new study<\/a> revealed that only 16 percent of Americans are reading for pleasure, which represents a 40 percent drop from peak rates just over a decade ago. (Terrifyingly, people are reading to their children less and less, too.) But in my corner of the internet, books don\u2019t appear to have lost their status. Celebrities pose with them on boats and beaches and select them for their clubs and Bookstagrammers post towering stacks of their latest \u201chauls.\u201d And though I surround myself with readers, it can easily feel harder and harder to make the time to spend with a book \u2014 and easier to buckle and give into distractions.<\/p>\nSo I asked an assortment of well-read people \u2014 critics, authors, Substackers \u2014 to tell me how, exactly, they find the time for books. In doing so, they described their daily routines, their home-furniture setups, and their children\u2019s extracurriculars. One thing that came up over and over: the relentless, almost inescapable attention-zapping evil of the phone. If technology is waging a war on our attention spans, these soldiers are well-prepared for the fight.<\/p>\n
I treat my phone like poison. I leave the house as much as possible without it. After I had a kid, people were like, \u201cWhat if there\u2019s an emergency?\u201d Every fucking person on Earth has a phone. I\u2019ll ask the person sitting eight inches away.<\/p>\n
Once you are released from the grip of your phone, you have like eight extra hours in the day and reading becomes way easier. It feels like a treat and not like something that you have to strive to do. I always have a book in my bag so that during all those interstitial waiting periods \u2014 e.g., in line at checkout \u2014 I\u2019m reading a paragraph instead of doing nothing. I only read paper books. I don\u2019t listen to audiobooks just because I can\u2019t have things in my ears all the time because then I don\u2019t have an internal monologue, which is really scary.<\/p>\n
I keep a list of books that I read every year, probably between 60 and 130. Which doesn\u2019t feel like that many, but I\u2019m a slow reader, so that\u2019s my excuse.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m pretty militant with my reading. Every month, I put together a list of ten books that I want to read that month. If I make that list, I will stick to it.
I write my newsletters three days a week. The days that I write my newsletter, I read 50 pages. The days that I don\u2019t, I read 100, sometimes 150. The first thing I do immediately after writing is go on a walk somewhere, take my book, and read. If I have time before bed I read as well. On average I read a book in three days.<\/p>\n
I am very comfortable reading with background noise. I put on YouTube in the background. For a long time I lived alone in Germany and I was a bit lonely and would put vlogs on my projector \u2014 vlogs of people talking about books. It\u2019s like the Sad Girl digital equivalent of people going to reading clubs.<\/p>\n
I get a little reading done on my commute, but unfortunately my commute is really short. I wish that my commute was like five subway stops longer, although that would mean that I worked in midtown.<\/p>\n
I do school drop-off. As a reward for that, my husband or a sitter does school pickup. If I get home from work early enough, I have my commute plus half an hour to an hour of lying-on-the-couch reading time. (I like to be prostrate.) That adds up to ideally an hour and a half per day. Then after the kids go to bed, I get to read a little bit before TV-watching time. And then after TV-watching time \u2014 we only do one episode of TV a night \u2014 I get to read as long as I can keep my eyes open. This is policed by my husband, who, if it\u2019s past 11:30, will start nudging me while he\u2019s supposedly asleep. Then I\u2019ll turn out the light. But sometimes I\u2019ll secretly read more on my phone after he\u2019s soundly asleep. I\u2019m like, cheating on my marriage with literature.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m never reading more than two books at a time. I have my physical book and my phone book. The phone book will be something lighter and trashier. The physical book will be something for work or something that you wouldn\u2019t be embarrassed to be seen reading. I will either buy or borrow an e-book of the book that I\u2019m reading a physical copy of and then switch between the two. I don\u2019t wanna be caught in any situation without the book where I could fit in even five minutes of reading time.<\/p>\n
I do a lot of reading for work, which means that I end up scheduling the really constitutive reading that needs to get done \u2014 to the point of literally time blocking in my iCal. \u201cFrom this time to this time you\u2019re gonna be reading this thing.\u201d I live and die by my iCal. If it\u2019s not in there, it\u2019s literally not gonna happen. I have a Good Reads goal that is a kind of North Star. My goal is 52 books a year.<\/p>\n
I actually don\u2019t know what the proportion is between work reading and non-work reading. I probably do more reading that is at least adjacent to New Yorker work or scholarly work or teaching. I try to read a couple chapters of a novel really early in the morning or during lunch. On planes, I get a lot of reading done, probably because you don\u2019t have the internet.<\/p>\n
I read whenever I can. While I don\u2019t have a lot of rules around my reading, I do have a few little habits that keep my reading flow in forward motion. Whatever book I am reading is next to my bed, because I love to read in the morning. I wake up around 5:30 a.m. when everyone else is asleep and that is my reading time. I have not yet checked my phone or any electronics so my mind feels focused and ready to lock into a story. It\u2019s usually a novel. I love reading fiction at home in bed.<\/p>\n
I also always carry a book on me. I have a few smaller books of essays I keep in my car, and whatever novel I am reading goes with me everywhere. I like a good old-fashioned book. I feel connected to my book by holding it, flipping through it, bending it. When it\u2019s on me, I can read a page or two whenever I can. I never read without a pencil. I underline and write notes in the margin while I read. I don\u2019t really lend my books to friends because most of the books I have too many personal notes in them. Sometimes I am so immersed in a book that when it ends, I feel hungover. It\u2019s hard for me to jump right into another book after one has just taken a hold of you to that level. Then I go about a week without reading anything, and it can be hard getting back into the flow.<\/p>\n
I try not to put strict goals around my reading, because the moment it turns into an assignment, I am not enjoying it. It\u2019s why I don\u2019t belong to a book club. Reading is my private time to do something I love, and I don\u2019t like to report to anyone while I\u2019m doing it. On average, I read about a book a week. I am not keeping score. I should ask my cats, they would know \u2026<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t like reading when I was a kid and kind of discovered books after college. Back then I probably only read like, 20, 25 books a year. Then my dad had an injury and became blind in 2017. So I started sourcing all of his audiobooks and gave them a try myself and basically became addicted.
Things really changed last year when my wife and I had twins and were taking turns being up all night. So I would read at least a book in the middle of the night by audio. Around that time, I also developed troubles with reading physically, related to OCD. Audiobooks have actually helped me through that because by necessity, I have to miss things. Which is why some people don\u2019t consider it like actually reading. We have three young kids now, and so much of my day is doing mindless physical tasks. So I am always listening to audiobooks.<\/p>\n
This year I made it a New Year\u2019s resolution to read less, because last year, I read 274 books (of which five were physical copies) and realized I was overdoing it. For 2025, it\u2019s going to be near 200. I mostly use Libby, and that tracks all the books you\u2019ve borrowed.<\/p>\n
Book people are going to be incensed by this, but I often listen while I am playing speed chess. I also often listen somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5x. If it\u2019s a book that I really love or fiction, which demands a lot more attention, I will not do that. What I really don\u2019t like about audiobooks is that it inherently makes me look at my phone. As a writer I value the concept of boredom because it\u2019s very useful in having ideas and letting your brain explore. Now I have to actively choose when to be bored.<\/p>\n
I just don\u2019t do anything else. We don\u2019t have a television. I\u2019m not on TikTok or doing any form of scrolling social media. I can\u2019t remember the last time I saw a movie. I don\u2019t actually have any habits except to just be reading all the time I\u2019m not writing or with my kids. And actually most of the time I\u2019m with my kids, I\u2019m also reading because they were habituated from a very young age to read all the time as well. It\u2019s very much our primary leisure-time activity as a family, a convenience that I feel like my ex and I created because we wanted to not only be able to do our reading, but also share it with our kids.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a hard-copy person all the way. The only audiobook I\u2019ve ever listened to was Jeremy Irons\u2019s narration of Lolita when my first son was born because it was just too hard to read and entertain a baby at the same time. I hate reading on the screen. I usually am reading one book at a time unless there\u2019s something really hefty that I\u2019m working my way through.<\/p>\n
My kids are usually in bed by nine so I\u2019m usually reading at least from then to midnight or until one in the morning. On the weekends, I think I usually spend between five to six hours each weekend day with a book. When I judge prizes I know how much I\u2019m reading because I have a certain quantity of books that I have to read, but I don\u2019t keep track. It\u2019s just never occurred to me to keep track.<\/p>\n
I really have contempt for people who are precious about where they do it. I can read anywhere. I read on the bleachers at the kids\u2019 soccer practice. I read everywhere in my house \u2014 on the couch, in a chair, at the kitchen table, at the kitchen counter, in bed. When I was a kid, I used to read walking down the street. I read at the gym when I\u2019m the elliptical or I\u2019m on the StairMaster. I read on the subway and feel virtuous because everybody\u2019s on their phones. Wherever, everywhere, anywhere.<\/p>\n
Right now it\u2019s sort of atypical because I just had the book come out and I\u2019ve had the experience for the first time of being asked to do blurbs. Because my work since grad school has been adjuncting and working on my book, I organized my life around having enough time to read and write. I would often hole up at home during the day and spend many hours a day reading.
This is the first time in my life where I\u2019ve had to think really deliberately about how to carve out time to do the reading I need to do and the reading I want to do in order to sustain my own writing practice, because I find it very difficult to write fiction when I\u2019m not reading. Throughout the day I\u2019m just reading when I feel compelled to. I have a space on my mantle where I keep the books that I frequently reread and I\u2019ll pick titles up and read a few pages if I need to refer back to something for something that I\u2019m writing. I\u2019m always going in and out of the books that I\u2019m reading at any given time. I read on the train, usually while going into the city. I read after dinner.<\/p>\n
I usually read a novel a week but I\u2019ve never read more than when I worked at a bookstore. Everyone was reading so much and so quickly and it was very infectious. I only read an e-book or a book on Kindle if I have to. I have an iPad and that makes it easier. I try not to read more than two books at a time and usually I need it to be for different purposes.<\/p>\n
I listen to a lot of audiobooks, especially when commuting and when I\u2019m traveling. Audiobooks are so useful, but I do really enjoy a physical book! I think physical books are a non-nightmare-inducing melatonin, if you know what I mean. I usually read right before bed, too. There\u2019s, of course, phone time, and then I transition.<\/p>\n
I tend to usually read one book at a time. I like to treat them like accomplishments when I finish them. I don\u2019t know if this is lame, but I track my reading progress by counting the number of books I finish in a year. I tend to finish seven to ten books a year. I\u2019m not sure if that\u2019s on the lower end? I still think that\u2019s such an accomplishment, because I\u2019ve recently gotten back into reading.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think it\u2019s hard to find time to do anything. I don\u2019t lock my phone in the other room. I read with a phone. I take photos of the book because you can search your photos for the word \u201cbook\u201d and I love that feature.<\/p>\n
My best reading is while commuting. I live in Connecticut so the train is where I\u2019m doing most reading now. I have to come to the city once, maybe twice a week. But in my household, my husband reads every night before he goes to bed and I\u2019m not allowed to use my phone in bed when he\u2019s doing that so I get cowed into joining him. His rituals are stronger and healthier than mine and I just fall into line. I do about half of what he does, half the exercise, half the reading. And that\u2019s good enough for me.<\/p>\n
My minimum is a book a week, ideally two to three. This is sort of ironic, but my Substack, which is a lot about books, is ruining my reading time because I used to read before work and now I always Substack. But now I read a book a weekend no matter what. I use Kindle on my phone, Kindle proper, and also physical books. My husband\u2019s mental health is tied to how much he reads, so he\u2019s implemented a lot of strategies. I\u2019m basically being forced to read when I don\u2019t want to.<\/p>\n
I just try to find time whenever I can. There are times when I have to just read a lot of first and second chapters and assess a book\u2019s subject matter and worthiness. Right now we are working toward our end-of-the-year list and that involves culling and passing around manuscripts in different forms. So I have to have more than one book going at the same time. Kindles don\u2019t really do PDFs that come over email, so I found an old iPad somewhere in storage and started using that. I do find myself reading on my computer and once had to convince the barista in a Brooklyn coffee shop that forbids laptops that I was reading on my laptop, not working. With fiction, where I just wanna be absorbed in it, it\u2019s easier for me to read a hard copy. I read whenever I can get a second \u2014 sometimes I\u2019ll sneak it in between tasks during the workday. Whenever we go to a park or wait for my son to finish his tennis lessons, we\u2019re reading.<\/p>\n
I now live a little north of the city, so I have an hour-plus commute three times a week to listen to usually a nonfiction audiobook at 1.3x speed. That\u2019s the speed I can tolerate. If I miss something I\u2019ll just go back. But these are books that I don\u2019t have to review myself, so I don\u2019t need to write in the margins or anything. I just kind of let it wash over me. It\u2019s a good way, depending on the quality of the reader, to engage with something that\u2019s like 25 hours long. I can like, check emails and get to Genius on the Spelling Bee at the same time. At night, once my kid goes to bed at nine o\u2019clock, I\u2019m usually reading from then to 11 when I try to go to bed. If I can\u2019t fall asleep, I might read some more.<\/p>\n
Because I read for my job, I probably have a lot more time to read than most people. My concern is making sure that I\u2019m always reading something that isn\u2019t reading for work. Partially because that\u2019s just important to do to stay alive, and partially because a lot of the books that I read for work are pretty bad. Even when I\u2019m busy it\u2019s the first thing I do every single day when I wake up. I read a work of fiction for an hour.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m usually reading three or four books at a time. There\u2019s the book that I read every morning for an hour and then on the weekends; the book that I\u2019m reading for my Washington Post job; then at night before bed I read another book, usually short stories or essays, for half an hour; and if I\u2019m doing research for another piece or my book, I\u2019m trying to read that in bits and pieces in the afternoon. I definitely prefer to read in a reclining position or in the bathtub, but obviously when I go to the office that doesn\u2019t happen. If a book is serious to me, I always read it physically.<\/p>\n
I keep a private list of all the books that I\u2019ve read, but I try not to get into the mindset of wanting to maximize the number because I feel like if you do that then you tend to opt for reading shorter novels over longer ones. You want to feel open to reading Proust. I mostly keep a list because people ask me for book recommendations or I\u2019m writing a piece where I\u2019m trying to think of every book that has a woman who killed her husband. That\u2019s just an example.<\/p>\n
Even if I went out and was drinking, I have to look at a page before I go to bed. I honestly can\u2019t really fall asleep now without reading something for 30 minutes to an hour. I\u2019m definitely sitting upright, leaning back on a pillow against the headboard. And then I always have a highlighter and sticky notes on a little tray that I keep by bed. I make it cute: I\u2019ll light a candle and use the Muji highlighters. I think annotating helps you sit with books more and enjoy them more. You\u2019re like, Wow, I wanna remember that sentence. I love writing in books and I think that\u2019s also liberating in the same way that knowing that you can put a book down is liberating. You don\u2019t have to be so precious with your books. They should be used.<\/p>\n
I started making a list of all the books that I read in 2018. Even though I don\u2019t think you should be judging how well you absorb or enjoy a book based on how many you read in a year, I found that going back and counting them periodically would incentivize me to be like, Okay, instead of being on my phone after dinner, I\u2019m going to read. I also have a Kindle, which unfortunately does help a lot, and the Kindle app on my phone. I usually have two going: a Kindle book that I\u2019m reading and a physical book that I\u2019m reading.<\/p>\n
I have emotional responses to books on planes and I do like the fact that I don\u2019t have internet access. I try to read when I am waiting on line, when I\u2019m traveling. If I borrow something from the library, then I feel obligated to read it first because I have to return it.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve read 26 books this year so far. When I first started logging, I was reading about a hundred books a year. I am a fast reader but as a result of that, sometimes I do forget. I could have read a book and really loved it and then sometimes struggle to remember what the plot was about.<\/p>\n
For my job I spend a lot of time with words that I love, but that isn\u2019t pleasure reading. So I really try to make a priority of it. I will purposely shove my phone to the bottom of my tote bag for my morning commute, which gives me about 20 minutes of reading time in the morning. I live right next to an amazing park in Bed\u2013Stuy and, on weekends, I combat my overwhelming addiction to my various screens (which I think is a losing battle), leave my phone in the apartment, and go read in the park for 30 or 45 minutes. I read a little bit before bed, but I have a boyfriend who tends to fall asleep at like 9:30 p.m., so if I\u2019m reading too late with the light on, I get gently reprimanded.<\/p>\n
Because of the nature of what I do, I am being sent so many books and I purchase so many books that I just don\u2019t have time to read everything I\u2019m curious about. So if I spend 75 to 100 pages with a book and feel strongly about that, I will note it. I\u2019ll get to like, 15 books a year for fun and hopefully finish most of them. But I can tell you that if I\u2019m not liking something after 50 pages, I chop it because life is too short and I\u2019m too busy.<\/p>\n
At any given moment I\u2019m reading several books for different reasons, for work or for fun. I also serve on a prize jury. People think you need to carve out multiple uninterrupted hours of reading time. But if I\u2019m watching a Notre Dame football game on TV, I\u2019ll leave the family room during halftime and read during those 20 minutes. If I\u2019m taking my youngest to his baseball practice, I\u2019ll go back to my car and read. If I\u2019m ten minutes early to pick someone up, I\u2019ll read. Most mornings I work out or go for a swim and when I\u2019m done, I sit out in the park in front of the YMCA and read for ten minutes. Stealing time is kind of how I think of it.<\/p>\n
As a TV editor, I read a lot because it feels like my reward for watching TV. The year that I started this job, I only read 12 books. When the last season of Succession was on, I did not read for that entire period. But I read a lot in the summer. I\u2019ve packed like 15 books to read with me on vacation where there will be no distractions. Now I try to read 52 books a year. I use the app StoryGraph to track everything. I put my goal in, and it tells me when I\u2019m on track to hit it or not. The data is just so fun to look at.<\/p>\n
A lot has changed since a daily commute has been taken out of my life. That\u2019s where I used to do a lot of my leisure reading. Now most of my leisure reading happens right when I wake up. What I read for pleasure almost has nothing to do with what\u2019s coming out in a publishing year. I\u2019m often filling in the gaps of my reading. Right now I\u2019m reading The Magic Mountain; this summer I was in a Ulysses reading group. So I often have a book project, a long and a hard book, and in between that, I will also read two or three things for work. Before I assign a book, I try to read at least like the first 50 to 100 pages of it. I end up reading like the first third of maybe a dozen books in a month.<\/p>\n
I like to be seated with the book open on a desk. I like having my back straight and sort of feeling like I\u2019m doing homework. My best reading has always been focused in a rigid manner. I don\u2019t like getting comfortable weirdly, because l fall asleep pretty easily. I can\u2019t read a novel at the beach.<\/p>\n
The thing that I tried to do really when I first started having to read professionally is not be very holy or organized about my own personal reading. I don\u2019t really keep track. I like just finishing something or if I don\u2019t finish it, it\u2019s fine. I like to read a lot of different things and not finish them and just see what takes me. I\u2019ve always been kind of against the competitive thing of people having to index their consumption precisely.<\/p>\n
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