It is that time of year when social media feeds are flooded with reading tallies and ambitious “reading challenges.”
While seeing those high numbers can be inspiring, it can also feel a bit overwhelming.
I’ve spent time exploring how these numbers are built, and I want to share some techniques that can help you expand your reading horizons in 2026. Throughout this process, keep the most important goal in mind: genuine enjoyment.
Here is a guide to shifting your perspective on reading, along with practical ways to integrate more stories into your life.
Redefining What Counts
One of the easiest ways to see progress in your reading life is to change how you define a “book.” We often get caught up in the idea that only a 400-page novel counts, but literature comes in many forms.
If you are reading a collection like The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, consider treating each story as a milestone.
Each one is a complete narrative arc with its own characters and resolution. By acknowledging each story, you give yourself more frequent “wins,” which builds the momentum to keep going.
Sharing a book with a child is one of the most rewarding ways to read. Whether you are reading a picture book aloud or listening to them practice, these moments are significant. They foster a love of literacy and count toward your time spent engaged with words.
Whilst we are on the subject, audiobooks count as reading, you are still immersing yourself in a story.
The Art of Letting Go
A major hurdle to reading more is the feeling that we must finish every book we start. This often leads to “reading slumps” where we stop reading altogether because we aren’t enjoying our current choice.
If you’ve given a book 50 pages and it isn’t resonating with you, it is perfectly okay to move on. You’ve still gained insights or experiences from those pages.
In a world where we are constantly tracked, it’s easy to forget that reading isn’t a memory test or a performance. If you don’t finish a book, or if you don’t remember every detail of a story you read months ago, it doesn’t diminish the value of the time you spent immersed in it.
Why the Numbers Don’t Actually Matter
Last year, I experimented with seeing how high a “book count” could go. However, the experiment taught me a much more valuable lesson: the total is irrelevant.
To read 100 “standard” 300-page books a year, you would need to dedicate roughly 2.5 hours every single day. For most people, that isn’t just a goal; it’s a second job.
When reading turns into a competition or a race to hit a digital milestone, we lose the very thing that makes it special, the escape.
Focus on the Experience
If you read just one book this year, you are already doing something wonderful for your mind. Statistics often show that a significant portion of the population doesn’t pick up a book at all. Simply being a reader puts you in a great position.
For context, data from the Pew Research Centre suggests that roughly 23% of adults in the US report not having read a single book (in any format) in the past year.
In the UK, various surveys by the National Literacy Trust show that while reading engagement fluctuates, a dedicated minority of “frequent readers” accounts for most of the volume.
For 2026, I’m moving away from setting a numerical goal. The biggest achievement isn’t a “100” or “150” on a screen; it’s the feeling of a story that makes you think, laugh, or see the world differently.
My advice for the year ahead:
Read to learn.
Read to escape.
Read to smile.
Enjoying what you read is the only metric that truly counts.
Until next Friday,
Sam