I read a lot in high school and college. After that, I continued to think of myself as reading a lot, but the reality slowly diverged from the self-image. A few years ago, I noticed the gap and decided to fix it. I realized that while I absolutely loved reading, and never needed to convince myself to read, the time I had to devote to it just kinda slipped through the cracks here and there.
What fixed it for me was promising myself I'd try to read at least 40 pages a day. The number itself isn't very important, but it roughly translates to one book a week. Books can be thicker and thinner of course; I don't consciously try to finish one every week, but I do consciously try to read 40 pages a day - and more than that is even better. It seemed like a tacky thing to do at first; if I love reading, would I really need to try and force myself to? But the point of the resolution is not to force yourself, it's to keep reading in the list of desired activities as you go through the day. It works to keep the thought closer to the foreground, as a kind of a mental hack. The other part of this "method", and it's absolutely essential, is not to "punish" yourself by assigning yourself the double dose if you fail to read at all one day. Keeping an account of "debts" this way is too forced and quickly leads to abandoning the whole idea. If I read just a little or not at all one day, for whatever reason, I just try to read 40 pages the next day.
Results: I read about 50 books in 2008 (didn't keep tabs). In 2009, I got a Sony Reader in May and switched to reading books mostly on the device. I read a bit over 80 books in 2009, and will probably read about a hundred this year. The time to do is mostly the time I would waste here and there on the net relatively meaninglessly (like checking my email, Google Reader, HN and reddit twice as often or something; with reading many books, I'm still able to do all that, and write a high-traffic blog, and work full-time). I also try to find little chunks of time here and there: I read in a cafe, in the lavatory, sometimes at lunch. I carry my ebook reader with me nearly all the time, and if someone's late to a meeting at work and everybody's waiting, I read for a few minutes; and so on.
What fixed it for me was promising myself I'd try to read at least 40 pages a day. The number itself isn't very important, but it roughly translates to one book a week. Books can be thicker and thinner of course; I don't consciously try to finish one every week, but I do consciously try to read 40 pages a day - and more than that is even better. It seemed like a tacky thing to do at first; if I love reading, would I really need to try and force myself to? But the point of the resolution is not to force yourself, it's to keep reading in the list of desired activities as you go through the day. It works to keep the thought closer to the foreground, as a kind of a mental hack. The other part of this "method", and it's absolutely essential, is not to "punish" yourself by assigning yourself the double dose if you fail to read at all one day. Keeping an account of "debts" this way is too forced and quickly leads to abandoning the whole idea. If I read just a little or not at all one day, for whatever reason, I just try to read 40 pages the next day.
Results: I read about 50 books in 2008 (didn't keep tabs). In 2009, I got a Sony Reader in May and switched to reading books mostly on the device. I read a bit over 80 books in 2009, and will probably read about a hundred this year. The time to do is mostly the time I would waste here and there on the net relatively meaninglessly (like checking my email, Google Reader, HN and reddit twice as often or something; with reading many books, I'm still able to do all that, and write a high-traffic blog, and work full-time). I also try to find little chunks of time here and there: I read in a cafe, in the lavatory, sometimes at lunch. I carry my ebook reader with me nearly all the time, and if someone's late to a meeting at work and everybody's waiting, I read for a few minutes; and so on.
TL;DR: Nah, just read it all :)