Hey there,
Aren’t you flabbergasted to read the blog title? I’m sure you are, or else why would you have clicked on the link?
I would be more than happy if you are curious to know how to start reading or read more or how I read 13 books in 3 months.
First of all, let me tell you, I was extremely joyful and content when I realised I had managed to read so much. As my reading regime had seen a downfall in the past 2 years, I was very keen to pull myself off the reading slump in 2024.
So, I decided to take up a reasonable Goodreads challenge, unlike the previous years. Earlier, I used to take up unrealistic goals of reading 50 to 60 books per year. But could only reach less than half of the total number.
Until one of my friends once said, “If I take a lesser number in my Goodreads challenge and I happen to read more than the set goal, I would only be happier to have overachieved than to feel demotivated if I underachieved”.
You never know how and when you are inspired by the people around you. It’s just that you need to keep communicating and engaging with people often.
Now without any further ado, let’s get into knowing how I’m handling my 2024 reading regime and how I read 13 books in 3 months and you can, too:
1. Prioritising reading
If you’d ask me until 2023, about my morning routine, I’d say, “Nothing. Just the usual. I wake up, check my phone, do the morning ablutions, and get started with making breakfast for a family of 5”.
Unlike, now, in 2024, I slowly started changing my morning rituals. As reading more books this year was a goal, I stopped checking my phone in the morning.
Now my morning looks like this – I wake up, do my morning ablutions, make lemon-honey tea for myself and sip it while I read my book on the balcony.
This allows me to tick my reading session for the day and have some nice me-time before the rest of the house awakens and everything gets chaotic.
Prioritising my reading first thing in the morning has saved me from procrastinating for the when-I’ll-get-free-I’ll-read thing.
You don’t get time to read, you ought to make time.
2. Limit your social media/ screen
I was off social media for 17 days as it had got the better of me. I was caught up badly into a trap where I felt lost, overwhelmed, inefficient, and confusion engulfed my life.
The 17-day detox helped me calm down a bit and it gave me plenty of time to read books without any distractions.
Switch off your phone, turn on the aeroplane mode, or turn off all the social media notifications, pick up your book and read in peace.
3. Take up the Goodreads challenge
Download the Goodreads application on your mobile phone and update your reading journey. It’s a very useful application to keep track of what you are reading, what you’ve read, and what you want to read in future.
Goodreads allows you to take yearly reading challenges and guides and helps you to achieve them.
When you see the number of books you’ve read increasing in the list, you feel a different kind of satisfaction and self-motivated to read more.
I’ll be reading 30 books this year and have completed reading 13, already. Keep reading this blog to know the secret.
4. Discuss with your friends
I love talking about books with my friends and people who share the same interests. If you start talking about your interests with people, it’s a transfer of energy. Slowly it’ll seep into interest among other people as well.
I have a few friends who are my book buddies. I enjoy talking books with them. It’s beautiful to see how a world unseen, only read in books, by two people can make them feel.
Now that you’ve reached the end of this blog, I have to give away my secret of reading many books to you.
When I experience a reading slump, I feel extremely demotivated. That’s when I started reading short stories on Kindle. There are plenty of short reads on Kindle which you can read on your mobile.
This trick helps you read beautiful stories in very little time and boosts your morale to have completed a book, thus pushing you to read more.
Here’s a list of a few of my favourites –
The frogs – Preeti Shenoy
Unfinished melody – Ravinder Singh
Sofia on the balcony – Himanshu Goel
Thanks for your time – Preeti Shenoy
You can start with my ebooks, too, which are short reads and available on Amazon-
Mrs. Rao – Shraddha Rane
Home quarantined – Shraddha Rane
First 365 days in a marriage – Shraddha Rane
Click on the names of the above e-books and you’ll be taken to Amazon.
I hope after reading this blog you pick up a book and start with your reading regime. And if you’re still not convinced with the benefits of reading, click on the below link to read the astonishing advantages.
See you in the next blog.
Till then, take care!
P.S. Oops, I forgot to mention the list the of 13 books I read in 3 months, here you go:
1. Keep going by Austin Kleon
2. This is not your story by Savi Sharma
3. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason
4. My Ex by Ravinder Singh
5. Show your work by Austin Kleon
6. Be Happy: A little book to help you live a happy life by Monica Sheehan
7. The Boy, the Mole, the fox, and the Horse by Charlie. Mackesy
8. Sofia on the balcony by Himanshu Goel
9. Journey Down the Years by Ruskin Bond
10. The final letter by Dhruthik Shankar
11. Master your emotions by Thibaut Meurisse
12. A Place called home by Preeti Shenoy
13. It Starts with us by Colleen Hoover
