How to Start Reading Books Again: a 14-Day Plan

Short answer

To start reading books again, do not begin with a big reading target. Pick one book that feels easy to enter, attach ten minutes of reading to an existing part of your day, and remove the most likely interruption before you begin. After two weeks, measure whether opening the book feels easier—not how many pages you finished.

A reading slump usually is not evidence that you have become incurious or undisciplined. Reading is competing with work messages, short-form feeds, fatigue, and the friction of deciding what to read. The useful response is not self-criticism. It is to make starting small, specific, and available in the life you have now.

Why do I want to read but never pick up a book?

Wanting to do something and doing it are separate problems. A meta-analysis of experimental research found that strengthening people’s intentions produced a smaller change in actual behavior. “I’ll read more this month” is therefore a weak plan: it does not specify the book, the time, the place, or what happens on a tired evening.

Replace an outcome goal with a condition for action.

• Instead of “I’ll read 20 books this year,” try “After I clear dinner, I read for ten minutes in the chair by the lamp.”
• Instead of “I have to finish this classic,” try “I’ll read the next 25 pages and see whether I want another session.”
• Instead of “I’ll use my phone less,” try “My phone stays on its charger until the reading timer ends.”

Habit research describes habits as links that become more automatic between a situation and a response. Repeating an action in a stable context helps build that link. That is why a recognizable cue—a morning coffee, the train ride home, getting into bed—matters more than finding the perfect free hour.

It is also why you can ignore the popular promise that a habit takes exactly 21 days. People and behaviors vary. This 14-day plan is not a guarantee of permanent automaticity; it is a low-stakes way to discover a cue, format, and book that fit your current days.

What should I read to get back into reading?

Your restart book does not need to be important, improving, or impressive. It needs to be easy to reopen. A demanding 600-page nonfiction book may be excellent, but it is often a poor first tool for rebuilding a reading practice.

Choose using three tests.

1. Genuine curiosity. Choose something you would enjoy mentioning to a friend next week—not something you feel you ought to have read. A mystery, romance, essays, short stories, a familiar topic, or a lively biography can all work.
2. A quick way in. Short chapters and a clear narrative are practical advantages. A book does not have to be short, but it should make the next ten minutes obvious. Audiobooks count here too: they can restore your relationship with sustained narrative when print is not realistic.
3. Permission to quit. Give a title about 30–50 pages, or about an hour of audio. If it brings no interest, clarity, or pleasure, switch. That is not a failure of discipline; it is better selection.

Do not turn your saved articles, recommendation videos, and unread shelf into a debt ledger. A huge queue raises the cost of choosing. Keep one current book and, if you like, one next book. Our article Saved Links Are Not a Reading List explains why a collection is not the same thing as a workable plan.

Is paper, an ebook, or audio best for reading again?

There is no morally superior format. The right format is the one that lowers friction in your actual routine. Research comparing paper and screens is mixed: paper can have an advantage for some demanding informational reading, while reviews also find small or no overall differences in particular settings. For restarting a reading habit, the more useful question is: which format lets you begin, stay with the text, and return tomorrow?

If your U.S. library uses Libby, you can run this experiment without buying a book. In the app, find your library, sign in with your library card, borrow an available title, then open it from Shelf → Loans. In the mobile app, borrowed ebooks and audiobooks normally download for offline use when you are on Wi‑Fi. To change that, go to Menu → Downloads and choose how loans download. While reading an ebook, tap the center of the screen and open the reading-settings icon to adjust text size. Many U.S. library ebooks can be sent to Kindle, although availability depends on the library and the individual title.

Do not buy a new device, subscription, or pile of books to prove that you are serious. Start with a library loan, a sample, a book you already own, an old e-reader, or an audiobook.

How do I start reading books again? Try this free 14-day experiment

This is not a page-count challenge. Its job is to test one reliable chain: cue → open book.

1. Choose one title for the next 14 days. Use a book at home, a library loan, or a free sample. If two titles appeal, read each for ten minutes today and keep the one that creates less resistance.
2. Name one cue. Write an if-then sentence: “If I finish dinner, then I read for ten minutes in the armchair.” Specific plans are useful because they connect a known situation with an action before the moment gets busy.
3. Set up the place in advance. Put a print book open at its bookmark. Download the ebook and place it where you can find it quickly, not beside a feed app. Put audio headphones by your keys or walking shoes.
4. Make the competing action slightly harder. Put your phone in another room for ten minutes, use a Focus mode, or leave it face down out of reach. If a feed takes every spare moment, start by changing the environment rather than demanding perfect restraint; see How to Stop Doomscrolling Without Missing What Matters.
5. Read for ten minutes, with full permission to stop. A stopping point keeps the practice from feeling like an endless obligation. Continue if you want; close the book if you do not. No make-up session is required.
6. Record only that you showed up. Make one mark in a calendar or say “done.” Do not track speed, pages, or streaks yet. You are practicing return, not productivity.
7. On day seven, review the book—not your character. Is the problem time, format, phone interruptions, or the title itself? Change one variable only. Move reading from late night to morning, for example, or choose a more inviting book.
8. On day 14, keep what worked. Retain the cue and format that happened on most of the days you realistically could read. Increase to 15 or 20 minutes only when ten minutes no longer requires a negotiation with yourself.

A missed day does not erase the experiment. The problem is not the missed session; it is the rule that says one miss means the plan is over. At the next available cue, open the book again.

How can I read when my phone keeps winning?

You do not need a dramatic digital detox or a declaration that phones are bad. Your phone may be your library card, audiobook player, or e-reader. What matters is separating roles: during a reading session, the device should lead to the book rather than to an endless supply of new inputs.

Start with one small boundary. Before reading, turn on Focus, hide notifications from the lock screen, or leave the phone outside the room. If you read on the phone itself, open the book before your cue begins, switch on airplane mode, and restore normal settings after the timer. For a broader approach to attention that does not rely on heroic willpower, read How to Get Your Attention Span Back Without Willpower. If your issue is mostly a noisy iPhone, How to set up Focus modes on iPhone without noise can help you create a quieter reading window.

Avoid trying to restart books while also cutting all screen time, waking at 5 a.m., organizing your home, and learning a language. One repeatable practice is more useful than five ambitious resets.

When this doesn't apply

This plan may not fit a period of acute sleep loss, caregiving, illness, grief, crisis, or workload overload, when even ten quiet minutes are genuinely unavailable. In that season, shrink the action to one paragraph, five minutes of audio, or choosing a next book—or set reading aside without making it a moral verdict.

If reading is difficult because of persistent vision trouble, pain, pronounced anxiety or low mood, or a significant change in concentration, do not reduce the issue to laziness or solve it with a reading tracker. Consider discussing the underlying problem with an appropriate professional. Larger text, audio, and shorter pieces can be useful accommodations, but they are not substitutes for support.

Do not try to become your old reader

You do not have to recreate the person who read late into the night, finished a book every week, or had long quiet commutes. Build reading for the life you have now: one interesting title, one recognizable moment, ten protected minutes, and permission to change course. Once opening a book stops being a project, more reading has room to follow.