In 2023, I read 110 books. This included rereads, young adult, fiction, non-fiction, audiobooks, etc. After seeing a lot of discourse on TikTok about how it’s ‘impossible’ to read that many books in 365 days, I’m going to address how I did it and how you can (possibly) do it too.

1. Statistically speaking

I kept track monthly of how many books I read each month, just out of curiosity. Clearly, I read significantly more during the summer as I’m a full-time college student and during the summer, I basically only leave the house to go horseback riding. I wouldn’t read nearly as much if I didn’t get time off.

I speed read at a rate around 100 pages an hour. I’ve done this my entire life, and it isn’t something I was taught or try to do. While it’s natural to me, there are some ways to learn how however I don’t think it’s really necessary if you have to sacrifice comprehension to compensate.

3. Goal orientation

I’ve seen a lot of people who don’t think reading goals are useful, but personally I’m very goal oriented and enjoy accomplishing something. To make this easier, I use Goodreads to track my reading and I can mark the book as ‘read’ as well as leave a review and/or rating.

4. Varied genres

Most importantly, I love reading and I read a lot of different genres from mystery to fantasy to contemporary romance. Sometimes I get stuck in a cycle of only reading fantasy books constantly or sometimes I switch it up and read a history book then a romance then a classic. If you’re bored while reading, you probably just need to try a different book or a different format (paper vs electronic vs audio).

Overall, the most important thing is that you enjoy or learn from what you read. Happy reading!