easy

go on the reading quest of quests

You want to read more, but you don’t want to put in a ton of extra effort. I get it. New releases are coming out all the time in the speculative fiction genre. This method is for you, and it’s probably the easiest one here.

So what you’re going to need to do first is find something to wear that’s blue. It doesn’t matter the specific shade. Teal is…fine, but I would highly suggest something that could definitively be described as blue. If absolutely necessary, writing “BLUE” on an article of clothing will work. Next, you’ll need to find yourself a field or somewhere with a tree. Secluded woods work best but only to make it less awkward. But hey, if you don’t mind people watching, cool. Really you just need to find some grass. The tree is just so you can stand away from prying eyes. Unable to go outside for whatever reason? No problem. Write on a piece of paper “GRASS” or draw some grass if you’d like, and put the paper on the floor. Be in the same room as that piece of paper. Anyway, be on a spot of grass, close your eyes, and clench a fist. Then say or sign, “I want to read more” 3 times with gumption. (Any language will do.) When you open your eyes, you’ll be in Woods of Long Ago in a cabin. A witch will be brewing up some tea. They will also offer another drink if you’d prefer, but you must accept some sort of drink from them. You don’t have to drink it if you aren’t thirsty.

After acknowledging the gift, the witch will send you on a quest to retrieve the silver-edged leaf from the tree of broken moss. They will not tell you where this tree is, only that it’s somewhere in these very Woods. How you get there is up to you. Once you’ve brought the witch back the leaf, they will tell you to find the Fur of Forgotten Fluff. It sounds weird, but really it’s just their pet that went missing. I don’t actually know what type of pet it is, but it’s nothing from this world. It is, again, in the Woods. Once you bring it back, they will ask for the drink back as well because the dishes will be needing done. When they have the leaf, pet, and dish, they will turn their back on you. Close your eyes at this moment and say or sign, “I can read more” 3 times with gumption.

You’ll be transported back to the spot you were in before with the ability to read more. Congratulations! There’s really nothing more to it.

medium

schedule time

Do you have any time before or after work/school? Set a timer for a specified amount. Can’t read until your weekend? Set a reminder for yourself to read for however long you think you can spare.

set a goal

Set a goal for each time you read. I specify “each time you read” because it might not be realistic for you to read every day, for example. Maybe you can’t reliably read for a certain amount of time each session. Different books might also require different goals. A goal could be reading at least one chapter each session. Or reading until you finish your drink. Or reading a certain number of pages even. The point is to just keep it manageable for yourself, whatever that means.

decide what sort of quantity you’re looking for

You want to read more. Awesome. But more what? Books? Pages? A certain genre? More of a certain author? Ultimately, this is just to help keep a clear goal in mind. For example, if you want to read more books in general, consider picking up shorter books.

hard

dnf

Don’t like a book and don’t think it’ll get better for you? Drop it. Not Everything is for everybody. Your goal is to read more; that doesn’t mean you should have to suffer.

change your mindset

Audiobooks count. Comic books and graphic novels count. That time you only read the backs of cereal boxes count. Fanfics and webcomics count. Have you not not read a single book in a year or more? Who cares? Did you read any tweets, instagram descriptions, or text messages? Congratulations, you’re a nonfiction reader. (Or fiction depending on what it was.) I’m sure that there must be something like flash fiction in tweets, where a single tweet contains a whole story. Like those 6 word stories that used to be popular. I know this probably isn’t what you were hoping for, but changing your mindset about what “counts” as reading can actually be helpful.

Anyway, I’m bored now. This list is not definitive.