Want to read more books this next year?
Let’s face it. Life gets busy. We all set goals, and we mean to get them done. We really want to…but life. Sometimes meeting those goals gets tough, especially when it comes to reading. Our bookish TBR often gets the short end of our attention span. What to do?
I’ve got a few solutions to help you get through more books! The last solution for my Kindle TBR is my favorite, so be sure to check that one out.
Tip #1 to read more books in 2025
Print books. I love having a thousand e-books in the palm of my hand at any given time, and don’t get me started on how much I love the Libby and Hoopla library apps. They’re amazing! But the phone can be a source of distraction. If notifications pop you out of your focus, give yourself mental freedom to ignore them. Unless it’s urgent, you don’t have to answer every text or email immediately. You can also silence your phone for a short time, like 30 minutes, but print books don’t bing with every text, email, etc.
Tip #2 to read more books in 2025
Keep a book in your bathroom and leave your phone outside the room. I used to get through a lot of books this way, but then came the lure of games, socials, YouTube, TV…a universe of entertainment in the palm of your hand. Reading takes more effort than consuming auditory and visual content, but it’s so good for your brain to unplug.
Did you know reading lowers blood pressure and cortisol? So, think of the minutes you unplug as part of your health routine.
And if it’s just you and that book in that little room of peace and quiet, you’ll be surprised how quickly you can get through it.
Tip #3 to read more books in 2025
Have the goal of reading at least one chapter during that fifteen to thirty minutes before bedtime. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you can get through a book this way, and how much easier it can be to fall asleep.
Tip #4 to read more books in 2025
If you’re a carpooling mom or spend time waiting in the parked car, keep a book on hand.
If you don’t have a print book on hand, set a goal of opening your reading app first and reading a chapter before you open up the other apps.
Tip #5 to read more books in 2025
Audiobooks. I can’t say enough about these. For years, my younger daughter with special needs attended a school that had me in the car two hours a day, so my older daughter and I listened through the library’s entire catalog of kids book series like Hank the Cowdog, Junie B Jones, Magic Tree House, Ramona Quimby, Harry Potter, and more. Such good times.
She’s grown now, and she is still a huge audiobook listener.
And audiobooks are great for more than car rides. Walking the dogs, doing dishes, folding laundry, picking up the house, cleaning the garage, knitting, organizing… If your hands are moving with tasks that don’t require a lot of deep thinking, have an audiobook going.
Tip #6 to read more books in 2025
My favorite podcast, Finding Fantasy Reads is a free way to listen to short audio books from a variety of authors. From the website: “This show is hosted by Karyne Norton, author of epic fantasy and reader of fantasy and science fiction. Narration of short stories is performed by either Karyne Norton or Paeter Frandsen, host of the Christian Geek Central Podcast.”
Almost all the stories they feature are PG for language and romance; PG-13 at the most for violence, so they’re safe for many family situations as well. Two of the stories on there are written by me! The Midnight Requirement & The Midnight Embezzlement (coming 12/31/2024).
Both Karyn and Paeter are fabulous narrators, and most of the stories they choose can be listened to in less than thirty minutes or less, which brings me to my next tip…
Tip #7 to read more books in 2025
Speed of narration. From audiobooks to podcasts to YouTube, almost all apps have a way to speed up your narration.
A few tips: When you start a new book or narrator, you might need a lower speed. But as you get used that that reader’s cadence, the speed can be increased. I often start a book at 1.5 speed, but by the end I’m often at 2 or 2.25. The more you do it, the faster you can go.
Tip #8 to read more books in 2025
This is my favorite new discovery of the last few years, and it will help you get through even more books!
Like I said, I love audiobooks and listen to dozens through library apps like Hoopla and Libby. I almost always add the audiobook tier on Kickstarter, and we have an Audible membership. Plus, I always look through Chirp (another audiobook platform) emails to see what’s on sale.
But what if there’s no audiobook available to you, or you don’t have time to read the book with your eyes?
There’s a solution!
Did you know you can send almost all of your ebooks to your Kindle? Book Funnel and some of the library apps like Libby will help you do this easily, but you also have an email address associated with your Kindle account***. From there, you can either read with your eyes or use an accessibility feature on your devices to listen to them.
A caveat. I don’t consider this a replacement for an audiobook. A great narrator can make even a ho-hum book exciting. Audiobooks are an art form that I don’t want to see fall by the wayside and that I greatly admire and respect. We should listen to audiobooks and support our favorite author’s audiobooks.
But there are times when you need to listen. I’ve had an eye issue this year, and reading with my eyes has been difficult. But I had books I needed to read and in many cases there weren’t audiobooks available.
So I turned to my accessibility feature on my phone and had it read to me. The computer voice is a bit glitchy. Some words are pronounced oddly. Homophones might be pronounced in the wrong way, but we can deal with that, right? Our brains are adaptable and get used to it quickly.
Below, I’ll paste some basic instructions, but things are always changing, so you might need to search for current suggestions. If that’s the case, try search terms like: how to get my phone to read audiobooks. How to turn on my accessibility features on my phone. How to make my kindle read out loud.
That’s it for now! I’m so excited to hear what books you read and how many more books you read this year. I hope it’ll be our biggest reading year yet. Let’s do this!
What are your reading goals for this year?
Here are a few methods (some will work better on different apps):
What works for me:
To turn on the accessibility feature on an iPhone to read from Kindle, go to your phone’s Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content, then toggle on “Speak Screen”; this will allow you to have your iPhone read text from any app, including Kindle, by swiping down with two fingers on the screen.
Key points:
Turn on Speak Screen: Toggle the “Speak Screen” option to activate the feature.
Access settings: Navigate to “Settings” on your iPhone.
Select Accessibility: Within Settings, choose “Accessibility”.
Enable Spoken Content: Under Accessibility, select “Spoken Content”.
Another method within Kindle:
To have the Kindle app read to you, open the book you want to listen to, then access the settings menu, usually by tapping the top of the screen, and select “Text-to-Speech” or “Assistive Reader” to turn on the reading aloud feature; you can then control playback using the on-screen controls like play, pause, and speed adjustment.
Key steps:
- Open the book: Navigate to the Kindle book you want to listen to.
- Access settings: Tap the top of the screen to open the menu and select “More” or similar option depending on your device.
- Enable Text-to-Speech: Choose “Text-to-Speech” or “Assistive Reader” from the settings menu.
- Start playback: Once enabled, tap the play button to start the reading aloud function.
***To find your Kindle email address, you can:
- Log into your Amazon account on a computer
- Go to Manage Your Content and Devices
- Click the Preferences tab
- Scroll down to Personal Document Settings
- Your Kindle email address will be listed under Send to Kindle Email Settings
You can also find your Kindle email address on the Kindle mobile app or Kindle Paperwhite:
- Kindle mobile app: Tap the More tab at the bottom, then click Settings
- Kindle Paperwhite: Tap the menu button to open Settings, then Device Options, and finally Personalize Your Kindle
Each Kindle device has a different email address, even if they are registered to the same account.