I read 56 books* in 2024! This was a mixture of fantasy, sci-fi, romance, literary fiction, and non-fiction books. Ranging from 115 pages to the longest at 845. Half of these were in Japanese and half were in English.
(*Not including manga or comics.)
I didn’t always read 56 books a year, in fact, I’m still amazed I hit that many considering there was a month-long slump in November where I didn’t have the brain power to do anything but watch stand up comedy on Netflix. (Four weeks of interpreting will fry your brain.)
It’s only been five years since I got back into reading and wanted to share how I did it.
How It Started
When I was a kid I would devour books. Reading was my go-to hobby…or perhaps more accurately, my go-to escape from reality. I read so much that when I told the teachers I thought I was dyslexic they said that wasn’t possible because they saw me reading all the time, and if I was dyslexic I wouldn’t do that. (Surprise, surprise, I am dyslexic. I just love to read too.)
But I fell out of the habit when I went to University thinking I “had” to focus on studies and denying myself the enjoyment of books. I continued to not read after university, coming up with excuse after excuse not to start reading again, all the while beating myself up for not reading anything. Until I saw a YouTube video about reading (which has now been lost to the ages.)
In the video the narrator talked about how much time he has to live and if he only read one book a year then he would probably only be able to read 30 books before he died. This made me realise how short life is and how much I want to read. It was a massive kick in the butt to get back into reading!
So ever since 2019 I have given myself the goal of reading 24 books a year. And it’s gone pretty well!
How It Went
Getting up to the point where I could read over 50 books a year was a gradual process.
As I mentioned, in 2019 I decided to read at least 24 books in a year. I downloaded Goodreads to track what I was reading and picked up my first book in a while.
But I had a problem—I couldn’t just read for pleasure anymore. I had to turn reading into work because that was the only way to motivate myself. So, as a translator, it made sense that the first book I picked up was The Great Passage by Shion Miura translated by Juilet Winters Carpenter just to see how the translation was. (Great start, but Carpenter clearly got tired towards the end with some lazy direct translations.)
The next book I picked up was what really reignited my love of reading—All Systems Red by Martha Wells. AKA, the first novella in The Murderbot Diaries. I devoured that book in just a few days. Something I hadn’t done since I was a lot younger.
This really sparked my reading habit and I began to pick more novellas and translated books, encouraging myself by saying the book was either short or for “work”.
I also started reading more novels written in Japanese, this time telling myself it was Japanese practice. (Which it is. I highly recommend extensive reading in Japanese to improve your language ability.)
I started with コーヒーが冷めないうちに (Before the Coffee Gets Cold) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi because a friend recommended it to me. (It was quite boring and I struggled to finish it.) I also tried to read 鹿の王 (The Deer King) by Nahoko Uehashi because I had wanted to read it for years, but it was very difficult for me at the time and I struggled to finish that one too. (I eventually re-read it a few years later and loved it.)
Although I only read 22 books in 2019, falling short of my goal by two books, that was still 21 books more than what I had read the previous year.
It was a rocky start with some disappointing books, but also some absolute bangers which I still love to this day. It also kickstarted my reading habit so I was able to smash that 24 book goal the following years.
How It’s Going (Aka How I Read over 50 books in 2024)
Getting back into reading was a conscious effort that took a lot of trial and error. I’ve learn that I’m not a fast reader (dyslexia) but I’ve been able to build the habit to read an average of 48 books every year for the last four years thanks to these techniques.
I Made Time
How? I try to make time for reading. Instead of doom scrolling (which I can very easily get distracted with), I got into the habit of reading at lunch. An English book on my kindle while I’m eating, and a physical Japanese book after. This clocks me in at about 20-40 minutes alone.
Then I try to read a little before bed. The kindle helps a lot as I can lie in the dark and read instead of (once again) doom scrolling.
I also started giving myself at least one day a month for me, no other human interaction, just me time. This normally involves me sitting in my office at home, or going to a café and giving myself time to enjoy a coffee with some books and/or study. This gives me a boost of much needed reading time every month.
I Learned to Read for Pleasure
There was a point at the end of 2023 when I realized I was burning myself out. Not only at work, but at home, because I was making my hobbies work.
I mentioned treating reading like “work” was a great way to get myself back into the habit, but by continuing to make myself read for work (specifically by forcing myself to read translated books) I was sucking the joy out of reading.
In 2023 I did a “Translated Book Challenge” where I tried to read at least once translated book a month, but I disliked 9/12 of those books (discovering I’m not a fan of literary fiction and very critical of translations.)
This year I focused more on picking books I knew I wanted to read. Not books I “should” read, not books everyone else was raving about, books I wanted to read and felt I would enjoy.
Not all the books I read this year were a hit, but I didn’t drop as many books as I had in past years. And speaking of…
I Learned to Drop (DNF) Books
Nothing will slow my reading down faster than a book I’m not enjoying. My spouse would often tell me off for forcing myself to finish a book I didn’t like but I was always too stubborn.
I hoped that maybe it would be better in the end, only to be left disappointed every time.
Needless to say, I started dropping, or DNFing (“Did Not Finish-ing”) books I knew I wasn’t going to enjoy. Although saying that I did force myself to finish The Midnight Library by Matt Heig this year which was…not good.
I still have to learn to drop books I’m not enjoying but I recently watched a BookTuber who said she will DNF books if she isn’t enjoying it by 100 pages in. This is a great idea which I’m going to adopt in 2025.
I Started Tracking My Reading
I mentioned I downloaded Gooreads to track what I read, but that isn’t the only way I track my reading habit.
Several years ago I started using a journal to keep track of what I needed to do. In 2021 I began to get Nolty (6313 and 6314) diaries to not only track what I needed to do, but also to track my goals (likes reading and article writing). These diaries have a calendar and weekly breakdown where I can easily list my goals for the week and write what books I’ve read in any given day.
In 2024 I also started using the app Toggl to track how much time I spent reading in English and Japanese.
Both writing in my diary what books I read when, and tracking how much time I spent reading, helped keep reading an almost daily habit.
I Discovered Japanese Audiobooks
I love reading books in Japanese. Not only do I find new stories, but I get to practice my Japanese skills. Saying that, I struggle to read heavy Japanese novels (such as 同氏処女よ、敵を撃て Shoot the Enemy, Comrade by Touma Aisaka, which is about female Russian snipers in WWII) not because I didn’t understand them, but because they take time to read. So I started reading along with audiobooks and my speed instantly increased!
I can’t listen to audiobooks for fiction alone (I get distracted) but found reading along helped a lot. Not only my speed but how I pictured the story and characters. The audio books for 店長はバカすぎて (My Manager is a Moron) by Kazumasa Hayami was particularly good and increased my enjoyment of the story tenfold.
At the start of 2024, I signed up to Audible Japan which not only gave me access to the audiobooks for novels I was reading, but a bunch of non-fiction books too! I struggle to read non-fiction because they’re boring, but found I can listen to them while I commute to work, which meant I was able to get through quite a few non-fiction books this year.
I read a total of 21 books in Japanese alongside their audiobook editions, 9 of which were audio only.
I’m still somewhat blown away that I’ve read a total of 271 books in the last five years, 89 of which have been in Japanese.
I’ve learned a lot about my own reading over the last five years. Not just my likes and dislikes, but how, when, and where I enjoy reading.
If you’re curious what my favourite (and least favourite) books were from 2024, I’ve written up a list here: My Favourite (and Least Favourite) Books of 2024
