How I Read A Book A Week And Remember What I Read In 5 Easy Steps
I’ve always been a reader. I read voraciously as a kid all the way through high school, and even in college when I had reading to do for my classes I usually had a book going on the side. But I never tracked what or how much I was reading until 2018, when I set a goal to read 52 books a year or an average of one book a week. In 2018 I was way over — I read 87 books, and I wrote about that experience and some of the books I read in a previous piece. In 2019 I only hit 41, and that was almost entirely because I forgot to follow the steps I’m about to give you. So this piece is for you, but it’s also for me — to remind myself that even when you love to read as much as I do, you still have to be intentional if you want to reach your reading goal.
Before we get started, I want to address a couple of things. First, a little about me. I’m single and I don’t have kids or pets, which means I have full control over my leisure time. That might not be your life, and that’s ok! My goal is 52 books, but your goal might be fewer — or more! Regardless of what your life looks like or what your goal is, the tips and tools I’m about to go through will help you reach your reading goal and remember more of what you read. Second, a common question I get is whether I count audiobooks as reading, and the answer is OF COURSE I DO. I’m not here to gatekeep how you read, you should do whatever works best for you. Some people have an easier time listening than reading, and if you’re busy you can listen to an audiobook while you work out, or cook, or clean, or do whatever else you need to do. This is going to be a theme in this piece — you should always do what’s going to work best for you.
With those two things in mind, let’s get to it! Here’s five steps to becoming the reading and learning machine you always wanted to be, in order of importance:
1. Track Your Progress
You can’t meet your goal if you don’t set one! I use Goodreads for this because their “Reading Challenge” is super intuitive, and I also track the books I read using Instagram. There’s a corner of Instagram referred to as “Bookstagram” that is full of people who post content about the books they are reading, the books they want to read, and the authors they enjoy. This is one way that I expand my “to-read” list, and it’s also a fun photographic record of what I’ve read and where I was and who I was with when I read it. Be mindful of how you think about your goal. My goal is 52 books in a year. That averages out to a book a week, but I know that if I say “a book a week” and then have an off week, I’ll get discouraged and that will make me less likely to focus on my larger goal. Goodreads tells me if I’m ahead or behind my annual goal, and that’s good enough for me. But if a stricter weekly or monthly structure works for you, go for it! There’s no “wrong way” to think about your reading goals, except to not think about them at all.
2. Use Your Current Routine
The hardest thing to do is to break a habit or start a new one. Our brains are wired to settle into a routine, to do the things we are used to doing. This might sound like something that would prevent you from starting to read more — but we’re going to take that tendency and hack it to work for us. The trick is to find time you can use, ideally time that’s already blocked out in some way in your current routine. If you spend 20 minutes scrolling through social media before you go to bed, switching that to reading time is easier than trying to block out brand new time. If you’re an audiobook person, turning on the audiobook when you cook or clean or run is easier than trying to block out time to sit and listen. This doesn’t mean you can’t block out new time — but if you have a routine that’s working for you and you’re someone who struggles with making new habits, you’re going to be much more successful hacking your current life instead of trying to make a new one. Also, the more you read the more time you’re going to find to read, and that can lead to new routines organically instead of you having to forcibly create them.
3. Talk About It
This is a big one. Studies have shown that talking about and teaching material to others makes you more likely to remember it yourself. So talk about it! Recommend books you like to others and explain what they are about. Ask your family, friends, and coworkers for book recommendations. If you have the time and the inclination to do so, joining a book club or forming an informal book discussion group with a few friends can be great! You should also keep a “to-read” list — I have two, one on Goodreads and one in my Libby app — and at least glance at it regularly to remind yourself what’s on it. Read the author’s notes or book club discussion questions at the end of the book — it’s a good way to help you give a novel deeper context, or apply the lessons of a non-fiction book to your own life.
4. Get A Library Card
Don’t let access to new books be a barrier — use your library! Most libraries these days also have an ebook lending program, which is great for quarantine, and you can read them on a Kindle or any other device you like. Libraries also have audiobooks, and librarians are a great resource for finding new books you might like. All you have to do is tell them about books you’ve enjoyed, and they can point you in the direction of a whole new universe of books you didn’t even know existed. I’m a proud member of the NYPL and I’m taking full advantage of their online loaning service through OverDrive and the Libby app. The NYPL librarians also have a book club (currently reading Emma Straub’s All Adults Here), and never-ending recommendations on all kinds of topics that have added a ton of books to my “to read” list.
5. Take Notes
I know, this one feels like work. That’s the reason that this step is the last item on the list — if you do the other four things, you’ll still be able to meet your goals and remember a lot of what you read. That being said, there’s a lot of ways you can take notes, and like everything else on this list the important thing is to find the way that works best for you. I use my Kindle’s highlight and annotation functions when I’m reading ebooks. I’ll highlight passages that I find meaningful or enlightening, and also any turn of phrase I find particularly beautiful or resonant. When I’m reading non-fiction or looking to learn something specific, I use Michael Hyatt’s Book InSIGHTS template in Evernote. Taking notes makes you engage with what you’re reading, and it will help you remember not only what you read but what you thought about what you read.
And that’s it! Seriously — don’t get overwhelmed by thinking you have to make a huge change to meet your reading goals. All you have to do is pick a number and start reading. You’ll be able to fine-tune your goal over time. If you pick a goal that feels too aggressive once you get a feel for how fast you read, don’t worry about paring it back to something that feels more manageable. There’s no rule that says you have to stick to your original number — find a goal and a pace that works for you, talk to your friends, use the library, and write down what you learn! Let me know how it goes, and let me know what you’re reading so I can add it to my list. You got this — happy reading!
