← Guides 13 October 2026 · Aloud

How to read more books when you don't have time

Most people who want to read more already have the time. It’s scattered across the day in pieces too small to sit down with a book: the drive to work, the walk to the shops, the washing up. The trick is turning those pieces into reading time, and choosing books that make you want to come back.

Find the time you already have

Spend a day noticing when your hands are busy but your mind is free. Common ones:

• commuting by car, train or bus
• walking, including walking the dog
• cooking and cleaning up
• the gym, especially cardio
• folding washing or doing the garden

Add them up and most people find an hour or more a day. None of it suits a paper book. All of it suits listening.

Listening counts

Listening to a book is a real way to read it. You follow the story, meet the characters and remember the ideas, and for many books, especially older ones written to be read aloud, hearing them is easier than reading them.

The one habit that helps most is having the next book ready. When a book ends on the train, you want the next one a tap away, rather than an evening of deciding.

Choose books that pull you along

Reading more is mostly about reading books you want to finish. A few rules of thumb help:

• Mix in easy books. A fast thriller between two heavy books keeps the pace up.
• Follow what you like. If you loved one book, try another by the same author.
• Drop books freely. Give a book fifty pages or an hour of listening. If it hasn’t caught you, stop.
• Keep a short list. Five books you’re keen on beats a hundred you feel you should read.

Classics are worth a look too. Many of the best-known novels are now in the public domain and free, and some are much easier to listen to than you’d expect. Which classics are easiest to listen to.

Read two books at once

Keep one book for listening and one on paper or a screen. A light novel for the commute and a slower book for bed means you’re never stuck with the wrong book at the wrong time.

Keep count

Writing down each book as you finish it is surprisingly motivating. A notes page or a list on the fridge is enough. Seeing ten titles by midyear makes it easier to pick up the eleventh.

Make listening easy to stick with

Your mind will wander sometimes, especially early on. A few things help: start at normal speed, listen in places that need little attention, and rewind thirty seconds when you drift instead of pushing on. More on staying focused.

Reading more with Aloud

Aloud is an iPhone and iPad app that reads books aloud with voices that run on the phone. I make Aloud, so weigh that. It has free classics from Project Gutenberg, from Pride and Prejudice to Moby Dick, plus more than 20,000 LibriVox recordings read by volunteers if you’d rather hear a person. You can also open a DRM-free EPUB or PDF from Files, and your first import is free.

There’s no account and it works offline once a book is on your phone, so a tunnel or a flight won’t stop the book. You can change the speed and follow the words as they’re read. When you finish a book, Aloud makes a card with your hours and books this year, which is a handy way to keep count.

Common questions