I've just read a great post by Kevin Nguyen.  Called How to read a whole damn book every week, the article gives some great tips on how to read a lot.

On the whole, Kevin's advice is pretty sound. I especially like the suggestion of using the commercial breaks in live tv programmes to grab some quick reading time. Mind you, I think a lot of people tend to record programmes to watch later, so they can skip the ad breaks completely. If that applies to you, then you might consider 'gaming' your own system in order to eke out more reading time.

Another suggestion is to read a book first thing in the morning rather than in bed at night. He is right when he says that the latter tends to result in not much reading because you come over sleepy. I sometimes have the opposite problem, that of getting so involved in a book that it's one in the morning before I know it.

At the moment I tend to use the first part of the morning to read blog posts, news and emails. But I may try reading a couple of pages of a book too, to see how it goes.

One suggestion I didn't entirely agree with is to give up on a book if it's too much like hard work. I do tend to do that with fiction: I have a ridiculously low boredom/frustration threshold, sometimes even just a few sentences. However, with non-fiction books I tend to hope that the knowledge I'll gain from reading the book will outweigh the discomfort experienced in doing so.

Besides, if you use efficient reading techniques (see below) then you can get through a book at a very fast rate indeed.

I don't know if I do read a book a week, because of the number of books I have on the go at any one time. For example, at the moment I'm reading three books, and yesterday I picked up another one from the library.

Kevin's fast reading system consists of making use of every spare moment, whether that's lining up at the bus stop (cue phone or Kindle)  or on a long commute (ditto). I have to say I tend not to read a device at bus stops, because it's too easy to be mugged: I tend to read a print book instead.

One thing that Kevin didn't consider is using efficient reading techniques. You can read a newspaper in 20 minutes, and a non-fiction book in a few hours. The techniques, though, don't much lend themselves to reading novels. You can read about the techniques here:

Making A Good Impression: Efficient Reading

Do read Kevin's article if you wish to read more in the limited time you have available.