---
title: "How to Read a Book a Week Without Making It a Chore"
description: "The realistic maths behind a book a week, plus the habits that make it feel like a treat instead of a target."
canonical: "https://bellabugsbooks.com/blog/how-to-read-a-book-a-week"
url: "https://bellabugsbooks.com/blog/how-to-read-a-book-a-week.md"
author: "Amy — Bella Bugs Books"
locale: "en-IE"
type: "blog-post"
date_modified: "2026-08-13"
---

# How to Read a Book a Week Without Making It a Chore

The realistic maths behind a book a week, plus the habits that make it feel like a treat instead of a target.

Category: Guides

A book a week sounds like a lot until you do the sums.

## The actual maths

The average novel is roughly 90,000 words. Most people read somewhere between 200 and 300 words a minute. That is about five to seven and a half hours per book — under an hour a day.

You almost certainly already have that hour. It is just currently in your phone.

## Where the hour comes from

- **Twenty minutes at breakfast.** No screens on the table.
- **Twenty minutes at lunch**, or on the bus, or in the car before you go into the house.
- **Twenty minutes before sleep**, phone in another room.

Three twenties beats one hour, because you never have to find a big free block.

## The habits that make it stick

**Always have the next book chosen.** The gap between finishing and starting is where weeks disappear.

**Keep a book in every bag.** Not the same book. Whichever book.

**Pick shorter books when life is loud.** A 300-page contemporary romance in a busy week keeps the streak alive better than a heroic attempt at an epic fantasy.

**Do not track everything.** Logging pages helps some readers and ruins it for others. If your reading journal starts to feel like homework, close it.

## What to do about slumps

A slump is usually a mismatch, not a lack of discipline. Change genre, change format, change length. Audiobooks count. Rereads count. Finishing nothing for a fortnight also counts as being a reader.

If you want a gentle nudge, the [reading bingo challenge](/bingo) gives you a seasonal card of prompts, and the [monthly book club](/book-club) gives you one book and one deadline — which for a lot of people is the whole trick.

---

_Every book recommended here is read in full and reviewed by Amy. No sponsorships, no gifted-book obligations, spoilers always marked._

## Related

- [What to Read Next, Based on Your Mood](https://bellabugsbooks.com/blog/what-to-read-next-by-mood.md)
- [What to Read After Freida McFadden](https://bellabugsbooks.com/blog/books-like-freida-mcfadden.md)
- [A Cosy Autumn Reading List for Dark Evenings](https://bellabugsbooks.com/blog/cosy-autumn-reading-list.md)
- [Best Books to Read in a Reading Slump](https://bellabugsbooks.com/blog/best-books-for-a-reading-slump.md)
- [All blog posts](https://bellabugsbooks.com/blog.md)
- [Reading guides](https://bellabugsbooks.com/guides.md)