I have a confession to make: I’m a slow reader. 😦

But in contrast, I’m a fast writer. 🙂

Information and news and technical stuff, I can read fast, but fiction… for some reason I take a lot longer. Maybe I just want to savour what’s happening with the characters and take my time to really feel the setting, or maybe it’s that when I read fiction my mind starts getting ideas for my own books (*note to aspiring writers – once you start writing, you will NEVER read books the same way again!).

There are SO MANY GREAT BOOKS out there right now that I want to read, and I get frustrated when I can’t get through them all. However, five months into 2014 and I have been reading more than usual and making more time for reading. It’s not just about the speed you read when you’re actually reading, but taking opportunities throughout the day to get a few pages in to increase your total reading time and get through more of those wonderful stories.

Here are some of the tips I’ve found helpful to make more time to read (some of these work best when reading ebooks, as digital books can be on your smartphone ready to whip out when needed):

1. Waiting in a supermarket or post office queue
2. Waiting for an appointment in a waiting room
3. Waiting for large documents to download or screens to load on the computer
4. While on hold with phone companies, etc
5. Waiting in the car to pick up spouse or children from classes or trains, etc
6. While eating breakfast, lunch, or on a coffee break
7. First 5 minutes or so after waking in the morning
8. At night before bed (the obvious one, this is when most people read)
9. During commercial breaks on TV. The average one hour show has 10-15 minutes of ads! Watching TV for two hours you can get half an hour of reading done
10. While stirring/cooking dinner (watch those sticky fingers and don’t drop your eReader or phone into the pot!)
11. After exercise: if you go for a walk, why not stop half way or towards the end and read for 5 minutes in the great outdoors. Or if working out at home, take a few minutes to lie down afterwards and read while your body recovers (just remember to get back up!)
12. Try an audio book to listen to while driving, doing housework, cooking, or exercising
13. Have an allocated ‘nothing but reading’ day once a month, or whenever you can

I also recently heard about an app that increases how many words you read per minute. It’s called Spritz. I tried it. It works! But would this work for fiction or would it take away from the overall relaxing experience? Hmmm…

What about you, do you read as often as you would like?

Have you got any more tips to increase your reading time?

~ Juliet