Do you wish you could read more books a year but your lifestyle and habits prevent you from doing so?
Would you like to be able to say that you are able to read more than two books a month?
If so, and you're looking for the secret method to become a true novel reader, you're in the right place. Because throughout this article we will give you ten key tips to help you achieve your goal.
In short, how to read one book a week?
In order to read one book a week, you have to establish a series of daily habits that will help you to increase reading speed and comprehension. It's recommended to read at least 30 pages a day, stop the inner monologue and take books wherever you go.
Those who are able to read and understand books or articles more quickly will always be at an advantage over others, because time is money and when it comes to reading and acquiring knowledge, those who are able to do it in half the time will be twice as enriched as those who read at a slower pace.
Books are the greatest source of wisdom we have, so it is worth learning new ways to enrich ourselves with it.
For all these reasons, we are going to explain the ten best ways to learn to read faster so that you can read a book in a week without any complications.
Let's get started!
10 ways to read faster to read a book a week
1. Read 30 pages a day
This is one of the most common tricks that any lover of reading can give you: whatever you do, try to read thirty pages of the book you are reading by the end of the day.
And why 30 pages, you may ask...
Quite simply, because 30 pages is an intermediate term with which most people, whether they are very good readers or not, feel comfortable and do not see it as an unattainable or too intimidating goal.
It is important to note that in most nursery schools today, teachers ask their students (who are no more than 10 years old) to read an average of 15 to 20 pages of a book each day to improve their reading speed and comprehension.
If this method is so effective for children who are learning to develop their cognitive abilities and who barely know how to express themselves in their mother tongue, it should also be effective for adults who have been reading all kinds of texts for half their lives.
Therefore, try reading 30 pages of your book every day and little by little you will increase your speed and you will be able to read a whole book in just 7 days. It is a foolproof method!
2. Stop the inner monologue
Maybe you don't understand what I mean when I talk about silencing your "inner monologue", and it is normal because it is a term that is only used among teaching professionals and pedagogues who work with children who are learning to read little by little.
This term refers to the practice that children have of reading the words in their head while reading, something like: "Hearing our voice reading each word as if we were reading them aloud but without pronouncing a single syllable".
This is a very good method for children to learn to internalize reading without the need to read everything aloud, but it has the disadvantage that it slows down our reading because people read at the same pace we speak, and that will always be a limitation if what we want is to read more and faster.
Therefore, we will have to learn to silence that deep-rooted inner voice that we have since childhood when we read, overcome it and read at the speed that our reading comprehension allows us. You will notice progress quickly!
3. Make reading a habit
One of the main mistakes we make when it comes to reading more is waiting for the "urge to read" instead of establishing reading as a daily habit.
Instead of waiting for inspiration to come to us, the best thing to do is to establish a daily reading routine, such as reading for an hour every day before going to bed or after eating.
This way, we will gradually increase our reading speed and the number of pages per day we read of each book.
4. Take your books with you wherever you go
Are you a globetrotter and spend half the day away from home?
Don't worry because that doesn't have to be a problem to meet your reading goal: put your books in your backpack and take them with you wherever you go every day.
How many of us have seen people reading on the train, on the bus or even on the park bench while having a snack? Surely all of us, and if we ourselves get used to carry our books everywhere and read for a few minutes when we have free time we can also achieve our goal.
Don't wait until you get home to read, read wherever you go!
5. Combine different readings
Are you one of those who still believe that books should be read from beginning to end and without interruptions?
Then let me tell you that reading more than one book simultaneously is also a good way to speed up your reading and improve your weekly performance.
Why?
Well, because by combining different readings and varying the subject matter and difficulty our brain is not so overloaded and feels fresher to tackle the next reading.
For example, if in the morning we read a history book with a fairly complex vocabulary and in the afternoon we opt for a fresh and fun romance novel, our brain will appreciate this change of register and will read more willingly and quickly.
6. Reading in your sleep is not reading
Many people wait until the last moment of the day to read a few pages of a book, which always has the same problem: we read tired and we get sleepy, so we are not really attentive to the reading and we have not understood much of its content.
Consequently, I would recommend that you try to read as early as possible, if you can't in the morning in the early afternoon, but never when you are getting ready to go to sleep.
This does not mean that you cannot read at night, as many people like it, but that if you are going to do it, it should be at a time when you notice that your mind is still active and not heavy and drowsy. Because when you are sleepy you don't read, you just get ready to close your eyes!
7. Listen to an audiobook
Do you like to go jogging or are you always listening to music while moving from one place to another?
Then I have good news for you, because nowadays there is a wide range of top-quality electronic audiobooks that will help you read effortlessly wherever you are.
And regardless of what some purists may believe, listening to a book is also another way of reading because we will also be practicing our reading comprehension, with the advantage of not having to use our sight to do so, hold the book in our hands, or need any external light source to see the text correctly. All are advantages!
8. Only read books you like
It has happened to all of us at some point that we try to read a book that everyone recommends us but that does not really catch our attention, procrastinating the reading and making all the reading time that we dedicate to it forced and slow.
And the fact is that each person has their own tastes and even if a book has very good reviews and is a super bestseller, if it doesn't get us hooked at first it will never do it.
Therefore, my advice is that to meet your goal of reading a book a week only choose books that you like.
Are you passionate about romance and adventure novels? Then make a long list of books in that genre and devour them! Reading what we are passionate about is the best way to motivate us to read more and faster, don't forget it!
9. Combine physical and digital books
Sometimes reading books in physical format becomes too heavy, since we will always need some space to carry them and natural light to read them, so try to combine physical books with reading some in digital format through ebooks like Kindle will help us to streamline the process.
Electronic books can be taken anywhere, so you can read more than one reading without the need to carry all those books on top, something that is appreciated when we want to read away from home.
10. Explain your plans to others
Sometimes the best way to be consistent is to be reminded by others, because it is easier to disappoint ourselves than others.
Therefore, I recommend that you explain your plans to read a book a week to your family and closest friends, so they will become your best motivation whenever you feel tired or discouraged to continue with your goal.
Conclusion
In conclusion, reading faster and better is not so complicated as long as we know how to do it. I hope that after all these useful tips that I have just explained, the answer to the question I asked you at the beginning of the article about how to read one book a week is much clearer and that the goal of reading more books a year is no longer an unattainable goal for you.
Put into practice everything you have learned in this post and you will achieve it!
