University of Kwazulu-Natal

How I Read 100 Books A Year 10 Tips To Make Reading A Medium

Bonisiwe Shabane
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how i read 100 books a year 10 tips to make reading a medium

Prolific reading is a habit practised by many of the most influential leaders of our time. This includes Steve Jobs, Elon Musk and Warren Buffet. Consistent reading doesn’t have to be hard. I’m sharing how I went from being “not a reader” to reading 100 books a year. Last year, I shared how I read 60 books a year. I’ve been reading at least a book a week for years now.

What I didn’t share at the time was, that in 2023 I had a new goal. To read 100 books in the year. I’ll preface this blog too by saying that the number is purely a vanity metric. Don’t get caught up on yours. The reason I made the significant leap was that I noticed something shift. Reading has brought me peace and insights I wouldn’t otherwise have for many years now.

But, it didn’t necessarily always come easy. Despite my best intention, time and focus were nearly always a challenge. After reading consistently for many years, I eventually found the habit started to become easier and easier. So, in this blog, I’m sharing my top tips not so you can also read 100 books. But, to share how I made the reading habit come more easily. I believe storytelling is your greatest opportunity to learn from those who have gone before you.

Those who felt a duty to help pave the way for those to come. As the end of the year approaches, many of us begin writing down our New Year’s resolutions. Among these goals, reading more books often makes the list—but it’s also one of the hardest to accomplish. Why do so many people struggle to reach their reading targets? Let’s break it down and discover practical strategies to help you read over 100 books in just one year. The first reason we fail to meet our reading goals is that the goal itself can feel overwhelming.

For my 2024 resolution, I ambitiously decided to read 100 books. It sounded impossible at first, but I made it happen by breaking the goal into smaller steps. I began by setting a much smaller target: just 10 books. Achieving this felt manageable and gave me the motivation to set another goal of 10 books—and then another. By focusing on incremental progress instead of the big picture, I was able to maintain my momentum and end the year with over 100 books under my belt. A common mistake when setting a reading goal is sticking to one genre, author, or type of book.

To keep things exciting and avoid burnout, explore different genres and styles. Don’t limit yourself to bestsellers or the works of a single writer—give lesser-known books a chance, too. You’d be surprised how much variety can make reading feel like an adventure rather than a chore. Reading 100 books a year sounds like a fantasy for anyone juggling a 9-to-5 job, family commitments, and a social life. But what if I told you it’s not only possible but achievable without sacrificing sleep or sanity? As someone who went from struggling to finish 10 books a year to consistently hitting the 100-book mark,

I’ve learned that the secret lies in strategy, not speed. This guide shares the exact system I use to read voraciously while keeping my career and personal life intact. Before diving into tactics, it’s crucial to reframe how you think about reading: I’m a public librarian, I review books for a couple of outlets, and I’ve been a voracious reader all my life. In recent years I’ve developed some different strategies to help me read the books assigned to me for reviews or book clubs, and balance out with the books that I want to read. In 2023, I read over 100 books.

I see some people who read 150 or more books a year. Some of them are reading picture books or young adult books that are shorter than the average “grownup” book. Or if you’re like me, my Kindle Unlimited subscription choices help. So that’s the first thing to remember — ultimately the numbers don’t matter, it’s what you get from your reading life that matters. That being said, it’s a good motivator to watch my “read” list grow. For a few years I set a number in Goodreads as my reading challenge to meet or beat, and I’ve moved my social reading tracker to The StoryGraph now, but I get to do...

Pick a lower/achievable number if you like. In December 2019 I decided to take my yearly reading challenge up a notch and read 100 books in 2020. It seemed like a crazy idea back then. Yet, I managed to read 100 books last year. It was tough but definitely doable. A hundred books is a nice, round, and slightly ridiculous reading goal.

It made for perfect water cooler conversation (in the world where water coolers existed). When you tell people you plan to read 100 books this year, their eyes widen in disbelief, their jaws drop slightly. It’s a marvelous sight. Since I started being public about my challenge, people have often asked me how I managed to read so much. They wanted to know my secret. Spoiler: there is no secret, but there are tips that will help you read more, much more.

When I say I read so much, people usually assume that I either speed read or read really short books (yeah, say it to a 1,000-page biography of Napoleon I read in summer). There must be a mystery, a trick of some kind, they think. The first book I ever read was Matilda by Roald Dahl. It had been a gift from my grandmother, who used to sleep with a book under her pillow every night. I don’t know if this was her intention, but that story sparked within me a passion for literature that still resonates deeply to this day. I remember reaching the end of Dahl’s story feeling both shocked and betrayed, yet intrigued.

After reading an ending that was completely different from its 1996 film adaptation, nine-year-old me felt overjoyed that she knew a secret only a select few would understand. Thus started my love for literature, my love for worlds, characters, and stories that only readers could truly know and cherish. From then on, I read childhood classics like Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney; then soon moved up to the YA genre, with... The truth is, I read A LOT as a child. The last Divergent book Allegiant had almost 600 pages and I loved every second of it. I especially enjoyed getting to say the magic words in every book-to-film adaptation I watched in theaters: “That was different in the book.” Or, my personal favorite: “The book did it better.”

And then came the stage that every reader DREADS… the infamous reading slump. I don’t think I looked at a single book in two years, and honestly, I didn’t even care to. Books were so far off my mind during this phase of my life. It wasn’t until 2019, during my sophomore year of high school, that I decided to resume this hobby. It was a time when power outages were far too common (although sadly, they still are) in Puerto Rico, and most times, there was nothing to do. So, on one of those mindless days, I picked up a book series that had been collecting dust on my shelf for years: The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare.

This book series is extremely well known, at least in the YA reader community, and, although my love for it was definitely not immediate, by that sixth and final book I was hooked. After finishing this one, I immediately jumped to its prequel trilogy before starting the sequel series (The Mortal Instruments comprises more than 15 books, and it’s still not over). Once I had finished reading the published books of this world, I needed more, and my love for the written word was reignited. Trips to the bookstore became common again, and for birthdays, graduations, Christmases, and the like, that’s all I asked of my family: books! Welcome back. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account.

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