Make this your best reading year ever

12 ways to read more books (including more challenging books)

I will confess that 2024 was not a stellar reading year for me. I did read some, though much of this was books written by people I was interviewing. I also read books on the early earth, and whatever I could find on human species that are not homo sapiens (not sure why I find this so fascinating…but I do!).

But there have been years in the past where I read 100+ books. There was actually a stretch of time, between the summer of 2017 and 2018, where I managed to crank through Kristin Lavransdatter, the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, 1Q84, Ulysses (the James Joyce epic), Middlemarch, and Moby Dick in addition to a number of shorter books.

I did not, objectively, have more time then. We always have 168 hours in a week (8760 hours in a year) and my kids were all littler then than they are now. When I look back on that time, I see that there were a few things that helped increase the volume and complexity of what I was tackling. Perhaps some of these tips will be helpful as you try to make this your best reading year yet. Here are some strategies to try: