and mind. You are circulating. You are sitting still and breathing and engaging the parts of your brain that require focus and retention. If it feels difficult to read or stay in the same mental space, that’s because it is. Like meditation, it takes practice. Once achieved, it can feel like a continuation of breaths of fresh air.

Some people will tell you that reading reduces stress, but stress sucks and I can’t put pressure on the task of reading like that. But I can confirm that sitting quietly and breathing is a very good thing.

3. Tired of Netflix? Try a brain-movie!

There are so many ways to entertain yourself at home in the year 2023. Some are outside, some are inside, some are on screens, and yet…

We still get bored.

(Or most of us do).

When you read fiction and narrative nonfiction, you are watching a story unfold on the television screen of your imagination. The images are a combination of the things you know and the things the author is conveying to you, and it appears this way in this exact form only to you.

The benefits of reading stories are endless. Get lost in one; you’ll never know what you’ll find until you do.

Some top fiction & nonfiction book recommendations:

• Horror: Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova (Hardcover | eBook)
• Sci-Fi: I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane (Hardcover | eBook)
• Short Stories: Unshod, Cackling, and Naked by Tamika Thompson (Paperback | eBook)
• Romance: Mid-Flight by Lisa Wilkes (Paperback | eBook)
• Memoir: Laugh Cry Rewind by Judy Haveson (Paperback | eBook)

4. It can put you to sleep

Wait! How is a hobby that puts you to sleep anything but boring?

Hear me out…

Sometimes, you want to sleep.

You’re lying in bed and getting stuck in Youtube time-warps until it’s later than you wanted it to be and you have to get up in the morning. Even if you do put the phone down and surrender yourself to the act, it can be hard for your brain to slow down; the blue light from the phone can affect your sleep-wake cycle.

Any 10th grader in an 8 AM English will tell you: Reading can make you sleepy. Regardless of how good a book is, the act of scanning the text and processing what you’re reading is a natural way for your eyelids to start fluttering.

My favorite way to do this is reading nonfiction books (because I can stop midway!) with my Kindle and the bedroom light off. That way, I don’t need to do anything except lower my hand and eyes and I’m off to dreamland.

5. You can listen to books while doing chores & other mindless tasks

I do so many dishes. I live in the kitchen sink. While I’m doing them, I wear headphones. But I’m not always in the same mood. Sometimes it’s music, sometimes it’s basketball podcasts, and sometimes it’s audiobooks.

Ever since starting my Audible free trial, I’ve been hooked on audiobooks. I’ve read biographies while brushing baby bottles, bird books while scrubbing too-large pots. Instead of listening to the 24-hour news cycle concerning how the Sixers will let me down this year, I’m learning and giving myself a fun new hobby of looking in the sky in real life to try to figure out what that bird is.

Quick note: I’ve been listening to audiobooks for a couple years now, and I haven’t read a single fiction book! Nonfiction gives me opportunities to miss out on a paragraph or two while I get spacey, and yet I can still understand what in the world is going on. My recommendation is to dive into nonfiction audiobooks as an option for when you’re cleaning and don’t look back.

Here are some of my favorite indie audiobooks of the last couple years:

• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall-Kimmerer
• Negative Space by Lilly Dancyger
• In the Company of Crows and Ravens by John M. Marzluff and Tony Angell

6. Books can give you a more complete picture than Google or social media

Want to learn something new? Google is an obvious place to start. Want to get bombarded with opinions and eye-catching graphics about real or not-real content? May I introduce you to [much of the internet]?

You can definitely learn from both Google and social media, but the best way to see the complete picture is by reading a book about it. Turn to experts for your information; read more books.

7. Reading is time-consuming and inexpensive (or it can be!)

Our lives are made up of time. We have to fill it somehow.

If you find yourself bored with your regular routine, inject 30 minutes of reading time into it, and you could feel productive and rested by the end of it. When you’re retired or on summer break, reading can fill those long empty days with excitement, enrichment, and meditation.

You can definitely spend a lot of money on books, but you can also get around that pretty easily. The library can be a generous best friend, and your local thrift store or used bookstore can supply you with hours of entertainment for actual quarters. Kindle Unlimited can be a good deal if you read a lot of eBooks.

8. Better understand other cultures

Reading promotes empathy. Take a walk in another person’s shoes for a while. Get inside the heads of those who aren’t like you. Understand their priorities. Recognize that you aren’t the only person with a history and a community on the planet. And change the way you view our shared world. Documentaries & films are great at helping you see this. Don’t stop watching them. Just add books too.

9. Improve your communication skills

Communication is vital to our relationships, whether fleeting or life-long. If you are a good speaker or writer, you can sustain relationships and achieve many goals along the way.

The more you read, the better you can communicate. I’m not saying you always will– hello, social anxiety!–but I am saying that your vocabulary will increase and you will know more ways to say things with more analogies to convey them. Here’s more on reading to improve communication.

10. Get better at your job & make more money

There are nonfiction books out there to help you with most jobs. Business books can be incredibly rewarding and even easy to grapple with. Language can be straightforward and fun on the way to helping you get promoted and make more money. Don’t sleep on this one if you want to get ahead. It could change your life.

Some book recommendations about money:

• Own a Fraction, Earn a Fortune by (eBook | Audiobook)
• Not Your Job by Pierce Brantley (eBook | Audiobook)
• Host Coach by Cullin & Danielle Tate (eBook | Audiobook)
• Sports Betting Down the Bones by Manuel Angela (eBook | Audiobook)

11. Reading promotes art and imagination

I obviously like reading for a lot of different reasons, but this is among my favorites. Beyond literally supporting authors and their art with book purchases, readers exercise their creativity by imagining words on the page as images in their mind.

If you have kids, you are showing them that reading is cool too, so you’re promoting imagination that way. Never underestimate the power of monkey see, monkey do! Reading also can make you more creative.

Which benefits of reading did I leave off? Let me know in the comments!

About the Author

Joe Walters is the editor-in-chief of Independent Book Review and the author of The Truth About Book Reviews. He has been a book marketer for Sunbury Press, Inkwater Press, and Paper Raven Books. When he’s not doing editorial, promoting, or reviewing work, he’s working on his novel, playing with his kids, or reading indie books by Kindle light.

Thank you for reading “11 Benefits of Reading As a Hobby” by Joe Walters! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

The post 11 Benefits of Reading as a Hobby appeared first on Independent Book Review.

by Joe Walters

“How much should I read a day?” is a complicated question.

You have likely heard advice from teachers, parents, librarians, doctors, and know-it-alls over the years telling you that you should spend at least [x amount of time] reading per day. 

I’ve heard so many different opinions on this over my lifetime: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, even 2 from my grade school librarian back when I was a young tike with a basketball to shoot.

And now, a collection of years later, I’m a person who reads, reviews, and works with books for a living. I breathe this stuff. I want everybody to read more so that we can talk about the best books and put our trust in brilliant authors and learn things only available inside of covers.

But it’s not always easy to make the time to read. We have so many things to occupy ourselves nowadays, and they don’t always require us to work hard for the gratification.

And yet, this question still comes up: How much should I read a day?

So here’s my answer:

What do you want out of this?

If you are just trying to get smarter, I’ve got good news for you. Read one chapter in a nonfiction book about a subject you are not yet proficient in. 

Voila: you’re smarter.

If you read more than one chapter, you’re smarter again and then again and then again. 

If you are trying to read [x minutes per day] because you want to build a reading habit, then I like where your head is at! But don’t get caught up in the specific timeframe that your teacher recommended in their minutes-per-day spiel.

Your teacher is not you; you are the only one who can know how much time you have to read.

As long as you read every day, no matter if it’s for five minutes, ten minutes, an hour, or more, you are following through on your habit-building exercise to read more. Just keep doing it, and if you miss a day or two, do not call it a failure and give up. Recognize that all you can do is start it again. And actually do it.

One of my favorite ways to read every day is…

Reading multiple books at a time.

I know this might sound like something of a head-scratcher for all you wanna-start-reading-more friends, but it’s more about practicality than you’d think.

Sometimes you don’t want to read the book you’re reading or you genuinely cannot read it at this moment.

I, for one, don’t want to open a literary novel with big meaty chapters while my almost-toddler is dancing and chanting Bob Marley as loud as she can. But she is fairly occupied, so I believe this is a pocket of time I could read instead of scrolling the internet.

It’s times like these when I like to read nonfiction books (nature reading is my lifeblood lately) because if/when I have to put the book down, I can rest easy knowing that I stopped at or very near the large subheading about the way trees have babies.

Another way to read every day is to read books in different formats.

I do a ton of dishes, so I’ve become an audiobook fanatic. Sometimes I want to listen to music when scrubbing plates, and sometimes I want it to be a podcast about how bad/amazing the Sixers are. But a lot of the time, I want to listen to a book.

This might be just me in the current body I’m in and world I’m in, but again, I am choosing nonfiction for a lot of my audiobook listens. Nature books are obvious favorites for me here, but I also enjoy audiobooks about music like They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us and ones on art & writing like Craft in the Real World.

eReaders have really increased my reading numbers too. I think reading before bed is the most wonderful way in the world to fall asleep, and it works wonders for me in actually zonking out.

Back when I was scrolling my phone too much, I could be using my decompress time before bed for entirely too long and getting swirled around the YouTube recommendations for more prank videos than you can count. Now, I’m stuck on my Kindle. I like that.

I also like it because I can read it in public without attracting too much attention. Most of the time people just think I’m on my phone, but really I’m burrowing between the rhythmic lines of a poetry collection from Ocean Vuong or Jericho Brown.

By reading different books at the same time and reading them in different formats, you are making it more convenient for you to read. This is a huge habit-building technique that you can use to hit your goal of how much you should read in a day.

A very serious readerly FAQ

Should you set yearly reading goals?

I think it’s good to set reading goals but not definitely not as any sort of schedule. I choose them for fun, and maybe you should too. The most important thing in my eyes is that you actively choose reading often–not to hit x books in y amount of hours but to build and develop your reading habit.

How much should you read in a day? (If I HAVE to choose)

Thirty minutes. Split it up or conquer it all at once. If you shoot for this, you’ll give yourself a chance to finish full chapters of many books, giving you a sense of completion each time. That feeling of accomplishment helps keep you going. But also, adjust if it’s too much! Just keep reading.

How much should I read a day in order to finish this three-hundred page book?

Each reader is different, each book is different, each moment you peek inside is different. Who knows how long it will take you to read this specific book.

But if you really, really have to finish a three-hundred page book in a short amount of time, just know that you can do it anywhere between 8 and, say, 20 hours. What you’ll notice about both of these is that they are within a day. You can absolutely read a 300-page book today, even if you are a slow reader. Just go with one word after another, and you’ll get there. There are also a number of fast reading strategies you could implement if you’re really in a crunch.

If I read multiple books at a time, how will I ever finish one?

Slowly! But surely, if you keep resetting the day’s goal over and over and over.

How can I read more in loud spaces?

This is one that used to trip me up a lot. It always seems romantic and sweet to read your book in that cool coffee shop down the street, but if it’s poppin’ in there, you could end up reading the same paragraph over and over.

One of my favorite tricks for this is…to keep trying. Mouth the words as you read so you focus extra specifically on what you’re doing rather than what the randoms are saying. It’s going to be hardest early on, but the more you force yourself to do it, the better you’ll become.

Also, it could be the book’s fault! Try out something a little easier in the beginning. You can be a reader in a loud space, I know you can. (If you want to bring earbuds, that can help too).

Does reading articles on my phone/tablet/laptop count as reading?

Absolutely! I wouldn’t count it on your end of the year reading chart, but if you’re reading, you’re reading. That’s one of the big reasons why I believe that you can increase your book-count this year. You’re most likely reading already.

Can I throw myself a party when I finish reading a book after all the mini-hours I put in trying to finish it?

Umm…duh!

My favorite way to celebrate finishing a book, however simple it is, is to write the title down on my “Books Finished 2023” poster-thing I have hanging in my office. It’s a surreal type of excitement to actually add to the list after all of your quiet moments sitting there reading.

Happy reading, all! How much do you want to read per day?

About the Author

Joe Walters is the founder and editor-in-chief of Independent Book Review. He has been a book marketer for Sunbury Press, Paper Raven Books, and Inkwater Press. When he’s not doing editorial, promoting, or reviewing work, he’s working on his novel and trusting the process. Find him @joewalters13 on Twitter.

Thank you for reading Joe Walters’s blog post “How Much Should I Read a Day?!” If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

The post How Much Should I Read a Day? appeared first on Independent Book Review.

by Joe Walters

Is it too late for you to make a habit out of reading?

Maybe you haven’t cracked open a book in a while. Maybe you just can’t seem to finish the one you started. Maybe you feel so bogged down by how the heavy the world is that it feels like too much work to pick one up.

But you’ve made it to this blog post, so I’m thinking you’d like to make a change.

And good news: that’s the first step.

If you want to make a habit out of reading, you are not too late to get started.

Let’s take a look at the reality of 2021’s attention landscape, or, in other words, your available sea of distractions:

• Your phone
• Your computer
• Your TV
• Your kids
• Your housekeeping
• Your spouse
• Your things
• Your things
• Your things

So, how do you really make the time to become a reader?

Well…

I was asked recently to contribute to a blog post called, “Top Tips for Book Lovers Q & A: Advice from the Experts.” (Check out that blog post if you haven’t clicked it yet. There’s all sorts of great advice in there.) The question they asked me was this: 

“How do you create a reading habit at home?”

And. It. Was. TOUGH.

I obviously want everybody to read more. Reading has transformed my life in an insane number of ways, and I couldn’t be more thankful that it’s a thing I’ve made a habit of doing.

But every situation is different. Every life is different. Every reading mind is different. I could tell you to throw your phone out the window (which I will) and tell you to read different genres at once because your tastes/times will differ from moment to moment (which I will), but damn, man—reading is about gifting yourself time and that’s pretty much it.

A thing about free time is that it’s yours to do what you want with it. And you won’t always have a lot of it. So all I’m proposing here is for you to make reading an option.

(If you want to.)

Let’s get started.

Here are 5 tips for how to develop a reading habit at home: 

#1. Separate yourself from your phone

I don’t know your lifestyle, but I do know that most of you have access to instant gratification that you can choose over reading.

Twitter. Instagram. Facebook. YouTube. Reddit. Netflix. It’s difficult to stay away when we feel like we might miss something.

I’m NOT telling you to stop that.

It’s pretty damn hard, and I’ll be the first to admit I don’t do as well as I’d like to. But for reading time, I have learned to do a much better job of leaving the internet behind.

When cracking open a book, I implore you to separate yourself from the internet. Leave it on the other side of the room. Go outside and don’t bring the phone with you. Go in a different room.

When it’s away from you, it requires an extra walk-of-shame-style task for you to give yourself that brain break you tell yourself you need at the end of another paragraph, section, or chapter break. If you need the dictionary, get your phone (or a dictionary, obviously) and just promise me you’ll be back as soon as you can.

But separating yourself from the internet is easier said than done.

For me, I gave myself scroll breaks all the time even though I kinda-sorta-all-the-way-didn’t-like how social media operated. I did it anyway. I didn’t have any notifications while I was away, or I had ones that I didn’t need to know immediately. There are obviously exceptions to the rule, but most days, whatever it is that happened on your phone, social media account, or email (if anything at all) while you were reading, could most likely wait for you to finish that chapter.

You’d be amazed at how much you can move forward in a book when you keep reading the words in front of you instead of the ones on your screen.

#2. Read a variety of different types of books at the same time

This one may sound a little loopy if you’re not already a “reader,” but trust me, you’re not always going to want to dive into a big meaty chapter if you don’t have the time for it.

Sometimes, you’re going to want to dip your toe in regardless of if you’re able to finish the chapter or not.

This is where nonfiction comes in handy for me. It’s often easy to dive into nonfiction books without the commitment of a full chapter. It’s also easier to stop in the middle of a paragraph and resume it without having to reread too much the next time I pick it up.

Because of this, I like to have a slew of different style books at the ready.

Here’s a little list of the books that I was reading on the day I started this blog post:

• What Storm, What Thunder by Myriam J.A. Chancy – Literary Fiction – Novel. This one has big meaty paragraphs of artful prose and big content about an earthquake in Haiti. It’s excellent and I’m really in awe of Chancy’s prose, but it’s also not something that I dive into when I have a small window. This is my longer stretch of free time book.
• Refuse to Be Done by Matt Bell – Nonfiction – Publishing/Writing. This is my pick up and read during a short window book. I read a lot in my field of writing/publishing. You may or may not be in that field with me. Regardless, this one works almost like self-help & educational books, with short sections within sections, headers, subheadings, and easy-to-read prose. I’m never worried when I pick this up that, if house duty calls in some form or another, I can’t put this book down without having wasted my productive reading time.
• Best Microfiction 2021 edited by Meg Pokrass – Short Fiction Anthology. Is this a great bathroom book because I can finish a few very short stories while sitting on the toilet? Yes. Am I going to talk more about sitting on the toilet? No, goodbye.
• From Book to Bestseller by Penny Sansevieri – Nonfiction – Publishing/Writing. This is my current Kindle before-bed read. I am a book marketer for Sunbury Press, and I’m always on the search for new ways to get books into readers’ hands. And this book has been helpful and smooth so far. And it’s easy to fall asleep with my non-blue-light Kindle. If I tried to read one of my paperbacks/hardcovers at night, I’d have to make the choice to turn the light off, which could wake me up. All I have to do with a Kindle is keep reading until I nod off and it falls on my face.
• Runaways by Michael J. Seidlinger – Humor – Novella. Sometimes I get a short book that I want to read right away but also want to make sure it lasts beyond a couple sessions, so I don’t make it my primary fiction read. This novella is about a writer who struggles with distractions and intersperses funny tweets about the struggles throughout. As you might be able to guess, I vibed with it pretty hard. I’d read a few pages before something else or in exchange of something else, depending on my mood.

So…stay flexible! And give yourself an excuse to buy different books and/or grab a few extra books from the library next time you’re in. It might just help you create that habit to have the variety.

#3. Try out different formats (like eBooks & audiobooks)

Book snobs suck. They’ll tell you it’s not reading if you can’t feel the pages, that ebooks & audiobooks don’t count. It is my firm belief that this opinion is a bad one and that these people need a swift kick in the pants. If you don’t feel comfortable kicking them, don’t call me, because I also won’t kick them, but hey, maybe somebody will.

Listen up: You can read however you want. And if you experiment with different formats, you may just find a way where you can finish more books and be smarter because of it.

Let’s tackle eReaders first.

I used to hate on them. I even remember back in college saying the corniest thing I could think of: “Yeah, but you can’t smell the pages on an eReader.” I also said that I couldn’t annotate the books and that I couldn’t share the books I loved with other people. Here’s why I now believe all of those answers suck:

• You can still smell the pages of physical books if you’re into that kind of thing. It just won’t be all of your books. And trust me when I say—you don’t need to smell all of your books, especially the used ones.
• You can absolutely annotate your books in an eReader. I have a Kindle, and I can make notes of sections I love and even search to find those pieces later. It’s a legitimately more efficient way to do it. 
• Do you really like sharing books with other people? How often do you get it back? How often do people actually read it? With how often you hope to give books away, just read it on your eReader first (if that’s what you end up doing), and if you think you want to give it to someone, just get them the physical book or recommend it to them. This shouldn’t stop you from taking advantage of the last bullet point…
• eBooks are cheaper! If you read three books for the price of one hardcover, you go to prove the point that the more books you read, the smarter you become. It’s about the words, not the format.

But probably my favorite thing about eBooks is that I can read them to go to sleep by. They have their own light (and some of them aren’t LED for those whose eyes are sensitive like mine) and instead of scrolling or watching dumb stuff on the internet, you can read something you don’t have to finish in big chunks (like nonfiction) as you’re going to sleep, and it can actually help the ZZZZZs arrive.

And lastly, audiobooks rule, especially for nonfiction. They can be narrated by some really terrific voice actors (sometimes even the authors themselves), and it can feel like a podcast or like you’re sitting there hanging out with them while you’re doing dishes, vacuuming, holding your baby with one hand and patting their butt with the other. 

Again, if you’re getting the vibe at all from this post yet—making a habit is all about making reading easier on yourself. Expanding your format options is a great way to do that.

Fun Fact: Audible offers a free trial if you want to give audiobooks a shot!

#4. Stop reading books that aren’t inspiring you

This is a controversial take and everyone’s opinion is different, so if you see what I’m saying and think, “Joe, kindly kick yourself in the pants,” that’s fine, but hear me out:

A thing about books is that they take the same amount of time to read whether you don’t like it at all or if it changes your life forever.

So give that book you bought a shot. No doubt. Maybe even keep reading on if you still have hope for it moving forward. But when you feel uninterested to return to it, don’t return to it. You could be reading something that actually alters your worldview for the better, and you can always return to that book you gave up on later if you really want to. 

There is one caveat though: you have to finish some books. I’m confident you will if you keep making time for it, but if you are someone whose habit has become reading the first chapter and then abandoning your last ten books, well then maybe you need to finish that next one that you’re digging. You’d be surprised at how awesome books are when you get the chance to see the full picture.

#5. Be patient with yourself

I get paid to read, and I’m still slow at it. Some brains just work that way. And you better believe that when you jump into reading after not having done it in a while, you’re going to move through the pages slowly and you might have to reread some things. 

You know what you should do in that case?

Go slow. 

Recognize that all you can do is read one word after the other.

As long as you aim to understand what’s on the page and not just move through it to get it done, you’re going to exit this reading experience one book stronger than when you came in.

In the end…

You can make reading as romantic as you want (favorite couch, favorite coffee, favorite candle, whatever) or you can pull out your book or Kindle without the romance—to just give yourself the permission to read.

Any way you do it (or don’t do it), books are going to be there when you’re ready for them. Don’t beat yourself up if it’s not part of your routine now or tomorrow or in January. Your time is yours. I want only for you to do whatever you want with it.

What are the biggest distractions that stop you from developing a reading habit at home? Let me know your answers in the comments

About the Author

Joe Walters is the founder and editor-in-chief of Independent Book Review and a book marketing specialist at Sunbury Press. When he’s not doing editorial, promoting, or reviewing work, he’s working on his novel and trusting the process.

Thank you for reading “How Do You Develop a Reading Habit at Home?” by Joe Walters! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

The post How Do You Develop a Reading Habit at Home? appeared first on Independent Book Review.

by Grace Stetson

Are you struggling to stick to your reading goal?

My friends and family have always identified me as a “reader.” Every year, I get some sort of gift specifically for book lovers. When I prepared to move from the Bay Area to Chicago, the first thing I packed was six boxes of books. In my Brooklyn apartment, friends always comment on our bookcase, to which my roommates correct them to say, “It’s mostly Grace’s.” 

It’s true—I love books, I love reading, and I love writing (probably why I have those degrees in English and journalism). Yet, for a long while, I never spent much time reading for pleasure, whether that be because of my commute or my Netflix binges or my consistent hiking or—perhaps—a combination of all of the above. 

For 2019, I set a yearly reading goal after many years of never fulfilling my Goodreads Reading Challenge Goal. This year, I was going to read a total of 52 books.

As daunting as my aims were, I succeeded mere hours before the ball dropped in Times Square, which made me feel incredibly accomplished, satisfied and relieved. 

Here are just a few of the lessons I learned to help me stick to my yearly reading goal in 2019, and ones that I will continue to utilize as I keep picking up my next reads.

The library is your best friend

Although I own lots of books, I often strive to read something else (much to the annoyance of my loved ones). In January 2019, I hadn’t fully utilized the library just down the street and, as soon as I was able to figure out their very intuitive and helpful website, I began putting in request after request for book holds.

Because of this, I was able to get more books that I wanted to read in a timely fashion, and use the system to find audiobooks, similar books to those I was checking out, and new releases. Without the continued benefits of my local branch, I wouldn’t have read many of the books I did in 2019, which would have made it much more difficult to stay focused and interested.

Don’t waste your time on books you don’t like

One of the best things I learned from a coworker at Disney Publishing was: If a book doesn’t catch your interest within the first 50 pages, stop reading it. 

As much as it pains me to stop reading a book (can you tell I’m not a quitter?), there truly is no reason to continue reading anything that doesn’t grab you. Although I did read 52 books last year, that doesn’t account for the books that I started and just couldn’t finish. I even made it over 175 pages through a very well-regarded debut novel by a renowned journalist, and just could not finish it.

Remember: You’re not failing for not finishing. Use that time to go find a book that aligns with your needs a bit more — likely to be found at your local library!

Looking for some new books to request at your local library? Look no further than our staff-recommended book reviews here.

Follow your favorite authors online for related book recommendations.

One of the best things about social media is that there is now a way for readers to connect with their favorite authors. I’ve randomly connected with powerhouse writers like Brandon Taylor, Sam Irby, and Blythe Roberson through my continued deep-dives into staying up-to-date with all things literature, and following incredible voices like these help to provide us with context for other book recommendations.

Through authors like these, I was able to discover Lane Moore’s How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don’t, Nikesh Shukla’s The Good Immigrant, and Halle Butler’s “The New Me,” among many, many others.

Don’t stick to just one genre

One of the best books I read in 2019 was a random find during a trip. As I approached the end of 2019, I looked through my bookshelf at home and found Pablo Picasso’s Desire Caught by the Tail, a short farcical play by the painter that I had picked up in Montreal. I had bought the book because, truly, who knew Picasso was a playwright?

While I’m not the biggest fan of plays or the magical realism genre, the play was short and sweet, and proved that not everything I was reading needed to fit into a specific category. Throughout 2019, I not only read lots of contemporary fiction, but also lots of essay compilations, nonfiction think-pieces, and true crime novels. 

Looking to expand the genres you’re interested in? Here’s one of our favorite blog posts, “7 Indie Genre Fiction Publishers to Keep an Eye On.”

Be patient with yourself

Now, as much as I was striving to read one book a week, it didn’t always work out that way, often because of work stress, tiredness, or the like. While I could have been disappointed and used those pauses to give up entirely, it gave me more insight to really re-evaluate my why. Why did I want to complete this challenge? 

In all honesty, it was largely because I love a challenge and I’m not a quitter. However, there are also many amazing books that I wanted to read. Because of that, it was important to give myself the credence to continue, and keep reading great books.

Although I don’t know if I’ll ever complete a goal as unnerving as this again, the lessons I learned throughout the challenge will stick with me forever. I highly recommend challenging yourself to go beyond your typical aims for that reading list and, who knows? Perhaps you’ll be able to surprise yourself before “Aude Lang Syne” plays again.

About the Author

Grace Stetson is a woman of many hats (as her last name would suggest), including a freelance writer, copy editor and researcher for sites like Apartment Therapy, HelloGiggles and NBC News. With all of those responsibilities, she still makes time to read. Read more of her work at her website: gracestetson.com.

Thank you for reading “How to Set a Yearly Reading Goal and Stick To It” by Grace Stetson! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

The post How to Set a Yearly Reading Goal and Stick to It appeared first on Independent Book Review.