How to Train Yourself to Read Books Regularly: 10 Steps to a Healthy Habit

The benefits of regular meaningful reading are undeniable. Thanks to its ability to stimulate brain activity, it forms new neural connections in a person and has a positive effect on his cognitive abilities.

Reading helps book lovers improve their memory, increase concentration, develop imagination, vocabulary and outlook. And also, since it is a favorite pastime, it reduces stress levels.

This useful habit is a good assistant in the desire to develop applied skills. Interest in professional literature allows you to master new tools and techniques, thanks to which you can keep yourself in good shape as a professional. To popular science - to stay up to date with the latest research and discoveries. And to fiction - to improve your soft skills, in particular, empathy and emotional intelligence.

We tell you how to make regular reading a habit.

Formulate for yourself why it is important

Formulating a goal is the first step towards implementing any habit. It is necessary to approach this thoughtfully. Before filling the shelves with books, a person should explain to himself why and for what purpose he wants to start reading more often and more carefully. It is good to think about what benefit this will bring, whether it will be able to qualitatively improve life and help in achieving other goals.

The idea of simply increasing the amount of reading - and time for reading - can quickly lead to disappointment. If you do not find a deep meaning for a new complex process and do not break it down into measurable components, the brain will not have enough motivation to continue. It will be distracted and switch to more familiar things to fill free time.

At the beginning of the journey, it makes sense to think about priorities and write down how much and what kind of literature is optimal for reading in order to achieve the desired. For example, the habit of regular reading will help in career development. If a person focuses on the works of authors who are professionally engaged in the same field, he will be able to master new techniques and techniques, and then apply them in his practice.

Get trackers to track your progress

To increase motivation and productivity, you need to systematize the process and track your achievements. Having figured out why you need to accustom yourself to regular reading, a person can outline a step-by-step plan and some kind of efficiency metrics.

For example, you can set yourself the task of reading 30 pages, 1 chapter, or an hour every day. It is important not to raise the bar and not to chase other people's standards. It should be remembered that everyone has a different reading pace and amount of free time. Genre preferences can also vary greatly.

Perhaps someone manages to read up to 150 books a year, but quickly and thoughtlessly. Another person's limit may be 20 books a year, but he will read thoughtfully, taking notes on the main points and immersing himself in the context. The norm will develop over time.

At first, it is possible to introduce a habit into your life only if you regularly pay attention to the process. You can read a little, but be sure to read every day. The brain must understand that the action is feasible and the goal is achievable.

For a visual representation of what you have read, you can use a customized Google spreadsheet or Notion page. They will allow you to store important information about each book in one place and collect statistics. In addition to the book title and author's name, you can mark the topic and volume of the book, the time it took to read it, interesting quotes.

But the most convenient thing in this matter is special applications. For example, one of the most popular services in this genre, Goodreads, which is available in the App Store and Google Play, allows you to receive recommendations based on your lists, leave reviews of what you have read, and join communities of interest.

The young Russian service Book Diary offers two applications: Reading Tracker and Book Diary. Both are also available in the App Store and Google Play. The first is designed for tracking reading, the second - for keeping a reading diary, where you can leave more detailed information and record your impressions of what you have read. There you can also store a list of books that are only in the plan.

Make a list of books to read and update it regularly

A list of books to read will also help you stay in shape. You can make it on the go, catching recommendations and randomly writing them down in a notebook or on a sticky note.

But it is more far-sighted to record everything in a separate file or a special application, with notes that allow you to prioritize books. Then it will be easier to sort them by reading goals, topics, relevance.

There are many such services and applications. The ones mentioned above may be suitable. Or you can use the popular LiveLib - a recommendation service with the largest catalog on the Russian-language Internet. You can also read and leave reviews there, keep a reading diary, and communicate with like-minded people.

If you take the time to classify in advance, then choosing the next book will become easier, and reading more enjoyable. After all, the likelihood that an uninteresting copy will accidentally fall into your hands, which everyone is talking about, but which will not move a person towards the goal, is greatly reduced.

Let's assume that at the first stage, a person has determined that regular reading is important for career growth. At the second stage, he decides that he is ready to read 15 books on professional topics in a year, which will help him expand his knowledge and find new approaches to solving work problems. By making a list, he will already understand what to focus on and what data about the recommended copy is important for filtering.

In addition to the title and author's name, you can write down where the recommendation or idea to add this publication to the list came from. For example, it could have been recommended by a colleague, a teacher during a lecture, a speaker at a conference, or the author of the book that the person is reading now. In this way, over time, you can track down more relevant sources for yourself.

Decide on a convenient reading format

Today, you can study books in two ways: through text and through audio. There are three types of textual information carriers: a paper book, an e-book, and a screen - a smartphone, tablet, or computer.

Some people prefer to hold a paper copy in their hands, but such books are more expensive and often heavier. Not everyone can comfortably perceive complex texts by ear, and it is also difficult to take notes and return to what you have read. But audiobooks are perfect for situations where, for example, a person spends a lot of time driving a car, but still wants to keep up the pace of reading.

Reading from screens seems like a great compromise - after all, it is round-the-clock access to the text in any circumstances: in bed, in a queue, in the park, during a lunch break. However, it is important to think about the impact of screens on health.

Bright light from smartphones and tablets reduces the production of melatonin, a hormone responsible for quality sleep. In addition, regular reading from devices that are not designed for this purpose can contribute to screen myopia.

E-readers have almost no disadvantages - they, like smartphones, are lightweight and can store a lot of text. In addition, they do not have aggressive backlighting and flickering. Often, e-books allow you to control the brightness yourself, but it will still be safe for your eyes. You can also adjust the font size, but all available options will also be safe.

Each method has its own connoisseurs, and for some it is most convenient to combine. Such people take care in advance of an easy transition from format to format, read one book simultaneously from several devices and move on to the next faster.

Create comfortable conditions for reading

Not everyone can make a separate room-library in their home, but everyone can try to allocate a corner for reading. Moreover, there can be several such locations.

For example, many people associate leisurely reading of fiction with a calm environment. For this, you can choose a cozy soft chair near a floor lamp and a bookshelf. But to get acquainted with a popular science novel or a book on professional skills, it is better to move to the desk. This will make it easier to take notes and, if necessary, use search engines to clarify new names and terms.

Speaking about creating comfortable conditions more broadly, it is worth understanding in what life circumstances a person generally has free time for reading. Perhaps he only has half an hour on the subway to work and 40 minutes before bed. At the same time, he is now immersed in a book with life hacks on copywriting, which will help him develop writing skills, take on a new work task and ask for a raise.

In order to choose reading among all the distractions and temptations, you need to try to simplify the path to the book and complicate it to all its competitors. During the time allotted for reading, it is worth turning off social network notifications, or better yet, switch your phone to silent mode. And put it away.

Let's remember about formats. If it is convenient, you can read one book simultaneously on all available media: at home - on paper, in public transport - on a digital reader, while driving or in the bathroom - audio.

In general, by creating conditions in which at any free minute the hand reaches for a book, and not for a friend feed or an online store basket, a person will quickly learn to make a choice in favor of reading.

Try to immerse yourself in the context

Immersion in the context is an opportunity to expand your understanding of the circumstances in which and about which the book was written. It is always useful to study the biography of the author and his associates, to delve into the events that unfolded around them at the time of working on the text.

Those who are focused on professional literature should look for recordings of live speeches by the authors of books, their expert blogs and articles where they spoke as experts.

For those who read popular science publications, it may be useful to follow the latest discoveries and research in the field that interests them, to look for interviews with scientists.

With fiction, the same podcasts and blogs, other people and books, as well as educational projects can help. For example, Arzamas.academy and "Polka".

Arzamas.academy is dedicated to the history of culture in general, but has a separate category "Literature". In it, you can find interesting articles, special projects and entire courses that contain short audio or video lectures and accompanying materials.

For example, in the course "The World of Vladimir Nabokov", literary historian Alexander Dolinin explains how the texts of the famous writer are structured and how to read them. And thanks to the lectures of the course "The Working Days of the Heroes of Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol and Griboyedov", which was compiled by philologist Ekaterina Lyamina, you can get acquainted with the everyday activities of the nobility of the first half of the 19th century.

Another interesting educational project is “Polka”, which tells about the most important works of Russian literature. The main list of “Polka” includes 108 works of art that influenced the development of language, thought, society, and entered the Russian literary canon.

Here you can find an expert analysis of the prose poem “Moscow-Petushki” by Venedikt Erofeev, the play “The Seagull” by Anton Chekhov, the great novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, and much more.

At the end of the “Polka” longreads there are links to texts, audio and video materials related to the book in question. This allows you to dive even deeper into the context.

Make a summary and keep a reading diary

In his work “How to Read Books,” American philosopher and popularizer of humanities education Mortimer Adler explains why active reading is important. The ability to analyze the structure of the material, interpret its concept and main meanings, and critically comprehend the content allows you to get the most out of a book.

Convenient tools for thoughtful reading are a summary and a reading diary. These are a kind of notes that help you comprehend what you have read and form a holistic idea of it, and allocate a separate place for it in your memory.

A summary, that is, a short summary, can be made after each chapter. Write down the author’s main points and your thoughts on this matter. If desired, make sketches of key images and draft mind maps that allow you to structure new knowledge.

A reading diary is a more complex system. It should have columns for the book title, author's name, year of publication, volume, start and end dates of reading, and also include space for quotes, significant facts, thoughts and conclusions of the reader, a brief review.

In a summary of works of fiction, it makes sense to also record information about the main characters, the place and circumstances of the action, the main events.

These notes will be especially valuable after some time. Turning to them, a person may be surprised at what intricacies he has sorted out and how many interesting things he has taken away from what he has read. This will reinforce enthusiasm.

Gather a team of like-minded people

Before introducing the habit of regular reading, it is worth looking around in search of those who can support you in this. If you share a new hobby with others, the risk of losing your way will decrease. Here, the competitive spirit and the principle of social proof come into play, according to which a person acts with an eye on the behavior of others.

A book club is an excellent solution. You can put it together yourself by throwing out a call among friends and acquaintances who are also interested in regular reading and discussing what they have read. And professional literature can be interesting and useful to analyze in the company of colleagues.

In a friendly community of interests, you can exchange not only opinions, but also books - or organize a book resale. This is an exciting and environmentally friendly way to replenish your collection, saving a little.

Find sources of inspiration

Podcasts and blogs can help you get inspired by the reading process. Usually, their authors and guests enthusiastically tell their audience about their latest discoveries, analyze and dissect famous texts of classics, translate excerpts from books not yet published in Russia, and provide catchy quotes.

If you want to become a participant in such a dialogue, you can go to an independent bookstore or a book fair. There, a person will not only have the opportunity to communicate with passionate publishers and booksellers. In such places, the atmosphere is also inspiring: casual conversations with other buyers, the smell of printing ink and coated paper, piles of a variety of books that may initially attract only by their covers.

Another type of space that inspires reading is cultural centers and libraries. It is better to set aside a whole day for them. For example, the legendary Peredelkino offers excursions every weekend. This is a writers' town that appeared near Moscow in the 1930s, where outstanding writers of that era lived. During the walk, guides tell about the village and its inhabitants of that time.

Now "Peredelkino" is a modern creative center with residences and stylish spaces for work and rest. The club of the House of Creativity has a library, a reading room, a living room, a spacious balcony and a coworking space.

The atmosphere of libraries is a special place. There are several truly impressive ones in Russia. Among them is the Wallenrodskaya - a Prussian library, which is located in the Kant Museum in Kaliningrad. The museum is located in the tower of the cathedral.

In the 18th century, it was the only secular library at a religious institution. In the 20th century - during World War II - the book collection was almost completely destroyed. In 2005, the historical appearance of the library was recreated from photographs and drawings.

Quietly close uninteresting books

Some people may find this recommendation difficult to accept — after all, if you started, you definitely need to finish it. In reality, the time saved on uninteresting books will bring you closer to meeting new favorites.

Usually, the first 50–70 pages of a book can give you an idea of the general structure, style, narrative style, and reliability of sources. Additionally, you can look at the last chapter with conclusions, skim through the unread books. If the feeling that it is not worth finishing this copy has intensified, it is better to close it. And make a note in the tracker “not finished”, indicating the reason.

The main thing on the path to regular reading is to pick up a book with pleasure. You should not torture yourself with something boring, irrelevant, or contrary to your beliefs, science, or common sense. Interesting books will form a habit faster and make the attachment more reliable.

To summarize

To form a habit of regularly reading books, you need to:

Formulate for yourself why this is important.

Create trackers to track your progress.

Make a list of books to read and update it regularly.

Determine a convenient reading format.

Create comfortable conditions for reading.

Try to immerse yourself in the context.

Make summaries and keep a reading diary.

Assemble a team of like-minded people.

Look for sources of inspiration.

Quietly close uninteresting books.