The NEW Way to Read Books in 2025
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- Опубліковано 14 січ 2025
- The new year is here, and if you're reader, you likely recently set a new reading goal. If you read 12 books in 2024, you might want to read 24 this year. If you read 24 books, now maybe you want to read 52, or if you read 52 books, now maybe you want to read 100...
But what if there is a better way to structure your reading?
In this video, I go over my three favorite ways to set reading goals and structure your reading, that don't have anything to do with the total number of books that you read.
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I read for 30 min to an hr daily, early, post-workout with my morning coffee. Before I go to bed, I write for 15 min about what I read that morning to ensure I retained at least the majority of it, essentially a mini-review, not for the gram but for myself. If I'm having difficulty recalling what I've read, I return to the same pages the following morning. It usually sticks the second time around. As someone prone to distracted, disorganized thinking (ADHD), writing about what I read has been necessary for the better part of a decade.
That's quite an irreverent but hilarious username.
lol
I use that same technique for exercise. Just one pushup a day and once you get going you end up doing 10 or more. It really works.
What a fantastic set of goals. I particularly love the idea of reading about one particular topic from different perspectives…no better way to build empathy and broaden your world view
I got a palm-sized e-Book reader. It's the size of a smartphone. It replaces the phone in my hand, and has no distractions on it... there's no messaging/social media on it to constantly grab your attention, no games, no email, nothing but a reading app. I have found myself reading a lot more using this.
Reading projects is a great advice and I haven’t heard those examples. Cool, thanks.
Great video - this is the encouragement I needed to keep up my recent reading streak and not be intimidated by the new year! Big love from the UK! ❤️
As a lover of projects in general, I really like your "reading project" idea. There are so many things to learn about, and in an age where many of us are accustomed to taking in information at a very superficial level (via snippets on the internet), the idea of really diving into something is refreshing.
I'm a blu-ray and 4K movie collector. When I buy a movie, it comes with a disc and a digital copy. I usually sell the digital copy for cheap to folks online to knock some money off my spending. I would love it if new books came with a QR code or something with a downloadable audiobook version as well. It would slightly increase book prices most likely but it would make it so you could listen to the book in the car without buying both a physical and audio version or waiting for the library edition to be available.
1 page per day for journaling and for reading. That’s my goal. Just pick up the book and read. Just pickup that notebook and write. These are realistic goals and will help you improve.
As I'm learning Russian and Dutch, my goal is to read at least 5 pages in Dutch - getting close to finish my 2nd Dutch novel - and read a short (bilingual) story in Russian. I'm German, but read mainly English books for 30+ years. Another goal for 2025.... At the end of the year I'll read a Russian novel and start with Italian short stories. So my reading goals are linked to language learning.
I'm starting with one page a day. It worked to me to build a making art habit, so I'm hopeful I'll have a better reading habit by the end of the year :)
I loveeee the idea of reading projects. Last year my reading project for October was to read different horror books to give the genre a try. I enjoyed it so much! I believe I read around 11 books from 7 sub genres and 11 authors. However, being the ambitious person that I am, I went overboard and my other responsibilities took a back seat for the month. My advice to whoever’s taking up a reading project, be sure to pace yourself and set tangible outcomes with realistic milestones.
I love these ideas!! My favorite is finding a topic and reading from multiple perspectives, fiction/non fiction. Love the intention and organized manner of it.
I do that too! I have a whole list of such "book families" by now 😊
Some really good advice for sure! Going to share this around...
I love the goal you mention of a time period. I have done this before, and loved it. Your video motivated me to be more consistent on it and to work on this goal again this year. I also love reading close to each other fiction and nonfiction of similar periods. Also, I'd like to reread books I have forgotten or they need a reread to get more out of them, so I have in mind to reread at least 5 or 6 books. I love your channel.
This year my project is to read something published from every decade in the 20th and 21st centuries. I should probably add a similar goal to capture readings from earlier centuries. I also want to read works from at least 20 different countries. I’m allow to double drip decades and counties.
The reason I made a goal initially was to motivate me to get back into reading. I will never read as much as some people I know, which is fine. I was a voracious reader when I was younger, and it feels good to love reading again. I don't set the bar too high or increase it. It is just there as my 'carrot' to keep me motivated.
Same. I just set the goal at a reasonable number to make sure that even if I get stuck in a reading slump for a month, looking at this “reading goal” that I must achieve motivates me to pick up a book and read.
Love these ideas! More than just seasonal/mood reading but intentionally choosing a topic. Then choosing multiple POVs. Very cool. It's like lesson planning 😜
I started to read about American history by reading the biographies of each of the presidents in order. However, I found that there were a large group of "second tier" people that could add another perspective on the history, people like Hamilton and Franklin. So I am now reading the biographies of key people from American history to get a better understanding of American History.
It is interesting to read about issues from multiple points of view.
I personally tried this approach last year and it didn't work, but because no matter how little I set the goal to, some days I did not read at all. Why? Because I am concert photographer, I am neurodivergent, and when I am in sensory overload (such as after a festival or concert) it's impossible for me to do anything that requires mental focusing. Soooo what Im doing instead is to not set my self a number of books goal at all this year. And instead I'm focusing in making sure at least 50% of the books I end up reading are from my physical TBR by the end of 2024. I understand however that for most of readers, this goal is gonna be a great one and it will work for them! I loved this video. Subscribing to your channel now.
Great tips. The "1 page per day" trick really helped me get back into reading a few years ago. Now I do something similar where I say "1 book per month" and break it out into pages per day to finish (usually between 8-15 pages a day) but as soon as I get ahead I just allow myself next month's book early so now it's 4-6 pages per day since I have a month and a half. Then 2-3 pages per day because I have two full months!
I love the once page per day goal. This is brilliant.bc even if youre in a slump youre making progress.
Great ideas! Thanks for sharing!
I love the idea of reading projects. A goal around a number of books, pages, or minutes is excellent if you're getting into reading but quite useless once the habit is established. I can tell coming up with reading projects will require some work to define, but I like it! Thanks for the ideas.
These are great ideas. Last year my goal was simply to read every day and that helped me build up a steady pace and habit, and I'm continuing that this year. I really like the thought to integrate reading projects as you go. Currently working through my whole physical TBR and after that project is complete I am sure I will be hunting for a new one to start.
My problem is …I read so many books that it becomes a detriment to my health. I’m sitting around reading, not moving my body! I have to balance my love of reading with exercise and other hobbies. 😂
I hear ya! I love to read and write, and work has me sitting at a desk (and no, I can’t get a cool funky one where I can elevate it and stand or something like that, lol). So, everything I have to do, and a lot of what I love to do, is stationary. Swimming for an hour every other day helps me, as does walking or 🚲 a 4-mile circuit around my neighborhood with an audiobook/podcast/music playlist.
I started walking around the house while reading 😂
@@PoPo-hl3zc Haha, that's what I do too. I walk around the kitchen table
I anyways thought about buying those floor treadmills that are easy to store lol to walk and read but doubt I'll do that lol
Great points!!! I am in the midst of two reading projects. One is to read a biography about each of the past US Presidents. The second is reading the biography about Judy Dench's Shakespearean career (Shakespeare: the Man Who Paid the Rent).With each chapter I want to immersive read each play while watching a production. There is also at least one movie of a play with Dame Judy in it.
I am going to start a president biography project! I started listening to FDR's bio and want to go down the rabbit hole.
Good tips. I found that a hybrid method works best for myself. I like to write out, in Excel, 12 books that I’ve always wanted to read. One book per month. Also, I try to order these where I’ll follow a heavy read with a shorter one. Generally speaking, I tend to finish these books in a week or two. This leaves an additional 2-3 weeks per month to read whatever I feel like at the time. This is where I might tackle the ‘one book per country’ or specific topic like you mentioned :)
I love the reading project idea! Thank you for the suggestion. I think I’m going to read all of Clarice Lispector this year as well as the Ben Moser written biography on her.
I’ve made it a point not to read so fast I don’t remember. It’s not the number of books so I’m just reading to learn and enjoy.
I love this idea. Last year, I set my reading goal to 12 because I wanted to read a book a month and based on my reading habits, seemed very attainable and would leave me happy at the end of the year if that’s all I accomplished. It worked great for me and I actually hit it way earlier than I expected, so I set the same goal this year! However, I can see these working for me if this goal ever falls through. I’ve also been thinking about the book from every country journey for a while and this might be the year I finally start 😊
Couldn’t agree more, I loved all of this advice and I think it’s needed now more than ever. I set my number target of books on all platforms to 1 book for 2025, just to be done with it. I am so sick of the chasing and the forgetting and the consumerism everywhere. I just want to sink deeply into everything I read now, no rush, no competition, no ego. Just me and that book in conversation till we know each other and know where our stories criss-cross, differ, mirror and impact each other and then I want to sit with that same book till it feels like it haunts me and then I want to see if it opened up any rabbit holes to explore further. Thank you for this
Great tips, I have set a goal for 72 books but as you say not all books are equal. I like the one page a day goal, it is manageable.
while your read 1 page strat makes a lot of sense for building habbits in neurotypical people, its also important to acknowledge it doesnt work for everyone. personally i have a lot of trouble shifting my focus from 1 thing to another and i naturally binge activities, it requires a lot of energy to do a lot of small chunks of tasks every day rather than spending a full day to accomplish 1 big task, or having very large time blocks for my activities, rather than having any sort of routine. some people are just naturally chaotic and dont get into routines =)
I didn't have a great way of articulating one of my new reading goals for this year but a 'reading project' is perfect. My reading project going forward into 2025 is to read books by and about C.S. Lewis. Thanks for another great video!
The project I decided to work on was a bit of a smaller scale. Mine is reading through the alphabet. I'm very intimidated by reading books from every country, so to help me adjust to the mentality I'm doing this one to get started.
That's a very cool project!
@Lifeonbooks Just the mentality of calling it a project rather than a challenge has blown my mind. Like, it's always there. No timeline, no pressure. A challenge gets me antsy like I need to do it ASAP.
Sound advice which I will be taking on board... thanks mate.. 👍
So true that the hardest part is often just getting started. I use the one page goal with my reading tracker, and the low barrier to entry of only needing to read one page combined with the little dopamine boost from coloring in a square for the day if I've read that one page made all the difference in helping me start reading again after grad school burnout.
I've done various reading projects for more than 30 years, usually over multiple years. It's how I did the Durants' Story of Civilization, Page Smith's 8-volume People's History of the United States, Shakespeare, Ancient Greek Drama ... I have several going on right now. I'm reading 2 books per year from each of Zola's Rougon-Macquart novels and the Harper & Row Rise of Modern Europe series; each has 20 books so it will take a decade to complete them. I'm doing the Tolkien (J.R.R. & Christopher) History of Middle-Earth at about 1 per year, and I plan to finish Joyce Carol Oates' Wonderland quartet this year (having read the first three books in previous years). Most ambitiously, I'm aiming at 2 books a year from the Cambridge Ancient History, to be followed by the New Cambridge Medieval History and the New Cambridge Modern History. That's about a 20-year project.
One advantage of spreading big projects out like this is that there's plenty of time to read other things as well.
Another technique im currently trying out is reading a 2nd or third book at the same time, preferably of a different style.
Some excellent suggestions here! I don’t up my number of books/year every year. I leave it at the same number for exactly the reason you state, but feel like the number I’ve set is easily managed. I’m not a stickler though. If I hit it, fine. If I don’t, also fine as long as I’m reading every day.
I do a page, # of books, and time. Huge fan of the 1 page per day. Mine page per day goes according to how many pages in that chapter. I can’t bear to stop reading in the middle of a chapter. If I do that I’m exhausted. My reading time per day is 1 hour. And my total number of books read stays at 24. I can read 2 books per month and spend time with them annotating, reflecting, etc. I love a good reading project and there are a couple I want to resurrect this year and if I start my booktube channel back up do a video essay.
Also, I would like to add a slow read reading project. Pick a book - tome or shorter work and read it over a period of time. For example, I read The Count of Monte Cristo over a year. And I took a month to Kindred by Octavia E. Butler. They were some of the best reading experiences I had because I forced myself to slow down. And, yes, I did read other things in between.
The nice thing about setting pages per day goals is that you won't be tempted to pick shorter or easier books just to hit a goal. I like book goals as a broad metric but I would rather read things that excite or intrigue me. I don't want to pass up on something just because it would make it hard to hit a set number of books.
I try to read for around 2 hours daily which ends up being, on average, just over 100 pages a day. Some days I read more and others I read less, but my pages per day seemed consistent over the past few years. Besides amount of time to read, my other goal is to focus on reading a few different series while also reading other books. Finally, my final book each year is to read more free books from sources like the library, free online, or borrowed for others. In the past 3 years, the majority of the books I read fit into this category as oppose to reading more purchased books. Reading doesn't have to equate to spending a lot of money and I always like to support my local library system.
This might work if I was wired different but I like reading the way I do and that often doesn't fit into these type of goals. I am a series reader but I don't like binging series so couldn't just read and finish a series or something like that. Great goals, have fun with them.
I’ve accidentally been on a magical realism reading project for 10 years 😂
There's ONE worthwhile "reading goal" IMO: Have a great experience reading _this_ book. That's it :). Other than that, just read what you want, when you want and remember that the point is to _enjoy_ doing it. It's _for_ pleasure, _that's_ the "goal" (work/study aside of course).
Personally I suspect some people feel guilty spending time not being "productive" so they're intent on making reading _appear_ "productive", as if it's an item on a to-do list (so they plan their TBRs weeks/months in advance, tab and annotate books like it's homework, set goals of reading more than last year etc.). Do we do that for any other leisure pursuit ? Do you set a "goal" to "listen to at least 3 songs today" or "watch at least 1 movie" ?? I'd wager not because we usually only "game-ify" things we know we _should_ do but don't really _want_ to do (like going to the gym etc.).
(and the idea that reading e.g. 50 books a year is somehow _inherently_ "better" than 25 is so bizarre to me that i'm kinda depressed it even needs saying. You do you of course - if it works for you great - but that's an aspect of our times I find pretty baffling personally)
My goals are to read every day, increase the percent of non fiction I read, and read a Hugo winner or nominee from each year in the 21st century
I agree with you on the "one page a day" goal. It has been a good motivator for me. I have a goal of 25 books but i feel that will happen if i read a little every day. My two projects this year are to finish a few of the stores i have going, and to "go down now rabbit holes." Last year i read a book about the American ice trade, and it mentioned Walden, and Thoreau's perspective. Now i want to read Walden. And then ill try to pick something based off that.
Reading projects don't do the trick for me. They feel a little like work, and I stick very loosely to them. The same applies to my reading lists; I usually stray from them, or abandon them altogether. Reading every day, which I do, is not enough. Three things make reading a wonderful experience all over again:
1) Dusting the books on the shelves every now and then. It's a slow, manual, down to earth activity, that reminds you of all the great books that await at an arm's length for you to read them. (or at least remember that you have them, and why you bought them instead of that lipstick.)
2) A visit to the local bookstore.
And last but not least..
3) Watching Life on Books videos.
‘Cutting for stone’ by Abraham Verghese he was born in Ethiopia and spent his primarily years in Ethiopia
For your reading projects 😊
My project for *this* year is to focus on those books that have been on my tbr list the longest, interspersed with books for my book club. My life long goal is to read through the last 20 years of Pulitzer Prize Winners. In the three non-fiction categories. Obviously that's a rolling goal and if I ever get caught up I'll figure something else out. 😁
Hi Tony if I remember correctly you mentioned having adhd a few times in previous videos, I would love to see a video about how you manage to read with adhd and any tips you have, that would be really helpful.
@@Tatosaurus if you haven't yet, check this video out
ua-cam.com/video/ZE_SgTYiu9Y/v-deo.htmlsi=5nTwegOA9qN4xbk1
I have a long-term US history reading project. This year I'm doing the Seven Years' War and starting the Revolution. Someday I'd like to do other reading projects as well.
Great ideas. Last two years I started going by page count. Granted not all pages are the same, it seems more consistent than number of books. I have just started experimenting with time
They say that great minds think alike. I have to say that this year I decided to use all the tips you gave us before watching the video. I decided this year to start by reading all the works of Edgar Allen Poe. The book has 1000+ pages. I decided to read 50 pgs a day but I end up reading 75 or sometimes 100. What I do want to start doing is putting a timer. I want to learn how to read faster and it's not because I want to "bump up" my total of books by the end of the year but because "Too many books, too little time". Thanks for the video and taking your time to share your knowledge with us.
I’m doing the 12 pages a day of a classic (I have collected a few…) as recommended by Tristan and the Classics. It’s going very well!
Just to be clear, that’s not all that I read in a day.
I would do it by minutes per day since pages have different word counts depending on the book.
I love this. New subscriber here! I agree with all you said. I do have a # of pages and #of hours in audiobooks goal I am working on now vs # of books. I read single issues of comics to 1600 page books. They shouldn't be counted as the same. For instance at the end of 2024 I read 5 books that came to almost 6000 pages. I missed my book count goal because of these. That didn't make sense to me. I am also currently reading through the catalogs of Agatha Christie, Jeff Vandermeer and Ann Patchett. I also do things like making sure I read a comic a month so I don't skip comics for novels. I am currently reading FDR's biography and I kind of want to go through all the presidents now.
This was the first video of yours I watched and I see you read different books than I usually do (I tend of Scifi/Fantasy, contemporary lit and Memoirs/Biographies) so following you to expand my horizons. I added The Last Samurai and The End of August to my list.
I actually lowered my reading goal from last year because I don't remember much about 80% of the books I read last year. My actual goals are to 1. read what I own 2. vary the genre, but this should prevent me from getting lost into series that all run together and give me nothing to talk about.
Loved this “reading project” tip! I will surely try it. Thanks!
If I’m going to reading a >300 pages usually do is count the number of pages then divide it according to the number days I intend to finish it. Reading project is really great, heard from one of UA-camr who reads philosophical novels a year ago. I started this last year by author also the novels from around the world which I originally saw in your IG, I started also but will go by Alphabet so now I’m on Armenia. Making the reading journey more memorable and purposeful. Great content 👍
I love the idea of reading a theme or an author, I have many non fiction spy books on my shelf. I also like to pair a non fiction and fiction that relate.
Love the idea behind 1 page/day, but personally this year I'm experimenting with weekly reading goals. And I also don't have a total number of books or pages I aim to read. Instead, I aim to read for at least 6 hours a week, including a classic and a history book
+ reading in my 3rd language. Sometimes I don't achieve that goal, but it's rare. This kind of goal-setting works for me for 2 reasons:
1. I like weekly goals compared to daily/monthly/yearly goals because they feel most manageable. One day I might be too tired, or feeling unwell (it happens a lot for me), and I don't want to push myself to read on those days, not even a page. On the other hand, having monthly or yearly goals is just a bit too much for me, almost abstract, also A LOT can change in a year.
2. I prefer to aim for a specific number of hours spent reading rather than a number of pages, simply because books vary greatly in their difficulty, and even formatting. It also helped with my obsession with numbers.
hope this helps someone :)
Oh and also I have a list of about 80 books in 8 different categories, basically, I chose the books from my TBR I'm most excited about to pick from throughout the year, and having categories creates some structure to my reading.
The project I am gonna be finishing this year is a five year long project of reading the four great Chinese Classics in their unabridged form. Of the four I only have A Dream of Red Mansions/Story of the Stone.
I never set a reading goal. In 2024, I read at least 33 books, including those novels I proofread for a publisher. It's the first time I actually had a tally for a full year.
I set a goal of specific books I want to read throughout the year. I have about 5-10 chosen.
Oh also I hold myself to read about 2-3 hours per day
Not sure if you're taking suggestions for the gaps in your spreadsheet but if so: Egypt Classic: Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi. Poland Classic: The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki. New Zealand Classic: The Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield. New Zealand Fiction: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. Netherlands Fiction: We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets. Pakistan Fiction: The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. Czech Republic Classic: The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek. Spain Classic: Don Quixote.
I've found a daily page count or time slot makes it too much of a chore and an yearly goal is obviously sooo ambitious and atleast for me thinking a little too far in the future. I think a monthly target broken up into smaller weekly targets works best in my case. Say, if I know the 3 books I'll read this month, I can break it up into the days I'll devote to them. Obviously I'm a big fan of reading multiple books at the same time so it's not clear cut but makes it an achievable goal.
Thanks for the books from all the countries list.
This is actually how I been reading 😂. 2023 I started have a daily page limit. 2024 I read an hour a day. At the end of 24 I started reading projects. I’m reading Stephen king and Cormac McCarthy in publication order. I also have a list of civil rights activist to read.
I like the topic focus, I do it myself and call the selected books a book family or book siblings 😊 My current example, tuberculosis/mountain health resorts: Thomas Mann "The Magic Mountain", Olga Tokarczuk "The Empusium", John Green "Everything is Tuberculosis" (and maybe a new contemporary book from German author Norman Ohler, "Der Zauberberg, die ganze Geschichte" - "The Magic Mountain, the whole story" but I think it's not translated into English yet)... I have a whole list of other book families but would love to see suggestions from others!? ❤
Fantastic video!
Great advice! ❤
My goals are 1 page daily, and to stop denying myself books I already own.
Everytime you mention reading about the Vietnam war I want to recommend KoKo by Peter Straub and Bloods by Wallace Terry. Osu!
Recommendation on Vietnam: Tanks in the Wire - David Stockwell (Admittedly, a bit of a shameless plug, as much of it is about my uncle)
Bountiful Nuggets here. Much appreciated. ❤
I was checking the "Read the world" Excel and I noticed you don´t have any books for Honduras yet!!! Even though i´m not from that country, I recommend you and your viewers "Senslesness" (or "Insensatez", its original title), by Horacio Castellanos Moya (I read it in spanish, so I don´t know about the quality of the official translations, I just know they exist somewhere hahaha). Central american dictatorships, paranoia, an original way of representing a verborragical train of catastrophic thoughts... its my favourite book, but just anything from this author is a good fit for the Honduras section. Love your vids!!!
Awesome, thank you for the recommendation!
My goal for 2025 is to read more nonfiction and I want to eventually do the read around the world challenge
Any ereader recommendations?
Soooo wat if author born in Maine, raised in Tennessee writes book based in Texas? 🤔
My goal is 100,000 pages… but I am also trying to read all of the cosmere, realm of the elderlings, & the Malazan
Hmn, I think my goal will be to read slower. Try to really focus on the book I am in and try not to think about all the books I want to read after this one. #wishmeluck
Great video 🎉