Chances are your friends are discussing their favorite (and least favorite) books on Goodreads. A few seconds well spent, considering these tweaks can take your site from unusable to meaningful and help support compliance with existing and upcoming accessibility regulations. But the good news is, there are ways to fix the accessibility problems without sacrificing the design you (or your client) prefers. And if the accessibility side of it isn’t convincing enough, “Read More” doesn’t tell search engines much about your internal linking either. However, you don’t have to sacrifice accessibility to pull off these layouts — you just need to tweak the way you’re building them. Like many things in our adult lives (like spending time with friends), reading requires a bit of extra planning.
Stop forcing yourself to finish books you don’t love
All you need is a few small shifts in how you approach it. Now that we understand why “Read more” links are so important, let’s investigate some best practices for implementation. Even when it comes to an activity as peaceful as reading, my competitive side emerges.
Also give yourself permission to quit books that you just don’t like or aren’t holding your attention. The goal should be to try and make reading as easy and accessible as possible. To help make this a reality, consider keeping a book on your nightstand, or maybe even downloading an e-book on your phone. You could also listen to an audiobook as you drive into work or you could attach reading to something you already do like while relaxing on your lunch break.
Your Daily Dose of Fun 🎉
Simple tweaks to add meaning to your links, improve SEO, and avoid costly accessibility issues. To help you reach for a book more, consider downloading a reading app like Kindle or Libby so you always have something to read on your phone. You could also leave a book in places you naturally slow down like your bedside table, your desk, or in the living room.
How to Read More
As with most habits that can greatly impact your life, this will never feel urgent, but it is important.20 pages per day. If you know how to read, then reading books is relatively easy. But for someone navigating your site with a keyboard or screen reader, “Read More” links are a total nightmare. If you’re feeling like you’re wanting to stay mentally sharp, nonfiction could be the thing for you. Essays or poetry can also help provide you with a quick mental reset.
Tell us what titles or genres you’ve enjoyed in the past, and we’ll give you surprisingly insightful recommendations. Short works like these aren’t as daunting as longer tomes and can motivate you to find a reading routine that will work best for you, Moreno says. In this second example, we’ve added the text “about My Trip to France” inside a with a class of sr-only.
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There’s also, she points out, a built-in community waiting for you at your local library. Librarians are almost always eager to engage with patrons and recommend books, and many offer book clubs and other reading-related social activities. Ask the prolific readers you encounter for recommendations or to tell you about the last great book they read.
- If you usually open your socials while in line, consider switching that out with an e-book.
- For starters, it can be a great form of self-care and help you gain knowledge.
- Even if you were to link both the post title and the “Read More” button, users still have to tab through and hear “Read More” announced between each article for no good reason.
- If an interesting link flashed across my screen on Facebook or Twitter, then I would read it as a reaction.
- To help you reach for a book more, consider downloading a reading app like Kindle or Libby so you always have something to read on your phone.
I log every book I’ve read, and the date I finished it, in a Word doc. I also like the Goodreads app; It’s a fun way to easily log the books you have or want to read, see what your friends are reading, and peruse other readers’ reviews. That means, instead of hearing both the post title and the “Read More” button for every post, screen reader users will only hear the title — which is far more helpful. Like any habit, the more you do it, the easier it can get. If you haven’t read in a bit or you struggle to focus, consider starting with something light and engaging.
As I grew older, though, I tragically spent more time on social media and less flipping the pages of a novel. A screen reader is only going to announce the anchor text — which gives us the “Link. Nothing changes visually, but thanks to screen-reader-only text, your button instantly gains meaning.
Read multiple books at once
Some websites have brightly colored links or bolded text, others have icons or even buttons to make their links stand out. Kindle aside, some simple strategies also helped me become a better reader, such as setting lofty goals with friends and trying out a monthly book subscription. Whether you’re a busy corporate manager or a student drowning in homework, these strategies can help you too. Below, I’ve shared 12 of my favorite ways to read often and a lot – including a completely free (and legitimate) way to access e-books, among them new releases. When I looked at my own reading habits, I realized that my reading habits were mostly reactive, not proactive. If an interesting link flashed across my screen on Facebook or Twitter, then I would read it as a reaction.
Designers who put entire articles on the home page may make it difficult for website administrators to track the most popular articles and understand what users want to see. Before we present the showcase, let’s understand why “Read more” links are so important. They are important for several reasons, most importantly because they allow designers to compress content on the home page.
- Give yourself permission to move on to something you like more.
- The beauty of audiobooks is they let you “read” while doing other things.
- Like many children who grew up in suburbia’s monotony, I found my local library a welcome escape.
- To fit reading into your routine, find a medium that matches it.
- The goal should be to try and make reading as easy and accessible as possible.
- Or if you prefer to read in the morning, maybe tell yourself that you’ll read for only five minutes while drinking your tea.
If you’d love to read the bestseller everyone is talking about, Libby’s “smart tag” feature lets you turn on notifications for books months before their release. That way, when they’re added to your library’s catalogue, you are the first in line to put a title on hold. I credit my Kindle for helping me achieve my reading goal of 50 books a year. I’m a night-time reader, and its softly lit screen always helps me sneak in a few pages in bed without having to turn on any lights.
Twelve tips to read often and a lot
Books typically have better writing (more tightly edited) and higher quality information (better fact-checking and more extensive research). From a learning perspective, it’s probably a better use of my time to read books than to read online content. Your goal with reading should be to have fun so it doesn’t feel like homework. You can also try the “temptation bundling” trick by pairing reading with something you enjoy, like cozying up in your favorite chair. Over time by doing tricks like this, your Australian casino guide reading stamina usually can naturally start to increase, and picking up books might start to feel a little more like second nature.
Typically the best reading for your mental health is just the kind that makes you feel good. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, fiction could be soothing because it allows you to step into another world and temporarily leave your worries behind. If you’re fully embracing 2026’s analog takeover, you can try tracking your reading progress in a physical journal. Recently, I tested this stylish option from Papier, which has space to track 32 titles, create a reading wishlist and write book reviews. The journal’s helpful table of contents and book index make it easy to track my reading, and I’ve already recorded all four of my January reads. Explore a wide collection of easy-to-read ebooks covering every aspect of early parenthood—from soothing routines to practical tips and emotional support.
And you can even increase the playback speed slightly to get through books faster if that’s something you’d like. With a commitment to quality content for the design community. Seeing what everyone else is doing before you start designing a website is always important. You may want to know in order to conform to the current trend, or you may just want to buck the trend. Either way, putting your finger in the air from time to time to see which way the wind is blowing is valuable. So, I had to figure out a strategy that would allow me to read more books without letting typical distractions get in the way.
That’s essentially what this reading strategy is asking you to do. Before you move on to the normal bustle of the day, invest in yourself. Before your life turns into a whirlwind of activity, read a book that will make you better.
