How to read more books

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Here is the video:

Hello, my name is Emmeline Tyler, I'm an avid reader, and I want you to be one too.

Today's video is all about how to read more books in 2024 [or any year]. I have five tips for you. But first, I need to give you a little caveat:

Even though I've called this video how to read more books, this is really about how to make reading more of a part of your life, how to spend more time reading, that sort of thing. It's not about book count, because we can all get bogged down in book count, I know I do, it's almost the end of the year and I've only read like about 41 books, last year I read 64 so I've been down on myself, like comparing myself to past me which is not helpful.

All that matters is that we're reading, not about like, racking up a book count because that's a very capitalist kind of mentality.

So, tip number one is Find Your Why.

So many people I talk to say "Oh, I should read more." Really? Should you? Cause you're not in school. No-one's making you do this. So why are you putting this should on yourself? Instead of saying "I should read more", find out WHY you wanna read more.

Is it because you used to find it relaxing when you were younger?

Is it because you wanna read more non-fiction so you can learn more?

Is it because you see there's so many good books out there, but you just can't find the time to read them?

Whatever your 'why' is, find it, and use it to guide you,

to be motivated, and maybe use the other tips, to read more.

Tip number two is, (it's my second tip, but it's probably my number one tip) is, DNF with wild abandonment.

Wild abandonment? Wild abandon... anyway.

Um, if you don't know, DNF means Do Not Finish. So, it's when you abandon a book. And I DNF so many books. At one point I looked at how many books I'd borrowed from the library, over like an eight-month period, and how many I'd actually completed, and the number that I'd actually completed was about 16%, so I borrow a lot of books from the library, sometimes I return them without opening them because... I just borrow [laughs] too many, and I don't have time, but a lot of them, I open them, I read twenty pages, it's not for me... I just return it. And that goes the same even if you paid for it.

People can be really weird about this. Like someone said to me, "I feel bad for the author" and I think a lot of people feel like that but you're not hurting them by not finishing their book! Unless you're posting like mean reviews online [and tagging the author] or... like, tracking down their mailing address so you can verbally abuse them for writing a book you didn't like, you're not harming them! It's really not a problem and... you only have a limited amount of time in your life that you can spend reading books, so wouldn't you rather spend that time reading books you enjoy than dragging yourself through books because actually in the end, that's going to make you feel more negatively towards the author, if you do that.

Number three! Get tailored recommendations.

Talk to your friends who read a lot of books and ask them for recommendations, because your friends are gonna know what you're into, and as you read books that they've recommended you and give feedback on them, they're gonna get, it's like, it's like your own human algorithm [laughs] they're gonna give you even more tailored recommendations.

Tip number four: embrace your format.

I am not interested in having a debate about whether audiobooks counts as reading. It 100% does. So if audiobooks is the way that you can read more books, totally embrace that, and feel proud about it. If you like reading ebooks, because... like it's on your phone and you've already got your phone with you, you find physical books cumbersome, or you don't like holding them while you're lying in bed, read ebooks.

Someone told me that they prefer reading on the iPad to reading physical books, because they can't tell how far they are from the end, and so they don't have to be anxious about it. It doesn't matter, whatever your quirk is, embrace your format, commit to it, and you'll read more books that way.

And my last tip, tip number five:

Start a library habit.

I realise not everyone has equal access to libraries, especially if you're in the US, sounds like a real drought out there. But here where I am in Australia, I'm in a very, like metropolitan area, there's lots of libraries, I've also [laughs] lived in an extremely remote fishing village, and there was a library there.

So libraries are a way to get free books, so there's no financial commitment, your membership is free, you can often get ebooks and audiobooks from the library, and here is your number one library tip, I dunno if this is for all libraries, but, for my library at least and a lot of libraries, you can request them to purchase books. So if there's a book that you really wanna read, you can't afford to buy it or maybe you just don't wanna spend the money, you can ask your library to buy that book, and if they can, they'll get [laughs] it in for you, like also if it passes their... qualifications (I don't know what they might be) they can get it in for you, and then they'll put a hold on it in your name, and you can read it.

So that will just change your life.

My library at the moment has no limits on the amount of books that you can purchase [request], the last library I was a member of, like last main library, you were only allowed to make one purchase request a fortnight. But um, your milage may vary!

Thanks so much for listening! And... sorry I haven't featured any specific books in today's video but I'm also filming with a backdrop that might [laughs] give you some inspiration.

Ahh... let me know how you go. Bye!

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