Want to read more books? Think it’s impossible to read 52 books in a year?
SPOILER ALERT: It’s not!
In this post, I’ll break down the numbers to show you how you can easily read 52 books in a year.
My reading goal for this year was actually 24 books (2 per month), but with some good habits and discipline, I am on track to read 52 books this year. And, no, I don’t read all the time. I promise! I have a full time job, three kids, a blog, and a social media addiction. I read a little bit every day, and I’m consistently finishing 4-5 books every month.
Let’s break it down…
According to The Guardian, the average length of a book increased from 320 pages in 1999 to 400 pages in 2014.
So, technically an average book is more than 300 pages, but most of the books I read are between 250 to 350, so I’m going to go with an average page count of 300. If you tend to read longer books, you can use my formulas here and personalize your calculation.
Using an average page count of 300, take that times 52 to get the total number of pages you would need to read in order to complete 52 books in the year. That comes out to 15,600.
According to ExecuRead, the average reading speed is 200 to 250 words a minute which is roughly 2 minutes per page.
Now, if we take the total number of pages for the year (15,600) and multiply that by 2, that gives us the number of minutes you’ll need to read in the year in order to complete 52 books (with the average page count of 300). That comes out to 31,200 minutes of reading in the year.
Now take the total number of minutes you need to read (31,200) and divide that by the total number of days in the year (365). That comes out to 85 minutes of reading per day. Remember this is an average, so you may have some days where you only read for 30 minutes and others when you can read for a couple of hours.
If that sounds like a lot of reading to you, stay with me…
According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours/week)!!!
If you don’t think you do this, I challenge you to keep a log for a couple of weeks. Write down every time you watch TV and for how long. Unless you don’t even own a TV or literally never turn yours own, I’m guessing you watch more than you think.
According to Statista, in 2019 and 2020, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 145 minutes per day.
Again, if you don’t believe this to be true of you, I challenge you to log it. And/or check your screentime reports. You probably waste spend more time on social media than you realize.
And don’t get me wrong…I love social media. I probably just don’t need to spend as much time on it as I do.
So, what if you gave up an hour of TV and 30 minutes of social media per day? Or, what if you gave up TV completely or cut out social media on the weekends?
There are lots of ways you can adjust how you’re spending your time because, ultimately, that’s what it comes down to: How we choose to spend our time.
Here are my reading habits:
- I read 10 pages of a non-fiction book every day. (Sometimes more if I can finish up a section or chapter)
- I read one chapter of a fiction book every night before bed. The page count per chapter depends on the book I’m reading. Usually it’s anywhere from 10-25 pages.
- I listen to audiobooks when I’m driving or walking alone and when I fold laundry.
- When my husband isn’t home at night (which is rare), I read instead of watching TV.
- When I have free time on the weekends (also rare), I spend some extra time reading.
With these habits, I will hit 52+ books this year! And, as you can see, that doesn’t require me to read all the time. I’ve just developed some really great habits and have stuck to them.
How about you? Tell me about your reading goals/habits in the comments below.