How I read more without trying harder

I did not find more time. I just removed a few obstacles between me and the next page.

For years I told myself I was too busy to read. Then I counted the minutes I spent scrolling in a single day and stopped telling myself that.

Three small changes

• A book lives on the pillow, not on the shelf.
• I allow myself to quit any book after fifty pages.
• I read a little every morning before the phone.

The first change makes reading the default at night. The second removes the guilt that kept me stuck in books I did not enjoy. The third gives the day a calmer beginning.

Reading became something I return to, not something I schedule.

Permission to quit

The fifty-page rule deserves its own paragraph, because it changed more than the other two combined. I used to finish every book out of a vague sense of duty, which meant a single dull novel could stall my reading for a month.

Now, if a book has not earned my attention by page fifty, I put it down without guilt. Sometimes I come back to it years later and love it, because I am finally the right reader. Sometimes I never do. Either way, the next book gets its chance sooner.

Reading is not a test you pass by finishing. It is a conversation, and you are allowed to leave a conversation that is not going anywhere.

I read twenty-three books this year. I did not try harder. I just made it easier.