The short answer
The real secret to how to read more books is time, not speed. Research shows most adults read about 238 to 260 words per minute, and speed-reading tricks that promise double or triple that cost you comprehension. So instead, protect a daily reading slot, always carry a book, quit books you dislike, and add audiobooks to time you already spend commuting or doing chores.
- Biggest lever: 20 to 30 minutes of reading every day, at the same time.
- Speed reading: mostly a myth beyond skimming; a 2016 scientific review found a clear trade-off between speed and understanding.
- Audiobooks: a 2016 study found no significant difference in comprehension between listening and reading.
- Free books: your library card plus the Libby app gets you e-books and audiobooks at no cost.
238 wpm
Average adult silent reading speed (non-fiction)
17 min
Daily time Americans spend reading for fun (2024)
75%
US adults who read at least part of a book in the past year
26%
US adults who listened to an audiobook
In this article
Most of us want to read more, yet the stack on the nightstand keeps growing. In fact, the average American aged 15 and older spent only about 17 minutes a day reading for personal interest in 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics American Time Use Survey, the federal survey that tracks how people spend their day. That number drops to just 8 minutes for adults aged 20 to 24.
This guide combines two questions people usually ask together: how to read more books, and how to read faster. We cover the habits that actually move the needle, what science says about speed reading, practical reading techniques for remembering what you read, and how audiobooks and e-readers fit in. As a result, you will know exactly where your extra reading time should come from.
How to Read More Books: Why Time Beats Speed
You read more books mainly by reading more minutes, because your reading speed is already close to its natural limit. Most people overestimate how much faster they could go, and they underestimate how much time a small daily habit adds up to.
For example, a 2019 meta-analysis by Ghent University psychologist Marc Brysbaert, published in the Journal of Memory and Language, pooled 190 studies with 18,573 participants. It estimated that adults silently read English at about 238 words per minute (wpm) for non-fiction and 260 wpm for fiction. Most adults fall between 175 and 300 wpm for non-fiction. In other words, the gap between a slow reader and a fast one is real, but it is nowhere near the “read 1,000 words a minute” promises you see in ads.
Meanwhile, time is wide open. Adding 20 minutes a day to the national average more than doubles it. So the rest of this guide puts habits first and speed second.
What is the fastest way to read more books?
The fastest way is to attach reading to something you already do every day. Read for ten minutes with your morning coffee, on your lunch break, or in bed instead of scrolling. Then add audiobooks to dead time like commuting, cooking, or walking the dog. These two moves alone usually beat any speed-reading course.
12 Habits That Help You Read More Every Day
The habits that work best remove friction: they make a book the easiest thing to reach for and make quitting a bad book guilt-free. Pick two or three from the list below rather than trying all twelve at once.
Habits that create reading time
- Set a daily minimum. Ten pages or 15 minutes is small enough to do on bad days, and that consistency matters more than the number.
- Anchor reading to a routine. For instance, read right after breakfast or right before lights out, so you never have to decide when.
- Always carry a book. Keep a paperback in your bag or an e-book app on your phone for waiting rooms, lines, and train rides.
- Swap one scroll session. Replace one social media break a day with a chapter. Also, putting the phone in another room while you read helps more than willpower.
Habits that keep you reading
- Quit books you are not enjoying. Give a book 50 pages; if it still drags, move on. Pushing through a dull book often stalls your reading for weeks.
- Read what you actually like. Thrillers, romance, comics, and graphic novels all count. Enjoyment is the engine of a reading habit.
- Read two books at once. Pair a heavy non-fiction book with a lighter novel, so you always have something that fits your mood.
- Mix in shorter books. Novellas and short story collections give you quick wins and keep momentum up.
Habits that make reading social and visible
- Keep a reading list. A notebook, Goodreads, or StoryGraph log turns progress into something you can see.
- Line up your next book. Before you finish one book, pick the next, so there is no gap.
- Join or start a book club. Only 7% of US adults were in one in the past year, per Pew Research Center, but a deadline and a group chat are powerful motivators.
- Use your library. Holds lists, new-arrival shelves, and free digital loans keep a steady stream of books coming without spending money.
How do you read more instead of scrolling?
Make the phone harder to reach and the book easier. Charge your phone outside the bedroom, keep a book on your pillow, and put a reading app where your most-used social app used to sit on the home screen. Then, when you feel the urge to scroll, open the book instead for just one page. Usually, one page turns into ten.
Pro tip. If you struggle to focus, try reading in short sprints with a timer. Set it for 15 minutes, read until it rings, and then decide whether to keep going. Starting is the hard part; continuing is easy.
Does Speed Reading Work?
Speed reading works only if you accept understanding less. Scientists who reviewed decades of research found a clear trade-off: the less time you spend on a text, the less of it you understand.
Speed reading, meaning methods or apps that claim to multiply your words-per-minute while keeping comprehension, has been sold for decades. However, a 2016 review in Psychological Science in the Public Interest by Keith Rayner, Elizabeth Schotter, Michael Masson, Mary Potter, and Rebecca Treiman examined the evidence. According to the Association for Psychological Science summary, the authors concluded that speed-reading promises are “too good to be true.”
| Speed-reading claim | What the research says |
|---|---|
| You can double or triple your speed with full comprehension | Unlikely; reading faster means understanding less |
| Eye movements waste most of your reading time | Eye movements take no more than about 10% of reading time |
| Apps that flash one word at a time (RSVP) make you faster | They usually hurt comprehension because you cannot go back and reread |
| Speed readers understand unfamiliar material at high speed | People who seem to speed read well usually already know the topic |
| Skimming is cheating | Skimming is fine when you only need the gist |
Brysbaert’s 2019 paper adds that Rayner’s team explained why reading at more than 1,000 wpm is impossible without severe loss of understanding. Each time your eyes stop on a word, they can take in only a small amount of text, and moving them takes time. Therefore, the limit is your brain’s language processing, not your eyes.
Watch out. Be skeptical of paid speed-reading courses or apps that promise 1,000 or more words per minute with full comprehension. That claim conflicts with the scientific evidence, so test any product on unfamiliar material before you pay for more.
How Can You Read Faster Without Losing Comprehension?
The reliable way to read faster is to read more, because practice and a bigger vocabulary are what make skilled readers quick. The APS summary notes that practicing reading for comprehension is the one method that consistently improves reading ability.
That sounds circular, yet it is good news: every habit in the previous section also makes you faster over time. In addition, a few practical moves help you finish books sooner without fooling yourself about what you understood.
How to read faster and still understand
- Match speed to purpose. Read a beach thriller quickly and a dense history book slowly. Both are normal.
- Preview non-fiction. First scan the table of contents, headings, and chapter summaries, so you know where the argument is going.
- Skim the right parts. In non-fiction, skim examples you already understand and slow down for new ideas.
- Cut distractions. Rereading the same paragraph because your mind wandered is the biggest hidden time cost.
- Build vocabulary. Look up words that keep showing up; familiar words are read faster.
- Use a pointer if it helps you focus. A finger or bookmark under the line can keep a wandering mind on track, although it will not lift you past your natural speed.
Should you stop subvocalizing?
Subvocalization is the quiet inner voice that “says” words as you read. Many speed-reading programs tell you to suppress it. However, Brysbaert found that normal reading rates line up with the maximum speed at which people can understand listening, which suggests reading relies on the same language system as speech. So trying to silence your inner voice is unlikely to unlock a dramatic speed boost.
Reading Techniques That Help You Remember More
The best reading techniques make you do something with the text, such as asking questions or summarizing, instead of only highlighting it. Reading more books matters little if you forget them a week later, so these methods help most with non-fiction, study, and work reading.
| Technique | How to do it | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Preview first | Scan headings, bold text, and the conclusion before reading closely | Textbooks, business books |
| Turn headings into questions | Rewrite each heading as a question, then read to answer it | Study and exam prep |
| Chunk long passages | Break a long section into short points in your own words | Dense non-fiction |
| Summarize after each chapter | Write two or three sentences from memory before moving on | Anything you want to remember |
| Selective notes | Note only ideas that are new or surprising to you | Self-help and ideas books |
| Teach it back | Explain the main idea out loud or to a friend | Complex topics |
Highlighting feels productive, but on its own it is passive. Instead, pair it with a quick summary or a question in the margin. That way, the highlight becomes a cue for something you actually thought about.
How to read more books and retain them
Keep a one-page note for each book you finish: the main idea, three takeaways, and one thing you will try. Then reread your notes a month later. This short review helps a book stick far longer than racing straight to the next title.
Do Audiobooks and E-Readers Count?
Yes. Audiobooks and e-books both count as reading for most purposes, and they are the easiest way to add books without finding new free time.
Americans already use them widely. In a survey of 8,046 US adults conducted in October 2025, Pew Research Center found that 64% had read a print book in the past year, 31% an e-book, and 26% had listened to an audiobook.
Are audiobooks as good as reading?
For comprehension, the evidence is encouraging. A 2016 study in SAGE Open by Beth Rogowsky, Barbara Calhoun, and Paula Tallal assigned 91 adults to listen to an audiobook, read an e-text, or do both. The researchers found no statistically significant differences in comprehension, either immediately or two weeks later. That said, it was one small study using a single non-fiction excerpt, so treat it as reassuring rather than final.
In practice, audiobooks shine for narrative books, memoirs, and anything you would read for pleasure. Meanwhile, print or e-books are usually easier for dense material you want to annotate or reread.
Get free e-books and audiobooks with Libby
Libby is a free app from OverDrive that lets you borrow e-books, audiobooks, and magazines from your public library with a library card. According to OverDrive, it works on iPhone, iPad, Android, and Fire tablets and in a web browser. You can also download titles for offline use, speed up audiobooks to as much as 3x, and, with US libraries, send e-books to a Kindle.
| Format | Best moments to use it | Main advantage | Main drawback |
|---|---|---|---|
| Print book | Evenings, weekends, reading breaks | Easy to focus, annotate, and flip back | Bulky to carry |
| E-reader | Travel, bed, commutes | Holds many books; adjustable text size | Upfront device cost |
| Phone e-book app | Lines, waiting rooms, short breaks | Always with you | Notifications compete for attention |
| Audiobook | Driving, chores, workouts, walks | Uses time you cannot otherwise read in | Harder to reread or take notes |
Is an e-reader worth it?
An e-reader is a dedicated device with a paper-like screen built for reading books. If you read on your phone and keep getting pulled into apps, a separate device removes that temptation. In addition, it lets you carry an entire library on a trip. Popular options include the Kindle Paperwhite, the basic Amazon Kindle, and Kobo e-readers, which also integrate with library borrowing. For audiobooks, a comfortable pair of wireless earbuds makes listening on walks and commutes easy. And if you prefer print in bed, a clip-on book light helps.
How Many Books a Year Can You Realistically Read?
Most people can read 20 or more books a year with about 20 to 30 minutes of reading a day. The exact number depends on book length and your speed, so the math below uses Brysbaert’s average rates as a guide.
For context, Pew found that 25% of US adults read no books in the past year, 38% read one to five, 13% read six to 10, 10% read 11 to 20, and 14% read more than 20. So reaching 20 books a year would put you in roughly the top quarter of American readers.
| Daily reading time | Words per year at 250 wpm | Books per year (if each is 80,000 words) |
|---|---|---|
| 10 minutes | About 912,500 | About 11 |
| 20 minutes | About 1,825,000 | About 23 |
| 30 minutes | About 2,737,500 | About 34 |
| 60 minutes | About 5,475,000 | About 68 |
How to read more books in a year
Set a yearly goal you can hit with your daily minimum, then track it. For example, a goal of 24 books is two a month, or roughly one every two weeks. If you fall behind, add a few short books or audiobooks rather than abandoning the goal. Also, count every book you finish, including comics, audiobooks, and rereads.
Need ideas for what to read next? Our list of the best self-help books and our guide to the best autobiographies and memoirs are good places to start. And if you track your goal digitally, our roundup of the best productivity apps covers habit trackers too.
Our verdict
If you want to know how to read more books, focus on minutes, not words per minute. Speed-reading promises do not hold up to the research, but a protected daily reading slot, a book always within reach, the freedom to quit dull books, and audiobooks during chores and commutes reliably add up to dozens of books a year.
Start tonight with 15 minutes and your phone in another room. After two weeks, add audiobooks to your commute. Finally, get a library card and the Libby app so the next book is always free and one tap away.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I read more books a year?
Read every day for a set time, such as 20 to 30 minutes, and tie it to a routine like breakfast or bedtime. Carry a book everywhere, quit books you dislike, and add audiobooks to commutes and chores. At about 250 words per minute, 20 minutes a day adds up to roughly 23 average-length books a year.
Does speed reading really work?
Not in the way it is usually sold. A 2016 review by Rayner and colleagues in Psychological Science in the Public Interest found a trade-off between speed and comprehension. You can skim faster for the gist, but doubling or tripling your speed while understanding everything is unlikely. Practice and a larger vocabulary are the reliable ways to improve.
What is the average reading speed for adults?
A 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies by Marc Brysbaert found that adults silently read English at about 238 words per minute for non-fiction and 260 words per minute for fiction. Most adults fall between 175 and 300 words per minute for non-fiction. Reading aloud is slower, at about 183 words per minute.
Do audiobooks count as reading?
Yes, for most purposes. A 2016 study in SAGE Open found no significant difference in comprehension between people who listened to an audiobook, read an e-text, or did both. Audiobooks work best for fiction and memoirs, while print or e-books are easier for dense material you want to annotate. Count them toward your reading goal.
How do I read faster without losing comprehension?
Read more often, build your vocabulary, and match your speed to the book. Preview headings and summaries in non-fiction, skim parts you already know, and remove distractions so you do not reread paragraphs. Avoid apps that flash one word at a time, because research shows they usually hurt comprehension by stopping you from rereading.
How do I read more instead of scrolling on my phone?
Make the book easier to reach than the phone. Charge your phone outside the bedroom, keep a book on your pillow or in your bag, and put a reading app where your favorite social app used to be. When the urge to scroll hits, commit to reading just one page; it often turns into a full chapter.
