A bookmark on page 12 and the cover collecting dust — that book you’ve been meaning to read for the past six weeks remains unopened on your nightstand. Perhaps you enjoy buying or combing through books but rarely get around to finishing them, or maybe you’ve given up on getting new books altogether. I have loved to read ever since I can remember, and I used to read countless books every year. Then came senior year of high school, then university, and my reading activities were limited to the summer, some long weekends and winter break. In late 2021, I decided I wanted to prioritize reading for fun and started trying out different methods on how to be able to read more without letting my academic and social responsibilities slip. Here are some tips on how to get back to your bookish self.

The first piece of advice is, quite simply, to always have something to read with you. This tip is straightforward and can therefore be taken for granted, but shouldn’t. Whether you are heading to class, to get lunch, or going off-campus, you never know when you will find yourself having a few minutes to spare to read. If you don’t like carrying a physical, particularly a hard-cover, book around with you, you may want to consider an ebook or an audiobook. You will find yourself surprised at how easy it is to fit in some reading, especially when waiting for the professor before class or your friend’s arrival at the dining hall.

Secondly, if you are aiming to read more and are setting a goal, I recommend keeping track of both the books you finish and the ones you don’t. For the former, taking note of what you’ve read will help you stay on track and feel accomplished every time you add a new book to the list. Taking note of how you liked the book as well as writing a sentence about the plot or something memorable about it can also help you remember the books better when you look back at your reading progress at a later time. When it comes to books you don’t finish, it helps to keep a list of the titles and authors, just so you know what kinds of books you may not be interested in reading in the future.

Next, you should try to keep your reading goals manageable and well-structured. If you are a full-time student, especially if you also work a part-time job or volunteer, it might not be wise to set out to read 100 or more books in the next year. You might want to start smaller, perhaps with two books per month, and see how quickly you are able to meet that goal. Then build up from there if your schedule allows for it. You might want to tell your friends about your specific goal if you’d like them to keep you accountable or even offer to meet in a coffee shop and read together. Of course not everyone will see this as an ideal pastime, but a lot of the reading progress I’ve made this year was while spending time with others. You can even challenge a friend to a reading goal and try to reach it together.

Another piece of advice that I followed while trying to read more is reading two books simultaneously, which might be a way to boost your reading. For example, I usually have one novel and one non-fiction book started at any given time, so that I can switch between them depending on what I feel like reading at any point. The books you alternate between, however, do not have to be fiction versus nonfiction — they can be any two books you might like, from different genres or even in different languages.

Finally, do not put too much pressure on yourself to read, since it is supposed to be an activity that is relaxing, educational or otherwise pleasant. There will be periods of time when you cannot stop reading, and others when you don’t really feel like picking up a book at all, and that should not be a source of frustration or guilt. These are just some tips that helped me reach my reading goals and feel like I’m taking more time for myself, but every reader is different and at the end of the day, you are the only one who knows how to feel your best while reading. Enjoy your next book!